ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Stand-Up Guy

Murder convictions this week in Orange County’s worst gang shootings resulted in a bitter courtroom scene, a sign the gang war isn’t over.

In the incident last year on La Bonita Avenue in Garden Grove, six people were injured, and a teen-ager and a 4-year-old boy, Frank Fernandez Jr., were killed. That helped make 1989 Orange County’s bloodiest year ever for gang killings. This year is worse--so far 19 gang-related homicides.

Besides their viciousness, however, the La Bonita killings were distinctive in another way: The death of the boy so sickened people that the community’s self-imposed “code of silence” was broken.

Coming forward wasn’t easy. Ask Ralph Rodriguez, who was with Frank Jr.’s family when the boy died. Rodriguez urged witnesses to identify the murderers. But he paid a price. He and his family underwent months of harassment, including death threats and an attempt to run down Rodriguez’s son.

Asked before the murder verdicts if he would act as such a lightning rod again, Rodriguez said no. “We’ll never be safe,” he said quietly. But later, elated by the convictions, he said he would make the same stand.

Now it’s back to real life. Rodriguez asked, “You think living in the middle of these gangs isn’t hard?” Yes, it has to be difficult living in the midst of gang violence, and it’s harder still to stand up to it. But convictions signal the triumph of court justice over street justice. Rodriguez and the witnesses did the right thing by taking the risk.