Despite its magnificent postcard image in California, the City of Angels (Los Angeles) has become a gangster area, and most of the stories look sad and similar, all about drugs, violence, guns, and imprisonment when told by those who want to break the cycle of murder and suicide in front of Father Gregorys, a churchman who has been working for nearly 30 years in difficult neighborhoods to help them.
With these sentences, the French newspaper Le Figaro summarized a report by Najat Shriqi, in which it tried to portray the dark side of the American city of Los Angeles through the stories of penitents who seek refuge in the office of Father Gregory from members of very violent gangs, after they make the decision to change their lives.
Gregory's office, called Homeboy Industries, is located in the business district (downtown Los Angeles) and operates under the slogan "Hope Has a Title," a word of welcome to those who pass through this "sanctuary of peace," where the churchman listens attentively to everyone who comes to talk to him, even though the place is not a church, and those who frequent it are not vocalists at religious ceremonies.
Los Angeles is California's largest city and is located in the southwest of the state on the Pacific coast of America (Shutterstock)
Candidates for salvation
In this place, no one is prosecuted, but sympathy, understanding and communication, especially since all those working in the field of rehabilitation are former gang members, and sometimes they have a very heavy criminal record, but their regret can also be guessed in their own way of welcoming new candidates for salvation, in caring for them, asking about their condition and working to help them.
This "Sanctuary of Peace" is a place to rebuild bodies and souls, where violence is forbidden and weapons are forbidden, it is a neutral zone, where members of rival gangs who must kill each other according to the rules of the street meet, speak and exchange greetings and respect, and speak freely about the cycle of violence and addiction, as well as about love and solidarity, the two pillars on which Father Gregoris relies in carrying out his work.
At the Gregoris Foundation, which he founded in the late eighties in the most dangerous neighborhoods of the city, everything is provided for free to open the door to a new life, where 4 lawyers and their teams work on legal aid, volunteer doctors take turns every day to remove tattoos that indicate gang membership, and the organization provides vocational training and jobs as well, and group therapy sessions for "unknown drugs and alcoholics" and "gangsters and unknown criminals."
For more than 30 years, this institution has been working in the vicinity of violence in which the city of Los Angeles is swimming, where many confused souls have been stranded, such as Gonzalo (47 years old), who spent nearly 24 years behind bars, and today he smiles happy, and does not want to return to the details of his past life, and feels that he has come a long way, as he says, "I narrowly escaped a life sentence," so I went out in 2016 and pushed the doors of this place, where there is a second chance, Knowing that some gang members grew up in hatred, brutality and settling scores, how can they imagine that a life other than the one they used to be possible is possible?
After they renounced crimes. Former Los Angeles gangsters seek peace (Reuters)
Dangerous spiral
This morning begins with sad news of the death of the young Diego, who practically grew up within the walls of the institution, and was shot and killed in what appears to be a settling of scores between rival gangs, yet Pablo – nicknamed Flaco" cleans the exterior windows of the building without mentioning the death of the young Diego, so that he does not have to remember the horrors he went through, as he is a father of 3 children.
He went through many periods in prison, and emerged unscathed from many shootings and attempted murders, and hesitated between the practices of the evil boy and the voice of reason, and follows Father Gregoris program during the day, but at night he returns to his neighborhood and his demons return to him, and he only smokes marijuana and drinks alcohol.
Pablo always seems nervous and ready, saying, "I have no choice but to be armed, I have to protect myself from the rival gangs that come to our territory to provoke us, we must defend our region," and although this war of influence may seem superficially childish, behind it is the issue of drug trafficking, pimping and death.
While gang activity changes over time, says Sergeant Ververa, head of the gangster unit at Southgate, who knows the names, spheres of influence and competence of gangs active in the field, violence remains constant, with guns circulating and police dealing with the phenomenon of what they call "ghost guns" that end up on the black market without a serial number and cannot be traced.
Bags containing unidentified bodies at Memorial Los Angeles cemetery (Reuters)
Daily mourning
In Home Industries, the indelible marks of violence on bodies are unmistakable: some limp, some spinning in a wheelchair, some mutilated, but life goes on, like Octavio, 28, whose skull was shattered by a bullet and is now struggling to regain speech and walking.
As for George and Laura, who only knew war, beatings, and the strict social rules and norms of gangs, and to whom this bloody legacy was passed on, they decided together that this vicious circle must stop today, and here is George (54 years old), after being released from prison in 2022, learning how to live again in a society that has been away from him for 34 years, and here is Laura deciding to change her life after being shot during a shooting.
Laura now works as a medical secretary and has started a tattoo removal operation: "I try to be there now for my children who have suffered from my mistakes. "My whole family was in the gang, I had 8 siblings; 6 of them died because of the violence. I also understood why I clung to this world for so long."