THE LAST WORD:Be willing to revisit vote

Doesn’t it figure that in the days after the Costa Mesa City Council took a pass on funding an anti-gang program at the schools that police rounded up nine people, six of whom are under 18, in connection with a shooting on Costa Mesa’s Westside?

It’s bad timing, to be sure, but it doesn’t prove anything yet. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the council did the wrong thing when it turned down a $65,000 grant to the Newport-Mesa Unified School District for a gang-intervention specialist.

The jury is still out on that.

Because while the council also declined the Police Department and school district’s request for a daytime curfew to curtail gang activity, it did give firm marching orders to the police to crack down on gangs. And that just may be enough.

Still, it should be noted that many other government leaders in Southern California and nationally are calling for a combination of enforcement and preventive measures against gang violence.

Time will tell if Costa Mesa’s approach is the right way to go.

But if the Westside continues to experience gang violence this summer, we urge the council majority to revisit this issue and reconsider whether a gang-intervention specialist on local campuses is needed.