Gang Czar Not Needed
I was glad to listen to the newly appointed “gang czar” in Los Angeles say that he thinks the term “czar” is inappropriate. Afterall, this isn’t Russia.
Gang violence is a problem. But we need to be honest. Not all the violence that is on our streets and in some of our homes, isn’t gang related. We need to realize that violence means child abuse, domestic violence, child molestation, bullying at schools, tormenting those who are different, sexual assault, elder abuse…and it doesn’t happen in one community, or in one race, it is happening in our society.
And so when we point to a magical cure of appointing a “gang czar” — who by the way stood at the scene of a murder of a young man and shook his head — we are fooling ourselves and in some ways trying to make ourselves feel better.
But the problem of violence in our society is systemic and it needs to be treated like any illness — aggressively and systematically.
I was cleaning out my home office and found some campaign material I wrote when I first ran for public office in 1988 — for Long Beach City Council 5th District. I talked about the need then for cities in the surrounding area to work together on public safety issues. Not much has changed since then.
Every city in the area around Long Beach is being faced with violence of all types — not just “gang violence.” So why do we continue having our own turf areas for public safety?
We need a regional approach to the problem of violence and unless we do — the balloon gets pushed on one end (the City of LA cracks down) but the pressure gets placed on another area (the City of Long Beach).
