‘Love your kids,‘ gang member says in video

BY JIM NOLAN
Media General News Service
Published: November 19, 2008

The Virginia attorney general’s office yesterday deployed a new weapon in the ongoing war against gangs in the commonwealth: a video.

The 25-minute documentary, “The Wrong Family: Virginia Fights Back Against Gangs,“ is not the gang version of the famous prison documentary “Scared Straight,“ as much as it is straight talk — a teaching tool for law enforcement and anti-gang community organizations to preach gang education and prevention among at-risk youth in the commonwealth.

“We’ve got tough laws, we’ve got well-trained law enforcement,“ said Attorney General Bob McDonnell, flanked by law-enforcement officers and prosecutors from the Richmond region and beyond yesterday during a screening of the video at the state Capitol in Richmond.

“Now we need the best education and prevention strategies we can put together in Virginia.“

The video was produced for the attorney general’s office by Richmond-based Metro Productions at a cost of $75,000.

It features parents whose children have been affected by gang involvement, and law-enforcement officers who confront gang activity in the urban and rural regions of the state. It stops in the emergency room of VCU Medical Center, where doctors with blood literally on their hands try to stitch together lives torn apart by gang-related violence.

And, most powerfully, the documentary features interviews with Virginia gang members speaking bluntly about their involvement and its consequences.

“Love your kids,“ warns gang member Paradise C. “It’s not hard. It’s a simple concept.“

Also included in the video is former gang member Christopher Robinson, 33, who was paralyzed in a gang-

related incident in Mississippi in the 1990s.

“I was looking for a family, somewhere I could fit in,“ said Robinson, who uses a wheelchair and attended yesterday’s news conference. He is working with the attorney general’s office to spread the anti-gang message across the state.

“It wasn’t a family for me at all. We as a community have got to save our kids. We can’t let them choose the wrong family.“

For more information on the video and gang-prevention efforts, visit http://www.oag.state.va.us/KEY—ISSUES/GANGS.

Jim Nolan is a staff writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.