Norman Williams, left and Taiwan Greathouse, right, meet with Mayor Andy Berke Thursday to discuss how to stop gang violence in the city. Both men meeting with the mayor are closely associated with gangs.At five minutes before 3 p.m. Thursday, only a handful of people milled around the meeting room where gang members hoped to talk about ways to stop the violence in Chattanooga.
It was to be an organic gathering — not called by the city or the mayor or the police, but by the gang members themselves. It’s time to put down the guns, they said. And they called on other gang members to show up.
And at 3 p.m. on the dot, they did show up. Cars rolled in and a mishmash of people walked into the room at Olivet Baptist Church’s Kingdom Center on M.L. King Boulevard: attorneys and pastors and social workers and leaders of nonprofits — and gang members. Not as many, organizer Norman Williams said, as they had hoped would come — but some.
“We are here to stop the nonsense violence,” Williams told the crowd of about 40 people.
Some clapped. Some cheered. Some were skeptical.