ANASA BRIGGS FINDS HARD WORK MAKES IT A TAKE : ‘GANG LEADER’ IS EYE--OPENER

First I get high, and then I sit back and I think about things. . . what I’ve been through in my life and how I’ve been done. Then when I get to thinking about things, it gets me frustrated, and when I get Frustrated I’ve got to relieve my frustrations somehow. I’ve got no job. I’ve got nothing. So I go do something-robbery, go shoot somebody. It don’t matter. It don’t matter who, just anybody.--Carl, 21, a former gang leader “Profile of a Gang Leader,” KPBS’s (Channel 15) riveting 30-minute documentary, will air Sunday at 6:30 p.m. It’s an eye-opening look at what makes a gang leader in San Diego tick.

Produced and written by Anasa Briggs and directed by Wayne Smith, “Profile of a Gang Leader” features a shockingly articulate former gang leader, “Carl.” Carl’s matter-of-fact account of his life on the streets burns with the attraction of inside information. Woven in with Carl’s narrative are comments by a psychologist, a deputy district attorney, the criminal’s uncle and a sergeant with the San Diego Police Department’s gang detail that help reveal the nature of gang life in San Diego. The number of youth involved in street gangs here ranges from 1,000 to 3,000, depending on the source.

Smith has used a low-mounted camera angle that conveys Carl’s self-confi dence. Interviewed in prison, Carl recalls his “uneasy” home life growing up.

The police would bring me home and say, “If you leave again, something might happen to you.” I figured they were bluffing, so I just kept doing it, kept doing it, kept doing it.

Briggs, who narrates the beginning and end of “Profile of a Gang Leader,” is the host and producer of “Anasa Briggs.” For years she wanted to do a documentary on youth gangs. “I’m concerned about our youth. They’re our future, and they’re dying,” she said.

Briggs is director of black ethnic affairs for KPBS. Originally, she wanted to use a more traditional documentary format for a story on youth gangs. But when she learned about Carl, who was back in town in November for a retrial, she decided to let him tell his story.

“We tried to stay out of our own way and let him talk,” Smith said. “You tend to be drawn to him even though he’s saying terrible things.”

According to the documentary, Carl is serving time for kidnaping, robbery, attempted murder, attempted auto theft, auto theft and assault with a deadly weapon in connection with one gang-related incident. Carl has served time in institutions including San Quentin, the California Men’s Colony at San Louis Obispo, the medical facility at Vacaville and the maximum-security prison at Folsom, where he is now.

The primary interview for the program was made in a holding cell at a San Diego courtroom as five marshals stood by outside, Smith said. Briggs and Smith, an award-winning director, waded through a sea of red tape that took them months to acquire prison mug shots and elementary and high school yearbook snapshots of the young Carl.

Carl looks like a cherub in the photos shown of him at age 5, a shocking comparison with the adult on-screen Carl, who has his own charisma.

Other interviews with the family had to be aborted when one of Carl’s brothers was arrested. Briggs and Smith had hoped for an hourlong show. But financial constraints limited them to a “talking heads” format, which could not be sustained for 60 minutes.

“People would say it was great until we cut away to another person,” Smith said. “The minute you’d lose Carl, you’d lose that magnetism or magic.” Smith feels that the resulting 30-minute program is much cleaner.

“I hope it will disturb people to the point that they start asking . . . questions,” Briggs said. “How did he go off on the track he’s on? What can we do to retrieve some of these people? What are alternatives we can provide through agencies?

“Maybe politicians should be involved. In the wake of Proposition 13 budget cuts, what kind of recreation programs can be offered to youth?

“What are the alternatives to standing on the corner or drug pushing?”

“Profile of a Gang Leader” will be repeated at 10 p.m. Wednesday and followed with a panel discussion and live phone-in segment.