News-Record.com

Wednesday's lead editorial.

Saying enough was enough, Jorge Cornell stepped forward on June 30 and called for a truce among rival gangs.

Barely more than a month later, he was shot multiple times in front of a Greensboro apartment complex.

Fortunately, Cornell, state leader of the Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation, survived the attack on Sunday night. So, it appears, has his commitment to peace.

During a news conference Monday, leaders of a local ministers group, the Pulpit Forum, said Cornell had ordered his gang not to retaliate for the shooting and restated his commitment to peace from his hospital bed.

“We’re still gonna progress with this. ... We’re still going to fight for this,” said the Rev. Nelson Johnson, who has worked with Cornell to arrange summit meetings among gang members. “We’re not going to stop.

“He shared that he is as committed as ever to continuing with the process of peacemaking.”
It was hard to know at first what to make of Cornell’s call for unity on June 30. Was it a ruse or an honest attempt to change things for the better?

Based on the actions that followed his words, Cornell meant what he was saying. Two meetings among gang leaders have occurred since that day. The July 23 session produced an agreement among local branches of the Latin Kings, the Almighty Black Peace Stone Nation, the Crips and the Five Percenters “to lay down violence and join us in working together for peace among us and within our community.”

According to a printed statement, the representatives agreed that they would clean up graffiti and “bring about more unity and understanding between Black and Brown people.” Some members of those groups attended Monday’s news conference.

Of course, the attack on Cornell raises obvious concerns: Was he targeted because he had spoken against gang violence? Did the incident involve members of a rival gang? Or was it completely unrelated to gangs?

Johnson opened Monday’s news conference by saying the shooting “appeared to be a negative reaction to the initiative for peace and unity.” He said Cornell had been placed under “a lot of pressure and scrutiny” since his peace appeal on June 30. But no one who attended Monday’s news conference said they could identify the attackers, and members of the Greensboro police’s gang unit said they had few leads. Cornell was cooperating with their investigation, police said Tuesday, yet he remembered little about the incident.

For his part, Johnson said he hoped the police would find Cornell’s assailants, but that his bigger concern was that the broader push for nonviolence would continue. Johnson added that his confidence in Cornell has only grown as he has worked with him in recent weeks.

Cornell, meanwhile, was in stable condition at Wesley Long Hospital. He, and the fragile hopes for gang peace in Greensboro, were wounded but, thankfully, still alive.