“Survivors” Speak Out on Gang Violence at Pico Forum

By Etha Williams
Special to The Lookout

December 20 -- As a young Latino man in a wheelchair milled around the refreshments table and an African-American man rapped along to “Ghetto D,” it was clear that the community forum on gang violence at John Adams Middle School this weekend would be different.

Instead of the academic experts, elected officials and community leaders who have tackled the thorny issue at two forums earlier this year, the panel at Saturday’s event -- which was organized by the Pico Youth and Family Center (PYFC) and the Pico Neighborhood Association (PNA) -- carried a brand of expertise all its own: all five members had been involved with gangs and drug abuse.

“No one in here is from the RAND Corporation, but they are experts because they are all survivors.” said the Pico center’s executive director and School Board member Oscar de la Torre, laughing and adding that he meant no disrespect to RAND.

Tony Massengale, an LA County gang intervention instructor at Cal State LA who speaks with the rhetorical style of a preacher, told the applauding audience to “set your degrees aside and listen to those who have been there.”

And so, after hearing the litany of alarming statistics that has become almost par for the course at meetings dealing with youth violence, attendees listened to the four men and one woman on the panel describe their experiences with gangs and drugs.

The panelists shared many common experiences, and they all agreed that incarceration alone isn't going to solve the problem.

Steven Luciano, a father of two who mentors youth at the PYFC, said that no amount of “deaths,” “shootings,” “ODs” or prison sentences could have made him want to stop when he was an active gang member.

Being incarcerated, he said, “only made me want to be a better criminal,” adding that going to prison helped him “rise in the ranks” of his gang.

Other panelists echoed Luciano’s thoughts, describing jail's role as a status symbol in the gang lifestyle.

“Jail breeds hate,” said panelist Mando Garcia.

After the panel’s first-hand accounts, leaders and attendees broke into groups to discuss specific strategies for tackling youth violence and substance abuse, instead of simply imposing harsher, and often ineffective, penalties. During discussions, most recognized the importance of the Police Department's role, although some remained skeptical.

Lisa Diaz wanted cops to interact and “kick it” with kids instead of just “sitting behind a desk.”

“The police just take the procedures to punish you, and you get that enough at home,” Santa Monica High School senior Alejandro Rodriguez explained. “They don't understand us.”

The City’s 2005 Santa Monica Resident Survey notes that “residents of the Pico area differed from other residents in that working with local kids to prevent gangs was the top priority.”

Irma Carranza, a PNA board member, said the neighborhood group has been asking for this for “years.” She said PNA would like City officials and police to treat at-risk youth the same way they treat the homeless -- by helping and providing services, rather than arresting them.

But this may be easier said than done, leaders and attendees agreed. Students and adults both complained that police treat youth with a non-productive and “confrontational” attitude, and many of the comments about the police force were critical.

“It has to go both ways,” Loya, who ran the workshop on community police relations at the forum, concluded. Others also called for greater mutual respect between youth and the police department.

That will only be achieved, Rodriguez said, if the police “don't approach (the youth) like police... They need to just act like humans and treat them like humans,” he said, adding that we need to “drop the labels.”

Even so, panelist Arturo Arce recognized that he probably wouldn't have listened if a police officer had tried to talk to him when he was in gangs. Instead, Arce proposed that people who have been involved with gangs work together with the police as “mediators” between cops and kids.

He added that, instead of pointing fingers, youth must take responsibility for their acts.

“I've been abused by the police, I've been hassled, I've been harrassed, but on the other hand, I wasn't living right,” Arce said.

Ricky McCaster, an outspoken 53-year-old on the panel, didn't try to saddle anyone but himself with the blame either.

“I had to change my way of thinking to change my way of life. I had to change my friends to change my way of life,” McCaster said, adding that “today, I speak to the police. First, I thought they were against me, but I was against myself.”

By all accounts, “friends” and the desire for peer acceptance play a large role in youth involvement in gangs and drugs.

“We love you, we're your family... you've probably heard all the clichés, you know, 'til the wheels fall off, we're there for you,” Garcia told the audience.

None of this is true, McCaster said. “I spoke about friends and homies. They don't come visit you in prison, they don't send you no money, all they try to do is get with your woman. It's for real!”

“The only people that are ever going to be there for you, and it's not a lie, is your family, man,” Garcia agreed.

The goal of Saturday's meeting was to focus on “tangible solutions," said PNA co-chair Maria Loya. And so, after the panel discussion, plenty of solutions were proposed.

Many focused on the family -- including running culturally sensitive parenting classes; facilitating better interaction between parents, schools, youth and community resources, and setting up a mentoring program for youth from single parent households who might join gangs looking for a surrogate father figure.

The “family” doesn't just include parents and siblings, either.

“The true essence of community is family,” said Mike Jackson, a board member of the PNA, adding that “we are trying to extend our whole concept of what family is.”

This means reaching out through programs during and after school, providing confidential peer-to-peer support groups, drug abuse education, a corps of trained volunteers and tapping into existing community resources.

De la Torre is pleased with the progress so far and plans to take future forums into schools so that parents, teachers and students can learn from them.