Gangs in New Zealand- from the NZ Sunday News

THE streets of New Zealand suburbs are sporting the colours of south-central and east Los Angeles "gangsta hoods".

Kiwi teen thugs are wearing the reds of the Bloods and the blues of the Crips American gangs, as they imitate the feared gangsta-rap posse music, like that of slain west coast rapper Tupac Shakur, outlaw hand- signs and tattoos, and lawless lifestyles.

But an American street gang expert says we can learn how to tackle our teen problem by looking at how they dealt with it in America.

Former Arkansas coroner Steve Nawojczyk has spoken in more than 35 American states about what a gang-ridden community should do to get rid of the criminals.

"To beat gangs, compete with them," Nawojczyk told Sunday News."Find out what it is that makes the gang life so appealing and offer it in other positive places."

While the police do their job it is up to the rest of the community to be involved trying to divert younger kids from wanting to join gangs."

Nawojczyk said Los Angeles had up to 1000 different street gangs with up to 220,000 gangsters.

Many families had three and even four generations of gangsters living in the same home.

But Nawojczyk achieved some success by using former members to help reach out to gangs to turn around their anti-social lifestyles.

"That can be a controversial thing, but if monitored properly, former gangsters can be a great ally in the community," he said.

Nawojczyk was overjoyed when his work resulted in the gangsters, known as "bangers", abandoned their criminal ways and returned to normal life - in many cases they became positive role models for other at-risk youths.

Nawojczyk said it was essential communities understood they must balance a strong zero tolerance attitude by police towards the gangsters with early intervention and prevention programmes.

He said every young person needed a sense of belonging, identity, love and respect.

LEADERS of warring street gangs are being called to a truce on Saturday.

South Auckland streets have been turned into battlegrounds in a series of turf wars that have left teens critically injured and resulted in a spate of arrests.

Police estimate there are around 500 young "soldiers" in 53 different street gangs wrestling for control of turf in Otara, Mangere, Papatoetoe and Otahuhu.

But Auckland University lecturer and former youth worker James Papali'i is hoping to bring together the rival gangs at Mangere's Nga Tapuwae community centre from midday on Saturday to put an end to the bloodshed.

Papali'i said the worsening violence has locals living in fear.

"There are some real hard issues that need to be looked at that can't be brushed over," Papali'i told Sunday News. "We need the youths to tell us their problems and what they think the solutions are."

Many of the youths are wondering how things got so bad where there is serious injuries.

"The Mangere East Peace conference will be open to all people of the community who care about their neighbourhood."I would urge all youth to come along."

Papali'i said while government agencies were looking for solutions, they couldn't just put a plaster on a festering sore.

"Hopefully from this meeting we can draw up a statement of truce and move on from there," he said."It might not just be a case of throwing extra cops at the problem."We want to come up with a safe environment for our youth and the community."

Last night, Sunday News went inside a south Auckland youth street group to ask how things had got so bad in the area.

The Mangere-based ELAWS, who number from 35-40 members, say they don't go looking for trouble. But if it comes to them, they won't run from it. "We stick up for our boys," said 16-year-old Fhily."We are not a gang. We are a group of mates who stick up for each other."

Asked if they like fighting, another member, Dyse said: "We do it because we want to be famous bro! We raise up when we need to."It's our colours."We are blue and if people wear red in our place, man that's uncool. "That's when we get a lighter to light up their colours."

Dyse said he had been stabbed in one fight with a rival group."I'm not sure if it hurt. I was too out of it," he said.

But Dyse said he and his mates were just normal Kiwi kids."We are just a group of mates who hang out together," he said."The youth gangs smoke a bit of weed but don't drink a lot."It's not about being bored. Once you've done your home stuff, you're like hanging with your boys and remembering about the oldschool."

At the ripe old age of 16, Dyse says "the younger generation" is causing problems."There's a lot of bad shit they are doing," he said."This generation is getting worse."