TUESDAY SPECIAL : Valley Interview : Forgiveness Called Crucial to Maintaining 7-Month Gang Truce

A truce between Latino gangs in the San Fernando Valley has been in effect for more than seven months. There have been episodes of violence during that time, but they have resulted in no deaths of gang members, according to truce organizers.

The treaty was arranged by two volunteers, William (Blinky) Rodriguez, co-owner of the Jet Center gym in Van Nuys, and Donald Garcia, who spent more than half his life in prison before turning his life around seven years ago. Later, they were joined by a third man, Steve Martinez, whose dramatic refusal to seek vengeance on gang members who shot him only two days before the first peace treaty organizing meeting--he still wore his hospital bandages--provided a concrete example of forgiveness at a time when the gangs wondered how a treaty could possibly work.

Each Sunday the three meet with representatives of gangs to mediate misunderstandings between them that could lead to violence. As the three men sat down a few days ago to speak with staff writer John Johnson about the treaty, they were struggling to prevent retaliation by Latino gangs over the accidental killing June 11 of a Latino woman caught in a cross-fire between what police said were black gangs.

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Question: What is the state of the truce?

Answer: (Rodriguez) We’re at seven months and 13 days without a killing or gang-related homicide. We’re at a place where we’ve put an enormous amount of extra time into it. There have been some altercations, some different incidents between the neighborhoods. But no one’s really retaliated. Before, what would constitute a killing was just the idea of killing someone. Now there’s been some things happening where someone could have died but didn’t. So we’ve just been really shoring up the foundation and doing whatever we’ve got to do to keep communication lines between the neighborhoods together.

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Q: What led all of you to get involved?

A: (Garcia) For a while, Blinky and myself--this is before Steve got involved--we had like a burden in our neighborhoods for the violence that was happening within the barrios. We just fell into this by what I believe was an act of God. Why we’re involved is because we have this burden. We were raised in the Valley. We see the change. It’s not like it used to be. The barrio used to protect a barrio. Now you’ve got little gangs within the barrio, and they’re fighting among themselves. And that’s what we’re trying to prevent. My reward is seeing that the mothers aren’t crying and the babies, meaning the gang members, aren’t dying.

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Q: Has it taken a toll on you all?

A: (Martinez) Yeah, it has. We’re very tired and weary. There’s times where one person is not feeling that strength that day, so the next person will take that place. If I’m too tired or not able to deal with a situation, one of them will go. It’s been a lot of work.

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Q: Are you making changes in the gang members? Can they see how things are better with the truce?

A: (Rodriguez) Each and every gang member in this Valley has benefited, just in the fact that they’re not living in a constant fear all the time. Before, if a car drove by, you’d hide under a car or duck out of the way. Now there’s more confidence that they can walk down the street--which seems the most basic thing that an individual in our society can do, take a walk down the street without feeling any kind of a fear or pressure. I feel also that these individuals have learned more about themselves. They’ve learned to humble themselves a little. They’ve learned to swallow false pride.

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Q: Is this a religiously centered effort?

A: (Garcia) Let me answer that. I believe that if it wasn’t for God, this peace would not be happening. Because the frustrations we go through, if it wasn’t for the Lord giving us the wisdom and the strength, I know for a fact that it wouldn’t work. Because there’s times when I want to erupt, but because the Lord is in control of my life and I’m focused on him I get control of my emotions and my thinking and my feelings. For example, Steve wasn’t serving the Lord. He was just a gang member. And after he was around us, all of a sudden the Lord got ahold of his life and he’s now one of our members at the head of the table.

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Q: Steve, would you mind telling about that meeting where you stood up and forgave, because it seems that was really important in getting the truce off on the right foot?

A: (Martinez) When I saw they were trying to do a peace treaty that would help everybody, I knew for it to work that I had to forgive. Those guys who shot me couldn’t wonder if I was going to be holding a grudge against them. In my heart, I believe that if I held a grudge I wouldn’t be able to do the kind of work that I’m doing now. I did get shot two days before the peace treaty. The guys (who did it) were there. It was a big surprise. I was very angry at first. I felt very disrespected by the fact of them being there. But for the sake of the peace treaty, I said I would hold back and stop anybody from trying to get pay-back for what happened to me. To make the peace work, that’s where it all started, by forgetting the past. It was only two days afterward and I had bandages on me and everything.

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Q: Was that a hard thing to do, to get up and say that?

A: (Martinez) Yes, yes, it was. A lot of emotion. Afterward, they shook my hand and they told me, “We respect you for what you did.” It really hit them hard. We talk to each other real good now. They call me a lot. They use me to consult a lot of the situations they get into.

(Rodriguez) The power is the forgiveness. I had to also forgive the people who killed my son (four years ago in a drive-by attack). That is the way of God. But by today’s standards, to a lot of people, it becomes a weak hustle. We’ve been very sensitive, so that you don’t misconstrue what’s going on. We’ve been very careful of the way we have shared the reflection of the love of God through our lives. We don’t sit in these meetings and Bible-thump people over the head. We’ll normally open it up, Donald will say a prayer or read a little portion of Scripture. He’ll break down the Scripture, what it meant in simpler terms. And then we get on with issues and agendas and arbitrations and whatever it takes.

There have been a few that have said, “I don’t know about this turning the other cheek stuff.” We say, “We don’t ask anything from anybody, except that you respect us for who we are.” This last Sunday when Donald said the prayer I saw a lot of hats coming off. Even though when that prayer’s over they’re back to their old stinking thinking, the bottom line is they’re giving us the respect at that time and place.

Don’t judge us by what we say, judge us by what we do. By the fruits we’re producing. Right now we’ve produced seven and a half months without a killing, which is unprecedented, which is historical in this Valley. . . .

We might as well be private investigators. We’ve got to go out, find out exactly what happened. First of all, they have the respect to call us. Then we respond, because sometimes you can’t wait until tomorrow. It’s got to be right now, because right now there could be a killing. We respond, we track down the guys that blew it. We find out what happened. Then we’ll go looking for the other people. It takes one day, two days, three days. We track them down, we bring them together.

(Garcia) And they call us so they won’t retaliate. We see them negotiating, coming to agreements. I don’t know if they realize it, but they are swallowing their pride a little bit.

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Q: What has to happen next to keep this going and make it last?

A: (Rodriguez) There has to be structure. That’s something that we’re slowly moving into. The Jet Center is going to be the Valley outlet for Cities in Schools, a national dropout prevention program. There’s funding out there. And there’s going to come a time and place where we’ll have to go into strategic planning and structure.

But at this point in time the main concern has been solidifying and putting out fires, because it is summertime. Summertime is when all the problems kick out, where they triple. We were hoping to have a summer baseball team, something to provide for these guys to vent. I would like to see them attend a Bible study.

We have dialogue with the LAPD. We recognize they’re a part of it. We’ve gone through this attitude of, “What are they about? Are they no good or are they sincere?” It hasn’t been like anyone running to embrace what we’re doing. Because we’re dealing with a part of society that’s an eyesore. Most people say, “Lock them up and throw the key away, they’re irredeemable.”

We’ve found people that are very redeemable and very salvageable. We haven’t come in with data, we haven’t come in with documentation, we haven’t come in with a blueprint. We just jumped into the water and started swimming. A lot of people thought this thing will never last--”they can’t keep this thing going.”

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Q: Has the attitude of police turned around?

A: (Rodriguez) I got a call from (Deputy Chief Martin H.) Pomeroy. He called me because of the incident that has happened recently on the street (the woman caught in the cross fire). To come from the top guy in the Valley, they’ve got confidence in us.

(Garcia) My past wasn’t a very successful or loving adventure. The first time I talked to police officers was at a handball tournament. They saw the change in my life. I would even tell them, “We thank you for being here.” We need the police just as much as they need us. Now I believe they’ve got a better understanding.

(Rodriguez) We wish they would realize what we have now is a very special thing. I hear from different guys, “Yeah, right, the peace treaty. It will fall apart.” Which reminds me of some of the gang members that are negative about the peace treaty.

(Garcia) You’ve got them on both sides.

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Q: Regarding the future, what should be done next?

A: (Rodriguez) We need to be able to mobilize with more of ourselves. Donald has a full-time job, Steve has a full-time job. I own my own business. We would like to be out there much more, solidifying and recruiting guys that have good brains, good sense.

I recognize there’s a lot of agencies in this Valley. Especially now, when the No. 1 agenda in the nation is gangs, there’s a lot of agencies out there that would like to help us but just haven’t. They haven’t come and said, “Here’s some unencumbered dollars.” They wonder, “Whoa, wait a minute, what are you going to do with these dollars? You expect us to give you some money with no proposal?” In other words, red tape.

My worst nightmare is we lose a grip of the handle and then this Valley recognizes what we had. No one in this Valley has been able to do this before. Here we are, willing vessels. But we also have needs. We are looking for help. There’s agencies now that are turning their protocol toward gangs because where the federal funds are going is toward gangs. Without getting too political, the situation is that they know how to milk the system, but we can get it done.

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Q: Are you saying unless you get some resources you won’t be able to continue this?

A: (Rodriguez) I’m not saying that. We will go with everything we’ve got, regardless. But we can be more efficient, more effective. We can really pull something together for the San Fernando Valley that has a sense of direction. We do need help, though. We’re not trying to be the Lone Rangers, because this job is too big.

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Q: How big a demand has it made on your families?

A: (Rodriguez) I’ve been called out at 3:30 a.m.

(Linda Garcia, Donald’s wife) When I receive those calls, it doesn’t upset me. It makes me want to give Donald the phone. When I received that call four years ago and Blinky was telling me his son was killed, that was the most devastating phone call I ever received. I will never, ever turn anyone away.

(Garcia) We can’t thank the gang members enough for participating. They’re the big part of the solution.

(Rodriguez) The homicide detective is sleeping at night.