Gang-related murders soaring - many cities in crisis - youth programs lack funds to fight crime

Gang-related murders soaring
L.A., other cities in crisis as youth programs lack funds to fight crime.
By Beth Barrett
Staff writer

Even as violent crime declines overall, gang-related murders have soared across the country and now represent a major law enforcement crisis in the Los Angeles area, other major cities and even rural communities, according to a study released Tuesday.

While funding of juvenile programs was being cut, gang activity has been spreading rapidly from Los Angeles to the rest of the country, and homicides linked to juveniles in gangs have soared from 692 nationally in 1999 to more than 1,100 in 2002, the study found.

"More and more kids are trading school colors for gang colors and more parents are trading graduations for funerals,' said Sanford Newman, president of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a Washington D.C.-based anti- crime organization of 2,000 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors and victims of violence that prepared the report, "Caught in the Crossfire: Arresting Gang Violence by Investing in Kids.'

In Los Angeles overall gang homicides are up 25.9 percent, from 81 through early April 2003 to 102 during the comparable period of 2004. The increase follows a 26 percent drop in L.A. gang-related homicides from 350 in 2002 to 259 in 2003.

Current statistics from Long Beach were unavailable Tuesday, but police said that more than half the city's 50 homicides in 2003 were gang-related.

There are about 6,000 gang members in Long Beach, comprising roughly 1.25 percent of the city's estimated 475,000 residents. In Los Angeles, 48,000 gang members make up just over 1 percent of the population, but account for about half the city's slayings.

"Gang violence in America is once again on the rise,' said Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton during a teleconference on the report. "This is a pending crisis. We know it's coming. We can guarantee it's coming.'

The report noted that since 2002, federal funds for juvenile programs have been cut 44 percent and potentially might be cut 40 percent more soon.

Violent crime trends including a dip in spousal homicides have "hidden' the sharp increase in gang homicides, said James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University in Boston.

While gang violence declined through the 1990s, it began to climb in 1999, "when we let down our guard,' he said.

Bratton said L.A. has had success when police and other agencies have targeted neighborhoods in tandem with prevention and intervention programs. But he noted there aren't enough officers on the streets, sheriff deputies in the jails, prosecutors or youth programs to do all that's required.

The report cites dramatic drops in youth gang violence in Boston, Philadelphia and Baton Rouge, La., where there have been those collaborations, close supervision of young people and a wide variety of community support services.

Fox said often gang leaders return to their neighborhoods from prison as "celebrities.'

"More young kids are attracted to gangs. They're too young to have witnessed the bloodshed of a generation ago.'

*The traditional gangs are those that formed before the mid-1980s to defend turf from which to sell drugs and commit crimes, using automatic weapons in drive-by shootings to enforce boundaries or settle disputes.

Traditional gangs like the Crips and Bloods in L.A., Compton and Long Beach have tried to export their gangs through chapters in other cities.

*More recent gangs formed in the 1980s as "crews, cliques, or posses.' Typically smaller, around 25 members, they are more likely to sell drugs, but not to identify as much through "colors,' hand signals or gang graffiti.

*The newest gangs formed in the 1990s in smaller cities, suburbs and rural areas. They tend to be more diverse including women, and middle class members and less violent or involved in drug sales, the report said.

A survey of youth gang activity in 2003 found 87 percent of cities over 250,000 people have gangs, while 38 percent of suburban counties and 12 percent of rural counties do.

Funding for youth violence prevention programs will be the topic of a forum Thursday in Long Beach, where city leaders, police and school officials will discuss how to retain the revenue streams backing such programs.

"We want to make state legislators know that these programs are critical in helping our kids and keeping them off the streets,' said Cynthia Fogg, Long Beach Youth Services superintendent.

Federal and state grants fund numerous youth and after-school programs in Long Beach, including the 21st Century Unity Learning Center and the hiring of probation officers for the city's middle and high schools, Fogg said.

He's got the hardened sneer down cold though.

Last Known Address: 1047 N. Blinn Ave., Wilmington

I live in this town. I see looks like that everywhere. I really should check into the ramifications of selling my house "as is" and getting the hell out. It's pretty scary living here.

Maybe. My uncle lives in a nieghborhood that is going down the toilet here. The only difference is that the sh*t-rats are basic white trash. He's thinking about moving, and I don't blame him. I won't even go to visit him without the dog.

"2. Drugs - libertarians are wrong. Drugs ruin individuals, neighborhoods, communities. The lure of easy money means these thug/kids will have zero incentive to learn, study, and try to work a normal job. Plus drug addicts lose their humanity. "

The only reason drug dealers exist is because of drug laws. Making a good illegal creates a black market for that good, which artificially inflates the price and turns control over to bad people with no regulation. It is basic economics.

These violent gangs revolve around selling drugs. If you take away their source of income they will crumble.

I certainly don't advocate drugs, and most individuals will be hurt by using them. That choice should be left up to the individual.

I see your neighborhood is infested with hispanic gangbangers, as well. They are all over the Chicago area, and they constitute the biggest danger to the citizenry in general. They are vile, vicious, and totally out of control. I have never seen such a hate-filled and violent group like these maggots, except for perhaps mohammedan terrorists; but, really, the two groups are terrifyingly similar in their agendas and methods.

"This is the crime problem of Mexico which is extremely violent moving over to the USA."

Hell, it's already here. Our lives are as much at risk from Mexican gangbangers as they are from mohammedan terrorists. It's a coin toss as to which one will hit my street first.

I fled Mexifornia 25 years ago, and never looked back. One of the main reasons I left was because of the Mexican gangs and the terror they unleash on a regular basis. It is far, far worse now, too. My 80-year old mother still lives there, and we've been trying to get her to leave, but she has always refused. However, I think we have finally convinced her (the woman down the street from her was assaulted in her home at 11:00 in the morning! Mom sees no future in staying there).

What's amazing is thinking the Mexican gang problem can be solved with "youth programs". These aren't youths. Just today:

http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/borderland/20040603-126125.shtml

Two men were arrested in connection with a gang-related stabbing of two men Friday night in Central El Paso, police said.

Inosencio Rosales, 23, of the 1300 block of St. Johns and Manuel Gallardo, 29, of the 4300 block of Clifton were arrested during the weekend for allegedly being part of a group that assaulted Ruben Castañeda and Roberto Chasco, both 21, in a confrontation at a house in the 3800 block of Yandell, police said.

(These are adults --- 29 years old is certainly an adult --- and it's common to read of 40 and older year old men doing drive by shootings and other gang related activites)

"Once these CentAm and Mexi gangsters get devil possessed it's for real. They get into a death cult mentality."

That's a fact.

I think the root cause of this is the expansion of government over the last 40 years, bringing with it a tax burden that has resulted in far fewer moms at home during the day. Couple that with a welfare system that rewards families in which the dad moves out, and you've got a society that begs for gangs to come in and fill the void.

I also think there is a deeper root cause than that: We have turned our backs on God and turned instead to government to solve our problems and provide for our needs when the bottom falls out of our lives.

The only reason drug dealers exist is because of drug laws.

Or get some control over who and what is coming over our borders, get a handle on immigration. Most of these drug dealers and smugglers exist is because the WOD as it's being fought is nothing but a big joke --- no problem at all for the Mexican cartels in getting their truck loads of narcotics over the border and any number of their drug dealers.

Throwing money at a gang problem is a liberal pipe dream and a misdirected response to everything. Liberals are naive and delusional; they are really just victims in waiting.

Yes these gangs are there families. However for many of them their families are part of the gangs. I have seen pictures of whole families down to the little bitty ones dressed in gang colors and flashing signs. These gangmembers go back to two or three generations.

If you take away their source of income they will crumble.

They have another source of income --- they've usually got several children around whose mothers collect all kinds of welfare checks -- they can shack up with them and do just fine --- but do you really think they're going to pack up their bags and head back home to Mexico? Do you really think they're suddenly going to try to finish their educations, put on suits and look for jobs that require hard work? They'll find other crimes -- burglary, bank robbery, kidnap for ransom --- that's what they're doing back home in Mexico.

I see your neighborhood is infested with hispanic gangbangers, as well.

Yep. Be it ever so humble, there's no place like a crime ridden, gang infested neighborhood.

BTW, my Celebrate Diversity t-shirt arrived in the mail yesterday. If I ever get the urge to become a human target, I'll be wearing it around da 'hood.

Once these CentAm and Mexi gangsters get devil possessed it's for real. They get into a death cult mentality.

Anyone who questions that ought to take a look at their tattoes. These people are looking to kill.

In Northern Virginia there are scores of gangs (many composed of both illegal aliens and legal immigrants, Asian and Hispanic). One of their source of income consists of violent home invasions during daytime. They are also into drugs, etc. One gang has a goal of killing police.

Similar situation exists in Maryland and DC. Much of the problem is the unwillingness of our government to deport these criminals. And in some areas police are ordered to give illegal aliens a pass.

The situation is not helped by the police scandals, such as in Baltimore where the top cop PC Kevin Clark was investigated for a "domestic dispute" ad, of course, cleared and his predecessor Edward Norris pleaded guilty to stealing police funds and filing false federal income-tax returns.

Gangs from California still like to come to the Tacoma area, police say, because it's a metropolitan area right off Interstate 5, making it easy to sell drugs.

I lived in Western Washington from 1978 to 1998 and my community, also off of I-5, had no gangs, no gang problems, etc. It was a town named Mill Creek, 20 miles north of Seattle. If I lived in Tacoma, I would settle the problem by moving. Let the gangs live in Tacoma, and the regular people can live in the non-gang cities (and I can name many more..).

In Ciudad Juarez, they are shooting store clerks in broad daylight, crime rates have become horrendous. Kidnapping for ransom is actually quite common and you don't have to be wealthy to be or have a family member be a victim. They're holding up buses on the highways --- usually one of the passengers, pulling it over to the side and then bandits jump on and rob the passengers. They're becoming very careless in their executions now --- a couple innocent bystanders got in the way the other day -- a woman killed after being shot in the face while driving in her car with her 9 year old child next to her.

Open borders isn't good with Mexico falling apart as it is.

"Or get some control over who and what is coming over our borders, get a handle on immigration."

Of course. Ending the WOD while putting the military on the borders and deporting illegal aliens would be a three pronged slam dunk against violent crime.

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