By Doug Dowie
Correspondent
Sometimes the answer to your most vexing problem is sitting right in front you.
There is no question that L.A. has been plagued by gang violence for decades. And the debate over how to deal with the question has lasted just as long.
Tough enforcement
is obviously part of the solution. Some experts believe "intervention" -- getting gang members to quit the life, or at least convincing them not to shoot each other -- will also reduce the violence, which, tragically, often claims innocent lives. Sometimes kids playing in their living rooms. Sometimes babies. Sometimes people just waiting for a bus.
Most recently, the debate in L.A. was marred by a fight over who in City Hall would control the millions of dollars to actually prevent kids from joining gangs. No bystanders on Spring Street were killed, but it got pretty nasty
.
Soon the fight will begin -- again -- over which of the myriad of gang prevention programs will get their piece of the pie. Evaluating their effectiveness is always an issue, especially when some of the programs are run by, or employ, former gang members. It gets dicier when it's revealed that some aren't really "former."
But like I said, sometimes a big part of the solution is sitting there looking at you.
Last fall, LA's BEST announced the results of a landmark study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Justice and conducted by UCLA's National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing.
The results show that students in LA's BEST are 30 percent less likely to commit juvenile crime than their peers. Using conservative estimates, the study also found that for every dollar invested in the LA's BEST program, the city saves $2.50 in costs associated with crime.
Ron Kaye