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Pasadena: Take action against gangs

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  • Pasadena: Take action against gangs

    Take action against gangs

    Pasadena Star-News, CA
    May 12 2004

    EXCEPT for state Sen. Nell Soto, the silence out of Sacramento is
    deafening. Why have area legislators remained mum on the problem of
    gang violence in their districts?

    Perhaps they believe they can do nothing. But shouldn't they at least
    try something, anything, to prevent the kind of senseless violence that
    took the life of California Highway Patrol officer Thomas Steiner and
    effectively ended hopes for a life outside of prison for his alleged
    killer, 16-year-old Valentino Mitchell Arenas?

    The teen allegedly shot Steiner as he exited the Pomona Superior Court,
    perhaps as a ticket into Pomona's oldest and most violent crime family,
    the 12th Street Gang.

    Only Soto has reached out to Pomona Mayor Eddie Cortez who hopes to
    form a gang task force. A community forum Tuesday in Pomona explored
    the problem.

    Intervention is badly needed. As chronicled Monday by Staff Writer
    Sara Carter, Arenas was born in the heart of 12th Street territory;
    family members were part of the gang and did time behind bars.

    It's time state lawmakers, especially Latino legislators who could
    stand as role models, take a long hard look at such gang activity
    and say "enough' because gangs aren't just a Pomona problem.

    If communities don't work toward solutions, gangs will continue to
    prey upon one another and the wider population. A generation of young
    people are being rubbed out by each other.

    Here's the sad, tough truth. Only Latinos can end the internecine
    Latino gang killings by standing against gangs.

    Only Asians can stop the assaults and home-invasion robberies that see
    Asian gangs preying on their own people, setting up extortion rackets,
    prostitution rings and trafficking in human slaves. Who will say
    "stop'?

    We must get at the root of gang culture that sees generation after
    generation follow the gang lifestyle. For Arenas, belonging to the 12th
    Street Gang was part of his environment. That sad cycle must be broken.

    It will take involvement from those leaders in the community who have
    either been there and managed to claw their way out of gangs or those
    who found a way to resist joining.

    Schools too must look for underlying gang involvement in interracial
    violence on campus. Azusa found most of the so- called hate crimes in
    their city sprang from a local Latino gang striking out at African
    Americans. March 5, fighting erupted between Armenian and African-
    American students at Pasadena's Marshall Fundamental High School.
    Armenian gangs are the newest ethnic crime component.

    Racism, ethnic hatred. Communities must actively work to end these
    old hatreds. Peer mediation at Marshall and other schools have helped.

    But a multipronged, concerted effort is needed, beginning with
    all-important adult role models who have been silent far too long.

    Now is the time for Soto and fellow Sens. Martha Escutia and Gloria
    Romero along with Assembly members Rudy Bermudez, Ron Calderon,
    Ed Chavez, Judy Chu and Carol Liu as well as community leaders to
    speak out against gangs and map strategies to end their influence
    on young people. We agree with Soto: "We need more than thought. We
    need action.'
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