It was indeed a horrible tragedy. A carload of five make a wrong turn down a dead-end street and as they slow to turn around, they are attacked by 20 or so gang members from the infamous “Avenues.” On a white wall in the alley are scrawled the words “Avenidos…Assecinos,” intended to warn any trespassers of the danger that lies ahead.
It was too dark to see the tagging, and before they knew it, gunfire began and the rest is history. One child, a 3-year-old girl, was shot in the head and killed. Her younger brother was shot in the foot. He, fortunately, is recovering.
Reactions were loud and clear when the story aired on the news. “How disgusting. An innocent child is killed by more reckless gang members. The poor family was just trying to get back from a family barbecue.” For some it may have evoked strong feelings of anger and disgust, but for others it may have seemed like just another gang-related killing in downtown Los Angeles.
It was exactly that—just another killing. Regardless of the emotionally provoked reactions of disgust and outrage, the family was traveling through the worst neighborhood in the northeast section of downtown Los Angeles. In this rough territory, people fear for their lives every second, and know that danger could always be right around the corner.
If you live in the neighborhoods around Glassell and Cypress Parks, you know how things are. In gang territory, life is cheap. Few dare to take a stand because if one person in the community is murdered, it goes down in the record books as just another killing. It is simply added to the lengthy list that sits in the police chief’s desk.
How many people are killed each week on Isabel Street and the surrounding streets? Each day? Each year? Definitely more than we learn about in the newspaper or on the 5 o’clock news. So, why was the killing of Stephanie Kuhen important enough to make headlines? The answer is simple. A white family gets lost in unfamiliar, Hispanic gang territory and a Caucasian child is killed by Mexican gang members.
It does not make headlines when an Hispanic man is driving a little too fast down the same alley and gang members firebomb his car. Nor does it when an Hispanic mother and her 14-year-old son are walking down the street and the stray bullet from a drive-by shooting strikes the boy dead. They were innocent victims just like Stephanie, but they did not earn the same publicity she did.
This is what is disgusting, not simply the fact that a toddler was killed. A victim is a victim regardless of race, color or class. The man in his care was not asking for trouble. He was not a rival gang member or a threat to the “Avenues.” He did not draw a gun and shoot first. The lady and her son were just walking down the street.
Everybody knows that gang members do not value human life, otherwise they would not belong to a gang in the first place. A life is just a life to them. Their goal is usually to hit the one that gets in the way, and sometimes these people are innocent victims.
If this is how a gang member views human life, why do we, as a society, seem to think that a Caucasian life is more valuable than an Hispanic life? It appears as if gang members are less biased than society.
The newscasts had this killing as the top story on newscasts for four days after the event. It brags of gaining nationwide attention from President Clinton, angry members of the Cypress community and the police force.
Maybe this should give me a warm fuzzy—the nation’s leadership uniting for a common cause. An adorable blue-eyed, blonde-hair toddler sparks gang awareness. But it is too little, too late. The nation should have taken notice 10 years ago when gang membership skyrocketed and teenagers turned into murderers.
