Gang ‘Truce’ Was Missed Opportunity : Next time, effort must be made to offer alternatives to win youths away from harmful activity

To say that we have always cast a wary eye toward the San Fernando Valley’s so-called “gang truce” would be the height of understatement. Expressing too much confidence about it would be like suggesting that television character Eliot Ness raise a toast to a cease-fire among Prohibition-era crime syndicates.

One purpose behind the Mexican Mafia’s jailhouse plea for “peace” among gangs, for example, was to curb the violence that was disrupting its own illicit drug trade. It was aiming to tighten its grip on that drug market. It hadn’t gotten all warm and fuzzy about its brethren on the streets. Business is, after all, business, even when it is illegal, we suppose. And a truce that enables gangs to concentrate on being gangs generally benefits the gangs, and no one else.

One tangible benefit was easily acknowledged. Fewer gang killings lessened the likelihood that innocent bystanders would be wounded or killed or simply terrorized. But the other potential benefit was too easily forgotten, and that is what largely concerns us here.

Citizens and police officers who had been managing “the peace” had merely set the stage for the truly hard work to come: that of trying to get the gangbangers out of gangs.

So, when we now hear that the truce is essentially over, we mourn the loss of 40 alleged gang members who are now dead because of renewed violence this past year. We mourn them as we would mourn any instance of wasted lives gone fatally awry.

But the real value of this truce must be judged in a different light. During its course, how many gangbangers were persuaded or had the good sense to leave the life behind? That would be the best measure of its success. How many police officers, elected officials, community leaders, religious leaders and others stepped forward to offer alternatives to gang membership? That is the kind of effort that is of rich benefit to society. Some of this was done, but not enough.

During the next “truce,” it ought to be eminently clear that much of the effort must be spent in winning youths away from gangs.