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Los Angeles Daily News Anti-gang effort pushes peace March, ball game designed for quiet holiday By Beth Barrett Staff Writer Thursday, December 02, 2004 - ENCINO -- Aiming for a peaceful holiday season, the San Fernando Valley Coalition on Gangs plans to hold its most extensive outreach ever on Saturday, with a march, softball tournament and information fair. "We'd like to broker a peaceful holiday," said Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Ronald W. Bergmann, the Valley's top commanding officer, who created the anti-gang coalition three years ago. "It's time to get the word out." The anti-gang summit kicks off at 9 a.m. at Woodley Park, followed by a peace march to Hjelte Park. There, teams from LAPD, the county Probation Department, and six teams made up of rival gang members and former gang members will play a softball tournament. "This is an opportunity to show the community we can get along in a sporting contest," Bergmann said. "The thrust is not that cops and gang (members) are friends by playing softball, but some understanding that we're all human. We want to reach the families." Central to the outreach effort will be informational booths about drug and anti-gang counseling, community outreach groups and the the Jeopardy Foundation -- which sponsors gang-intervention programs at middle and high schools. Free hot dogs and hamburgers will be served, paid for by corporate sponsors, local churches and others. With gang violence in Southern California accounting for at least half the region's homicides -- and about 40 percent of all homicides in the Valley -- the coalition has intensified its efforts to reach at-risk youths and their families. Citywide, gang-related homicides through October were up about 10 percent over the previous year. Gang-related homicides in the Valley are down about 15 percent from 2003. "This is the biggest thing the coalition has done," said William "Blinky" Rodriguez, executive director of Communities in Schools and a coalition member. "The time is right to do it. It took a lot to get to this point; it's major." The coalition, includes law enforcement officials, prosecutors, parole and probation officers, community-based organizations, and representatives from local churches and schools. It has produced a community resource guide listing gang intervention and other services. Multidisciplinary teams also have been expanded from a pilot in Foothill Division to all five Valley divisions, providing gang intervention programs for at-risk youth and their parents. The Rev. Gregory J. Boyle, executive director of Homeboy Industries in Boyle Heights, which has brought thousands of rival gang members together over the years and is sending a team to the tournament, said such events promote understanding. "Anything that calls to mind our common effort to live at peace and to remind us we belong to each other is good, and that is what undergirds these efforts. "Anything that can bring the issue of gang violence to people's attention and working toward an alternative to the despair that underlies gang violence and works to the common purpose of creating communities where families can raise their kids is all good." News Topics | Home | Research | History | Blood Gangs | Crip Gangs | People| Life in a Gang | Gallery | Iraqi Cards | Memorial | Migration | Graffiti | Resume| Injunctions Homicides | Maps | California Prisons | Contact

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