EDITORIAL L.A. UNITED.

LOS Angeles' exploding gang problem has produced an unprecedented agreement between two camps that don't traditionally see eye to eye - the Los Angeles Police Department and the civil-rights establishment.

Connie Rice, one of the city's pre-eminent civil-rights attorneys, has given conditional support to new police Chief William Bratton's get-tough approach to street hoodlums, saying, ``This makes sense for a certain segment of gangster culture. It doesn't make a lot (of sense) for a majority of gangbangers.''

By that, she means that for the majority of gangsters who aren't hard core or committing serious crimes, but who are trapped in a dangerous lifestyle, the answer isn't tough law enforcement, it's more opportunities and alternatives. But for those who are hard core, the law should come down like a ton of bricks.

For his part, Bratton is saying largely the same thing. ``The Los Angeles Police Department cannot do this alone,'' he insists. ``It's going to take the entire city to focus on this problem, this plague that is afflicting us.''

In other words, he'll do all in his power to thwart, deter and apprehend the mayhem-makers without violating anyone's civil rights, but in the end, police can only react to a severe cultural problem, they can't cure it.

Different words and a different emphasis, but all in all, Bratton's vision is largely in line with Rice's.

That's because the message from both is one rooted less in ideology than in common sense. It takes both a carrot and a stick to combat gangs: A carrot to lure wayward youths away from criminality, and a stick to smack down the incorrigibly lawless.

Too often in the past, the civil-rights establishment and the police were unable to see the need for both the hard and soft approaches. Professional police protesters carried on as though cops posed a greater threat to public safety than criminals, and the LAPD top brass acted as though it could solve the city's problems on its own.

With that tired debate behind us, it's time to move on.

Bratton seems to have a handle on what the LAPD must do. Now the rest of the city - political leaders (who have for too long stood on the sidelines), churches, families, community groups, businesses, schools and everyone else - must do their part to quash an urban subculture that glorifies criminality and offers too few alternatives to the disadvantaged.

The war on gangs is on, and if it's to be won, we all must be willing to do our part.