Last weekend, I attended my church’s annual fund-raising carnival with the typical electric rides, games and food booths. However, this year it had a new addition—a metal detector.
Carnival-goers were required to walk through this device before entering the premises. Metal detectors were the avenue this community chose to protect itself from gang violence.
Los Angeles city schools have implemented random weapon checks and strict dress codes to identify and stop violence on campus. North Hills High School has invested in an air raid system to alert the campus when there is a shooting in the neighborhood.
These are measures some communities have taken to deal with gang violence, a social ill the rest of society did not care to recognize until recently. But it may be time for society to take its blinders off and seek out a long-term solution. This would be easier if we could figure out why gangs exist.
Most people were outraged when news came of the killing of 3-year-old Stephanie Kuhen, who was shot Sept. 17 in Cypress Park. All of a sudden gang violence was a problem that needed to be extinguished.
Besides a rapid police investigation and search for suspects, this occurrence also sparked other actions with hopes of ridding society of gang violence.
The media invested air time and space for detailed coverage of police developments and Kuhen’s funeral services.
California Gov. Pete Wilson traveled to Los Angeles on Wednesday to sign a bill expanding the death penalty to include drive-by shooters.
It took Kuhen’s death for people to realize that gang violence is not a neighborhood conflict, but a form of social destruction.
This child’s life had to be sacrificed for the rest of society to open its eyes to a problem communities have been dealing with for years.
Kuhen was not the first victim of gang violence; many have fallen to this social ill. Before, the rest of the society thought they were immune to the effect of gangs. A great wall was built around gang-infested communities that contained them into specific confines.
Kuhen’s death caused this barrier to collapse and made society open its eyes to the problem. Gang violence hit home.
So now that there is a consensus that gang violence is really a problem, what is society going to do? Round up all possible drive-by shooters and suffocate them in the gas chamber? Perhaps metal detectors should be installed at all possible entrances. Others express that school uniforms might be the answer.
Yet, what people fail to realize is that these measures only scratch the surface of the problem. Of course, these actions will put a dent in the problem, but is does not get to the root of it.
Time needs to be invested in researching why people join gangs. Society is quick to ridicule and express fury against gangsters, but does not care to take action to get to the root of the problem.
Some members look to the gang as a source for protection from other gangs, while others view it as a haven from a dysfunctional home or are in need of a feeling of belonging.
Granted, these are not excuses for the violence and destruction caused by gangs. But society should take recourse to find out why people join gangs and give them new avenues to deal with the conflicts in their life. Such actions might cause gang violence to diminish.
Some gang members might choose to turn their lives around and share their success stories with others. A domino effect of change might be too hopeful to expect, but metal detectors and dress codes are yet to be proven successful.
If ignorance keeps prevailing, people will have no choice but to get used to emptying their pockets and taking off their belts before making any entrance.
