‘THE WATTS ARMENIAN’ MY CROWNING MOMENT AS A JOURNALIST

Something happened one week ago, Friday, May 1, 2026, that was the single most gratifying moment of my up and down career as a journalist.

If this had occurred anywhere it would have been a treasure, but it just so happened at the very place where I became a journalist and started working for the L.A. Times 34 years ago; the Los Angeles City Council chambers at City Hall.

On that Friday, the city was officially honoring the Watts Gang Truce of 1992. Why it took 34 years to do this is not to my understanding, but they did. They surely have done this before. This treaty, primarily between the Grape Street Crips from Jordan Downs housing project, the Bounty Hunter Bloods from Nickerson Gardens housing project, and the PJ Crips from Imperial Courts housing project, was historic. It was a nearly mythical peace truce between gangs that had been killing each other for two decades and who had national - even international - badass reputations.

I got word of this honoring a few days before when George Thomas, aka Bogard of Imperial Courts - Tony’s brother, if you know - called to give me a heads up about the City Hall event. That Friday rolls around and I was about to go home after having coffee in the distant land of Larchmont Village when I remembered Bogard’s call. ShouId I go? I thought to myself. Hmmm. I might as well. Man, am I glad I did. For if I hadn’t, that “crowning moment” in the headline of this story would have never happened.

I walk into the City Hall and the City Council chambers and flash back to my days covering the Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday meetings as a stringer for the Times. ( Thanks to my cousin Greg, a staff writer who got me the gig.) For the record, I wrote a terse recap of the meetings and got paid $60 a week. Not a misprint. Sixty. But, and this is key, I got to write that recap in the vivacious heart of the newsroom. Cutting to the chase, that led me to eventually covering Watts. My pod mate back in the mid-1990s was Matea Gold and she covered East L.A. and Boyle Heights. I called her the East L.A. Bureau Chief and she called me the Watts Bureau Chief.

Anyway, last Friday, after 30, 40 minutes of City Council stuff they get to the guys from Watts who are honored.

Daude Sherrills is one of the speakers. Him and his brother Aqeela, representing Grape Street Crips from Jordan Downs, were two of prime architects of the Truce. They went so far as to study a treaty between Egypt and Israel back in 1948-49.

Big Hank and Big Donnie from the Nickersons were there, too, as well as Sista Soulja aka Big Mama from Imperial Courts.

After that ceremony, they moved to a room next to the chambers and all gathered for the City Council photographer.

About 10 seconds after this photograph above was taken is when my shining moment flared.

Several of the guys, Daude and Aqeela, Big Hank and Big Donnie, Sista Soulja and others shouted out to me to join the group getting photographed.

“Yo Mike, get on up here.”

“Mother fuck, Mike. What you doing? You need to get on up here.”

“Negro, you the Watts Armenian. Get in this photo.”

“Hey, Black Armenian. Why you not up here?”

A wonderful feeling swept through me. No, it didn’t “sweep through.” The feeling came in me and stayed. A week later it’s still in my soul as i type this. And suspect it always will be.

Watts and I go way way back.

On August 12, 1965 I was in the small backyard of my family’s home on St. Andrews Place in Gardena playing my version of the World Series. Koufax was pitching to Mantle. Sandy was my left hand tossing up an nut or acorn or something from our Italian cypress tree and Mickey was me swinging, right handed, with a red plastic bat.

My mom comes out of the back door and yells “Michael! Telephone. It’s coach Charlie.”

I dash inside to hear Charlie, my little league baseball coach, tell me about an emergency meeting at Recreation Park on Normandie in Gardena, where our team, the Pirates, had recently won the park’s title and were moving on to the city wide baseball champions.

Charlie told me a lie, I’m sure. He said to come to the park for a meeting. I played along. Okay, coach. I’ll be there.”

But I knew the real reason for this “emergency meeting”. It was because that day was August 12, 1965 was my 11th birthday. And I “knew” the meeting was to be a surprise birthday gathering for me. After all, I was the first baseman and relief pitcher and had been named to the All Star team. All those games I played alone in the backyard. All those playing catch with my dad Tony had paid off.

So I went to the park and we all gathered. I was so proud .

And then Charlie said it.  I hear it as I type this like I did 61 years ago.

“The city championships have been canceled. Riots broke out last night in Watts.”

Watts?  I like to think I looked northeast about three miles and saw smoke rising. But, I really don’t remember my thought other than being stunned. I could quite possibly have said “Watts? What the hell is Watts?”

About three years later, my cousins and I jumped on the caboose a slow moving freight train in East Gardena. A train worker came out and said “I don’t care if you’re on this train, but I gotta tell you this train is going to Watts.” We jumped off.

About six years later, I was a driver at a print shop on 166th and Western. One of the printers was having a birthday party. He invited me, but added “You need to know the party is in Watts.” I went, had a blast and been coming back every since.

Yeah, a couple decades of covering Watts, of being there in dark times, of writing to prison inmates from there, of going there when nothing was happening, of going to funerals and parties, they all came together in this glorious moment of being asked, of being told, to get in this photo.

Though he wasn’t there, DeWayne Holmes, aka “Snipe” from the PJs, who was instrumental in the peace talks, called me Monday to say the photograph was beautiful. “Mike, you was always there for us,” he said. “Some came and went but you was always there. And tell Loaf I said ‘Watts up’ when you see him in the Nickersons for that Tuesday food giveaway.”

Yeah, I’m still going to Watts.

In 2023, PBS set out to do a documentary about Watts. When they started, they had a big problem. The shot callers would not let them into the projects with their cameras. PBS came to me. “Can you get us in?” I did. Check out “10 Days in Watts”, Episode 3. Here. https://www.pbs.org/video/watts-pride-ivqjow/. If you in a hurry to see the Watts Armenian.. and Kartoon.. fast forward to about 5 minutes, 50 seconds in.