Thread: Teen arrested for killing anti-gang counselor

Teen arrested in killing of LA anti-gang counselor

Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) - When Ronald "Loony" Barron urged a young graffiti tagger to put away his paint cans, he was doing what he viewed as his mission - steering kids away from crime - but he paid for it with his life.

Los Angeles police arrested a 16-year-old boy on Tuesday, saying he would be charged with murder for shooting Barron to death Sunday night after Barron confronted him.

A 40-year-old former member of the notorious Crips gang, Barron in more recent years had become a respected anti-gang counselor who had preached against violence in schools and jails.

"He was all about helping children like the little kid who shot him," Barron's younger brother Anthony Blanks said. "He was out there helping children from making the same mistakes he made."

Police Cmdr. Andrew Smith said detectives started working on the case shortly after Barron died of multiple gunshot wounds at a hospital. They soon found a surveillance videotape from a business near the scene of the shooting that showed a tagger at work.

Smith said they then turned to the Los Angeles Unified School District's police department, adding that "they know taggers better than anyone."

Two officers immediately identified the suspect, who was picked up by detectives at his parent's house. He quickly gave up himself and the gun, Smith said. The arrest was made within 36 hours.

Stunned by the senselessness of the crime, detectives were determined to track down the alleged killer, he said.

"It breaks all of our hearts where something like this happens in our community," Smith said. "It's a tragic incident."

Police and city officials were quick to note that the shooting was a random, isolated incident to avoid rumors that may result in retaliatory violence. The Mayor's Office on Gang Reduction and Youth Development hastily called a meeting of gang intervention workers late Monday so they could get the word out that the killing was not gang-related or racially motivated.

An emotional vigil was held Monday night at the scene of the shooting outside a bar where Barron had been watching the Super Bowl with his girlfriend.

Those who knew him said Barron's charisma and the sincerity of his stance against violence, as well as his street cred as a former member of the Mansfield Crips and a former inmate of Pelican Bay State Prison, made him an especially effective gang intervention worker.

"He had a tremendous personality," said Jim Brown, the former NFL player who founded Amer-I-Can, the anti-gang program that Barron carried out in schools and jails. "The kids loved him. He made a difference in saving young people's lives."

Alex Alonso, founder of streetgangs.com who knew Barron since they were teenagers in west Los Angeles, said he was suprised that Barron would be killed in an incident of street violence after surviving life as a hardened Mansfield Crip in the 1980s.

But Alonso noted that intervention work is always dangerous. "Whenever you're confronting young people, you're taking a risk - they're quick to use weapons," he said.

Barron is survived by two children, a 22-year-old son about to graduate college, and a daughter, 10.

Tommy "T-Top" Rivers, a fellow gang interventionist at Amer-I-Can, said his colleague's killing underscored the need to continue his mission.

"We got to stopthe senseless killing," Rivers said emphatically. "We got to change the mindset."

Barron's killing is the latest in which taggers have fatally shot passersby who confronted them about graffiti writing over the past three years.
http://www.kjct8.com/Global/story.asp?S=11957857

L.A. chooses group to run anti-gang academy
Mayor Villaraigosa announces the development of a city-sponsored school to train and license intervention workers.
January 08, 2010 Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced Thursday the creation of a city anti-gang academy to train and license intervention workers.

The crucial component of L.A.'s anti-gang strategy was delayed for months because of conflicting visions for the school. The academy will be run by the Advancement Project, a legal advocacy, civil rights and public policy group, and funded in its inaugural year with $200,000 in federal grants.


The city-sponsored academy will train all anti-gang workers involved with Villaraigosa's Office of Gang Reduction and Youth Development, which oversees $20 million in annual intervention and prevention contracts.

Anti-gang intervention workers, many of whom are former gang members, respond during gang shootings and other conflicts to prevent retaliation shootings and contain conflicts before they escalate into full-fledged gang wars.

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said gang prevention and intervention programs, combined with police enforcement, are an essential part of the city's success in driving down violent crime to levels not seen in decades. L.A. has an estimated 40,000 gang members and has been blamed for spreading gangs and gang violence throughout the nation.

"We have exported the problem for decades. Now it's time we exported the solution," Beck said Thursday during a news conference.

Villaraigosa said the academy would be the first of its kind in the nation. Students will be subjected to extensive background checks and screening to prevent active gang members from entering the program, he said. But given the sway of street gangs, there is "no guarantee" that a few intervention workers won't fall back into the gang life, Villaraigosa said.

But the mayor said he is committed to both the city's anti-gang strategy and the academy, because "it works." The city is still considering sites for the academy, which is set to open in March.

The program will begin with a "Basic 101" course for entry-level interventionists, followed by a series of advanced, 20-hour courses. One, for instance, would teach students how to proceed in a hospital after a shooting.

The city's original plan was to combine components of two existing intervention programs, one run by the Advancement Project, the other, the Professional Community Intervention Training Institute. That effort disintegrated, however, because of philosophical differences.

The Advancement Project focused mostly on a theoretical and historical understanding of gangs, and students were trained to make a quiet impact by developing relationships in the community and avoiding violent situations.

The other school focused more on immediate situations, such as how to remove someone from an angry crowd and how to respond when a gunman is on the loose. The city ultimately put the contract up for bid and selected the Advancement Project to run the academy.
I already told you this was going to happen.........