L.A. Weekly
It was a state funeral in Nickerson Gardens as Watts community members said goodbye to Kevin “Flipside” White, a rapper gunned down in front of his childhood home. Just after White was killed, Markice “Chiccen” Brider was slain at Imperial Courts housing projects in Watts. LAPD has charged a Grape Street Crip from Jordan Downs in Watts for the killings, and fear of a return to the bloody nights of decades past put everyone on alert. But at Macedonia Baptist Church, Triple O.G. Ronald “Kartoon” Antwine urged the Bounty Hunters Bloods not to retaliate against Grape Street — to let LAPD do its job. The church full of 700 people stood and cheered. “It’s a different time, a new generation,” says Deshawn Cole, Brider's cousin. “They don’t need things to be dangerous like it was for previous generations.” Things have changed in Watts.
All photos by Ted Soqui.
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