‘Just Boys’ in S. County?

In recent weeks, South County has been rocked by concern over the alleged activities of a group of youngsters who have brought a 1950s look into the late 1990s. But this isn’t just a story about appearances. Several stand accused in a near-fatal stabbing of a 16-year-old in an Aliso Viejo gated community.

Apart from the prosecution in the stabbing case, the story of the so-called Slick 50’s and their run through South County has raised a host of questions for the new suburbs. These suburbs, where many moved in search of a safe place to raise families, suddenly are going through a period of self-examination.

With their slicked-back hair, the youngsters posed recently on a verdant hillside, and in the background were spreading housing tracts, the world where people relocated to create a new life. Whether or not the “G” word applies to these youngsters has prompted a companion discussion about racial and ethnic stereotyping. The discussion centers on whether the activities of the group, which allegedly have included targeting individual victims and assaulting them, qualify to be described in the same way as the sustained patterns of serious violence of conventional gangs.

Some say sheriff’s deputies have overreacted to an incident; others applaud the “zero tolerance” approach that has been adopted. On another level, the discussion parallels a national concern arising from the recent violence at a Colorado high school. This debate has to do with whether young people are properly supervised in affluent communities and to what extent their parents should be held responsible for their activities.

The Orange County sheriff’s deputies’ approach of zero tolerance makes sense whether or not this is a conventional gang. And the new suburbs can learn from older communities to the north.

An ounce of prevention goes a long way. In Westminster and other more urban communities of Orange County, authorities seasoned in dealing with gang activity have learned the advantages of early intervention.

They target those likely to be repeat offenders and work with probation officers and others to turn lives around before it is too late. Sheriff’s deputies in South County already have been active in cracking down on parole violations and on other activities of other gangs in South County.

To address gang-like activity, it isn’t first necessary to convince the world that a group of youngsters that gets into trouble fits the definition of a gang.

That’s why after-school activities, mentoring programs and targeting at-risk youth are strategies that should be employed, whatever the income level of the community and whatever its ethnic makeup.

Parents and guardians also can be held accountable and brought into the search for solutions. When a mother is making beer available to her high school son, as was reported in The Times recently, community intervention is needed and justified. A parent is not a buddy or barkeep.

Moreover, a full-fledged gang does not necessarily start out fully developed. Many of the activities traceable to the “Slick 50’s’ can be found in the nascent stages of more traditional gangs.

In this case, prosecutors appear to have sent a strong message early on.

“Just boys. They aren’t criminals,” one mother was quoted as saying. To help such youngsters be the former and not the latter, and before it is too late for them, a community’s intervention is needed.