The California Wellness Foundation’s annual Conference on Violence Prevention took place on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, with the idea of policy-talking, idea exchanging and, of course, networking—with a bit of sideline gossip thrown in (human beings being….well…human).
There were people in town for the two day event from D.C. representing the various parts of the Department of Justice, specifically those who concern themselves with, not the law enforcement end, but the programatical side of addressing gang violence. Among those in attendance were Thomas Abt from the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), and Louis Tuthill from the National institute of Justice (NIJ)—which is basically the research arm of the DOJ.
Still the group was not without it’s smattering of law enforcement types; Special Agent John Torres from the ATF was there, along with a cluster from LA County probation and some deputy police chiefs.
Naturally there were folks from city governments, local and out of state. Among the LA contingent who came there was City Council member Tony Cardenas, and Guillermo Cespedes, LA’s Deputy Mayor who heads up the city’s gang violence prevention and intervention programs.
PLUS there were academic experts like my friend Jorja Leap from UCLA’s School of Public Affairs, Angela Wolf from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, Barry Krisberg from Berkeley’s Center of Criminal Justice—and so on and so on.
But outnumbering the policy wonks and research minds, were the heads of organizations doing ground level work in the world of violence prevention, most of them working with the gang issue in some way or another—people like Dawn Brown from Girls & Gangs, Aquil Basheer, who was one of this year’s Peace Prize recipients, Blinky Rodriguez and Bobby Arias from Communities in Schools. Skipp Townsend from 2nd Call, Carol Biondi who is involved with Camp David Gonzales (among other places)….and many more.
Even Alex Sanchez, from Homies Unidos, was there on Tuesday night, when he seemed to be constantly surrounded with clusters of well-wishers, most of whom had not seen him since before his arrest on RICO charges in June 2009.
If there was one theme to the panels, side meetings and spontaneous ad-hoc discussions that took place during the nearly two-days of the event it was a single question: what really works when it comes to solving the problem of gang violence?
By the time the conference ended—as might be expected—, the answer was still very much up for grabs.
Speaking personally, however, I came away with an armful of new stories, great new contacts and informants, and many new shards of inspiration—all of which will be informing posts here in the weeks and months to come.
Too bad Tony Rafael wasn’t there. What’s a meeting of gang experts without him? He could have brought his Avenues gang flow chart, and given a hard core power point presentation demonstrating how the Mexican Mafia now has carnals collecting taxes on the moon and Mars. Then he could have accused the other laughing panelists of having their head in the sand.
You’re an expert Rob, where were you?
It’s a shame Script wasn’t in attendance, Script could have educated the masses with his Power Point presentaion detailing how cops and prison guards are the cause of gangs.
Script has flow charts, graphs and statistical data which cleary shows how law enforcement is the major cause of gangs. He know gangs only exist to keep law enforcement employed !!!!
Oh, calm down, guys. I kid. Tony Rafael is a renowned expert on gangs in LA, and did open a lot of eyes as to what the Avenues were doing to innocent African American citizens, when a lot of mainstream papers were avoiding the story due to political correctness. I just like to mess with him and his loyal followers because they take themselves so seriously. And, they can certainly give the heat, too. Ask Tom Hayden or Father Boyle. lol.
from splcenter.com:
“Whenever Tony Rafael leaves home, he carries a .45-caliber handgun nestled in a holster just below his armpit. A Cold Steel Recon-1 knife is stashed elsewhere on his person. Concealed weapons permits are hard to come by in Los Angeles County, but Rafael is a special case.
For the past five years, the respected writer and gang expert — who uses only the name he writes under in public because of his dangerous work — has been researching one of the deadliest gangs in America for a nonfiction book he’s writing on the Mexican Mafia, or “La Eme” (the Spanish word for the letter ‘M’), tentatively titled Southern Soldiers. His sources are of the “L.A. Confidential” variety: prison inmates, gang members past and present, homicide detectives, FBI agents and their informants. He has volunteered for the Los Angeles Police Department, conducting long-term surveillance outside gang hangouts, and has dug up the cases of hundreds of gang members from the county court system to document the bloody swath they’ve cut across Los Angeles.”
Now there’s an expert! I want to see that knife he carries on him. Perhaps a demonstration on stage, throwing that thing into a wall. He sounds like the Steve Irwin of L.A.. gangs!
“shhhhhhh. If Payaso sees us up here, he’s certain to shoot us. We have to whisper. One shot from his .22 could give us serious problems, mate”.