Gang Violence Spills Into Heart of a City : Santa Ana Killing Shows Fabric of Life Here Is at Risk

Santa Ana in the past week has been reeling from a gang’s terrorist attack on an outdoor pickup basketball game at Santa Ana High School. A 31-year-old deliveryman was left dead and three relatives were wounded.

An anguished city has sought to come to grips with the shootings, which took place in the heart of the city, in a location associated symbolically with a community’s most positive goals and values. Troubling questions about how deep the county’s gang problems go must prompt a vigorous regional response. Santa Ana’s grief is shared in the barrios and in the tony suburbs surrounding the city. The intramural wars of gangs are disturbing enough; this violence spilling into the schoolyards shows the fabric of society at risk.

Indeed, the assault came just as some Orange County gang members had come to recognize the fruitlessness of fratricide and had started meeting in the open to talk about putting aside violence. Programs to address gang activity through stepped-up law enforcement efforts and through community education programs already have begun throughout the county.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Doug Woodsmall, who heads the prosecutor’s 3-year-old gang unit, makes the crucial point that while anti-gang programs are important, the future lies in prevention. That takes time. Santa Ana’s own program to offer after-school activities begins in third grade and now has expanded to teen-agers, reaching 7,000 students in 212 schools.

It will be awhile, though, before such programs bear lasting fruit. Too many youngsters are at risk or involved already in gangs. The urgent task is not made easier by the inexcusable political infighting last week among Santa Ana’s political leaders. Rival council factions should put aside differences for a problem too important to receive the divided attention of a besieged city. Take the best ideas--enlisting minority leaders, stepping up enforcement, bolstering recreation--and show a united front.

Community groups are already meeting to discuss anti-crime strategies for residents, which is good. To better coordinate law enforcement activities across the county, the countywide gang task force concept being considered by the county police chiefs association merits a place on the fast track.

Through these and other efforts, Santa Ana and the larger community somehow can begin to transform a tragedy into a positive force. The hour is late. The problem threatens the most fundamental promises of Orange County life.