Bum rap on gang intervention?

More than one reader has taken me to task for a comment by Paul White in my column about gang-intervention strategies, and I think their criticism is fair.

White, who runs the West Valley Leadership Academy and tries to steer kids out of trouble, had said he thought Communities in Schools and Homeboys relied too heavily on work by ex-gang members. White called the agencies “gang clubhouses.”

White is entitled to his opinion, and anybody who thinks they’ve got answers is worth listening to if it helps stop the bloodshed. But I know a little about both operations White criticized, and I should have said in the column that I know them to do good work. In fact, it’s likely that both Communities in Schools and Homeboys deal with more hard-core gang members than does White, so what works for him might not necessarily work for others.

One reader, whom I know to be very active in gang-intervention, defended both Communities in Schools and Homeboys. Of the latter, she said: “It directs hundreds of young people a year into employment in their own businesses and in the community. Are there often lots of ex-gang members in the same place? Yes, of course, but there aren’t many other people on the front line showing them a way out of a destructive life.”

Read Steve Lopez's recent columns.

Comments

[Steve Rodriguez]

I have an idea lets send the gang bangers to the beautiful and exotic city of Singapore, with a one wat ticket. I know that the Singaporen Prime Minister would know how to set them on the straight and narrow!

[Duc Pham]

Most of the time it takes a former gang member to help and deter others away from gang activity. For instances, I am a former gang member who grew up in the projects of Boyle Heights. With the help and support of gang intervention programs. I have a positive out look in life and confidence that I can do anything I want, if I put my mind into it. I got accepted to Cal State LA, with the help of the Pat Brown Institute and the Gang Violence Bridging project in 1996. I graduated in 2002, with a degree in Criminal Justices, with a minor in Sociology. Now I'm working for a prevention and intervention program. So with my experience and education, I could better assist and support the youth and family I work with. So former gang member can make a difference in people lives.

[Susan Cruz]

By many accounts (the Justice Policy Institute for one) only 5-8% of the alleged 40,000 gang members in Los Angeles are causing the worst crimes (homicides, assaults, rapes, etc.). Just for argument's sake, let's say it's 10% to make it easy on our math-phobic readers, such as myself. So, there's about 4000 hard-core gang members who are not even thinking of following the "White's rules", no matter how "commonsensical" they may see to be. Those folks are what "public safety" efforts are all about.
The other 36,000 is what GANG INTERVENTION is all about. Those young people who want and deserve a chance. Those young people who are emasculated by poverty, who are demonized because of their age and race, who negotiate an alternate identity in response to society's abandonement.
Gangs fill society's voids-at a high price. It's high time that society look at this population not as one that needs to be locked up or thrown away, but rather as one that can be beneficial or detrimental to society-depending on how they are treated.
I appeal to people to look at this problem with a public health approach. If we had 36,000 kids who were exposed to a contagious and debilitating disease, what would be our response? Would we quarantine them and deny them treatment? Or would we intervene and give them the treatment they need, by people who have survived and can relate to what they are going through?
In the end, what would we want if it was our child? Each time a young person dies and another goes to prison, we all suffer, and pay, for it.

[Steve Wimer]

Our society has gotten too lax, in school, and in prison, in regards to discipline. It's no wonder gang violence grows daily without censorship of hip-hop music that glorifies the violence. We simply can't afford to spend money on prisons instead of universities. We need to bring back the whip, in school, and chains, in the prisons. Prison should be cheaper, in the deserts, in tents, to bring down the costs. There should also be job training for non-violent offenders, if they behave. The others? Why do prisoners get medical care instead of low-wage workers? Let violent offenders self-destruct with drugs, out in the middle of nowhere, so they won't influence decent people.

[Steve Rodriguez]

In reply to Duc Pham I assume that you are Vietnamese, and your story is very commendable! If only more Latino gang-members could be rehabed and reach out to thier peers!

[Steve Rodriguez]

Susan Cruz life presents to al of us choices, our future is determinded by what choices we make. Let's not start making excuses for young people in gangs they made the choice. I and many other of my peers knew gangs and drugs were bad, we stayed away from them, and the peer pressure of taking drugs and doing violence. The choice is thiers we can spoon feed these youth, many of thier peers suceed in life!

[Susan Cruz]

To Steve Rodriguez: while many people may share your ego-centric view of life, you can't measure everyone else's experiences by your probervial yard stick. Most of the young people I know didn't choose to be born into poverty, racism, and into a society that practices socio-economic and political exclusion. Most of the young people I know did not choose to be exposed to the traumatic events and to carry the unmitigated grief that major losses in their lives bring. Most of the young people I know learned to survive according to what society dished out. Young people are not the problem. It's the self-righteous adults who think they can judge our youth instead of judging their own irresponsibility.