Putting Families First

When Los Angeles Police Officer Antonio Azpetia is trying to teach families in violent neighborhoods west of downtown how to resist the lifestyle of street gangs, he offers a simple mantra:

“Ignorance is the seed of gangs.”

Azpetia, the founder of the Jeopardy program for at-risk youth in the LAPD’s Rampart Division, enrolls children only if their parents will commit an hour a week for a full year to learn about subjects as detailed as the cultural origins of gang attire and the stages of child development.

The children, between the ages of 8 and 18, also undergo tutoring and counseling, but the family is the focus of Azpetia’s unorthodox approach.

Born 47 years ago in East Los Angeles gang territory, Azpetia has signed up about 80 families since the Rampart Division introduced its Jeopardy program last year. He has fashioned the program on his more than 20 years as an LAPD gang specialist and his experiences raising his own four children.

All 18 LAPD divisions operate Jeopardy programs, but few need it as badly as the Ramparts Division. A high proportion of its residents are juggling single parenting with low-paying jobs and worrying about the influence of hard-core gang members and crack dealers on their children.

“Education, education, education,” Azpetia says. “That’s the key.”

He holds up some of the visual aids he uses in the parent classes, which are broken down into four units: gangs, parenting, morality and ethics, and assimilation into the American system.

One drawing shows the baggy pants of gang members, cut off at a 45-degree angle at the hem with slits up the side. The angled hem is a military style and the slits are a tradition from Puebla, Mexico, he said. There are 8-by-10 photographs of crack, marijuana and other drugs. Detailed diagrams outline the degrees of gang involvement, types of gangs and “The Path of a Gangbanger.”

“It’s a lot of information, but it’s necessary,” said Alfredo Dunas, a parent who has been in the program with his 15-year-old stepson for nine months. “In the streets now, it’s different than five years ago, even. The kids know more.”

When Dunas’ stepson began wearing clothes in gang colors, Dunas took Azpetia’s advice to take a firm stance.

“I said, ‘You can’t wear those clothes. You have to wear it like this,’ and he said, ‘No, my friends do it like this,’ ” Dunas recalled. “So I said, ‘If you want to be man, all right, you be a man. If you get in trouble you can go to jail.’ ”

The LAPD provides no funding for Jeopardy beyond paying the salaries of officers assigned full-time to the program. Azpetia worries that his already meager $30,000-a-year budget, culled from local community groups, may falter if annual grants are not renewed.

While Jeopardy programs in other LAPD divisions struggle to raise enough funds and recruit volunteers, many have established boards of directors for fund-raising and have obtained nonprofit status.

The Foothill Division, which runs on a $200,000-a-year budget, has two officers, a 20-member board and more than 100 volunteers. To raise funds, the Foothill Division program--the LAPD’s oldest Jeopardy program and a model for others--hosts charity events such as a music festival and a youth New Year’s Eve party.

Rampart Capt. Nick Salicos said his division has not tried conventional fund-raising because the community is largely immigrant--many residents are undocumented, poor or both--and people do not have the time or resources to serve on a board or buy tickets to a fund-raiser.

Although Jeopardy programs have existed in the LAPD since the 1970s, Azpetia’s is unusual in its focus on parent education. The yearlong weekly course is conducted in Spanish and the teachings aim to assist parents who are illiterate or have limited education, Azpetia said.

So far, funds, classroom space and volunteers from the government-funded Youth for Chance and the local YMCA have kept the Rampart program running. The organizations are sponsoring an upcoming camping trip to Big Bear as well as a visit to a California Youth Authority boot camp--a kind of two-part study in potential rewards or consequences.

Salicos wishes he could allocate another officer to Jeopardy, or dedicate more time to seeking funding alternatives.

“We’re the busiest police station in the U.S. I can’t even get enough officers on the streets, or enough cars for the officers, let alone find the money or time to fund these programs,” he said.

After a recent session, Azpetia talked to Jeopardy newcomer Silvia Menjivares about her 8-year-old son, Walter, one of the youngest in the program.

Although he is too young to join the program officially, Walter’s 6-year-old brother, David, appears to be learning too. “I know about gangs,” he said eagerly. “Do not smoke. Don’t say bad words. Don’t write on the walls. And do not play with guns and fire.”

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The Beat

Today’s feature spotlights the LAPD’s Jeopardy program for at-risk youth and their families. All 18 of the LAPD’s divisions offer Jeopardy programs. To enroll or to volunteer, call your LAPD division. Some other Los Angeles County law enforcement agencies offer at-risk programs.