Meeting to Ease Tensions in Venice Area Turns Raucous

Tempers flared Thursday night at a meeting called to combat violence between black and Latino gangs in Venice as residents vented their frustrations over unemployment, a lack of recreational programs for young people and what they called police apathy.

“It’s not about blacks and Latinos not getting along,” said Raphael Anderson, a longtime resident of the Oakwood area of Venice where the meeting was held. “It’s about a drug trade. It’s about the police not caring.”

Some residents assailed the media, saying too much emphasis has been placed on racial tensions and not enough on possible solutions.

Fighting between black and Latino gangs in Oakwood has claimed 17 lives and left 55 people injured in the last 10 months. Many of the victims were bystanders.

In early June, two Latino students at Dorsey High School in Southwest Los Angeles were killed in a drive-by shooting near Venice High School. Their assailants were described as black.

The warfare in the streets has left some residents complaining that they feel as though they are prisoners in their homes, and they are afraid to let their children venture out alone.

But the 60 vocal residents at Thursday’s meeting said the problems in Oakwood could best be addressed by providing more jobs and economic opportunities, and former California Supreme Court Associate Justice Cruz Reynoso agreed with them.

Real change in Oakwood will come when individuals, schools, churches and other organizations come together to attack the community’s problems, said Reynoso, now a UCLA law professor and vice chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

“There are no easy solutions,” he said. “We have an issue of civil rights. It’s not just between African Americans and Latinos. It’s the right of people to enjoy their community.”

Alex Cota, the Oakwood community activist who organized the meeting, was sternly criticized for calling Venice gang members “termites” in interviews.

Cota pleaded for community cooperation in combatting the gang violence, telling residents Thursday that those at the meeting had come together because “we want a truly peaceful community.”

Police believe the feud in Oakwood started early last year when a black woman fatally stabbed a Latino man over who would take the first puff from a crack cocaine pipe.