Gang Wars - the BIG turf fight's among our elected officials
- Chick vs. Cardenas -

by Bill Murray

There's a terrible gang war going on these days in Los Angeles. But we're not talking about what's happening on the street. The BIG battle's for turf of a different kind .. for control of LAs official anti-gang efforts .. and it's being waged at City Hall.

Elected politicians and local activists are lining up behind two gangs .. I mean camps .. one led by Laura Chick, the City Controller, who's charged with auditing LA's spending, and the other by Councilman Tony Cardenas, who Chairs a committee with anti-gang measure oversight.

The openning salvo in the fighting began when Chick presented an audit we posted in mid February, here on LACP:

Laura Chick Audits LA's Anti-Gang Efforts

Each side has a case to make, and both Chick and Cardenas wrote articles in the LA Daily News in early April, explaining their positions.

We've provided these articles below.

While we don't wish to take sides at LACP, we do want to say this: the fighting at City Hall must stop before we can get a handle on what to do in the streets.

LA's notorious gang culture is a primary reason people fear our city, sending Hollywood tourists, conventions, new business and potential employment opportunities elsewhere. These are disappointments Los Angeles can scarcely hope to survive.

The in-fighting has to cease. Its time to share the turf.

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Chick on city's gang policy

THE one thing that we can all agree upon is that there is a gang-violence epidemic that is ripping apart families and neighborhoods in Los Angeles. We are indeed standing at a crossroads of opportunity, where we can radically stem this crisis of violence on our streets. The most pressing question before us is: Do we, as the city's elected leadership, finally have the courage to act decisively and boldly on this issue?

On Feb. 14, I released my blueprint to end gang violence, which proposed specific, needed steps and actions. This blueprint is a departure from the way that government has traditionally operated and advocates for refocusing, redesigning and reinventing Los Angeles' anti-gang efforts.

There are many worthwhile and successful gang programs doing heroic work in our communities. However, these successes are working in isolation across the city. What is broken is the city's overarching system to coordinate and deliver these programs.

My report makes it clear that fixing the city's dysfunctional system will require no additional taxpayer dollars. But it will require the courage and political will of our elected leaders to fundamentally change the status quo.

My report proposes the creation of a City Anti-Gang Office, which would operate directly under the mayor. This would be a centralized, empowered entity that has the oversight and responsibility of our many anti-gang efforts.

It is not only a question of reorganizing resources into the Mayor's Office, it is also about making key changes in how services are delivered. Many of the dollars now spent on prevention are not targeting the youths most at risk.

In addition, as LAPD Chief William Bratton and L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca said at my report's release, we cannot arrest and imprison our way out of the gang epidemic. Dollars and services must be redirected to effective prevention, and especially to intervention and re-entry programs to reach youths already involved in gangs or the criminal-justice system.

The city has traditionally overseen various gang programs by monitoring their compliance with contract requirements. Instead, we need to move to an outcome-based model where specific performance measures are tracked and evaluated.

For decades we have not been asking and answering the right questions: "How are we doing in achieving the goal of eliminating gang violence? How can we do it better?" The only way to accurately answer those questions is to write measurable goals into the solicitation for services at the front end and then evaluate performance regularly.

Unfortunately, gang violence does not observe the city's geographical boundaries; so while it is essential that the city get its own house in order immediately, it must also turn simultaneously to form effective regional partnerships. It is so logical and clear that one very key partnership must be directly with our school district. How can we as a city guarantee all of our children can safely walk home from school if we are not joined at the hip with the school district?

While my report has received widespread and enthusiastic support, there are those in City Hall that have focused on how it can't be done, not how it can be done. One of the misperceptions floated by these naysayers is that I would not be able to audit the Anti-Gang Office because it is housed in the Mayor's Office and not a department. This issue has been publicly addressed by the mayor, the city attorney and myself, all assuring that audits will be conducted on a regular basis.

One thing is for certain, as we witness more and more tragic gang killings, this blueprint cannot get bogged down in a political quagmire. The time for studies, committees and political gamesmanship is over. The time for action and results, is now.

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Cardenas on city's gang policy