Madd Ronald (Formally Known As Ronald Chatman) is a content creator a community peace advocate, and a reformed member of the Rollin’ 20’s Neighborhood Bloods.
Ronald Chatman began his journey as an L.A. gang member (when he was 8 years old), around 1976, as the second to the youngest of 4 brothers that were all campaigning for the same territory in the West Adams area of Los Angeles.
Ronald grew up in West Adams and was heavily entrenched in the gang culture there for decades.
As a youth he spent time in Central Juvenile Hall, in 1983 he was arrested for a gang related attempted murder, but since he was a teenager he was sent to a probation camp (Camp Afflerbaugh) where he stayed for a year.
It was during his time in the juvenile probation system, that he would be familiarized with the different gangs from throughout Los Angeles County
In 1987 Ronald was sentenced to California State Prison, where he did time in
C.T.F.-Soledad (State Prison) and C.S.P.-Solano, it was during this time that he found interest in reading different types of Black literature from history, to politics, to economics and everything in between.
The Los Angeles Riot took place in 1992 and Madd Ronald was an active participant.
It was during this time several of the Blood and Crip gangs in Watts and various parts of L.A. began to form a peace treaty better known as a gang truce.
It was around this time that he had first began to hear words like “Truce”, Treaty, and “Accords”.
He was sentenced back to California State Prison in 1992, he was sent to California Men’s Colony (C.M.C. East) where he became a participant in the Study Toward African American Redevelopment Program (S.T.A.A.R).
In 1993, while incarcerated at California Rehabilitation Center (C.R.C.) Ronald graduated from Jim Brown program (Amer-I-Can Program).
In 2000 Madd Ronald was a student of the Stop The Violence Foundation under the mentorship of brothers Mr. Khalid and Niem Shaw.
He graduated from the Stop The Violence Foundation as a Peace Ambassador in the city of Los Angeles in 2001.
In 2009 Madd Ronald was invited to attend a meeting with the direct rival group to the Rollin’ 20’s Bloods.
A historical non-aggressive agreement was reached that saved an infinite amount of lives, by minimizing and reducing the violence between both groups.
Around 2010, he was an active member of Community Coalition Of Violence Intervention Professionals with several other community advocates and first generation G.R.Y.D. workers.
In 2015 Ronald was hired by the Los Angeles Mayor’s Office Of Gang Reduction And Youth Development (G.R.Y.D.).
Ronald attended the Urban Peace Institute and the Los Angeles Violence Intervention Academy (L.AV.I.T.A.).
He graduated from the Los Angeles Violence Intervention Training Academy (L.A.V.I.T.A.) in 2016 as a certified Community Intervention Worker.
His training includes but s not limited to: anger management, conflict resolution, domestic violence counselor, violence disruption, urban peace negotiations and more.
From 2016 and 2020 Ronald fed the community by giving away 50, 50 pound bags of groceries every 2 weeks in West Adams at Loren Miller Recreation Center.
As a Community Intervention Worker Ronald was able to bring all resources that he had access to, to the West Adams area in order to be able to assist the marginalized.
A big part of his job assignment while working for G.R.Y.D. was being a liason between families of people that have lost loved ones and the Victims Of Crime (Restitution Fund), always assessing and getting the families claim started in order to assist in the burial of their loved one.
Ronald would provide safe passage at gang related funerals whenever they were being held in West Adams in order to assure the safety of all who wish to be able to participate and pay their respects to the deceased and their family.
He is also certified in crisis response, whenever there was a gang related murder in West Adams he had to respond and assess the scene and de-escalate any tension that could lead to any type of retaliation.
In 2020 Ronald was indicted and charge with the R.I.C.O. Act along with 45 other alleged gang members.
He was extradited to the state of Georgia where he was sentenced to serve 5 years in the Georgia Department of Corrections.
Ronald did his time at Jackson (State Prison), Wilcox State Prison and Augusta Transitional Center.
Ronald is currently hosting the “Madd Ronald Radio Podcast”, on all social media platforms and at www.hoodwire.tv.
Madd Ronald is currently working on his first book being published called, “The Gangland Manifesto” and he is also working on the production of a podcast series he had written while incarcerated in Georgia called, “ A West Adams Love Song.”
Ronald is still actively involved in the L.A. peace movement and is striving to elevate himself and remain motivated in the enhancement of the lives of others.
