L.A.'s senseless violence

Charlene Lovett clutched an enlarged photograph of her daughter as she prayed with friends and relatives on a recent sunny day in Los Angeles.

The photo, which shows Cheryl Green’s infectious, bright smile in full form, is all Lovett has left to remember her daughter’s beautiful face — that and 14 years worth of memories.

Green, 14, was gunned down recently in Los Angeles, the victim of a racially motivated attack as she sat on her scooter talking to friends. Green was black.

The bright-eyed eighth grader loved junk food and watching Court TV with her mother, according to a story printed in Wednesday’s New York Times, and all she wanted to do on the day she died was hang out with her schoolmates.

Problem is, the neighborhood where Green lived is a war zone.

It’s not Baghdad, but it might as well be. There’s even a “do not cross” line drawn in this neighborhood known as Harbor
Gateway. In recent months, tension has grown so severe that blacks and Latinos formed a dividing line on 206th street with the understanding that neither side crosses.

Green didn’t cross the line that day, but she came close enough to lose her life.

What a tragedy.

How could this happen on the streets of America? And more importantly, who is to blame?

For one thing, the 204th Street gang, which is Latino, had harassed blacks and Latinos alike and effectively kept the two groups divided, according to the New York Times.

If this is true, why isn’t someone stopping this gang from terrorizing the streets of Harbor Gateway? If everyone knew this was going on, why didn’t the police do something to stop it?

Also, certain stores in this neighborhood were apparently “off limits” to blacks because the Latino gang had deemed them as such.

On the other side of the line, blacks had apparently been responsible for killing a Latino gang member before tensions rose between the two groups, and Latinos stepped up violence against blacks as retaliation. This according to an unnamed source for the New York Times.

Regardless, the city must crack down on these problems now. How many years have we heard about gang violence in Los Angeles? And now it seems to be getting worse. L.A.’s mayor, Antonio R. Villaraigosa, along with police officials, is promising to talk to the FBI about the violence with hopes of curbing it substantially. But will there be results?

Probably not.

Our country is facing many obstacles right now, but rising crime rates in major U.S. cities should definitely be at the top of the list of things to change. And as gang violence continues to increase, our politicians are assuring us that they are working hard to keep America’s cities safe.

I would love to see Villaraigosa explain to Green’s mother about winning the war against crime. L.A. is losing this war, and so is the rest of America. It’s just sad that innocent lives have to be lost in the crossfire.

*Editor's note: Picture credit goes to the New York Times.