Residents march to take back West End

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This article was published 01/06/2010 (5613 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Several hundred residents from the West End marched peacefully through their neighbourhood Tuesday night in a bid to reclaim it from the violence and gangs that appear to be tightening their grip on the community.

The march was the neighbourhood’s response to the shootings last week that claimed the life of 16-year-old Kyle Earl and injured his 13-year-old friend, Byron Cook, in what police said was a targeted gang attack, and wounded two sisters, aged 8 and 10 years, 24 hours later when bullets flew through their front window.

“People have to come forward and speak out and that’s what we’re doing here,” Maria Ludington, 46, who moved here as a young teen from the Philllippines, said. “For too long people have been silent, been scared. Now, we’ve got to speak up.”

The community march drew people of all ages and colours — white skinned, black, brown and red; Asians, aboriginals, Filipinos and blacks from Africa and the Caribbean; short and tall, blind and new-borns. Children wore colourful handmade hats. Children and adults carried home-made signs that visibly stated what the march meant to them all: ‘I want to be safe’, ‘stop the violence’, ‘no more guns’, ‘I want respect’.

“I’m here because I’m hoping somehow this can help the violence stop,” Nelson Landon, 14, a friend of Cook’s, said. “The violence has to stop.”

A handful of politicians and known community activists joined the residents, including Premier Greg Selinger, Justice Minister Andrew Swan, MLA Rob Altemeyer, City Coun. Harvey Smith, Nick Ternette and Marianne Cerilli.

But the evening belonged to the residents: It’s a place they love, where they want to raise their children, but they are concerned about the hold violence and gangs have taken in the community.

Carol Spicer, 59, said she recently returned to the neighbourhood after living almost three years in Chase, B.C.

“Something has happened to this city while I was away … it’s gotten worse,” Spicer, who lives on Sherbrook Street, said. “Look at the people, even the white people … they’re bedraggled. Something has happened to Winnipeg.”

Mathieu and Alana Manaigre are raising two young children in the neighbourhood that they say is the nicest in the city.

“People ask us all the time, every day, why we live here,” Mathieu Manaigre, an IT consultant, said.

“I’ve lived everywhere in this city, in Linden Woods and Island Lakes, but the neighbours here are the best, we have a great sense of community,” Alana Manaigre said.

Manaigre was at her Toronto Street home last week when the shootings occured, saw the heavily armed police tactical units swarm the streets.

“It’s scary. You don’t want that kind of stuff happening where you live and where you want to raise your kids,” she said.

“We’re concerned about the violence but at the same time we don’t find it unsafe,” Mathieu Manaigre said.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca