A few hundred attend LA gang summit organized by rapper The Game

(18 Jul 2016) FEW HUNDRED ATTEND RAPPER'S GANG SUMMIT IN LOS ANGELES Rapper The Game says he was moved to call together Los Angeles gang members for an anti-violence summit because he wants to help create a safer world for his children. "I have children and I want (them) to grow up in a better world than the one I can see with my own eyes," said The Game after Sunday's summit in South Los Angeles. An overflow crowd of several hundred gathered at a community center to hear pleas for peace from current and former gang members, entertainers, activists and preachers from the Nation Of Islam. "You know too many people want to say we do this now and then change the direction as soon as we do one thing. No. What we do next is we do this again and we continue to do it until everybody gets onboard. You know it's like a bus going through the city, a bus of love and a bus of positivity. We want to keep the doors open. We want everybody to get on the bus. And this love and this positivity that we're preaching and change were about to bring about is free admission. All you got to do is get on the ride with us," The Game said during an interview. Mayor Eric Garcetti and Police Chief Charlie Beck shook hands with The Game outside the venue in a show of unity. Beck said the meeting was a "great first step" in the right direction toward curbing violence, especially considering the police shootings Sunday morning in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. "I'm out here to support a message of anti-violence being put forward by members of the rap community, the hip-hop community, members of the faith community and some very, very significant community leaders. You know all of us recognize that this community, our community, is far too violent and we want to stop the violence, we want to stop the killings and you know then we can talk about some of the other issues. But first we've got to make this a safe community," Beck said. Three Baton Rouge law enforcement officers investigating a report of a man with an assault rifle were killed Sunday, less than two weeks after a black man was fatally shot by police in the city during a confrontation that sparked nightly protests that reverberated nationwide. "Of course officers, civilians, any life lost is a major deterioration of us as a people," said The Game of the shooting. "I don't like it and this is why we are here taking initiative and trying to change it. So you know peace and love and prayers go out to those families, but that's a tragedy as well as all lives." The Game, born Jayceon Terrell Taylor, fought back tears as he recounted the recent shooting death of a former gang member he called Spanky. The pair grew up together in foster care in nearby Compton, he said. "Me in my foster home, I was the only black dude in my foster home. I grew up with Mexicans only. And you know if a tear falls it's because ... it's because one of the cats that I grew up with in a foster home with, Calvin. His name was Spanky, he was from Playboy Gangster. Straight Mexican. That was more my brother than my own brothers," said The Game to the crowd. "L.A., this is one of the biggest, best cities in the world. Not just the nation of America, in the world. And from this day out, politicians, mayors, president of the United States, all of them are going to be held accountable, everybody. But before we do that, we've got to hold ourselves accountable as people," said the 36-year-old multi-platinum selling rapper. Aurora Hudson praised the decision to shine a light on "the brutality in our neighborhoods." The 25-year-old came to the meet-up from her home just blocks away and called it a positive experience. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/e2d3a20517a2291f9a97faef8874c54f Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork