Something like this:
Cobra Security Vehicle from IBIS Tek.
Posted on 11/10/2006 9:36:58 AM PST by BurbankKarl
Responding to calls for more police officers to contain San Fernando Valley's spike in gang violence, LAPD Chief William Bratton said Thursday that he "can't manufacture cops" and the Valley would have to make do with those it has.
With extra cops already deployed to the Valley to confront an increase in robberies, including a rash of holdups at local restaurants, the Los Angeles Police Department can spare no more, Bratton said.
"I only have so many officers to go around," Bratton said. "I can't manufacture cops."
City Councilman Dennis Zine, who represents the West Valley, said the Valley needs more officers to quell the gang violence, and assigning them should be as high a priority for the city as cleaning up Skid Row and patrolling other parts of town.
"If they can put 50 officers on Skid Row for drug dealing and other crimes, then they can address these serious crimes with other officers in a community where people are in fear," he said. Enjoying an 8 percent drop overall in crime from last year, Los Angeles still has pockets of resistance that are bucking the downward trend, including some Valley neighborhoods scarred by gang violence.
Some local neighborhoods have seen a 50 percent increase this year in gang crime, the largest contributor to Valley killings. So far this year, 37 of the Valley's 72 homicides have been gang-related. Last year at this time, 28 of 65 homicides were gang-related.
With a growing Valley demographic group 14 to 20 years old, gangs have found fertile ground to beef up their ranks, said Deputy Chief Michel Moore, the Valley's top cop. And for those young recruits, violence is the ticket to gang stardom.
"It really is a rite of passage," Moore said. "It shows you how warped their minds are - that they would put in this `work,' such as shooting people in the street, committing crimes against people for no other reason than they want to belong to a gang."
There's also concern that gang members being released from prison could try to reorganize, leading to more violence, Moore said.
But even as gang violence increases in the Valley - which represents one-third of L.A.'s population - it accounts for only about one-fifth of the city's gang crime, Moore said.
"I think there are safe places in the Valley - many more safe places than dangerous ones," Moore said.
Throughout L.A. last year, there were 486 homicides, of which 249 were gang-related. Downtown and South Los Angeles - making up about 25 percent of the city's population - account for nearly 75 percent of all gang crime, officials said.
So far this year, more than half of L.A's killings again have been gang-related. Citywide, there have been 408 homicides - 227 of them gang-related.
And the surge of Valley violence at the hands of young and old gang members has alarmed Zine, who has asked for a meeting with gang leaders and gang-intervention groups.
"We need to say, `OK, this is the problem; you're creating death and violence in the community. We need to come to a solution,"' Zine said.
With more police slowly coming in - the LAPD aims to add 1,000 more officers to the 9,000 it has now, but the move is expected to take at least five years - officials are also looking to local youth-oriented organizations to step in and help drive down crime.
Last month, Moore, Zine and other local officials met with youth groups, nonprofit agencies and faith-based organizations in Canoga Park to start building a community-based coalition to address violence and provide alternatives to joining gangs.
A four-day concert and anti-gang event kicked off Thursday at Pierce College. And activities designed to help youths find options, other than joining gangs, will resume Nov. 18 with a community cleanup in five of the city's most blighted areas. The efforts are backed by 107 churches and other civic organizations.
"We feel this will give kids vision for the neighborhoods instead of contributing to the destruction of their community," said Jeff Fischer, pastor of Hope Chapel in Winnetka and organizer of anti-gang events. "They will be able to feel what it's like to contribute life instead of death to that community."
Several hundred teenagers from all over Los Angeles showed up for the concert Thursday night. While many came for the music, others were keenly aware of the need to push the message of nonviolence and cooperation.
"We're heading toward dark times. Gangs have enhanced. Teen suicide has increased," said Roman Bonilla, 18, of Winnetka. "What we're doing is starting up a peace movement. If we don't, who will?"
"LOL, I'm not sure where you're employing those tactics, but if it's in the Los Angeles area, I'd suggest you think twice about what you're doing."
Those tactics would work well on a lot of the shady characters we have around where I live in small towns and medium-sized cities. They can be dangerous for sure, but they're not hardcore like the big city gangs and can be controlled by armed citizens and local police who focus their attention on the poverty-ridden areas they operate in.
The streets are safe, amazing it only took them 2 days!
I've heard of a city in New Mexico that used similar tactics successfully against gangs. If it works, why not do it elsewhere?
/s
Not one word that the gangs are illegal aliens or the children of illegal aliens.
Has the Valley deteriorated that badly?
What are the bad and good parts of the Valley?""
1---Yes it has.
2---The good parts are getting smaller and smaller as I type this.
I lived there from 1966 to 1993. I won't even go back into my old neighborhood when I am forced to go there for whatever reason. The reasons have to get better and better, also.
Time to resurrect the militia.
Sorry...preventing robberies isn't a profit center. The crime doesn't pay, you might say.
Unfortunately, in California, if you carry a gun in the cabin of your car, the ammo must be in the trunk, or the other way around. Not very useful in an emergency.
Of course law enforcement officers and criminals are exempted from this rule.
Don't know if it's still the case, but Simi has traditionally had a high population of law enforcement folk living there, which helps. They tend to be extra vigilant, and they recognize signs of problems before most others do.
Yeah, thats the ticket. A cop punching a violent thug in the face is so manifestly horrible that we should go with the pitchforks and torches.
Whoops! Sorry, I was thinking of a different thread. :-/
For this thread: We are the "militia"!
California is now exporting prisoners to other states.
It is cheaper than hiring more union run prisons.
Thanks for the response. I should mention that some of the worst gangs in LA are moving out nationwide. Take care.
Something like this:
Cobra Security Vehicle from IBIS Tek.
Hmmm, should I laugh or congratulate you on the right call?
Well, some neighborhoods ya know...
Course gangs these days could probably get RPGs.
But the same is true nationwide.When this column first highlighted MS13 a year ago, many were skeptical of the police estimates of 3,000 active gang members in the northern Virginia suburbs. Now, a half-dozen murders, scores of cuttings and unreported beatings later, it is believed that there are 6,000 members in the region just south of D.C.
100% gain in one year out there by DC.
Isn't that something. Some of this stuff generates considerable concern on my part. Thanks for the follow-up.
Based on the cell phone video, no defense is allowed against criminal gang members.
The only solution to the California urban problems is massive earth Quake with massive destruction amd death.
Perhaps a renewal can blossom on the rubble.
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