De la Torre calls on city to appoint a ‘gang czar’
CITY HALL — Amidst a series of gang-related shootings, city officials have issued a report that details steps taken since two workshops staged in the spring geared towards reducing gang violence in Santa Monica.
The city of Santa Monica released a report last Thursday which outlines the accomplishments of community groups who organized during workshops in February and April to help address community problems related to gang violence. Meanwhile, a recent spate of gang-related murders in Santa Monica has prompted some community leaders to suggest more effort is required.
City officials said the report was especially timely considering a number of shootings which occurred during August and September, leaving at least two people dead. One was Jesse Becerra, 24, a Santa Monica resident who was walking westbound on 21st Street toward La Brea Avenue at 12:45 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 24, when a man ran up to him and shot him multiple times in the back of the head with a.22 caliber handgun. According to Los Angeles police, who are investigating the case, Becerra was a member of the Santa Monica 13 gang.
Over the weekend, Michael Leon Gatewood, 25, was fatally shot near the Santa Monica Pier. Police said Gatewood belonged to the Los Angeles-based gang Playboy Gangsta Crips. Two suspects have been detained for the shooting, but investigators haven’t yet determined if the incident was gang-related.
The first workshop, held Feb. 26, was sponsored by the city of Santa Monica and State Sen. Sheila Kuehl. The goal was to pool ideas from community members, leaders and experts geared towards reducing gang violence in Santa Monica.
A second session was originally scheduled in March, but postponed until April 9 due to the murders of Hector Bonilla, 25, and Jonathan Hernandez, 19, both of whom were shot multiple times on March 5 at a birthday party held at the Moose Lodge at 16th Street and Ocean Park Boulevard.
After working on the case for more than four months, Santa Monica Police detectives identified three suspects believed to be 18th Street gang members from Los Angeles. One of the suspects, Jose Mojarro, 21, is being prosecuted by the District Attorney’s Office and is set for a preliminary hearing Oct. 26, after which a judge will determine if the evidence merits a jury trial.
The city of Santa Monica has been coordinating the work between groups involved in the gang workshops and promised to report on their progress in September.
The first focus area, “Bring It Home,” addressed family needs for services, resources and education. According to City Hall’s report, success in this area includes a change in focus for Santa Monica’s grant cycle to consider the needs of youth. There will also be an expansion of programming that will be helpful for struggling families at the newly renovated Virginia Avenue Park. A new community day school, which opened this fall at Memorial Park, is intended to help expelled youth return to an educational environment and pursue productive goals.
A “community dialogue” was held on Sept. 25 in which a panel discussed “What is a just society in Santa Monica?” The event, sponsored by the Human Relations Council, was intended to help encourage cross-cultural experiences.
The second focus area, “Make It Work,” addressed needs to provide a source of income and pride for struggling youth through jobs, training and mentoring. According to City Hall’s report, success includes a May 25 job fair organized by the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce.
Stacey Serber, an employment specialist with the Work Source Center, a nonprofit organization which helped organize the job fair, said 380 job-seekers attended, along with 33 employers offering more than 125 jobs. The jobs available included work in the fields of auto repair, computers, health, retail and the entertainment industry.
Serber said the goal was to help youth between the ages of 18 and 24 secure 50 jobs offered by 20 different employers. Serber said, based on the turnout, both goals were exceeded.
Another “Make It Work” strategy was to involve 100 at-risk in mentoring programs, a task also taken on by the chamber. So far, Big Brothers and Big Sisters have expressed an interest in providing services at Virginia Avenue Park two to three times per week.
In addition to the job fair and mentoring program, there have been a series of skill development sessions to help local youth. In June, the California Development Department spearheaded a discussion at the Pico Youth & Family Center.
The third focus area, “Keep It Safe,” addressed needs expressed by some community members for better communication with local law enforcement and a beautification of neighborhoods to assuage public safety concerns. As part of this effort, the Santa Monica Police Department continues to embrace a philosophy of neighborhood-centered policing, in which citizens participate in the public safety process by informing law enforcement of suspicious activity.
Also, the SMPD has transitioned from an agency that was less than one quarter minority in 1991 to nearly half non- Caucasian as of September.
Representatives from the SMDP also emphasized the value of the Police Activities League to provide alternatives to a violent life for struggling youth. PAL, located at Memorial Park, provides a variety of educational and recreational activities for youngsters which help keep them on a path to a productive life.
Lt. Frank Fabrega said organizations in Santa Monica such as PAL, the Big Brothers and Big Sisters and the Pico Youth & Family Center all play a pivotal role in shaping young lives.
“If you give the youth an opportunity to learn, work or get involved, they’re not going to have time to be mischievous,” Fabrega said. “I think great efforts are being made citywide to create these kinds of opportunities for at-risk youth.
“The city is very proactive.” Fabrega said PAL, which has been in operation for several years, currently has at least 10 mentors who have gone on to college and returned to Santa Monica on a volunteer basis, helping youngsters as they were once helped. Calling the process a “cycle of mentoring,” Fabrega said it’s the key to organizations which touch the lives of youngsters and help fight the influence of gangs.
“It’s the kind of work that’s from the heart,” Fabrega said. “They figure, ‘somebody put their hand out for me, and now it’s my turn to give a helping hand.’”
Fabrega said the efforts underway in Santa Monica were in many ways exceptional, considering how little gang violence occurs in the city compared to other areas in the region.
“If you look at the global picture, we probably have one percent of the incidents as other portions of L.A. County,” Fabrega said. “When you look at what some of those areas have over a weekend in terms of violent crime, it would equate to maybe four or five years of similar activity in Santa Monica.”
Indeed, nearby communities seem to have their own gang woes. Bill Rosendahl, newly-elected councilman for West Los Angeles, including Venice, has made the gang issue a top priority in his term.
Brodie Seagrave, Rosendahl’s gang field deputy, has worked with community organizations to host a gang summit in September, during which job opportunities started to be addressed, he said.
The summit follows six gang-related homicides that have occurred in the Venice area since January.
Seagrave anticipates future summits will be successful. However, much of that success may rest on being able to provide gang members a viable alternative to criminal life.
“What we’re looking to do is ensure we have a gang intervention specialist working with the Culver City Boys, Shoreline Crips, V3 and the 8th Street Gang,” Seagrave said. “But what we really need to do is also come up with money for employment for the post-intervention world.”
The next Venice gang summit will be held at 10 a.m. on Oct. 11 at the Vera Davis Center in Venice.
Oscar de la Torre, a local school board member and director of the Pico Youth & Family Center, said Santa Monica is taking positive steps to address gang violence. However, he feels much of the gang violence stems from other communities where it may not be as adequately addressed.
As a result, de la Torre said a more regional approach may be needed to address gang violence.
“How can we solve the gang problem when they’re not even kids from Santa Monica who are necessarily causing the violence?” de la Torre said. “Kids are born in to this and we need to approach it from a regional level.”
De la Torre suggested City Hall consider hiring a “gang czar” to help address the regional gang problem, such as the proposal currently being undertaken to address homelessness in Santa Monica.
De la Torre said some Los Angeles communities would also have more success combating gangs if there were more social service groups in place to help them.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 4, 2005. Read the original PDF.