Fresh start for gang members

By Carrie Porche Jones, On-Line Forty-Niner

Wednesday, September 30, 1998

The most distinguishing mark that separates gangs of the 1990s from earlier gangs is despair, said Father Gregory Boyle Thursday to a Chicano studies leadership class in the University Student Union. "Young men and women [who are in gangs] have a hard time imagining a future for themselves. Without hope, you don't care if you inflict harm or get out of harm's way. These kids have no hope," he said.

Boyle said his parish, Dolores Mission, is the poorest Catholic church in Los Angeles. Located in the middle of Aliso Village in East Los Angeles, the largest public housing project west of the Mississippi, the 16-square-mile area is home to 60 gangs with 10,000 members.

His office is a storefront in Boyle Heights where he runs Jobs For The Future, an organization that helps young men and women released from detention facilities, probation camps and prisons who want to start fresh. In 1992, Boyle created Homeboy Industries and Homeboy Bakery.

"Contrary to common belief, gang members do want jobs," Boyle said. "They want to be engaged in professional activities. If one kid from the neighborhood is hired, I'll get 99 calls from kids asking why there are no jobs for them."

Boyle choked back tears as he told the story of Chico, a young man who called him about a job. Chico wanted to work with computers. Boyle went to the homeless shelter, which had a bank of new computers, and told them about Chico and asked them to work with him. The shelter agreed and Boyle paid him a weekly salary.

"I told him that he had two bosses - me and the center - and I'd fire him if he was hanging, banging and slanging," Boyle said. "He started on Monday. The week went by and I did not hear a word from him. I began to think the worst. Then I received a fax from Chico. He wrote: "I am learning to use the fax. Love the job. Thanks.'"

Boyle said that weeks later he received a call from Chico's mother. She said Chico was standing on a corner and was shot seven times in the back in a drive-by shooting. He was paralyzed and had sustained brain damage. Chico died in the hospital.

"Of all the children you bury, in the moment that you are burying one, all the children that you previously had to bury come rushing back to you. I buried my 63rd and 64th child on the same day in August," he said.

Boyle said children come to him asking to make sure he fulfills their burial wishes of being dressed in certain clothes and that their favorite music is played at the funeral.

Pregnancy, Boyle said, is important to these young men. The "homies" have no vision of living past 18 years of age and want to see their children before they die.

"They want to have a child before they die. Where does a 15- year-old child get off thinking she won't live to be 20? Boyle asked. "'Homies' are always happy when their ladies are pregnant. If you think you won't live to be 18, you want to see junior now."

One must recognize the human element in gangs, he said. If one does not recognize that human beings are involved when talking about gangs, one will continue to pay the price in money and death.

"It will be abundantly clear what we will have to do. We'll have to build more prisons and we'll have to try juveniles as adults, lowering the ages," Boyle said. "We'll have three strikes laws, two strikes, one strike and half-strike laws, and then we'll extend the death penalty to include jaywalking."

Gangs are a symptom of the larger problems in the community, he said. The real problems are poverty that is more intense than ever, families unable to function because of economic problems, despair, racism, boredom and the disparity between the haves and have-nots.