Gang Services

Now is not the time for the Board of Supervisors to rip off funding for Community Youth Gang Services (“Ganging Up Against Hope,” editorial, June 16). Whatever success there has been in Los Angeles to turn away gang members from their social predation is due primarily to CYGS’s intervention.

The board’s proposal also would impede state efforts to fund CYGS expansion to other areas in the county. As part of its budget deliberations, the Legislature is considering my request to reallocate $500,000 from the asset forfeiture distribution fund to assist CYGS in this expansion. The county’s redirection of CYGS funds would jeopardize the state budget proposal--why would non-Los Angeles legislators support a Los Angeles gang intervention program that the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors undermines?

The reallocation is supported by a wide range of community leaders including Cardinal Roger Mahony and the Rev. E.V. Hill, pastor of the Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church. Let’s act now before more innocent victims are cut down by the onslaught of gang violence.

TERRY B. FRIEDMAN

Assemblyman, D-Los Angeles