Mothers Organize in Attempt to Stop Gang Violence

Tired of the fear, threats and deaths that have wreaked havoc in their families and neighborhoods, a handful of women are organizing a new group in southeast Los Angeles County: Mothers Against Gangs.

The eight members include four mothers whose children were killed by gang members, said group leader Patricia Patrick.

One woman’s son was killed because he wore blue shoestrings, sometimes a symbol of gang membership. Another woman’s son was shot to death while sitting in his jeep at a stoplight. Neither youth was involved with gangs, Patrick said.

“We, the mothers, are sick and tired of the drive-by shootings and innocent people being killed,” she said.

Patterned After MADD

The group, patterned after the well-known Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, hopes to educate parents, offer support, work with police and, above all, get rid of gangs.

“We want the parents to turn in their children when they know that they have committed a crime,” Patrick said.

“In the long run, they may be saving their own lives,” she said, explaining that if one of their children injures someone from a rival gang, its members will often retaliate, and “they don’t care who they kill.”

“If you overhear your son or daughter talk about a crime they’ve committed, turn them in,” Patrick urged. “If neighbors hear someone involved in a robbery, in any crime, turn them in. We’re trying to get them off the streets.”

But Patrick acknowledges that even the MAG members, who are willing to take a stand, fear for their lives and their families.

The group plans to have a press conference next week, but Patrick declined to say in advance where or when, for fear of a drive-by shooting or some other form of gang violence.

Patrick said she decided to start the group after a drive-by shooting that killed a family friend March 23.

Paul Bolden, 16, of Long Beach was shot in the back on the front porch of a Compton home. Though not a gang member, Compton Police Lt. Percy Perrodin said, Bolden was killed by one of three young men who drove past the house and fired after yelling a gang slogan.

Slogans are sometimes used by gang members to communicate with each other, Perrodin said. The color of their clothes is another. A youth wearing red, for example, could be identified as a member of the Pirus.

“A mother just called me,” Long Beach police Officer Frank Castillo said this week. “She called because she doesn’t know what else to do. She said her son, (who is not a gang member) is being harassed. (She said) ‘I got him new clothes. No red clothes. No black clothes.’ ”

Castillo, who handles complaints for the Police Department’s gang detail, said the mothers’ group sounds like a good idea if it can provide moral support to distressed parents.

Patrick said she hopes that the group, which has members from Compton, Downey, Lakewood, Long Beach and Norwalk, can act as an adjunct to the police.

“The police officers are doing as much as they can,” she said. “But without the help of the community, they can’t do it alone.”