CRIME WATCH : Perverse Reversal

In yet another grim commentary on the epidemic of violence that is racking many neighborhoods of Los Angeles, some mortuary operators report a brisk business involving young victims who almost daily are gunned down in gang-related homicides.

A generation ago, the funeral processions that wound through the Eastside and the South Los Angeles were populated by members of younger generations burying those who fell to sickness or old age. Now often it is grandparents who stand over the coffins of descendants in their teens or early 20s.

One mortician who has marked the trend is Robert Risher, who runs a family-owned business on the predominantly Latino Eastside. Risher says that of the 350 funerals he conducts every year, one in 10 is for a young person killed in a gang-related shooting. County statistics show that between 1988 and 1994 the Latino homicide rate doubled, from 24% to 49%; the majority of those slain are under 30 years old.

Though some funeral homes in South-Central Los Angeles report burying fewer African American youths now than a few years ago--and that indeed is good news--there’s still no shortage of gang-related deaths. Murders, like those that claimed three Compton youths this week, continue at a numbing rate in the African American community too.

The purchase of burial insurance is popular. But now the policy frequently are purchased not for Grandma and Grandpa but for Junior. That’s a perverse reversal here that is not to be tolerated.