‘48 Hours,’ KCBS Focus on L.A. Gangs

A shooting victim dead in the street, bullet holes through a window, the hysterical sobbing of a grieving relative. Over the past several months, local TV news viewers have come to know the fleeting, violent images of Los Angeles’ gang problem all too well.

Tonight, KCBS-TV Channel 2 will attempt to go beyond those sensationalized video pictures by devoting its entire prime-time schedule to an examination of what is behind this city’s escalating gang violence and what, if anything, can be done to end it.

“We all know about the violence,” says Erik Sorenson, Channel 2 news director. “We know the number of drive-by shootings each week. We see the body bags in the street, the police crashing through the door of a rock cocaine house. Images are what television does well. But it’s very difficult for television news to put those images into perspective. Where did all this violence come from, why is it happening now, what can be done about it?

“What we’re trying to do is provide a platform to get at the issues, to put them in some sort of context. People need a framework for understanding the violent images; otherwise, they’re just filled with anxiety.”

Focusing primarily on Los Angeles’ two largest and most treacherous gangs, the 3-hour evening begins at 8 with an installment of CBS News’ “48 Hours” called “On Gang Street.”

KCBS will then scrap the remaining two hours of CBS’ prime-time schedule for an in-studio discussion on “L.A. Gangs,” with 50 community leaders--including Sheriff Sherman Block, City Council members Gloria Molina and Nate Holden, law enforcement representatives from Pasadena, Inglewood, Compton and Los Angeles, and Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner.

The “48 Hours” program was shot in May when CBS, in response to the growing number of gang-related killings, sent seven camera crews to the streets of South Central Los Angeles to spend a Friday and Saturday around Los Angeles’ two largest street gangs.

The result is a series of stories about the killers and their innocent and not-so-innocent victims, the young men trapped in a vicious cycle of hopelessness and murderous bravado, the cops who battle them and the few optimistic individuals fighting to effect some change.

The program, which will be broadcast nationally, covers vast emotional territory--including following the funeral procession of a 13-year-old girl accidentally gunned down on the sidewalk near her home.

Perhaps the most chilling moments come from the teen-age gang members themselves, who, surrounded by their fellow “homeboys” on the street, declare that their whole reason for being in a gang--and by extension their sole purpose in life--is to kill a rival gang member whenever one of their own is gunned down. Later, when cornered in a quiet moment alone, some of these same ruthless killers concede that they would like nothing more than to be free of the gang--and of their constant fear of dying before the day is out.

“It’s very depressing,” says Steve Glauber, senior producer for “48 Hours.” “Our values and expectations are so different from theirs. I kept thinking of a line from a poem by Robert Frost: ‘Nothing to look back on with pride, nothing to look forward to with hope.’ That’s the kind of situation they are in.”

“48 Hours” paints a tragically glum portrait of life in and around gang territory without sensationalizing the hour with body bags and gunfights. But it is, Sorenson says, only a slice-of-life portrait of two days on the streets and does not spend much time analyzing the roots of the problem or what should be done to deal with it.

That’s where Channel 2’s “town meeting” comes in.

Ever since January’s gang-related killing in Westwood brought the problem to the top of the TV newscasts, Sorenson has kicked around the idea of holding a town meeting modeled after the earthquake preparedness special the station broadcast in prime time last fall.

When CBS News called him asking advice on its L.A. gang show, Sorenson figured that program would provide the perfect launching pad for an in-depth investigation into the problem.

The town meeting, which Ted Koppel and “Nightline” have popularized with programs on AIDS and the turmoil in Israel’s Occupied Territories, will revolve around several taped pieces--including an interview with Jesse Jackson, a piece on the history of the black gangs in Los Angeles, a story on the role that crack cocaine plays in perpetuating gang violence, a look at gang prevention programs in the schools and a story about how gang violence affects the lives of people in inner-city neighborhoods and how some of them are fighting back.

Moderators Warren Olney and Valerie Coleman will open each issue up for discussion with their 50 guests, some of whom have never had the opportunity to sit down and talk about the problem with one another. This format will give the participants a chance to debate the issues far beyond the usual 30-second comment they might get to make for the 11 p.m. news.

“It’s pretty naive to think that these people might sit down under the TV lights and solutions would start pouring out,” Sorenson says. “I merely want it to be informative, to provide a framework for people to put all the violent images into. But we would certainly like it if some solutions did come out of the program.”