The Game holds anti-violence summit in Los Angeles

The Game is interviewed after a peaceful march to LAPD headquarters.

(Image credit: Frederic J. Brown/Getty Images)

last updated 18 July 2016

On his Instagram Sunday, rapper The Game invited gang members and leaders and concerned residents from across Southern California to a meeting for a "much needed conversation" on how to stop violence in their neighborhoods.

Hundreds of people attended the event, held at a community center in the Vermont Knolls area of South Los Angeles. "Your life should mean more to you," The Game, whose real name is Jayceon Terrell Taylor, told those assembled. "Your life should mean more to you then what you're showing." The Game grew up in Compton, and said he wants the streets to be safer for his daughter; earlier this month, he peacefully marched with Snoop Dogg to Los Angeles Police Department headquarters, where they called for better relations between police and the communities they serve.

The Game worked with Nation of Islam minister Tony Muhammad to organize Sunday's meeting, which featured talks from former and current gang members and local radio personalities. At one point, Muhammad asked people in the audience to stand if they had lost someone to violence, and hundreds rose to their feet. Dom Black, 22, told the Los Angeles Times he was raised in a nearby community, and was beaten up and shot at while in his neighborhood. "I came out here because I feel like the change starts inside," he said.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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