Gang Violence: No Safe Place : Cypress Park killing of child, 3, is symptomatic of a cancer that afflicts much of the region

It was yet another young life lost because a child was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Shortly before 2 a.m. last Sunday a car carrying a family with three children made what police say was a wrong turn onto a dead-end street. Isabel Street, it turns out, is in the heart of gang territory in Cypress Park. Shots rang out, striking two of the children. Three-year-old Stephanie Kuhen was mortally wounded, and her brother, Joseph, 2, was hit in the foot.

This time the scene was Cypress Park. But it could have been any one of many areas of Los Angeles County, from Venice to Hollywood, from South Los Angeles to San Pedro.

We would all like to think that what happened on Isabel Street isn’t commonplace. According to residents, gun-toting boys as young as 12 regularly congregate there, terrorizing residents. Said one women: “After living here so long, you know what to do [when gunfire erupts]. You lay low. You don’t run outside. You peek out and pray no one will see you.”

But the horrific conditions of Isabel Street may not be as unusual as we might hope. In many neighborhoods of the Westside, Eastside, the south side, the Valley, pockets of violence can be found. Along these rough blocks, thousands of youngsters grapple daily with the constant, deadening fear of flying bullets. These children live--if it could be called that--in environments where they cannot venture outside to play. Where they must spend frightening nights sleeping inside bathtubs or on the floor, trying to keep out of the line of fire. Where reaching adulthood is considered beating the odds.

Whether lawlessness comes in the form of gang ambush or errant gunfire isn’t the issue. The slaughter of babies by gun-toting thugs cannot be tolerated. The problem won’t be solved by more carefully plotting where we drive and where we don’t. Senseless killings like the one that took place in Cypress Park can and do occur with disturbing regularity throughout Southern California. Gang violence is the problem of everyone. Not just the folks who live or drive on Isabel Street.