Add Your Comment · Apr 8, 2009 - 11:38 am

Help Us Get The Word Out. Share

The Milken Institute Hosts: The Hot Zone Approach to Battling Gang Violence
By Charlotte Bergin, A Better LA Volunteer

A Better LA’s Executive Director Brian Center and six other diverse panelists met at the Milken Institute last Thursday to discuss the gang situation in Los Angeles. With as many as 80,000 gang members in LA County, panelists considered different ways to battle gang violence.
Dr. Malcolm W. Klein, who has been studying street gangs for over 40 years, began the forum with defining a street gang. “A street gang (or a troublesome youth group corresponding to a street gang elsewhere) is any durable, street oriented youth group whose own identity includes involvement in illegal activity.” This definition was created by the Eurogang Program, which Klein launched in 1997.
Klein says the problem with many anti-gang strategies is that sometimes the gangs use the programs to strengthen the gang or create more gang members. The forum focuses on the “hot zone” approach to battling gang violence.
The “hot zone” approach against gangs is a more holistic strategy that involves all parts of a community: from the law enforcement, to the churches and schools, to the residents themselves. Hot zones are tiny pockets in Los Angeles where gang presence is known in the community. Recruiters target school children and the influence of gangs is extremely high.
About 300,000 children live in hot zones in the city of Los Angeles. In LA County, about 500,000 children live in these conditions.
Panelist Dr. Connie Rice, Co-Director of the Advancement Project, argues that a successful anti-gang strategy would show a measurable decrease in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder amongst children in the area after five years. She also contends that wide-ranging school activities would have to be put into place to keep children safe before, during and after school hours.
Rice says a successful comprehensive strategy addresses the conditions that allow gangs to exist and the individuals affected by the environment. She also stresses the importance to break down the “economy” of gangs, saying the problem will not be solved “until you find an alternative economy or source of income for these people.” Gangs provide money and power to members and are sometimes a child’s only choice.
Father Greg Boyle, another member of the panel, is one of the few to have created an alternative option for gang members. Boyle founded Homeboy Industries, which employs at-risk youth and former gang members, giving them training and education, and assisting them with job placement.
Boyle says he doesn’t “long for the day gangs get along, we long for the day [gangs] aren’t part of the landscape, where [gangs] won’t be a part of a multiple choice for kids.”
Panelist Chief Charles Beck, Deputy Chief with the L.A.P.D., has been working with gangs in Los Angeles for close to thirty years. Throughout his time on the force he has noticed a difference in police work. Beck says the L.A.P.D. is not the sole solution to the problem. In response, officers have begun living the comprehensive solution. They eat breakfast at Homeboy Bakery, they interact with members of the community, etc.
Beck cites that in 2002, there were 350 gang-related homicides in Los Angeles. In 2008, there were 167. In the early 1990s, gang-related homicides were five times that rate. However, Beck does not believe the gang problem in Los Angeles is solved. “It is not the most serious problem in Los Angeles, it is the problem in Los Angeles.”
Ray Bercini is a detective with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and co-founded A Better LA. He describes how at the beginning of his work, he only perceived gang members as those who had killed his fellow officers. However, after 20 years of working with gangs in Los Angeles and helping to found A Better LA, he says “you can’t tear me away from this work now.”
Bercini also stresses the importance of a holistic, community-based strategy. Law enforcement will always be a perceived intruder. According to Bercini, “the people that live in those communities are going to be the ones that will change it.”
Reverend Jeff Carr represented the political side of anti-gang work as Director of Gang Reduction and Youth Development Programs for the City of Los Angeles. He pinpoints three areas where the city is trying to improve.
Organizationally, Carr describes the need to consolidate efforts. The city needed someone thinking about the gang problem 24/7 and coordinating groups to work together. Carr has become that person with his position as Director of the anti-gang programs.
Politically, Carr believes there has been an increase in political will. This has allowed the city to allocate resources to groups based on need and performance rather than splitting up resources evenly. However, Dr. Rice and others contend that dramatically more political will is still needed to solve the gang problem in Los Angeles.
Programmatically, the city has identified 12 hot zones in Los Angeles where they are trying to get law enforcement, local organizations, residents, recreation and parks, etc. to work together.
Carr highlights the city’s efforts to use research to target the youth most at risk to joining gangs. He emphasizes interrupting the violence and giving people realistic and positive alternatives to gangs. Recent innovations include keeping parks open late at night and hosting positive activities in the parks.
Brian Center, Executive Director of A Better LA, elaborates on Carr’s thoughts of collaboration when describing his organization. “People are trying to work together, but nobody funds this or makes an effort to collaborate,” he says. A Better LA tries to foster collaboration by working with organizations existing in the community. “Instead of calling these kids monsters, reach out and collaborate with them.”
Despite the improvements made by these experts and their organizations, a lot more must still be done. Rice argues that right now only we are reaching only about one percent of kids that need to be reached. A youth culture that is not based on violence still needs to be created. “Hopeful kids don’t join gangs,” says Father Boyle. “They are never seeking something, they are always fleeing something.”

The videos below are from after the forum:
The first one if of Brian Center talking to people after the forum.
The second one is of ABLA Volunteer Charlotte Bergin at the Milken Institute.
The third video is an interview with ABLA Executive Director Brian Center
The fourth video is an interview with Ray Bercini, co-founder of A Better LA