Posted on 01/25/2006 6:26:41 PM PST by blam
Gang killings put LA on course as murder capital
By Catherine Elsworth in Compton
(Filed: 26/01/2006)
Killings in Compton, the hub of gangland activity in Los Angeles, have risen to the highest levels in 10 years.
Homicides increased by 72 per cent last year, putting the district on course to become the murder capital of the US. Nearly 70 people were killed in Compton city itself while at least 10 more were murdered near the area's boundaries.
The once-affluent city is known for brutality and guns and during a guns-for-gifts amnesty over Christmas, 610 firearms were handed in, including AK-47s and Uzis.
But the sharp rise in killings has dismayed police and community leaders as it follows a downturn in violence - the 39 murders recorded in 2004 marked a 20-year low, while violent crime rates have been falling in many US cities.
In nearby areas patrolled by the Los Angeles police department, murders last year fell by nearly 15 per cent while New York had its lowest homicide rate since 1963.
"It's cause for alarm and we want to get on it before it gets any higher," said Pete Amico, the commander of homeland security for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which since 2000 has patrolled Compton, a 10-square mile low-rise inner city area south of Los Angeles with a population just under 97,000.
Some say the number of recently paroled prisoners jailed during the city's most violent period 10 to 15 years ago could be to blame.
In response to accusations of inaction, the sheriff's department has doubled the number of gang investigators and homicide detectives assigned to Compton.
But William Bratton, the Los Angeles police chief who has helped cut violent crime for three consecutive years, blamed Compton's council, not the police, for failing to cut the murders rate.
"Compton is one of the most violent couple of square miles in the country," Mr Bratton said earlier this month. "Compton has to wake up to the fact that they need to find the resources to fund more police."
Nearly all the murders, police believe, are linked to the city's estimated 57 active street gangs, which are now Hispanic as well as black.
Many police officers and city officials, however, tire of the "war zone" image. Sgt Jerry Cummins, who heads Compton police community relations, said: "If you keep saying it's no good, people start believing it. People here are very active in the community. It's five per cent that causes all the trouble."
I saw this on the Shield where they cut Vic's team's and the department's funding. :0)
Here you have a community that idolizes the gang culture, yet when the consequences of that culture are realized they do nothing but complain. You made your bed, now have fun not being able to sleep in it!!
So, gang members are killing gang members. What's not to like about that, unless some innocent person gets in the line of fire.
Bratton was the guy who turned crime around in New York, before Giuliani fired him because he was getting more credit than Giuliani was. He is probably doing as much as is humanly possible given the kind of politicians he has to work for.
I wonder how many of the parolees the article speaks about are responsible for these murders? Maybe you can blame the parole system as well as the council.
that is true. Bratton ought to get the hell out of LA and come back to NYC and run for mayor.
All I can say is THANK GOD that the liberal politicians in my home state of California passed tha assault weapons ban and the recent 50 caliber gun ban. I'm sure the murder rate would be twice what it is if those caring leftists hadn't gotten that legislation through. I also THANK GOD that I bought MY assault rifle before the ban went into effect. (hehehe)
It's nice to know that the gun grabbers policies are working so well in Compton.
I envy you Red Staters out there. When I retire, I'll be joining you.
It would be my guess that the gangs are fighting each other over control of the trade in illegal drugs. Without the war on some drugs, there wouldn't be enough money in being a gang member to attract many to it.
I love that show.
I wonder when LA will have a government capable of supporting itself? As soon as it does I say we get our troops out of that dangerous environment.
And thank God you generally can't get a CCW permit in urban Kalifornica. Who knows what it would be like with all those guns on the streets in the hands of law-abiding citizens?
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