Gang expert has met thousands of gang members. None of them monsters, he says.

Sept. 04--The Rev. Gregory Boyle has buried far too many young people killed through gang violence. He's had guns pulled on him by gang members and testified at dozens of their death penalty trials.

But the founder of Los-Angeles-based Homeboy Industries -- the largest gang intervention, rehabilitation and re-entry organization in the world -- says he feels nothing but love and awe for the people who find themselves entangled in gang life.

He wants to challenge people in the metro area to get to the same place when he visits the Twin Cities this week.

"The goal of any talk I give is to hopefully lead an audience to stand in awe at what folks have to carry rather than stand in judgment of how they carry it," Boyle said in a recent phone interview. "The more people can move toward a deeper abiding sense that we belong to each other, the more the demonizing stops. There are not monsters anywhere. ... There are traumatized people, mentally ill people, despondent people."

INVITED BY RAMSEY COUNTY ATTORNEY

Intrigued by his message, Ramsey County Attorney John Choi invited Boyle to share it with his 300-plus staff when they gather for their annual meeting Wednesday. Boyle is also slated to address the public at a free event Tuesday night at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law's auditorium.

Choi said he makes a point of presenting new ideas or different perspectives that he thinks would be valuable for his staff to consider.

Past speakers have touched on the importance of self-care, the ramifications of growing up in poverty, men's role in ending gender-based violence, and recovering from mistakes, Choi said. Lyle Prouse, the Northwest Airlines pilot convicted of flying a jet airliner drunk, is among those to have addressed his staff.

Choi said he was compelled to reach out to Boyle, who is also an author, after listening to him talk elsewhere.

"I was just really captivated by his ability to tell his story and ... (convey his) message, which is that even when you don't think you see somebody who is good or is on the right track, there is good there," Choi said. "Obviously, we are in the business of enforcing the law and we have to do right by the law and hold people accountable, but in that context we should also recognize the humanity of everyone involved, not just the victim, but also the person who has been accused or convicted of a crime."

When people in the criminal justice system recognize the "human dignity" of those accused or convicted of crimes, they have a much better chance of being rehabilitated, which not only helps them but also the general public because it increases public safety, Choi said.

Rehabilitation is key, Choi continued, because most offenders eventually get released from prison.

"We can get so focused on the evil thing that might have occurred, but if we don't also get serious about talking about rehabilitation, and we can't ever get serious about that if we don't understand the concept of human dignity, then we are not going to be much better off in the long run," he said.

NO SUCH THING AS 'MONSTERS'

Boyle has worked with thousands of gang members since founding his organization 30 years ago -- Homeboy Industries serves about 15,000 men and women a year -- and says he has yet to meet an "animal" or a "monster," he said.

Labeling people as good or bad, he continued, is the "least sophisticated take on crime" there is, and does little to reduce or prevent it.

Rather then "bad actors," people who join gangs tend to be either "despondent kids ... who for a myriad of reasons can't imagine tomorrow," traumatized kids who "can't see a way to transform (their) pain so (they) keep transmitting it, or mentally ill kids, Boyle said.

Sometimes, a gang member is struggling with all three.

Homeboy Industries' 18-month program offers an array of services that help employ, train and educate former gang members while also delivering them mental health and other services, he said.

The aim is to "infuse hope to kids for whom hope is foreign," he said.

Communities who do it best are the ones that involve a broad spectrum of industries, individuals and community resources, as opposed to those that are "narrow in scope" and emit the attitude that they want to "handle their own problems," Boyle said.

"You want all hands on deck, where everyone is doing their part," he said.

He added that while he'll be making a special stop to talk to Ramsey County prosecutors while he's in town, the burden doesn't fall on their shoulders.

"Prosecutors have to do their jobs, for sure, but it's not their job to solve gang violence. It's our job," he said of the broader society. "So the hope is that we will all dedicate ourselves to have a more sophisticated take on crime itself. We will all be better off if we are more compassionate about these things."

LOCAL GANGS HAVE CHANGED

St. Paul police officials say the landscape of local gangs has changed over the past decade.

The groups are less geographically based than they used to be, for one thing, and more fluid.

Where in the past there were four or five well-defined groups, today there are more like 15 to 20, the official said, and their makeup changes over time.

Younger teens are also reportedly getting involved; some as young as 15.

There is also less organization to the groups today, the official added, and their focus tends to be more on status and guns than dealing drugs.

That can sometimes erupt into more violence, the official noted.

The local scene is "nothing to the extent" of the gang activity in Los Angeles, Choi said.

"We don't have gangs in the state of Minnesota that have this massive criminal enterprise," he said. "They might be involved in dealing drugs, maybe some lure people into trafficking ... maybe they're looking to go to Target to steal Tide.

"I really refer to them as groups of young people who have gone astray," he said.

While the police official said he wasn't aware of any specific gang-intervention programs in place locally, he said police officers who become aware of young people wanting out of a gang work to connect them with people and services that help them finish school, find jobs and get tattoos removed.

Homeboy Industries started as a job program for former gang members when it first opened back in the 1980s but has since evolved, Boyle said.

While "nothing stops a bullet like a job," his organization has recognized over time the value of helping former gang members get mental health services and address their past traumas, Boyle added.

"It's all about that healing, because that is our guarantee at this point," Boyle said. "An employed or an educated gang member may or may not re-offend, but our guarantee is that a healed gang member will never go back to prison."

IF YOU GO

The public is invited to attend Boyle's free talk, which will take place from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday in the auditorium at Mitchell Hamline School of Law.

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