Can Venice Stop the Violence?

The Oakwood area of Venice is trapped in a new cycle of drive-by shootings that has killed five and wounded many more since June. A gang war four years ago took 17 lives and wounded 54. Police say the current confrontations involve a Latino gang being targeted by another Latino gang in a struggle over drug turf or individual vendettas. Councilwoman Ruth Galanter is seeking a court injunction to restrict the activities of named gang members on public streets. JANE SPILLER spoke with residents about how to stop the violence.

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SYLVIA DIAZ

42, elementary school aide

They killed a guy right in front of my building with assault weapons. I was washing dishes and I heard the gunshots. I told my kids, go on the floor. They say the guy died from 20 shots in his back.

I think police have to use the same kinds of weapons these guys are using: big machine guns with 25 or 50 rounds.

We really need to teach the parents first--how to talk to their kids, how to be there for them. We could do it through the schools. A lot of them are single parents; I’m a single parent and I have a 19-year-old kid who goes to college who has lived in Oakwood since he was 9.

I watched him. I knew what time he would be coming home from school and I would meet him. I was always checking who his friends were. I have three other kids, younger, who are doing OK. I don’t let them go outside and I always take them places.

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DAVID NETTLES

44, unemployed

A gang injunction? No. People born and raised here shouldn’t go to jail for talking to a schoolmate or something.

There’s too much shooting going on down here to be blocking the streets. How are you going to catch the getaway car? Police would just find themselves blocked off. People down here on foot know every crack and corner. They can get out and run through the yards and jump over the blockade.

Sports are important. My dad was strict with me and my brother. Now they got it so you can’t whop your kids. I [do] anyway; get a whopping and you don’t want to get a whopping again. My boy isn’t in any gangs. You got to catch these kids before they get a dope sack in their hand and get used to that fast money. They got to get used to getting $5 an hour instead of $50 for 30 minutes.

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PHIL RAIDER

49, remodeling contractor

Everybody’s being shot on 6th Avenue. You want to stop that? Close off 6th Avenue--pure, plain and simple. I won’t have to see more dead people on the street in my neighborhood.

Almost a year ago to the day, the Oakwood Property Owners Assn. proposed a neighborhood stabilization plan which would have--if it had even been looked at--altered traffic patterns. It would have blocked off some streets. It would have “one-wayed” some streets with cul-de-sacs on some others.

The violence in Oakwood is from outsiders who come into Oakwood to buy their drugs; keep outsiders from coming into Oakwood to shoot at our residents, we’ll have a peaceful community.

If you want to put an end to the violence you need to end the drive-through capabilities of this neighborhood.

This is not a reinvention of the wheel, this is a defensible neighborhood strategy that has been implemented in several cities around the country.

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STEVE CLARE

Director, Venice Community Housing Corp.

The injunction isn’t going to solve the problem. People in the community really have to put pressure on these guys to stop. These guys have brothers and sisters, parents and neighbors.

These guys are so marginalized and alienated. Most of them are high school dropouts. They don’t have job opportunities. There’s not much of an alternative to street life. Until we create an opportunity for these young people to go in a constructive direction, it’s going to continue to be a problem.