Calvin Hall has a small office in the back of Harold Pener's Man of Fashion clothing store in Aurora. Half of the store sells suits; the other half sells hip-hop gear to younger customers. Hall does tailoring in his office, and also opens up the space as a counseling chamber where he can minister to young people. Some of them are gangsters who've confirmed that Contrell was not a Blood, he says.
Marcus Richardson stabbed Contrell Townsend in
January 2005.
Related Content
More About
Hall has plans for a youth-intervention program that he'd like to start in Montbello and see spread nationwide. But he says he's received little support from local and state officials, and he suspects the reason is a possible lawsuit in connection with Contrell's death, something that he has been advised not to discuss.
Denver City Councilwoman Elbra Wedgeworth says Hall approached her a couple of weeks after Contrell's killing with his plan, which seemed workable to her. "I said that I would be supportive of helping him put this together, but I haven't heard from him since then," she adds.
Hall has other ideas for how to help kids. Contrell's brother Jamie did time in prison on drug and weapon charges but is trying to turn his life around, Linda says; her other son grew up to be a church deacon. Hall's biological son now works as a tailor, too, in New York.
Drawing from his experience, Hall has written a book, What Parents Should Look For, and is searching for a publisher. "If, as parents, you are worrying if your child is a member of a gang, he or she probably is," the book advises. Billed as a tool that may save your child's life, the book is dedicated to Contrell.
In What Parents Should Look For, Hall suggests that people ask themselves twelve questions to evaluate how they're doing as a parent.
Of the twelve, Hall is confident that he did the best possible job on eleven. The one he's not so sure about involves overindulging or smothering the child.
Of the seven signs listed in the book that tell a parent a teen is slipping away, his stepson displayed five, Hall says. Of the fifteen general behaviors displayed by gang members, Contrell showed seven. Contrell also fit four of the seven background factors for gangsters.
"Through ignorance or denial, sometimes parents learn their child is involved in a gang only when they are contacted by the police or a tragic incidence occurs," Hall writes. "To prevent this occurrence, observe your child. Look, listen, observe any changes in attitude, what your child is wearing and who they are associating with.
"Take control, be aware of the signs and address them."
Red was the only color that Contrell Townsend couldn't wear.
