When you don’t how to fix a problem, throw more money at it
on January 15th, 2007 at 12:46 pm(LA Times) “Los Angeles faces a crisis of gang violence that will continue to spread into previously safe neighborhoods unless the city adopts a Marshall Plan-like initiative to provide young people with jobs and other alternatives in gang-plagued communities, a city-financed study warned Friday.
The report by the Advancement Project called for a significantly greater investment  up to $1 billion during the first 18 months, according to project director Connie Rice  in a comprehensive mix of programs that include gang intervention and prevention and economic development.
Much of that money already may be in the city budget for such programs but not as part of a focused, comprehensive strategy, said Rice, a civil rights attorney.
The report also called for creation of a department of neighborhood safety to be headed by a “high-powered, politically skilled” gang czar to recast and run the city’s scattered 23 anti-gang programs that cost $82 million annually.
“After a quarter century of a multibillion-dollar war on gangs, there are six times as many gangs and at least double the number of gang members in the region,” the report states.” (more…)
A local radio talk show host did the quick math on this “new plan” and said that this would be the equivalent of offering each gang member roughly $620 to leave the gang life.
Think about that for a moment.
Sphere: Related Content
