Posted on 11/22/2006 9:23:43 PM PST by BurbankKarl
Saying they're under a state of siege, Los Angeles police vowed Tuesday to call in other law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and county Probation Department, to combat escalating gang violence in the San Fernando Valley.
The efforts, which include a broad strategy to disrupt gang crime, come less than a week after a 15-year-old was shot to death in a drive-by attack in North Hollywood.
It was the ninth gang-related homicide in North Hollywood this year and the 39th in the Valley.
"What we know about gangs is that it has an elasticity that if you attack at one point it goes to the wind, but then has this ability to reassemble," Deputy Chief Michel Moore told the Police Commission.
"It is going to take a sustained effort, involving the community as an essential component, to allow us to move beyond this state of siege." Moore said the FBI has offered to work with Valley officials to develop a Safer Streets Initiative - which is already under way in the Skid Row area - which would bring in federal agents to work on drugs and guns cases.
Moore said efforts to track down street criminals also will continue with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the U.S. Marshal's Service. "Per capita, this is still the safest area of the city, but we want to do better," said Moore, who oversees San Fernando Valley activities of the Los Angeles Police Department.
While overall crime is down throughout the Valley for the fourth straight year, Moore said gang crime is up about 40 percent.
Moore cited a growing number of young gang members involved in turf battles, internal gang discipline and disputes over drugs, as well as an increase in interracial violence and retaliation among African-American and Latino gangs.
Efforts to beef up federal efforts come nearly 15 years after an FBI-LAPD task force was launched to explore using federal organized crime statutes to crack down on San Fernando Valley gangs that profit from narcotics and the gun trade.
Earlier this year, federal charges were filed against 49 defendants linked to the notorious Vineland Boys street gang that investigators say has terrorized parts of Burbank, Sun Valley, North Hollywood and Palmdale for years.
While the LAPD has been able to periodically increase resources in the Valley to combat gang crime, it has been unable to provide sustained support because of a citywide manpower shortage.
Moore said he has shifted some officers from investigating property crimes to deal with the increased violence among gang members and street crimes.
"We are going to continue to focus on those individuals who cause the greatest number of crimes," Moore said.
Police Chief William Bratton earlier this month said the department is so short-staffed he can spare no additional officers for the Valley.
Bratton said he could effectively police the city if he had at least 12,000 officers. There are 9,000 now and he said the use of overtime could help close the gap.
But police commissioners on Tuesday asked for details on how much more in overtime money will be needed to provide adequate protection until new officers are hired.
While there was no estimate, City Councilman Dennis Zine, who sits on the council's Public Safety Committee and represents the West Valley, questioned whether overtime is the answer.
"Officers are already working 12-hour shifts and then we're going to ask them to work longer," Zine said. "I'm not sure that's practical. What I think needs to be done is take a look as where officers are deployed.
"We only have about 9,000 officers and I want to see where they are assigned and look at how we are using them. It's fine to have all these special details, but the reality is it takes officers off the streets."
Moore said he has taken advantage of using the LAPD's Metro Team and other units in areas where there have been sporadic increases in crime, but that support is not always available as the department has stepped up efforts on Skid Row with 50 additional officers.
Moore said he also is exploring whether the county Probation Department could spare staffers to assign a probation officer to work directly with each of the six anti-gang teams based in the Valley.
Moore said he met with Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky to find funds for the effort, which he said will help reinforce the effort to control gangs.
"We find the closer cooperation between agencies helps us work together to fight gangs," Moore said.
Having probation officers work with the teams would be particularly valuable in reducing witness-intimidation cases as well as random acts of violence.
And Moore said he and his officers have been meeting with community members, parents and students at campuses around the Valley to discuss crime issues.
Moore also said the department has stepped up its enforcement efforts on commercial robberies, particularly those committed by a ring dubbed the Ski Mask Bandits.
Believed to be part of a ring of robbers, the Ski Mask Bandits have terrorized at least 52 San Fernando Valley restaurants over the past two years.
A meeting is scheduled for Dec. 11 with the Restaurant Association of California, police and restaurant owners to discuss steps they can take to increase safety.
In addition, Moore said the department is planning to deploy 43 recruits on patrol during the holiday season to deter crime.
"What we want to do is eliminate a lot of the sitting-duck victims of crime with a higher presence," Moore said.
Police Commissioner Alan Skobin said the problems in the Valley show the strain the entire department is under to provide adequate policing.
"While we are using overtime money for a lot of this, it shows just how much we need," Skobin said. "We get additional personnel assigned to the Valley and it takes away from another part of the city.
"Several years ago, we brought all the Valley divisions together to discuss their needs and it turned out each one was undeserved."
The LAPD is engaged in a massive hiring program with a goal of hiring 1,000 officers - paid through an increase in trash fees - but it is expected to take five years to reach that goal.
City Personnel Department officials have said they have been able to fill all recruiting classes for the department but still face fierce competition from other law enforcement agencies.
Bratton wrote the commission that he will be requesting additional overtime money to help the department get through its current problems.
No amount was specified and officials said a complete request is being developed.
The department this year is budgeted to spend $76.4 million in overtime for officers.
I'd say it's time for the Demolition Man. Do he and the Governator still get along?
The LSM needs to compare the violence in our large cities with the violence in Iraq, but they won't, it doesn't fit their agenda. Going into Compton or Watts is comparable to some areas of Baghdad.
Rocky 5 is in theaters!
Someone posted a shooting in NoHo on Youtube the other day....
In other words, you lost the war on crime didn't you Chief?
If we had all the cops that we paid for over the years,
We would have 30,000 not 9,000.
When has a little thing like death ever stopped a democrat from voting?
Past due to clamp down on this albino aleutian mennonite uprising !
I don't know if that is a true statistic, but it wouldn't surprise me if it is. Once money leaves a community and goes into the hands of the bureaucrats, it is shifted around to things never intended and withheld from things that were expected. The gamesmanship is dreadful.
The war on crime is like the war on drugs or the war on cancer.
If they succeeded, the would have to downsize, because they wouldn't need all those people anymore.
"Police Chief William Bratton earlier this month said the department is so short-staffed he can spare no additional officers for the Valley."
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is the police department of the City of Los Angeles, California. With over 9,000 officers and 3,000 civilian staff
Geographically, where would Skid Row be in the Valley?
LAPD demanded and now work 3 - 12 hr shifts and they are done for the week.
Regards.
I wonder how you could have a string of 54 armed robberies of restauraunts without the armed populace capping a few of these guys. What? Oh? California ended the granting of CCWs 20 years ago? Never mind.
I do bet they are not robbing Korean restaurants.
Good luck defeating a gang when you get roasted for punching a felony warrant suspect/gangster in face when he's resisting being cuffed.
Well the Chief needs to reassess his staffing priorities.
Does he have "community police officers" or the same by another name? Does the Dpt. have "School Resource Officers?" Does LAPD have a traffic unit? Does the Chief have bloated staff? Does he pay enough to attract the officers he needs to hire?
If you're in need of ground troops, go rummaging around the supply and mess tents for folks who can carry a rifle.
When you move a support/detective/staff weenie officer back to patrol, that is one more officer to handle a paper call. I.E. a burglary report where their is no suspect and nobody was home during the burg..
Then the officer who wants to go out and crush crime is freed up from chasing paper and then can go put pressure on the criminals' fishing holes.
Keep 'em running and they aren't emboldened to do worse. You'll never get rid of them, the goal is to keep them from running wild in their own habitat.
It is an incredible number of LA area (all of So.Cal actually) who have jumped ship and left for Nevada and AZ. LA is losing officers who have enough time on to retire but not enough pension built up to actually pull the plug. They are putting in their papers and taking jobs in neighboring states, working another 10-15 years, and putting the equity they earned in the obscene So.Cal. housing market to good use in property in AZ and Nevada.
You just heard the word.
"California ended the granting of CCWs 20 years ago?"
It is local, not state. Hence some jurisdictions are more lenient, some more restrictive.
The authorities could quite easily put them all away using the RICO statute. I don't know why they have no qualms about using it against the Hell's Angels but won't on much more violent gangs.
Precisely. Generations of thugs and misfits roam the streets that a once-proud and self-reliant people would have dealt with in the absence of the 'badged' ones. There'd be graveyards full, rather than prisons.
There can hardly be a better example of the fraud perpetrated upon us by the courts, MSM, cops, politicians, etc. than this abdication of the 2nd ammendment.
We The People have been replaced by 'We The Special Interest'. Our constitution has been replaced by politically appointed, black-robed interpretation; our Bill of Rights by 'The List of Priviledges'. On the bright side, this is only the tip of the iceberg that our social 'captains' have steered us toward while abandoning the 2nd. In the next twenty years, imagine the chaos as the hull of Ship America is ripped open by unimaginable violence and the 'police-state' attempts to contain it.
War on Crime, war on drugs, war on poverty. Perhaps it's time we declare a War on Stupid.
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