GANG WATCH : The Enemy Within

Cesar Gardea, a 19-year-old Army private, survived the frightening and deadly combat on the front lines in the Persian Gulf War. He did not, however, survive the frightening and deadly urban combat in the gang wars that plague this region. He was killed in a drive-by shooting on his first night back from the other war.

Gardea had no gang affiliation. Like thousands of innocent victims who are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, Gardea died because some thug took target practice out the window of a moving car. This time, the killing took place in Baldwin Park. But the bullets and grief know no boundaries.

Gardea’s 17-year-old cousin, Pablo Paez, also was murdered in the Monday night shooting. Authorities speculate that Paez, who graduated from high school last week, was targeted because he wore the uniform of gang members, like many youngsters who adopt that style of dress as a form of protection in gang neighborhoods or because it is considered fashionable; but officials said Paez was not affiliated with a gang.

When Pvt. Gardea was a tank driver on the front lines, he wrote to his girlfriend that he feared for his life and hoped to live through combat. He made it while stationed in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Why didn’t he make it on his first night back in Baldwin Park, where he had lived during his high school years? What a sad and damning fact--that one of America’s finest was safer in a foreign land fighting a known foe than he was here at home, against faceless, home-grown terrorists.