Fighting fear in the face of gang violence

August 22, 1996
Web posted at: 5:00 a.m. EDT

By Correspondent Anne McDermott

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Charlotte Austin's story is one that has played out time and again across the country as gang violence takes its toll on America's youth.

"My daughter would have been 21 this year," says Austin wistfully.

But instead of a birthday celebration signaling the beginning of adulthood, Austin's daughter Jamee remains forever frozen in her mind as a bright, happy 13-year-old.

The reason: Jamee was gunned down eight years ago in a gang killing.

But instead of letting her daughter's death crush her, Austin began speaking out -- sometimes shouting -- about the effects of gang violence.

She was so adamant in her campaign, even California Gov. Pete Wilson heard her. Last year, he signed a bill extending the state's death penalty to cover drive-by murders.

Another heartbreaking loss

It was a satisfying time for Austin until last month, when her heart broke all over again.

"My mind just went, 'Not again, this cannot be happening again,'" Austin said.

But it did happen again. Last month, her son Corey was also killed by gangs.

Austin isn't sure how she goes on. She just knows she has to, for the sake of her last living child, a sad and very frightened 11-year-old.

"His fear is he's next and that's the way he's gonna die," she said.

So the family -- or what's left of it -- moved away from the south central Los Angeles neighborhood that had been Austin's home most of her life.

"I'm tired of going to funerals," she said. "I'm tired of burying nieces and cousins and brothers and nephews and children."

At least in the suburbs, she says, she won't hear so many police cars. She won't hear so many ambulances.

Protesting the killing

But she has not forsaken her old community. She is one of the organizers of a protest march there to try and stop the killing.

Her foster brother, Gary Honore, is another organizer. He too knows what it is to lose a child to violence.

"You know, people think it's a black thing," Honore said. "It's not just a black thing. It's a Hispanic thing, a Caucasian thing, an Arab thing and an oriental thing. Violence is violence. A bullet has no names."

Nobody knows that better than Austin.

"Yeah, I cry," she says. "And I'm gonna cry."

That's what you do when your heart is broken again and again. But Austin does something more. She goes on.

Fighting fear in the face of gang violence

Another heartbreaking loss

Protesting the killing

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