Crime & Safety

Gang Intervention Program Calls for More Support

A co-founder of V2K HELPER Foundation, based in Venice, says tensions are high and his group needs financial backing from the community to help prevent gang violence.

In the wake of a and another injured, the co-founder of a local gang intervention program says it needs more support from the Venice community.

Stan Muhammad's V2K HELPER Foundation (formerly Venice2000) is a 12-year-old nonprofit organization in Venice and West L.A. that provides gang intervention and prevention services. Its name is an acronym for Help Establish Learning, Peace, Economics and Righteousness.

"We can continue to sweep things under the rug, but it's time to hold people accountable. It's time for people to come out and pay attention to what is going on in their backyards, so we can avoid what happened 20 years ago," Muhammad said.

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The shooting last week raised concerns among many residents that another gang war was imminent.

During the summer of 1994, at least 17 people, many of whom had no ties to gangs, were killed when a gang war broke out. The violence was centered in the Oakwood section of Venice, where black and Latino gangs reportedly fought for control over drug traffic.

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"We're dealing with some deep-rooted hatred here," Muhammad said. "Honestly, the residue is not going to go away. They can try to arrest their way out of this problem, they can try to gentrify, but the residue will never go away."

The LAPD's Pacific Division Capt. Jon Peters echoed Muhammad's statement. "We know it takes more than enforcement. It takes prevention, education and intervention, and they are trying to fill that gap."

Peters said he reaches out to HELPER regularly. He called co-founder Melvyn Hayward on the way to the shooting scene last week so the organization could begin outreach that might prevent retaliatory violence.

"One act of violence leads to another act of violence," Peters said.  "Collectively, we want to intervene."

Last summer, Peters said, the LAPD asked the foundation to help with outreach on the boardwalk, especially during weekends and holidays, when thousands of people swarm Venice's beachfront daily. HELPER staffers did on-site intervention and prevention by reaching out to gang members in order to keep the boardwalk safer.

"They played a pivotal role in helping us reduce the violence on the boardwalk," Peters said.

Peters said he would like to see the foundation take a more proactive role in preventing violence, as it did last summer. "That's where I would like to see the whole intervention piece move in the future," he said.

"A lot of their work happens after the crime has occurred," Peters said. "What if there was something we could have done to prevent two young kids from getting murdered?"

Prevention, though, takes funding. Last summer, the foundation's work on Ocean Front Walk was funded largely by Councilman Bill Rosendahl's office, but the city budget is tighter this year.

"Whatever support we can give them, they are getting," said Rosendahl, who has raised money privately for the group. "But these are tough times for the city's pocketbook. There are not the funds we had three or four years ago."

Rosendahl is working with the group to do outreach on the boardwalk again this summer.

This all occurs at a time when Venice's profile is changing. In the spring, the city —where HELPER has offices—would no longer be managed by the Community Development Department. Venice no longer qualifies for the funding that was being used to run the center because the majority of its population earns more than the low  to moderate income required for assistance. 

"You have influential people in Venice. You have a lot of money in Venice," Muhammad said. "I know they give to charities every year. What would it take for these local folks to give to a charity to try to solve a problem that is older than I am?"

"We have trained people, but we can't continue to ask these people to be volunteers," he said.

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