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Article: DARING KIDS TO BE DIFFERENT : POLICE PUT POSITIVE SPIN ON PARK PARTHENIA `GANG'.(NEWS)
- Article from:
- Daily News (Los Angeles, CA)
- Article date:
- June 9, 1996
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Daily News. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Marni McEntee Daily News Staff Writer
Inside a stiflingly hot, vacant apartment at the Park Parthenia complex, 40 children have relinquished an hour of daylight.
It's not an hour for horseplay and lazing about. It's a 60-minute gang initiation. But this isn't a ``gang'' in the usual sense of the word - it's a group of kids dedicated to cleaning up their neighborhood.
Los Angeles police Officer Sally Barnes stands before the kids of this crime-plagued neighborhood with one message: ``If you want to join a gang, come join our gang.''
The message is the cornerstone of the Junior Neighborhood Watch program, started five years ago ...