For Giovanni Avelar, Outrage

Every war has civilian casualties. Giovanni Avelar is one. The 17-year-old was shot and killed as he walked home from school along Langdon Avenue in North Hills. His mother and brothers, alerted by neighbors, ran to find him lying next to a church named Our Lady of Peace. They took him back to El Salvador last week to be buried, which is not the usual order of things. El Salvador is the country we associate with war, the United States, with refuge.

Langdon Avenue is no refuge.

Giovanni’s friends and relatives say he worked hard at Monroe High School, where he was a well-liked, well-respected student, and at two part-time jobs to help support his family. And, they say, he worked hard at avoiding gangs, even changing the way he dressed so as not to attract attention.

That wasn’t enough to save him. Police describe a teenager they arrested in connection with the shooting as a member of a gang. Witnesses say two known gang members jumped Giovanni after asking him where he was from. His answer? “Nowhere.” A civilian’s request for safe passage.

The North Hills neighborhood already is under a court injunction aimed at reducing gang activity. What more will it take?

There is only one response to civilian casualties, and that is outrage. Outrage that demands a comprehensive plan to combine the injunction with stepped-up services like foot patrols, building and safety inspections, after-school programs and job training. Outrage that demands cooperation among well-meaning community organizations critical of each others’ tactics. Outrage that demands residents clean up trash and graffiti and reclaim their neighborhoods--and their children. Outrage that demands that, in this country, a kid be able to walk from school to home safely.