Every since my jury duty service last June, I’ve been thinking a lot about gangs in Los Angeles. Prevention. Intervention. Detention. Suppression. I’ve read some interesting articles in the last few weeks that have spurned my thinking.

This one from LA Weekly focused on the city’s council’s $100 million gang prevention/intervention program - LA Bridges. They mostly focus on some of the major failings & shortcomings of the program - some serious needs that need to be addressed.

There was an interesting response to that article in a later LA Weekly (read here). One thing I hadn’t thought about regarding gangs was this:

“Psychologists and professionals will tell you these days that the gang lifestyle is a learned antisocial behavior that our youth can quickly become obsessed with, especially when family and community members all too often turn a blind eye to it. This “behavior,” which has a whole different set of morals, can also in many ways parallel the disease concept of many popular addictions, such as alcohol, drugs and gambling.”

I had no idea about the parallels with chemical or behavioral addictions.

Then the LA Times has published several recent articles on gang-activity & law enforcement in Los Angles, including this one that cites a recent report calling for a new gang czar to coordinate a comprehensive plan to battle the gang issues in LA. “After a quarter century of a multibillion-dollar war on gangs, there are six times as many gangs and at least double the number of gang members in the region,” the report states. And this one that talk about the challenges facing that plan.

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