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Somewhere on the journey from membership in a violent gang to founding an organization that tries to prevent bloodshed on the streets, Shanduke McPhatter learned to examine his anger.
“It was simple for me, when I got angry, to want to beat someone up. And then I felt better,” he tells City Limits’ Kizzy Cox. “Ant that’s what our people deal with today. I speak to young people all the time. It feels so much better when they release their anger.”
“That’s the problem. So I had to realize,’OK, what other way can I deal with my anger?'” he recalls. The answer was more exercise, different music. “It came from that: Understanding first, saying ‘OK, what do I need to do different?”
The approach taken by McPhatter’s organization, Gangstas Making Astronomical Community Changes or GMACC, is one that’s received a lot of attention as a way to deal with persistent street violence without a heavy police response. In the video below, Cox looks at what the model actually involves.
