An innovative plan, developed by the community to stop gangs has been unanimously passed by the LA City Council.
From author, blogger, poet, activist, and former gang member Luis J. Rodriguez
It’s a real problem deserving of real and serious attention. For example, communities in East LA and South Central LA (now called South LA) have murder rates among African Americans and Latinos as high or higher than the murder rates in South Africa or El Salvador (both these countries have the world’s highest murder rates).
We believe gang intervention must be community-based, driven and led by community, not the police or politicians. Of course, the police, schools, city officials, city departments, and such should be integral to any urban peace plan. We welcome all members of the community to take positive and active steps to curtail the violence that is destroying families and communities.
And now the city of L.A. has adopted the plan. Excellent. Clearly the suppression-by-police model doesn’t work. If it did, L.A. wouldn’t have 700 gangs, many of them virulent and trans-national by now.