Realizing Gangbanging Has No Future : A Valley Street Truce Offers an Opportunity to Find Peaceful Alternatives to Gang Life

Truces that reduce the violence between rival street gangs do have something of a positive impact on the general citizenry, but it is a limited one. When heavily armed street crews have it out for one another, for example, the drive-by shootings increase the likelihood that bystanders will be killed or wounded and that innocents will be further harmed in cases of mistaken identity. Similarly, a calming of the gang wars means that fewer citizens are cowering in their homes at night due to the inelegant rhapsody of nearby gunfire.

But there is a caveat attached to gang truces, such as the one that has held between street gangs in the Valley since October. Sometimes, the “peace” allows them to concentrate on preying on the public. And one must be very wary of gangbangers turned peacemakers, because appearances can be deceiving. The recent case of a Watts gang warlord who gained national attention in such fashion is a case in point. It is now widely suspected that the gang leader--now dead--was also furthering his criminality: in gambling, drug sales and street shakedowns.

The Valley gang truce and the somewhat decreased tensions with the police it has produced represents, at its best, an opportunity. It’s a chance to reach into the membership of those gangs. It’s a chance to try to get them to leave the gang life behind altogether. LAPD Officer Angel Munoz and ex-officer Hector Rodriquez should be commended for doing exactly that.

Thanks to them, a street gang that had once terrorized an apartment complex on Hayvenhurst Avenue in Van Nuys returned there recently. This time, the gangbangers were armed with brooms. They came to clean up an area they had once tagged unmercifully and claimed as their turf. “This is fantastic,” said Rodriguez, who now manages the apartment complex.

In exchange for this work, Munoz has agreed to help find honest jobs for the gang members. “They’re starting to realize that gangbanging has no future,” Munoz said. The goal has to be to persuade many others to face that fact.