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Gang specialist's message to Yakima crowd: 'Hopeful kids don't join gangs'

Yakima Herald-Republic - 10/8/2017

Oct. 08--YAKIMA, Wash. -- Local educators, city leaders and pastors were invited to a forum Saturday featuring the Rev. Gregory J. Boyle, the founder of Homeboy Industries, a gang intervention and rehabilitation program founded in Los Angeles.

Speaking to a rapt audience that included Yakima's mayor and city manager as well as officers from the Yakima Police Department and interested residents, Boyle shared his view that gangs are much more an issue of community health than of crime. He said the solution to decreasing the problem lies in the hands of community members who need to dismantle barriers and create a landscape that fosters a sense of belonging.

Without kinship, Boyle said, there's no peace, no justice and no equality.

Leah Kronenberg, 29, who came from Olympia for Saturday's forum, said she has friends in prison who are in gangs, so it's a topic she pays attention to. Kronenberg agreed with the views in Boyle's presentation.

Like Boyle, Kronenberg believes cities spend too much money on suppression, which has been proven ineffective in addressing the issue. Kronenberg said funds would be better spent on other programs and that cities need to adopt ideologies similar to Boyle's and model programs off his LA-based organization.

Boyle said outsider perspectives on gang membership are all wrong, especially the idea that youths join out of a need to belong to something.

"Hopeful kids don't join gangs," said Boyle, who added that members aren't seeking something when joining so much as they are running from something else.

Boyle outlined the three profiles of those who are likely to join: despondent youths, traumatized youths or those suffering from mental illness. He stressed the idea that understanding the dynamics involved in joiner affiliation is imperative, saying cities need to cease trying to stop the violence because such behavior is too much like calming the cough of a lung cancer patient. It doesn't actually fix the problem when violence is a language. Instead of talking to gang members, it's important to listen to them, Boyle said.

Whether the ideas and Homeboy Industries model are something Yakima could be looking at for its future remains to be seen. But Mayor Kathy Coffee and City Manager Cliff Moore were definitely listening.

"It was a really inspiring message," Moore said after the program's question-and-answer session ended.

Coffey nodded in agreement.

"It opens up a lot of avenues of discussion," the mayor said.

The possibilities and Boyle's way of looking at gangs were especially profound, and they came on the heels of a recent visit from the governor, who addressed similar topics.

"He definitely gave us some new language and new ideas," Moore smiled as he walked away from Boyle's speech.

Desk phone: (509) 759-7853

moliver@yakimaherald.com

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