This past week, Q-line asked: What needs to be included in the community’s plan to end gang violence?
Here are your responses: ✆ “Everyone blames everyone else about gangsters and thugs except where the blame should be directed — the parents. Where are these parents? Why do they point the finger at the police or cry about racism when maybe they ought to take a look at how they are raising their children? Values instilled in children begin at home. Stop whining and take responsibility for yourself.” ✆ “Gang violence and crime will disappear when the Pico neighborhood is bulldozed.” ✆ “All the proposals put forth at the workshop are admirable. But let’s not forget the criminal element and drug pushers intermingled with the so-called homeless population in this city that contributes in large measure to the problem.” ✆ “Killing due to gang violence pales when compared to the unnecessary deaths annually in the United States and internationally due to the residual effects of smoking tobacco and alcohol consumption. Gang violence has to do with macho, and the fact that no person has a kicking license. If a person is kicked there is a very good chance that the person being kicked will kick back sooner or later. Very few people have a forgiving nature. In gang lore it is known as “vendetta.” Violence has gone on since the beginning of time when Cain first slew his brother Abel. Violence will continue until the end of time, perhaps this is the reason that all of the self-defense studios are jam-packed with those people who are learning how to kick back.” ✆ “The solution to Pico neighborhood violence is simple: Eliminate the gangsters. We need a zero tolerance policy which results in the eviction of gang members and their families. Those who would promote diversity are also the first to prevent private property owners or the city from policing their own buildings.” ✆ “Some of the gang members are so rotten they should be dragged out in the streets, put in jail, and kept there forever. They’re not fit to be in society. As for a lot of the kids that don’t have jobs, we need more jobs in this country, the city, and the whole state for that matter. We could start by stopping outsourcing labor. As far as the kids are concerned, there has to be some sort of activity that can keep them occupied, but something that doesn’t seem too goofy or lame, because kids don’t want to hang out with the uncool nerds, and the dorks, and the goofy kids. They want something fun. If there’s a bunch of adults involved in it, it won’t seem fun. That’s why they want gangs because gangs seem cool. We have to find something that’s cool, but legal.” ✆ “Regarding the gangs, none of them have any respect for the law, or for their parents, or for anyone for that matter, and they should just take away their guns, their cars, and put them to work, chaingangs or whatever. They’re just totally out of hand and they need somebody to shape them up. They need some discipline in their lives. That’s all they need.” ✆ “Number one: End all this socialist talk that ‘it takes a village.’ It takes discipline and personal responsibility. Two: All City Council members, school board, Pico community leaders, need to participate in a 60-hour police department ride-along. Three: Virginia Park needs a Marine Corps recruitment center. The Marines are the best people in the world to promote discipline, self-reliance and unity of purpose, and they have good educational opportunities. Four: You need some kind of tax credit for private businesses to hire disadvantaged youth. Five: Retired or off duty police officers need to staff more workshops, promote a more positive feeling. Six: The high school needs to promote American government and civics classes in the hope of educating students of the supreme sacrifices thousands of Americans made so that we can participate in a democratic society. Seven: Some kind of inter-faith seminar, to help the neighborhood understand why some people have a harder time in life — there’s a reason. And eight: This will probably happen. The city and the school district will throw money at the problem, but accomplish nothing, but everyone will feel good about themselves.” ✆ “Yes, I have a son that goes to Santa Monica High School. He’s 14 going on 15 and I think it’s very important to have a discussion about gang violence, because it affects my son and the greater community. So I think it’s very important that we have a roots discussion about the source of gang violence. So let’s get everything on the table and let’s be discreet and about faith, OK?” ✆ “How about spaying and neutering welfare-mother baby factories? I realize this is a long-term solution and very politically incorrect, so forget about it.” ✆ “I was reading in the paper about all these mothers and community leaders discussing the violence in the Pico neighborhood, and I couldn’t believe that nobody is putting the responsibility on the parents themselves. It is their responsibility to raise their children so they don’t become the gang members and they should value life. Parents have lost total control over their own children. I don’t know how it happened, but it’s the truth. Nobody has any control over our teenagers anymore. It’s not the school’s responsibility, it’s not the police’s responsibility, but it’s the parents’ responsibility.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 5, 2005. Read the original PDF.