Talk:Montbello, Denver

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[edit] NPOV Tag

I put the tag in due to the fact that the article seems to have been written with a severe bias towards a personal view on the neighborhood.Jmlk17 04:35, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

Unfortunately it's true... as far as I can tell anyway. Could a Colorado outsider rewrite this perhaps? Because I think nearly everyone in the state has a bias against Montbello, including the inhabitants.

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Print Friendly View Email Article  » Subscribejim spencer | staff columnist Gangs' reach runs deep at Montbello By Jim Spencer Denver Post Staff Columnist Article Last Updated:06/09/2006 02:27:26 AM MDT

Click photo to enlarge «1»S-WOOOP. C-C-C-RIP.

I don't understand this language. Kids at Montbello High School do.

S-WOOOP, for the uninitiated, is a cheer for the Bloods street gang. C-C-C-RIP means you're rooting for the rival street gang, the Crips.

Allegations that these chants were heard during a deadly cafeteria fight at Montbello in January 2005 have echoed through a Denver murder trial. No one has proved that Contrell Townsend, who was stabbed to death at 17, was a Blood. No one has proved that Marcus Richardson, the then-16-year-old who knifed Townsend, was a Crip. What everyone who has watched this trial knows is that gang culture saturates Montbello in spirit, if not membership.

From talk of "mean-mugging" - angry stares meant to spark fights - to prosecution witness Sedgrick Myles' testimony that "most" members of Montbello's football team are "associated" with the Bloods, the trial has had a gangsta air.

Myles said his older brother "hung with" the Bloods. That could be why Myles and his best friend, Townsend, were linked to the gang. But, Myles assured jurors, neither he nor Townsend were beaten into the brotherhood. As if folks were supposed to be relieved that they skipped the initiation.

The same goes for Richardson, who, one witness claimed, dressed a lot in blue, the Crips color, and acted thuglike.

Richardson's attorneys claim he was a shy, quiet kid forced to stab a classmate who was beating the tar out of him.

Members of the jury will make the call on second-degree murder. But gang influence at Montbello will affect the verdict.

Jurors asked Denver police officer Carisa Rice about the Montbello football team's gang ties. "The football team isn't wearing bandannas and flashing gang signs," she answered. Most team members are not associated with gangs, she insisted. Like Myles, Rice provided more information than relief.

Most student witnesses understood S-WOOOP and C-C-C-RIP, even if they didn't hear the calls during the Townsend-Richardson throwdown. Worse, dozens of kids reveled in the violence. No one wanted to stop the fight, although Myles testified that he and two of Townsend's other friends would not have let them if they had tried.

Brittany Dubose told the jury that she climbed on a cafeteria table to get a better view. From 10 feet, she watched her friend, Townsend, body-slam the quiet kid Richardson, whom she didn't really know. She saw the two exchange punches until Townsend pinned Richardson. For audience as well as participants, the violence passed for resolution. Prosecutors talked of a fair "man-to-man fight" as it were as insignificant as food in a school lunchroom.

Except Townsend suddenly relinquished his advantage. He cursed and said he had been stabbed. He walked away and collapsed, fatally wounded, apparently with a knife that Dubose had seen fall from Richardson's pocket during a class a few months before. Another kid saw it, too, Dubose said. He asked Richardson, "Why do you have that?"

"Just in case someone runs up," Dubose recalled Richardson answering.

At Montbello, the explanation sufficed. No one turned Richardson in. As Dubose testified, "It wasn't any of my business."

In the same way, gang "association" gets taken for granted. The rumor that swept Montbello after Townsend died was this: The fight was between a Blood and a Crip. Few students questioned the assumption. Under oath, Myles even admitted the fight could have been gang-

related, though another of Townsend's self-professed "best friends," Sherman Peacock, swore Townsend was no gang banger. Peacock said Townsend told him minutes before the fight that he had bumped into someone in the hall.

Of course, Peacock offered his testimony in prison greens and handcuffs because he's in jail for felony robbery.

It's hard to tell which is worse - a life lost to "mean-mugging," colors or a hallway bump. But as long as these elements of gang culture seamlessly morph into lunchtime main events at high schools, this much can be said: The Crips and Bloods shouldn't worry about recruiting.

Jim Spencer's column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at 303-820-1771 or jspencer@denverpost.com.