Bernard Parks, Maxine Waters, LAPD and others Address Youth in a Panel Discussion in South Los Angeles

January 18, 2003

Rita Walters Center

The Youth Opportunities Unlimited and CBO Collaboratives hosted a panel discussion on the topics of youth incarceration, gangs, and crime in the community at the Rita Walters learning Complex in South Los Angeles. Jimmy McGhee, one of the project directors, along with Charline Nunez hosted the panel discussion that included Congresswomen Maxine Waters, LAPD Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell, Bill Maritnez of the Gang Violence Bridging Project at California State University of Los Angeles, Mark-Antonio Brant of The Children’s Collective, Dr. Frederick Banks, former Chief Deputy Probation Officer, Bernard Parks, former LAPD Chief of Police, and Maria Perez from Councilwoman Jan Perry’s office.

McGhee introduced the forum to state that the purpose is to “to talk about the senseless crime going on in the community.” He said that the problem is not a police problem but a community and youth problem and that we must look within ourselves to get a solution to the current crisis. He also stated that the youth should have more influence in the solution process.

A young man from the Youth Justice Center started off the discussion by asking the panel “how can we stop the state of California from being the state that incarcerates the most youth?” Immediately Maxine Waters took the podium to respond to that question. She applauded the youth for trying to create a dialogue with the police and continued by stating, “we have problems in our city and neighborhoods and they have not been dealt with in ways that we can help young people reach their potential and they are not dealt with in a ways that we can help the police department with the problems in our community.” Waters is familiar with gangs having worked with former gang members in the community. She continued to state that “We are in 83 Gangster Crip neighborhood and where ever you go you are going to be in somebody’s hood. That needs to be understood and dealt with. We have gang problems but I am of this opinion, just because you belong to a gang does not mean you are bad.” For years academic researchers including anthropologists, sociologist, criminologist and geographers such as my self have been debating just this point; Are gangs in and of themselves intrinsically violent? Most of the inquiries, based on ethnographic qualitative research and quantitative sociological work suggest that there is a core group within the gang that are habitual felons, but the majority of membership are those that are involved in lesser nuisance offenses. Most gang members loiter, socialize, and pass the time in a series of legal activities, and then repeat these activities daily.

The audience applauded the notion of belonging to the gang as not being bad, but Waters continued to state that, “gangs should be thought of as community associations, but it is unacceptable to be in a gang and commit crimes as gang members because you create problems for yourself, the community, your family, and the police. You also ruin opportunities to grow, develop and earn a living. Some of what we do, we bring it upon ourselves, but I am not letting the police off the hook. Daryl Gates and I went at it for years, because the police have power and at times have abused that power. We have to say that everyone has to take some personal responsibility. I don’t like laws that bar association because people are going to rebel and they [those laws] do not work. We don’t want police officers grabbing people off the street and locking them up because you suspect something. This new police chief [Bratton] has an opportunity to straighten out the problems of Gates. There is no easy answer but we can continue talking about this as we are doing today to reduce the incarceration.”

Alex Sanchez of Homies Unidos addresses his concerns to the LAPD and the youth present at the forum.

Waters told Streetgangs.com that she believed that gang violence has increased because of retaliations and recent inmate releases but she also admitted that no ones really knows why the sudden increase. She was asked about the role of LA’s Black leadership, and her view, was that Black leadership is responsible in how they fight for resources for the community. Her district had a bad year in terms of homicides, and although the 77th Division of the LAPD had the most homicides in Los Angeles, a police division that is located in the 35th congressional district of Waters, she defended her district as having a decent record including many other communities where crime was not a major issue.

Alex Sanchez, of Homies Unidos talked about his experiences with gangs and how he wants to work with LAPD on this problem. He criticized how politicians are getting tough on crime and he felt that gangs will not be fixed by incarceration. “It is an addiction that should be treated like a disease,” Sanchez stated. He suggested that a gang program in the form of Alcoholics Anonymous where gang members can talk about their problems would be more effective. The gangs should be able to discuss their issues with the police without fear and with mutual respect. Laws like three-strikes and proposition 21 have no effect on the community. “We come from poor parents working double shifts” Sanchez added, “and these issues are not addressed.” Sanchez concluded that “it did not take from night to morning to join a gang, it was a process and it is a process to leave that violence behind.”

Bernard Parks tells Alex Alonso why he was not given a second 5 year appointment as LAPD Chief.

Bernard Parks articulated that the answer to most of our problems is prevention, education and self-accountability, which can determine one’s future. There is better success at prevention rather than rehabilitation. “There is no government program that will give you the 10 ways to solve the poverty problem”, Parks emphasized. “The poverty problem will be solved by people working hard, diligently and returning wealth to the community. We will not solve the education dilemma by a government program either.” That will be solved by kids staying in school, getting educated, and the youth behind them doing the same thing. The greatest crime prevention is getting young people involved, getting an education and spending time in facilities such as this. His message was a moderate balance between conservative non-government views and liberal community and neighborhood participation perspectives.

LAPD Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell wants to improve community relations with the police.

Officer McDonnell addressed many of the issues that were discussed by the youth and previous panelist. He understood the frustration from the community but he explained that the police have frustrations too. He stated that drugs, poverty, single parents, and the other problems are the precursors for youth to get involved in gang activity. Gangs eventually fill in the void when the families cannot. “The role of police is to keep the peace and the police can not do it all,” McDonnell stated. The root causes are the true problems not the police. “We attempt to target the criminals and those that are terrorizing the community and because we don’t have great ties with the community, at times, we stop people that may not be guilty.” We would like to have a better relationship to know what is happening, but we use gang files to assist in investigations. If the community provided us with more information, we would not need databases. McDonnell continued that, “We [LAPD] have some programs, but it is going to take more to work on this problem.”

There were some interruptions from the audience when McDonnell was speaking, but he continued to state that, “I agree with Alex Sanchez incarceration and handcuffs will not solve the problem. That just addresses the symptom, and that it should be handled as a disease. Officers come off insensitive and uncaring sometimes because they are frustrated too, and they have several calls of violence to get to everyday. As Parks stated, education and self accountability is one answer and the police alone can not solve these issues, but the community must be active.” McDonnell committed that he will work with the community and will be honest about the issues.

Bill Martinez, from California State Los Angeles discussed the gang database and found that it was flawed in its application and maintenance. “It is supposed to be an information source only, but it is used in sentencing in gang enhancement cases,” Martinez explained. He explained that the LAPD and LASD add names to the database maintained by the Department of Justice. Names only come off if you stay clean for 5 years, but no one is notified when they go on the list or if one comes off. Martinez explained that the LAPD could do more with keeping the databases accurate and current. He also said that “the 5 years clean is hard, considering the vague stop and frisk procedures that could lead to an unrational law enforcement contact that would increase time spent on the database.” He warned youth not to sign field information cards during LAPD stops because it could lead to unnecessary problems in the future.

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