THE FALL OF LOS ANGELES RISE IN GANG VIOLENCE SPELLS CITY'S DECLINE.

Byline: RANDY JURADO ERTLL

Local View

SOME neighborhoods in Los Angeles have been confronting mini-civil wars between rival gangs for decades. Before, the violence was mainly limited to "Latino on Latino" and "African-American on African-American" gang-related homicides. Most L.A. residents seemed not to really care since the problem mainly affected poor, minority communities.

Now, the violence is increasing, and it's flowing into middle-class neighborhoods. These communities are suddenly concerned, and rightfully so.

So will elected officials at last take this issue more seriously? We can only hope so.

The problem of gang violence takes its roots long ago in dysfunctional school districts, abusive police departments and politicians who pretended that everything was under control while doing nothing to offer real gang-prevention efforts. For decades, even though many young African-American and Latino youth died because of gang violence, many people purposely chose to ignore the problem.

I witnessed violence since the late 1970s and 1980s in South Central Los Angeles. I grew up there, and I wondered why so little was done to prevent violence and the proliferation of gangs. I remember the mothers who lost their children to gang violence. I remember my classmates who chose that route, and ultimately ended up dead or in prison for life.

Since the 1980s, the Los Angeles Unified School District and the City Council have ignored and neglected racial tensions between African-American and Latino students. I recall how in my junior high school during the mid-1980s, Cinco de Mayo was celebrated as "Mexican Day," which meant that some African-American students would purposely run throughout the school beating up the Latino students.

But the school district did nothing to deal with these issues, and now, almost three decades later, racial tensions have erupted throughout Los Angeles, and everyone is surprised. The crisis has become the cause of the moment, even though gang violence should have been seriously addressed decades ago.

Still, it is not too late to fix this problem.

To begin, we must admit that this issue of violence is related to high poverty rates, which create more desperation, hopelessness and the blame game. And to solve this crisis, a comprehensive approach must be implemented immediately.

Recently, the Advancement Project recommended that approximately $1 billion should be invested (during the first 18 months) in implementing prevention, intervention, and job-creation programs to help reduce gang activity. This is definitely a step in the right direction.

The next step is for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to create an advisory committee of highly knowledgeable and passionate individuals who can provide some practical, solid solutions to resolve and reduce gang violence. Connie Rice, Father Greg Boyle, Antonia Hernandez, Najee Ali, Blinky Rodriguez, Ray Cortines, Earl Ofari Hutchinson and other people of action must come together and offer effective public-policy and real-life practical solutions. Appointing a single "gang czar" will not resolve the problem.

City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo and other high-ranking Los Angeles officials have clearly said that they will by no means negotiate with gang members. But this is shortsighted. We need to talk to gang members, not to "negotiate," but to draw on their experiences to help find real solutions to the gang problem.

Yet whatever actions the city takes will amount to little unless the education system plays a major part, too.

Public-school districts must do a better job of teaching children the differences and similarities that exist among all ethnic and nonethnic groups. Most schools still choose to ignore teaching children in-depth about African-American and Latino history, culture, and political struggles. This type of multicultural education must be implemented from kindergarten through 12th grade.

Dropout rates must be reduced. Students need to be taught to believe in their potential, and that they can in fact attend a community college or university.

Amazingly, some teachers and counselors continue to believe and act as though poor minority and immigrant children cannot succeed academically. This type of thinking is unacceptable, and our new LAUSD superintendent must hold his employees accountable. The district's goal must be to make sure that African-American and Latino youth enroll in institutions of higher learning, not the prison system.

But we can't expect government and schools alone to resolve the gang issue.

Teaching racial tolerance is a job that begins in the home. And parents, as well as community organizations, must do more to address racial tensions and help to develop programs that will prevent young kids from joining gangs.

More corporations, churches, law-enforcement officials, nonprofit groups, college students and community members in general must also become more involved by tutoring or mentoring young minority children who live in areas that have high rates of gang activity.

Volunteering a few hours per week can make a real difference in the life of a child, and the health of our city. Actions speak louder than words. If we really care about this problem, the least each of us can do is become a tutor or volunteer at our local public schools.

This is not an urban, black or brown thing. Either we will rise up together as a city, or we will repeat history -- the fall of Rome.