There’s No ‘Turning the Other Cheek’ : Gangs: A grieving father asks when society will attack the proliferation of young killers.

As the world awaits the verdict in the Rodney King trial and the city ponders what action to take to prevent another disturbance, my 30-year-old son, Jesus, is dead at the hands of the Fourth Street gang from the Pico Gardens housing project in Boyle Heights.

It was a despicable and senseless murder. He was gunned down inside his car Friday night as the killers robbed him. I learned that he defended himself but he never had a chance. He was shot in the back of the head, the stomach and legs. I was able to see him still breathing, battling for his life, but he succumbed at 10:45 p.m. We buried him Wednesday.

I am outraged. Like the thousands of innocent people killed during the last 12 years by gang violence, he had not lived his full life. He leaves four children, from 2 months to 10 years old, to become dependent on a single parent.

Jesus was a young man in search of himself. He was an unemployed blue-collar worker with an intellectual appetite. He loved children. He enjoyed sports and, in common with most Angelenos, was an ardent Raider fan--he loved to barbecue at the Coliseum before the game; like many in our family, he was an excellent cook. His sense of humor and laughter filled gatherings.

Since his death, as a progressive activist I have been trying to reconcile my feelings and principles.

I know that these gangs multiplied during the Reagan and Bush years, when thousands and millions of jobs were lost to plant closures and corporate flight.

I also know that gangs are the product of the gross accumulation of wealth by a few on one side, and the impoverishment of the many on the other.

I know that the solution to the gang plague is jobs for our people, with decentwages, affordable child-care and a national health-care program, among other pressing social needs that the government has to address.

I also know that actor Edward James Olmos and ex-Pastor Greg Boyle from Dolores Mission Parish have said that we have to love these kids unconditionally.

The situation has our community and the larger society in a quandary. What do we do--love them unconditionally and turn the other cheek? My son’s killers were not children. They are, I have learned, in

their mid-20s; one was just released because of insufficient evidence in another murder.

Of 11 gangs in the Pico Gardens and Aliso Village housing complex, the Fourth Street gang is regarded as the most vicious and psychopathic.

To give you a sense of their ruthlessness, after the death of my son, I have learned, these killers celebrated with beer and “rock” and high-fives near the scene of the crime. They had taken my son’s rent money, recently earned.

The community is terrorized by these thugs. They have begun to leak threats against my son’s relatives and other residents in the projects, to intimidate anyone who witnessed the shooting from coming forth and pointing them out. The fact that there is no witness-protection program for these communities makes it all the more difficult.

Make no mistake, our community has been invaded by a culture of death and terror; it is thriving. Without “foreign aid” in the billions for our community war zones, there will be no peace.

My family is not going to be intimidated. We demand justice. We will not stop until the murderers of Jesus Rodriguez are brought to trial.