A War There, a War Here

Brian Keith Butler Jr., a Navy petty officer, is mourned this Memorial Day as a casualty of war -- only the war was in Los Angeles, not Iraq. Home on leave from duty in the Persian Gulf, the 25-year-old sailor died last Monday after a gunman on foot opened fire outside a Southwest L.A. nightclub, then sped away in a waiting car.

Butler lived in Gardena, and police say that he and his friend since high school, Melvin Deonte Knowles of Lakewood, also 25 and also slain that night, probably didn’t realize they had strayed into gang territory. Secure “Green Zones,” if they exist at all in the neighborhoods that gangbangers have turned into war zones, aren’t marked.

Los Angeles had 211 homicides between Jan. 1 and May 24, the day that Butler and Knowles died. In a typical year, gang-related killings -- in which the shooter, the victim or both belong to gangs -- account for about half the citywide toll.

The young sailor was the third generation of his family to serve in the military. But in the street war at home, he and his friend, a single father of two boys, were civilian casualties.

So was Sean Gregory Murray, 20, who died April 28, three days after being struck in a random drive-by shooting a block from his South L.A. home. Until that awful day, his parents had steadfastly refused to let gangs chase them from their longtime neighborhood.

So was Erica Carpinteyro, 4, who died April 9, six days after being hit by a bullet fired at someone else. The little girl had been with family members in a parked car near 52nd Street and Avalon Boulevard, safely strapped in her seat.

So was Jesus Alejandro Hernandez, 19, who died March 12, two days after being struck by a stray bullet on the way home from his construction job. The shooting occurred a few blocks from the Boyle Heights home where his cousin, 10-year-old Stephanie Raigoza, was killed by a stray bullet from a drive-by shooting four years ago.

So was Evelio Suarez Jr., 61, an armored car guard killed March 1 in what police called a gang-related robbery behind a Bank of America branch in the 8700 block of South Western Avenue. He left a wife and 10 children.

So was Gregory Gabriel, 12, who died Feb. 15 in indiscriminate gunfire outside a South L.A. nightclub after he sneaked away from a sleep-over. It was the first time his parents had allowed him to spend the night with friends.

So far this year, these and far too many other lives have been lost as a result of skirmishes often fueled by little more than testosterone and readily available handguns. Getting guns out of the hands of the gangbangers will take a boost in the number of law enforcement officers in underpoliced Los Angeles.

Cops, however, are not the sole cure to this epidemic. Gang prevention and intervention programs, better schools, more jobs and help for parolees to fit back into communities without returning to crime are needed. As in Iraq, it will take a long-haul commitment to win the peace.