Posted on 01/13/2007 10:13:35 AM PST by calcowgirl
The city needs a "Marshall Plan" to curb soaring gang violence by reducing inner-city poverty and the lure of thug life, a consulting group said Friday.
Two decades of piecemeal efforts in the nation's "gang capital of the world" have failed and it is time for the city to bring together prevention, intervention and community redevelopment programs under a single umbrella, according to a final report issued by Advancement Project Los Angeles.
The city has an estimated 40,000 members in 700 gangs. Nearly three-fourths of all youth gang-related killings in California have occurred in Los Angeles County and the city is the major contributor, the report concluded.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Police Chief William Bratton already have said that cracking down on gangs will be the Police Department's priority this year.
Police reported earlier this month that while overall crime in the city dropped in 2006 for a fifth straight year, gang violence jumped 14 percent over 2005.
More than half of the 478 homicides reported in 2006 were attributed to gangs.
"This epidemic is largely immune to general declines in crime. And it is spreading to formerly safe middle class neighborhoods," according to the report's executive summary.
The city needs a Department of Neighborhood Safety to make bold plans, centralize responsibility and coordinate programs aimed at keeping youngsters out of gangs and reducing poverty and hopelessness in at-risk neighborhoods, the report said.
"Communities without jobs and basic infrastructure for economic, cultural, civic, and social development cannot sustain a long-term violence and gang activity reduction strategy," the report said.
"In short, Los Angeles needs a Marshall Plan to end gang violence," said the report summary, referring to the massive U.S. aid program that rebuilt Europe after World War II.
The report said the city had failed to heed previous calls for a comprehensive anti-gang strategy.
"Angelenos do not want to hear about another study. They want to see the problem solved. Now," the report said. "Ultimately, it is a question of leaderships will to overcome the inherent political aversion to confronting complex issues, and the inevitable bureaucratic, union and community based organizations resistance to the changes that will be needed for comprehensive, non-bureaucratic approaches."
The report was commissioned in 2005 by the City Council. It will be presented to the City Council's Ad Hoc Committee on Gang Violence and Youth Development on Wednesday.
Committee Chair Tony Cardenas agreed with the report's conclusions.
"A lot needs to be done," he said in a telephone interview. "We are trying to do what we can but we are, at this point, not coordinated well with these programs ... the oversight is not where it needs to be."
Links: Advancement Project Los Angeles
I suggest they go back a couple of years earlier.....1944 instead of 1948.
Its very simple. Young men need fathers. Period.
Get rid of no-fault divorce.
I know, won't happen. So our society will continued down this slippery slope of chaos.
Where is Maxwell Smart when you need him?
I noticed that the words "illegal" and "immigrant" don't appear anywhere in this article.
I'm sure it's a very large factor. I wonder why it was ignored by the writer?
Let's start with a solid education, a work ethic (welfare reform to get the welfare moms to work), and respect for private property (life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness), and an intolerance of any language other than standard English.
Let's cut out the victim mentality and make them responsible for their own lives.
That'll do for a start.
They just need Jack Bauer.
or about 5000 more cops on the street
Deport the illegals and most of the gang problem disappears.
Los Angeles is a quagmire, get out now!
LA doesn't need a "Marshall Plan"...they need more cops and the will to arrest and prosecute violent gang members, and do it ruthlessly. If the "community" objects, tell them this....quit abetting their violence, turn them in when they break the law, and you'll see less of us.
Aren't the gangs mostly killing each other? Would we have wanted a "Marshall Plan" if the Japanese were at war with the Nazis during WWII? I say leave it alone - - just patrol the borders and keep the gangs in there. Build a fence.
Those gangs make more money dealing drugs/ stealing cars/ chop shops/burglary rings/ etc, than any part of capitalist society can provide them.
This is another pitiful bandaid on a problem that has been years in the making:
1. :Graffitti "is just cultural art".
2. Gangs are just kids looking for a "family to belong to".
3.: Illegals "just want a better life".
4.: Cardinal Mahoney has been talking out of 7 sides of his mouth for decades.
5.: Rape: "what did the woman do that PROVOKED him?"
6.: We "need to give the druggies clean needles for free".
7.: Employers should cover "domestic partners" in health insurance, specially when HIV can drain the bank at Fort Knox.
I could go on and on. I lived in Los Angeles from 1964 to 1993. I will never live there again. Couldn't stop at a stop light a mile from my house without getting swarmed with "day workers". Just what they thought a white 50 ish woman bookkeeper was going to provide them with in the way of day work is a mystery to me. I just didn't feel safe any longer. Didn't go to restaurants after dark. Wouldn't use an ATM, etc.
That city is going to he^^ in a handbasket and fast. The Latino "mayor" is the second to the last nail in the coffin. A Latino Governor will be the last nail. I have spoken!!! Review this in 5 years and see how wrong/right I have been........
Kill the lawyers and the lefty judges, then release the vultures.
LOL - yeah, I wonder why? It's like an elephant in a room... and yet, no mention. Odd.
Deport the illegals and most of the gang problem disappears."
That will be the best first tiem on the agenda, IMO. Lived there 1964 to 1993. Will never live there again, and don't even want to visit. If a friend dies or gets married, they will have to just get a card...
forget giving them money. Attract them to one large area with honey and then exterminate on the spot.
Kill the lawyers and the lefty judges, then release the vultures."
That is part ONE, IMO.
How about some real bounty hunters??? Pay good money for the culprits who have skipped bail, warrants, to be brought in. Then severely punish them. I would prefer not to feed them, house them, etc, but no one will let me use the gangbangers for target practice....SIGH.......
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