Mr. Hahn’s $50,000 Contest

At long last, we have obtained copies of all entries in the Board of Supervisors’ $50,000 Smite-the-Gangs contest. Getting our hands on these documents required six months of wheedling, enough phone calls to boost the stock in Pac Bell, and a filing under the Freedom of Information Act. But we got them.

In case you missed the prior rounds of this drama, here’s a quick recap: Last May, at the supervisors’ weekly meeting, Kenneth Hahn rose to announce that the body count from gang shootings had reached 200. Enough was enough, he said, and then proposed the kind of program for which the supervisors are famous.

Hahn called for a $50,000 reward to anyone who produced a plan that would cool out the gangs forever. All ideas would be welcomed. The other supervisors foghorned their approval, with the predictable exception of Gloria Molina, and congratulations were offered all around.

Ever since, we have pursued the results of this remarkable program. It hasn’t been easy. Conniving bureaucrats, sensing embarrassment, have tried every dodge in the book. But we prevailed. Now, finally, here are the highlights from L.A. County’s first official contest to end gang violence:

Otis McCray of Compton suggested that the real problem with gangs stems from their lack of training with firearms. “Many innocent victims have been killed or wounded by errant or stray bullets,” McCray wrote. In other words, they hit the wrong targets.

McCray concluded that the solution lies in a training program teaching gang members the nuances of gunmanship, everything from the killing power of different pieces to proper handling and how to shoot straight. This program would be cost effective, McCray argued, because the only capital cost would involve acquisition of a shooting range somewhere in South-Central.

At the other end of the spectrum were Tracie McCarron and Laura Lyn of Castaic, who proposed a program they titled “Wish You Were Here: Postcards From The Gang.” Under this plan, trained counselors would stroll through a “targeted area” and collect tape-recorded comments from those who had gang member friends serving time in jail. The comments would then be transferred onto postcards and sent to the incarcerated.

The postcards, McCarron and Lyn wrote, would express the “hopes, dreams and views” of the friends, views that the authors suggest would take an anti-gang tone. By the time of release, the gang members would be sufficiently mellowed by the postcards to render them less harmful.

As you might expect, the county received a trolley-car load of get-tough suggestions from reward hopefuls. One entrant suggested that gang convictees be sent to prisons in other states. California would simply pay the other states a per diem for each inmate and hope the gang members would be so taken by their new geographical surroundings that they would remain there upon release.

But the get-tough stuff was more or less expected, no? Somewhat less predictable was the proposal by John C. Verret of El Monte, who wrote that gang activity constitutes a compulsion to control turf.

How to cure this compulsion? Collect gang members and show them films of animals marking their own turf via the classic technique of urination. “I believe that if they are shown that this activity is not macho and puts them in the same category as animals they will stop the activity,” Verret wrote.

Thank you, Mr. Verret, and we’ll be in touch.

There’s many more, but we’re running out of time. Just enough space left to reveal the recommended winner. It came from Luis A. Montes and Diane Mgrublian of the Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center in Downey. Montes and Mgrublian suggested that the county enlist the aid of gang members who have been shot and left permanently disabled.

These young men and women could become volunteer public speakers, going from school to school in gang-related areas, describing the state of their lives since the day they were shot. If only 1% of the audience got the message, Montes and Mgrublian wrote, that would translate into one to three fewer crippled persons per year.

Actually, not such a bad idea. It won’t solve the problem of gang violence in Los Angeles, but it’s probably better than the supervisors deserve. I say give them the $50 K.

Meanwhile, many thanks to all the other entrants. Keep thinking, and don’t be discouraged. It’s a new year, after all. Knowing the supervisors, the year will probably bring another contest, another reward.