Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, left, joins supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky to discuss a joint effort to target gang violence. The crackdown was prompted by a 14 percent rise in gang-related offenses. (John Lazar / Staff photographer)
Posted on 01/22/2007 10:09:24 AM PST by NormsRevenge
LOS ANGELES - A 14-year-old girl was killed by Hispanic gang members who police say were targeting blacks. A 9-year-old girl died after being hit by a stray bullet as gang members exchanged shots near her home. A police officerwas wounded in a gunbattle with a suspected gangster.
The soaring violence is prompting police and politicians to promise one of the toughest crackdowns against gangs in city history.
"This is the monster, this is what drives people's fears," said Deputy Chief Charles Beck, who oversees a South Los Angeles district where gang-related crime jumped 24 percent during the year ending in November.
However, the effort has met skepticism in the city that has an estimated 700 gangs with 40,000 members - about four for every police officer - and that gave birth to some of the nation's most notorious gangs, including the Crips, Bloods and Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13.
"It's too big, it's too entrenched, it's too intimately connected with the urban setup here," Malcolm Klein, a gang expert at USC, said of the gang problem. "You can reduce it. But the idea you can somehow eliminate it is ridiculous."
Gangs have thrived for generations in Los Angeles, but the especially violent past year caught police brass off guard.
Citywide crime rates fell in 2006 but gang-related offenses increased 14 percent - the first hike in four years. In the San Fernando Valley, gang murders, assaults, robberies and other crimes jumped 42 percent. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has appealed to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez for millions of dollars in anti-gang funds and for more federal prosecutors to pursue racketeering and other charges mostly used in the past against organized crime.
FBI Director Robert Mueller has assigned agents to an anti-gang task force in the San Fernando Valley to work alongside police deputized as federal officers.
Authorities promise to increase enforcement in afflicted neighborhoods. The officers will be armed with injunctions forbidding gang members from assembling in certain areas, lawsuits aimed at shutting down gang hangouts as nuisances and probation orders barring gang members from returning to their neighborhoods after their release from prison.
In some ways, the approach mirrors a multi-agency Boston campaign in the 1990s, known as the Boston Miracle, that resulted in a dramatic decline in gun violence and murder rates.
Past efforts in Los Angeles, however, have produced mixed results.
The city has been hampered in the past by a lack of resources and changing department priorities, according to a city-funded report by civil rights attorney Connie Rice.
And a 1980s anti-gang unit known as Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums, or CRASH, was disbanded after allegations of police corruption..
Nothing has outraged the city more than the gang slayings of children. Last month, 9-year-old Charupha Wongwisetsiri was standing in her family's kitchen when she was struck by a stray round from gang crossfire in Angelino Heights near downtown.
That came just five days after the shooting death of Cheryl Green, a 14-year-old black girl, who was talking to friends in the Harbor Gateway area. Two Hispanic gang members, who police said were intent on killing blacks, were arrested.
Alex Sanchez, a former MS-13 member who now runs a gang intervention program, said police moves to identify the worst gangs could instead lead to more crime.
"It's feeding the egos of gang members," Sanchez said. "They're all going to want to be on the top 10."
"Until we get those gangsters into real jobs, we are going to have a lethal ongoing problem, pure and simple," said Jorja Leap, a social welfare professor and gang expert at UCLA, who advises the mayor. "It will never change."
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, left, joins supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky to discuss a joint effort to target gang violence. The crackdown was prompted by a 14 percent rise in gang-related offenses. (John Lazar / Staff photographer)
I don't know whether I should laugh of barf at this statement
Snake Pliskin and Escape from L.A. comes to mind.
Snake Pliskin? I thought he was dead.
"No, sir the penalty for killing a gang member is a $10 fine, you can mail it in." - Police Squad
LA Vman trying to take a bite out of gangs but needs alot of help Ping
Is he a North of the Border Mexican President Calderon-wannabee or what?
I'd like to see them succeed at defanging ir disarming the gangs, let 'em beat each other silly with their knuckles.
Is the making of license plates considered a "real" job ?
I agree with that one. Kind of like... "give them a state" statement. You have to change the HEART to see results.
"Until we get those gangsters into real jobs"
I don't know whether I should laugh of barf at this statement...
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Again, the liberal pandering of pro-illegal politicos and criminals just continues. I have watched my state, since childhood, go from top in the nation in leadership, economics, demographics and education to the bottom of the cess pool. All courtesy of the liberals which the voters stupidly keep in power and the rot continues.
So now it is the job of the Los Angeles government to create jobs for criminals...as opposed to enforcing the law and getting rid of them. Los Angeles, once a respectable city, is now a slum of crime and criminality.
I am not barfing or laughing -- I am crying as I watch my state rot.
IIRC ... Red China once threatened to nuke L.A. ... I wonder if that offer is still good ...
Even with Bratton fudging the crime numbers, the gang crimes numbers shot up....
Echoing the Dims' assessment of Iraq insurgents....
Definitely need to cut funding and get the poor police out of L.A. - NOW!!!
"Until we get those gangsters into real jobs "
Kidnap them and let them loose in Iraq/Afghanistan
More on the cop shooting story.
(snip)Six officers have been shot at since the new year, and two have been hit, Bratton said.
"This year, this month, we've seen a significant increase," Bratton said. "This is a concern."
In the same period last year, one officer had been struck by gunfire, police said.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/northern_california/16518352.htm
"Until we get those gangsters into real jobs"
Let's see.... they are qualified to do WHAT?
Pick produce?
Wash windows?
waste oxygen?
"Eme's" at Pelican Bay have declared war?
Hang on to your hats.
Cheers.
"LA Vman trying to take a bite out of gangs but needs alot of help."
Villaraigosa in bio..."As CA. State Assembly..oversaw passage of landmark state legislation ..including the toughest assault weapons ban in the country." Apparently, not tough enough.
Mayor Antonio villaraigosa has appealed for MILLIONS of dollars in anti-gang funds and for more federal prosecutors to *pursue racketeering and other charges mostly used in the past against organized crime*
What else is really going on in L.A. other than an out of control gang problem?
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