LACP.org
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Meeting to Help Prevent Gang Violence
. . . community policing at its best . . .

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Meeting to Help Prevent Gang Violence
. . . community policing at its best . . .

by Everett Littlefield


On Thursday, April 3, 2003, the Rev. Eugene Rivers of the National Ten Point Leadership Foundation (NTLF) of Boston, MA. will be a featured guest during a meeting at the West Los Angeles Church of God in Christ, 3045 Crenshaw Blvd, Los Angeles, CA from 9am-12pm.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: to read the NTFL webpage please see

http://www.ntlf.org/

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Bishop Charles Blake and Chief William Bratton will be also be speaking, along with other officials from the LAPD, and current local COMPSTAT crime information will be shared in a unique way for the first time:

Media Relations Section
Office of the Chief of Police

150 North Los Angeles Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
213-485-3586
213-847-1760 Fax

LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT
PRESS RELEASE
Monday, March 31, 2003

"LAPD Partners with Community to Fight Crime, REAL Time"

WHO:
Los Angeles Chief of Police William J. Bratton, Former Gubernatorial Candidate William "Bill" Simon, Rev. Eugene F. Rivers, Bishop Charles E. Blake and more than 100 Faith Leaders From The Southern California Area.

WHAT:
Los Angeles Police Department Community COMPSTAT and Ten Point Coalition Meeting

WHEN:
Thursday, April 3, 2003
8:45 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

WHERE:
West Los Angeles Church of God in Christ
3045 South Crenshaw Boulevard
Los Angeles

Los Angeles: For the first time in the history of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), the LAPD will utilize the revolutionary Computer Statistics Program known as COMPSTAT and will unite this program with Rev. Eugene River’s Ten Point System. Together, the LAPD and Los Angeles Faith Leaders will work side by side to rescue young adults from gang violence and reduce crime.

COMPSTAT is a computer-based technology that allows the LAPD’S management team to identify, track and define issues pertaining to crime and quality of life in "real" time. This system provides a wealth of data, and allows the Department to make the most efficient use of limited personnel resources by rapidly deploying officers to the areas when and where they are most needed. William Bratton originally developed COMPSTAT as a crime-fighting tool when he served as Commissioner of the New York City Police Department. In the past, community members were given limited access to [COMPSTAT] the LAPD’S former FASTRAC meetings. However, in keeping with Chief Bratton’s commitment to develop an air of transparency within the Department, the COMPSTAT program, in conjunction with the Ten Point Plan, will allow Los Angeles area faith leaders to see first hand what type of crime is occurring in their community and provide insight on how best to address the issues.

Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton stated, "Given the relatively small size of the LAPD and the magnitude of the gang violence problem we face, there is no city in America more dependent on it’s community to come forward and help us solve crimes. This meeting is the first I know of anywhere, in which the community is coming en masse to help us solve crimes. This is community policing as it was originally intended; police and the community focused on dealing together with the crimes and instances of disorder that threaten the safety and quality of life of all law-abiding people."

The Ten Point Plan is faith-based and is comprised of a community working group which ministers, mentors and monitors high-risk youths. This plan promotes positive outcomes for high-risk youths through the implementation of Ten Points. The coalition’s goal is: 100 churches mentoring 1000 young people involved in gangs, and creating neighborhood-based strategies for addressing the unique developmental needs of gang-involved youths in Los Angeles.

Rev. Eugene Rivers authored this Plan in 1991. The faith-based plan resulted in 13 years of successful work with high-risk youths in Boston. In light of this, the Ten Point Plan has been brought to the Los Angeles area under the direction of Bishop Charles E. Blake, Senior Pastor of the West Angeles Church of Christ, in an effort to save our youths. The Los Angeles Ten Point Task Force will be a collaborative effort between the Faith community and the LAPD.

Chief Bratton continued, "No child should have to step around drug dealers to get to school. And no child should have to live in a neighborhood where gang members lure them into a life of violence, destruction and death. We will combine the resources of the police with the influence and the outreach abilities of the ecumenical community to ensure that no child has to live this way in any of our neighborhoods."

Former Gubernatorial Candidate William "Bill" Simon will donate $25,000 as startup money for the Los Angeles Ten Point Task Force.

Members of the media are invited to attend a news conference to announce the first ever Community COMPSTAT and presentation of funding for the Ten Point Task Force. The COMPSTAT meeting will immediately follow.

This media advisory was prepared by Public Information Officer Lucy Diaz, Media Relations Section, 213-485-3586.

Two LA Times editorials have featured information about this event (March 20 "Standing up to Street Gangs: The Battlefield at Home", and April 1 "A Crisis and a Calling"), a meeting to organize religious leaders.

They hope to create strategies to prevent acts of violence similar to those that have occurred recently.

In one, Lee Denmon III, a former Texan A & M basketball star and a freshman coach at Inglewood's Morningside High, was fatally shot while walking up the driveway of his parents' home. A teenager was arrested in the shooting and LAPD says the suspect is a member of one of the criminal street gangs that have turned too many neighborhoods into battlefields.

The last few days have seen several more homicides.

The Times reported that the Los Angeles Police Department has invited the Rev. Eugene Rivers to Los Angeles to talk to religious leaders because a decade ago he helped organize preachers to combat violence in Boston, at the Ella J. Baker House in Dorchester, MA.

Since 1988, the Ella J. Baker House mentors, monitors and ministers to high-risk youth and the community. They help high-risk youth avoid violence, achieve literacy and access jobs.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: to read about these efforts please see

http://www.volunteersolutions.org/mit/
volunteer/agency/one_166082.html


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Los Angeles City and County leaders realize that cops can't stop gang violence by themselves.

Much credit is given to Chief Bratton and his staff to reach out to the community to search for solutions to end wars being waged in some of the region's poorer neighborhoods and ask the regular folks who live outside the battle zones to open their eyes to what is going on in neighboring communities and take responsibility of becoming peace makers.

Lets hope that Rev. Rivers can help bring the community religious organizations together to develop creative strategies and partnerships of "doing what it takes" to serve the pressing needs of high risk youth and help prevent gang violence.

The National Ten Point Leadership Foundation (NTLF) is the national coalition that organizes clergy-law enforcement-community partnerships for youth development and against violence among inner youth.

The Minister's 10 Point Plan to Mobilize Churches is as follows:

MINISTER'S 10-POINT PLAN TO MOBILIZE CHURCHES
1. Establish "adopt-a-gang" programs to serve as drop-in centers and sanctuaries for troubled youths.
2. Commission people to serve as advocates and ombudsmen for black and Latino juveniles in the courts.
3. Commission youth evangelists to do street-level, one-on-one evangelism with youths involved in drug trafficking.
4. Establish accountable, community-based economic-development projects.
5. Establish links between suburban and downtown churches and ministries to provide spiritual and material support.
6. Initiate and support neighborhood crime-watch programs near local churches.
7. Establish working relationships between local churches and community-based health centers to provide pastoral counseling for families during times of crisis.
8. Convene a working summit meeting for Christian black and Latino men and women to discuss the development of Christian brotherhoods and sisterhoods that would provide rational alternatives to violent gang life.
9. Establish rape-crisis drop-in centers and services for battered women.
10. Develop an aggressive black and Latino curriculum, with an additional focus on the struggles of women and poor people.

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West Los Angeles Church of God in Christ,
Bishop Charles Blake - website:

http://www.westa.org/

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As an LA Community Policing emissary, Everett Littlefield has quietly carried our LACP message of inclusion to many a community group across the City, and expressed our goal of seeking public safety solutions by promoting meaningful partnerships with law enforcement. In addition, Everett has written several thoughtful pieces for the forum here on the website over the past several months, and we always look forward to his contributions.