By Katie Irwin
The first time I heard about LA Gang Tours I didn’t know what to think. A tour of high-profile gang areas and top crime scene locations in South Central, Los Angeles is definitely a new concept and potentially controversial. The tours started in January 2010 and we have yet to see if this will benefit the community or not. After I read up on the website I wondered what others were saying about it. I found that although this might be new to Americans, it is not to other major metropolitan areas around the world.
Mumbai, India’s largest slum, Dhavari, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s favelas have utilized their tourist industry and created “slum tours”. They have both been praised as innovative economic tools to dispel the negative images of these areas and show the communities’ spirits. They have also been criticized as exploitative to the people.
What seems to really make a difference are the intentions behind the creation of the tour and the tourists themselves. Alfred Lomas, the founder of LA Gang Tours, describes the tour as an educational experience to show those who might never even think to visit South Central L.A. He explains that tourists learn about the history of “gang culture – the birthplace of many of the city’s gangs, including Crips and Bloods, Florencia 13 and 18th Street.”
Lomas developed LA Gang Tours so he could help his community by providing people jobs and trying to get kids off the streets to offer a different option than joining a gang. On the tour website it also talks about Lomas’ goals for this rather controversial business. He is trying to build economic growth and develop micro-financing opportunities for the residents of South Central. As a former gang member in South Central, Lomas decided to dedicate his life to serving the community through humanitarian aid. He believes that LA Gang Tours will bring the community one step closer to a safer environment. Lomas explained his idea to the LA Times as, “…true community empowerment.” For example, he is recruiting graffiti taggers to make t-shirts for sale. The proceeds will help send the taggers” to art school.
Lomas states on his website that he has an agreement with participating gangs to receive safe passage on certain dates and times for the tour. He hopes that by having the gangs sign these peace treaties, it brings them one step closer to stopping gang violence in general. This is also one less worry for people on the tour. There have already been some unexpected benefits to community members. Scorpio is a Crips member who founded his own non-profit group, Parolees for Peace, that confronts gang members bent on mayhem. A New York Times article stated that one of the tourists passed along a tip to Scorpio about finding a financial backer for his nonprofit group.
However, some ideas that look good in theory don’t always working practice. \Buses full of people staring, taking pictures, and driving through the neighborhoods may have negative ramifications. City Councilwoman Jan Perry told the LA Times, “It’s not right to put people on display.” One reporter from the LA Times has stated that this tour could be a “more calculated exploitation of the ‘hood for entertainment, a phenomenon I call ghettotainment.” Lomas hopes to dispel these criticisms. He wants this business to make a big impact on the residents of South Central.
Hopefully this endeavor will be as successful as Lomas expects, but it depends on the actions and reactions of the tourists who participate.