We ought not to demonize a single gang member, and we ought not to romanticize a single gang.

Even gang members imagine a future that doesn't include gangs.

People have to see that there is a high degree of complexity about belonging to a gang. It's a symptom, not a problem.

In Los Angeles, the gang capital of the world, we have 1,100 gangs and 120,000 gang members so it is a daunting, complex social dilemma.

Gangs are bastions of conditional love, and one of the ways to counteract it is to offer community, which will always trump gang, and that's what happens at Homeboy Industries.

Businesses have come and gone at Homeboy Industries. We have had starts and stops, but anything worth doing is worth failing at. We started Homeboy Plumbing. That didn't go so well. Who knew? People didn't want gang members in their homes. I just didn't see that coming.