Today’s Topic

Day after day, quietly working behind the scenes and away from the headlines, a small army of police and religious and community leaders have been searching for ways to end gang violence in Los Angeles.

Have the anti-gang efforts been successful? It depends on who you talk to. The experts have their theories and community leaders are optimistic, but the police still don’t see an end to the killings.

After all, there are more than 1,100 gangs and 157,000 gang members in Los Angeles County, according to Sgt. Wes McBride of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. And, although deaths due to gang violence declined slightly in 1993 from 1992, they are up slightly so far this year.

“Gang violence is cyclical,” says Malcolm Klein, professor of sociology at USC. “It starts coming down when the gang members themselves really get concerned that it’s getting out of control. It has more to do with the internal dynamics of the gang than anything else.” That theory, however, is not likely to dissuade community leaders intent on getting kids off the streets and away from drugs and violence.

In today’s Testimony, Louis Negrete, chairman of Hope in Youth, talks about his program, which brought together an unprecedented coalition of religious leaders determined to break the cycle of violence in Southern California.

The key appears to be strengthening family, school and religious ties. Even the LAPD has gotten into the act with a program called Jeopardy, which identifies high-risk youth and gets them and their families into counseling.

“This program has been highly successful in the (San Fernando) Valley in averting the tragedy of young people becoming lost in the vortex of gang violence and everything that goes along with it,” says Deputy Chief Mark Kroeker.

“I think the community at large is very supportive of the department’s efforts in prevention and enforcement,” Kroeker says. “They know the reality of the situation, when their child, or brother, or grandson, is involved in violence. There’s a lot of sadness in these homes.” Despite the continuing violence and sadness, community leaders do see hope.

“I think it’s definitely gotten better from the standpoint that there is at least a conscious attempt and awareness that the violence must stop,” says Khalid Shah, director of Stop the Violence, Increase the Peace Foundation, which was one of the groups that helped arrange a much publicized truce two years ago between rival L.A. gangs.

“There was a time when you’d see two kids stare each other down,” says Shah, whose group works directly with gang members and takes actors and entertainers into the schools to teach youngsters self-respect and violence prevention. “Now they greet each other.”

The Rev. Leonard Jackson, associate minister of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in South-Central, agrees. “The situation is improving. “As far as we can see, the truce is holding. We are working with gang members, trying to economically empower them.

“They need jobs, they need to feel they are a part of society,” Jackson says. “They need to be heard.”