Los Angeles is a complex city. Interwoven with mountains and beaches, unrelenting sunshine and unrepentant earthquakes, the wealthiest and poorest residents in America all flock here for the myriad opportunities that can only be found in the City of Angels.In the 1920s and 1930s, African American clubs were formed to dabble in prostitution and the rare robbery. By the 1960s, many blacks migrated to Los Angeles during World War II, and the clubs shifted their focus to protect themselves from the racist and often violent actions of the white clubs, which were unhappy about the influx of "colored" people. It was in the '60s, during the Watts Rebellion that a shift occurred in political awareness and the LAPD began referring to black clubs as radical "gangs."

From its inception to their current multiethnic composition of an estimated 80,000 members, gangs have undermined the peace and security of Los Angeles with their internal warfare. In an act of desperation, California has decided to forcibly enlist the assistance of parents.

The Parent Accountability Act, a new California law sponsored by assemblyman Tony Mendoza, gives judges the option of sending parents for training when their kids are convicted of gang crimes for the first time.

The new law went in to effect in January and eventually will be in place across California. Budget cuts in Sacramento meant implementation of the classes was delayed, and only in the past month or so have they been rolled out on a limited basis in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

"A lot of parents do not know how to handle teenagers," Mendoza said. "Now, more than ever, parents need a guide."

Growing up south of downtown Los Angeles in the roughshod neighborhood of Florence, Mendoza credits his mother with altering the course of his life. The second of nine children, his mother often let him spend time with his cousins, and it wasn't long before they became involved with a Latino gang in the area. When Mendoza's mother realized he was traveling on a potentially fatal road, she refused to let him associate with the gang members. His aunt, though, wasn't so strict with his cousin.

"My mom started getting more involved and prohibited us from hanging out with certain people," Mendoza said. "My aunt didn't."

His cousin eventually became a full-blown member of the Florencia-13 street gang and was killed in a drive-by shooting in the early 1990s.

At the class last month with six parents, an instructor speaking in Spanish flashed images of drug paraphernalia and showed pictures of addicts before and after they acquired their habit. At a later session, another instructor outlined classic warning signs of gang involvement: tattoos, secretive behavior, sudden changes in musical tastes and the use of gang hand signals.

"The most difficult thing is to have control of the kids," said Socorro Gonzalez, a housekeeper who was ordered to a recent class after her son, a member of the San Fer gang, got in to trouble. "When I come home, I don't know what they have been up to."

Eventually parents ordered to attend the training classes will have to pay $20 to attend, and the families of victims of gang violence will share their painful stories.

"There is nothing more moving than someone sitting in front of you, telling you how they felt when they heard the gunshots or their son or daughter was killed," Mendoza said.

Bill Maher once made the statement on his HBO show 'Real Time with Bill Maher,' "I refuse to have children until people start having children I don't mind mine playing with."

That statement always lurks in the corners of my subconscious whenever my son comes home from his East Los Angeles elementary school talking about his new friends or I see a small bit of new graffiti on our sidewalk and my neighbors tell me not to worry about it, because it's just some young kids practicing.

It's a scary world out there.

So while some liberals may feel that it's unfair and racially motivated to force struggling parents to pay for a training class, and some Republicans may think it's too intrusive, I firmly believe that while it's unfortunate that some parents have to be ordered to pay extra attention to their own children, it may prove to be both beneficial and necessary.

Parents bring children into this world. It's our responsibility to protect children and ensure their safety while also striving to equip them with all the tools needed to become well-adjusted adults.

Yes, we have to work. Yes, we may be tired. Yes, there may be societal factors beyond our control, but we have to fight for the lives of our children. As the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis said:

"If we fail as parents, nothing else we do really matters."