A Way to Nip Gangs in the Bud

Gang activity in Orange County is not as bad as in some other urban areas, but it’s bad enough. The gangs are changing. They used to be primarily territorial. Now they are more violent--and into drug use and sales.

Accurate statistics are hard to come by, but authorities say that gang-related homicides average about one a month, in addition to numerous other assaults, robberies, burglaries, car thefts and drug trafficking.

Gangs often compete and wage war against each other, but the larger community is a victim, too. Innocent bystanders are sometimes hit by stray bullets, and some residents are terrorized daily by the presence of the gangs and their violence. In some neighborhoods, residents not only fear for their lives on the street but also don’t even feel safe in their own homes.

The immediate problem for officials is protecting residents’ safety. Accomplishing that, however, is closely tied to controlling dangerous and violent gang members--and preventing young people from getting mixed up in gang activity in the first place.

Orange County has received some welcome help from the state in the form of a one-year $198,000 grant from the Office of Criminal Justice Planning. The money is being used to pay for a special gang unit in the Orange County Probation Department, which will supervise 123 teen-age gang members from Garden Grove, Santa Ana and Westminster who are on probation. With any success, state grant money could be awarded to the county for another two years to fully test the approach.

In the first 18 days of operation, the special gang unit handled 23 cases. Twelve involved violence.

The gang unit is working closely with local police agencies, a special prosecution unit in the county district attorney’s office, schools and private groups.

The unit’s primary role is to keep young offenders already in trouble with the law from rejoining one of the estimated 45 street gangs that have been identified as now operating in the county. That’s important. So is vigorous prosecution. And so is trying to discourage young people from joining the gangs in the first place.