SOME WAYS TO HALT GANGS IN OUR CITY

The failed programs and millions of dollars wasted by the L.A.
Bridges gang prevention program over the last decade are a good thing.

Hopefully, it means that Los Angeles leaders are ready to stop
pursuing strategies and activities that have never really worked.
Perhaps now they will be more receptive to proven anti-gang ideas
that attack the root causes of gang activity, ideas that could have
L.A. gangster-free in three years or less.

Hold accountable the homes that breed and harbor gang members. A fast
track for court hearings must be established to prosecute parents who
provide safe havens for minors involved in gangs, crime and the drug
trade. Parenting classes must be mandated for every parent of every
child convicted of a crime.

Commit the majority of gang prevention funding to subsidizing quality
job and internship opportunities. The money wasted on the L.A.
Bridges program during the last 10 years would have provided every
juvenile gang member in L.A. with three hours of supervised work
after school every school day for an entire school year at $10 per
hour. These jobs would be available only to gang members who
voluntarily tested clean for drugs, attended school regularly, passed
their classes and stayed out of trouble.

Expose the myth of "blood in - blood out" with L.A's media to
encourage gang members to quit their gangs. Here's a cause big enough
for all our entertainers and athletes, politicians and clergy,
billboards, radio, television and community events.

Stop using ex-gangster organizations as leaders and spokesmen for
gang prevention. Almost without exception, these groups are anti-law
enforcement and preach a quasi-religious doctrine of racist paranoia
about our justice system. Many activities and philosophies
implemented by these groups during the past decade have made the gang
problem much worse.

Gang summit meetings, peace treaties and gang sports have only served
to legitimize and glamorize the criminal lifestyle. Contrary to
popular perception, gangs are not tightly-knit cohesive groups, but
loosely organized lost children.

Use L.A.'s faith community to offer free child care to every
low-income, unwed mother under 30 who is employed or going to school.

All it would require to provide this life-changing opportunity would
be for each of our 2,000-plus churches, mosques and temples to commit
their millions of members to opening facilities two days per week to
a maximum of six children each.

Get a commitment from Los Angeles Unified School District to require
mandatory drug testing for all extracurricular activities. There's
almost a 100 percent correlation between drug/alcohol abuse and gang
involvement.

Stop seeing graffiti as a minor crime, and start enforcing the law.
Any criminal activity that costs Angelenos $55 million a year,
spreads racist sentiments and incites deadly violence is done by
committed, arrogant criminals. When we start treating and punishing
them as such, gangs will lose their ability to freely publicize their
presence and activity.

Our goal should not be to reduce or manage our gang activity, but to
totally dissolve it. A radical commitment to gang prevention ideas
like these would do just that - rapidly - and thus transform our city
and our future.

Paul D. White is the co-founder of West Valley Leadership Academy in
Canoga Park.