Athletic League Diverts Gang Youths Into Ring

A couple of months ago, 11-year-old Eric Davis was fighting and bullying his classmates at St. Lawrence Brindise Catholic School in Los Angeles. The fighting got so bad that school officials were on the verge of expelling the sixth-grader.

Then Eric’s mother, Felicia Bellows, discovered a release for her son’s energy. After school each day, Eric, who lives in Watts, can be found punching the heavy bags at the Sheriff’s Athletic League in Lynwood.

“I appreciate the program so much that I pay my sister to pick Eric up from school and take him to Lynwood. I pick him up every evening after I get off work,” said Bellows, a secretary with the Automobile Club of Southern California.

Several youths from Lynwood and other nearby cities lace on the gloves five days a week to participate in athletic league activities.

The Sheriff’s Department started the league more than two years ago to try to curb street gang activity and to serve as an outlet for troubled youths or bored youngsters looking for something to do.

“We wanted to show them the soft side of the badge, and they are responding,” said Sgt. Elmer Flye, a league coordinator and one of the founders of the Lynwood program. Flye and five other deputies from the sheriff’s Lynwood substation are assigned to handle the league activities.

The Lynwood substation provides law enforcement services for the city of Lynwood and the unincorporated county areas of east Compton and Willowbrook, with a combined population of 85,000.

“The department was interested in engaging in some character-building,” Flye said.

The program has been set up in a 20,000-square-foot building that once housed a Montgomery Ward automotive center. Montgomery Ward closed its retail store nearby in March, 1987, and donated the automotive building at 3100 E. Imperial Highway to the city.

The program has been financed by a combination of city and state grants, fund-raisers and donations. The center has received about $126,000 the last two years from the state Office of Criminal Justice Planning and nearly $50,000 from the city.

As Flye spoke, two youths sparred in a $20,000 boxing ring donated by an El Monte businessman who wished to remain anonymous. Ray Vasquez, 17, and Juan Cabrera, 16, belonged to rival Lynwood gangs but have become good friends since participating in the boxing program, said boxing coordinator Mike Ramirez. “These two guys are good examples of people learning to get along,” Ramirez said.

Vasquez said he still is a member of his gang but enjoys coming to the gym to spar. Cabrera said he no longer participates in gang activities.

“This is like college. I’m learning things and it keeps me off the streets, keeps me from getting shot. I don’t drink or smoke. I’m in shape,” said Cabrera, who weighs 106 pounds.

As Vasquez and Cabrera feinted and jabbed, several other youths, some as young as 8, hammered punching bags. An aerobics class was in progress nearby. About 45 women were dancing, panting and sweating to the rhythm of “Let’s Go Crazy” by rock star Prince.

Aerobics teacher Evelyn Davis, like most of the people who help the sheriff’s deputies run the center, is a volunteer. She conducts the class three nights a week.

“I enjoy it. I would be doing aerobics (at home), but this way I have a lot of company,” said the energetic Davis, 28, who works with welfare families for the Department of Public Social Services. Her 7-month-old daughter, Dwanna, plays with her toys off to the side while her mother leads the class.

“This is a family affair,” said Deputy Fred Shaw, pointing to several parents waiting in an adjoining room while their children took part in a karate class. “We teach the kids discipline. We also stress education,” added Scott Wiseman, the karate teacher.

The youths must maintain a C average in their school grades to participate in the karate exercises, and they must bring their report cards to Wiseman, he said. “We have youths who were once D students now on the honor roll,” said Wiseman, the holder of a black belt.

Flye said it is difficult to measure the impact that the center has had on the more than 50 youth gangs in the area served by the Lynwood substation.

But he said, “I think we have accomplished a great deal. We have had some subtle influences. “We don’t hear reports of kids who come here continuing to get into trouble. They also bring other troubled kids to the center who we help.”