L.A. Gang Epidemic

Your article “L.A. Outrage Makes Little Impact on Gang Epidemic” (Part I, Jan. 30) stated what we have all thought, that most gang activity originates in underprivileged neighborhoods where children lack other options. While there is truth in that statement, there is a frightening new development occurring in more stable and affluent communities.

My quiet middle-class neighborhood of $350,000-plus homes is under siege from a rampaging new gang. Police report that one of its members, a neighbor boy who is a clean-cut straight-A student, is seriously implicated. His parents refuse to believe his involvement.

Graffiti, the first task of aspiring gang members, has struck our streets and homes like a cancer, angering and depressing residents who fear for personal safety and depreciation of property values. Boys seen painting the gang logo swagger through the neighborhood at odd hours, obviously cutting school. We have organized to paint out the defacing scrawls, but they come back again and again.

Block clubs like ours, parental responsibility and citizen involvement are essential, prevention programs a must, but they are not enough to halt the proliferation of gang territorial markings. Neither is the mayor’s “Adopt-A-Wall” and “Operation Clean Sweep,” whose coordinators have told me that the problem is out of control. The Department of Transportation is overwhelmed with the cost of maintaining vital street signs.

Let’s take a first step to reclaiming the streets. We outnumber the gangs. Let’s start with graffiti, the first gang statement of street ownership. I propose a “labor draft” or “chain gang,” if you will, of juvenile offenders now languishing in crowded jails. Send them out shackled and under supervision to systematically paint out this sinister and growing horror of ugliness. Enforce sentencing on graffiti offenders and build up the work corps. Recruit the homeless and pay them a decent wage. As your companion article on urban blight and block clubs states (Metro, Jan. 30): If a community tolerates graffiti, it is a clear signal to the gangs that we’ll take their next assault.

MAGGIE SMITH

Los Angeles