Crime Journal "They picked up their fists instead of guns" was how a reporter noted the outbreak of a gang fight in the city of Richmond, California, on Friday afternoon, October 14, 2011. What was unique about this crime story was that the fist fight broke out inside the City Hall complex within the Office of Neighborhood Safety. The seven people involved in the incident were in that office to collect some incentive payments as part of a privately funded initiative called Operation Peacemakers, the purpose of which is, curiously enough, to engage young people in mental health, anger management and other productive efforts to keep them out of trouble. On the day of the altercation, members of rival gangs showed up at about the same time and the confrontation occurred, spreading blood about the office, breaking furniture, and causing concern for many. The police received numerous 911 calls. When they arrived, they found one person with a bloody nose. Yet, there were no witnesses among the other...

What distinguished this confrontation are its physical location and the fact that neither the program staff -- perceived by some as being government workers -- nor anyone else would team up with the police to move a prosecution forward. In fact, they went out of their way to try to get a message out that just because these gang members were involved, this was no criminal melee; it was a fight, and that, criminal or not, they would not raise the seriousness by treating it as a gang brawl (Lee, 2011).
To many people, this raised concerns, getting some to worry about what was happening in Richmond, which has a reputation for being a community with serious criminal challenges. But in reality, the argument made…