2 Companies Honored for Gang Prevention

Police and gang prevention officials on Monday recognized the contributions two companies made to help reduce gang crime in parts of the San Fernando Valley.

Representatives from Anheuser-Busch Cos. and the Hispanic Broadcasting Co. received framed photos and T-shirts signed by youths in the Foothill area anti-gang Jeopardy “Bouncing the Odds” Foundation at a ceremony at the group’s San Fernando site.

The brewery, which employs about 1,100 people in the Valley, and HBC, which owns La Nueva 101.9 FM, have raised about $1 million for the gang-prevention program over the last nine years through the “extravaganza sin fronteras” concerts held each July at Hansen Dam Recreation Area, foundation officials said.

“Instead of talking about [gang prevention or] theorizing about what needs to be done, they’re out there doing it,” Capt. Kenneth Garner of the LAPD’s Foothill station said of Jeopardy and its sponsors.

Although there have been several gang-related shootings in the last several months in the Foothill area, Garner added that overall gang-related crime has decreased almost 30% in the past year.