KEY POINTS:
He was instrumental in helping to arrange a temporary truce between the warring street gangs the Bloods and the Crips in Los Angeles in the early 1990s.
Now 15 years later and half a world away, Lua Maynard is bringing his anti-violence message to South Auckland's streets and
the city's wayward youth.
The former UCLA medical student and community activist, who returned to Otara six years ago to look after his sick mother, got involved with the LA gangs shortly after what he terms "the uprising" in 1992.
Thousands of blacks in the Los Angeles area rioted over six days from late April, looting stores and committing arson, assaults and murder after the acquittal of four white police officers for the beating of Rodney King the previous year.
"I think the media referred to it as a riot but the people in the community were sick and tired of the conditions they were living in and decided to take advantage of that particular incident," said Mr Maynard.
"Prior to this there was a lot of killing of Bloods and Crips so the agreement was that there would be no killings and no shootings. The city would provide the missing support that these young people wanted. They wanted training and job opportunities to support their families."
The truce lasted for nine months before it fell apart through what Mr Maynard called "broken promises" by city officials, but by then the 43-year-old had found his calling.
These days Mr Maynard, who with arms the size of car tyres could moonlight as a bodyguard, is pushing more peaceful alternatives in South Auckland as an anti-violence co-facilitator for men ordered by the courts to do anger management programmes in English and Samoan.
He also works as a health promoter for a Youthline violence project at Friendship House in Manukau. Mr Maynard says there are similarities between the gang culture he knew on the Los Angeles streets and the local wannabe street gangs who imitate them with sometimes-fatal results that have seen 11 street or gang killings over the past two years in the Auckland area.
During the High Court sentencing in Auckland of Jio-Pene Sauaki, Justice Lyn Stephens criticised the knife culture seemingly prevalent among youth.
Sentencing Sauaki to at least 12 years in prison for the murder of Kelly Lawrence, Justice Stephens said this was "gratuitous street violence of the kind that needs to be stamped out".
But while Mr Maynard is fearful things could degenerate on South Auckland's streets to the point where people are beaten up for wearing the wrong-coloured shirt or for walking on the wrong turf, he is still hopeful of making a breakthrough.
"I think things are headed in that direction with all the posing and stuff that you see and with the internet and technology and access to information but I would hate to see things end up like they are in the States.
"It wouldn't help if there were guns here; people here have access to knives and screwdrivers and things and that isn't great but I sure don't want to see it get to the stage where someone can just pull a trigger to settle a dispute."
Mr Maynard says one of the biggest hurdles is a lack of long-term vision, which many of the kids he deals with suffer from.
"For a lot of the kids it's instant gratification. I think everyone refers to this generation as the microwave generation and they want everything in 30 seconds or less whether it's a job, money or food.
"You try to explain to a young person that a university education is important to secure that kind of stuff but they will ask, 'How long is that?' and I'll say three or four years.
"Unfortunately that's when the crime element creeps in to this whole equation." To combat this Mr Maynard uses what he calls the settings approach.
"I've spoken to a lot of kids who put on a good show but if you get them one on one they're just like little kids, so the settings approach addresses that.
"The kids want to feel safe, they want to feel comfortable and they want to be kids but in Otara a lot of these kids are shouldering a lot of responsibilities, especially for a young person, and are acting a lot older than they really are.
"So by providing them a safe setting and a place where they feel comfortable and can let down their guards they don't have to act staunch or tough like an 18-year-old even though they're only 10 or 11."
He says the hours are long but there has to be a starting point for positive change.
"I think most social workers and community workers have to have the belief that what we are doing is making a difference and you take your victories where you can get them, whether it is one person or a group of people.
"The day that I get sick and tired of this or I don't believe there's good in the people I work with I will probably walk away from this. But right now I firmly believe there is good in everybody and they just need somebody to work with them to provide them with support and the tools to cope with the things that are going on in their lives."
