Ameena's Prayer Vigil
Violence is like a disease. It spreads from one person to another. To cure it you need to interrupt it.
These words, spoken by the founder of CeaseFire, Dr. Gary Slutkin, are featured in the important documentary film The Interrupters. One of the “interrupters” in the film is Ameena Matthews, a former gang enforcer, and daughter of Jeff Fort, co-founder of Black P. Stones gang.
The video clip “Ameena’s Prayer Vigil” gives a powerful example of Ameena interrupting the spread of the disease of violence from one person to another – and of one way to break the cycle of intergenerational incarceration.
Ameena stops an impending violent retaliation by a gang for the murder of a child. A young boy is with the gang. Ameena asks “Whose baby is this?” She continues to tell the older boys that their influence on the young boy will create a future of imprisonment for him and that they will be responsible for that. She exhorts them not to do that but instead to ” teach him righteous.”
This is courage and compassion in action.