Sneakers and Gangs

I was reading Al Martinez (“A Wave of the Future,” Sept. 12), wondering how my favorite Times writer could not understand that gun shows and the local sporting goods store are not the source of weapons used by gangsters and other criminals. Then I turn the page to see “Sneaky Sneakers or Urban Myth?” As I understand it, the shoes on the lines represent someone killed by gang violence, either an innocent person or a gang member, in a drive-by shooting. Gang members do the shootings for whatever reason, turf or drug wars.

I am one of the people L.A. City Councilman Nate Holden says should take those shoes down, but I will not remove a single pair from any line I am working on. That is gang business. Enforce existing laws. Control the gangs and you control the shootings and the shoes. The legal sale of handguns and shoes hanging over the street are not the problem.

TIM ASHFORD

Culver City

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Sneakers hanging from power lines are commonplace in many cities on the East Coast and have been for generations. Hanging old tennis shoes has been a rite of passage in many urban neighborhoods, and to a lesser extent in the suburbs, long before the proliferation of gangs. Like many of my young cohorts in Philadelphia, the first thing I did after getting a new pair of sneakers was to tie the old ones together, head to the corner and hurl them skyward, bolo-style. Catching the wire is no easy task, and would often take dozens of tries.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I should add that on rare occasions, when a neighborhood wiseacre was busting our chops more than usual, we would separate him from his sneakers and hang them. We’d later see him standing atop a truck (commandeered from the corner produce vendor) with a clothes pole, trying to get them down. His annoying behavior would immediately come to a halt.

MARK S. SCOTT

Long Beach