LACP.org
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LA Daily News
Special Report . . . on Gangs
LA's Homegrown Terrorists

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LA Daily News
Special Report . . . on Gangs
LA's Homegrown Terrorists (see below)

LA Community Policing is delighted to present the LA Daily News Special Report on Gangs. Links to their many current articles are found below.

Our efforts, initiated partly as a response to 9/11 and the devestating homicide rate in 2002, have always centered around finding real solutions for problematic issues, including gangs.

Here's a portion of an early article that appeared on this website:

Homeland Security vs. Homegrown Terrorists

by Bill Murray

August 8, 2002

It's my belief
that the emphasis for crime suppression needs to include an aggressive and committed shift from being RE-active (deploying platoons of "extra" officers to put out fires after they've spring up) to being PRO-active (creating inter-departmental professional law enforcement and social service teams capable of predicting and preventing hot spots before they erupt).

We must engage all available resources available from both inside and outside the LAPD.

Ideally, this cooperative effort should involve every government agency, at the Federal, State, County and City levels ... and every resident of Los Angeles.

Indeed, that's at the heart of our LA Community Policing advocacy.

As always, the focus of this article is not be on complaining about the problem but on seeking the solution. I discuss the homicide rate out of a necessity to understand where we are now, but I wish to engage ALL the stakeholders of the community in the discussion about how we can encourage meaningful partnerships that will reduce violent crime and improve the quality of life.

The title, "Homeland Security vs. Homegrown Terrorists," springs from the observation that we've been expending our limited resources ... our recent efforts, energy, programs and funding ... concentrating on securing us from outside militant groups. Billions of dollars originally earmarked by the Federal Government for community policing and public safety programs has been diverted to "Homeland Security," and the perception is that we've taken our eye off the ball locally.

The gangs know this, too.

I feel we need a far more significant commitment of proactive resources to pay attention to our own "local terrorists" and the terrible suffering they cause.

Los Angeles Community Policing recognizes there is no quick fix, and that this will require a concerted and committed effort, and an ongoing dialogue involving all interested parties. As I've heard it expressed, "We need to work smarter ..."

Here's the LA Daily News report:

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Daily News - Special Report on Gangs

http://lang.dailynews.com/gangs/


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Part 1 - Terror in our streets

Homegrown terror
Fueled by drug money and revenge, street gangs have flourished and spread across Southern California and beyond in the face of sporadic and ineffective law enforcement efforts and inadequate intervention strategies. [MORE]

L.A. gang history runs deep
For decades, most of the gangland murders in Los Angeles have grown out of the endless war between the Crips and the Bloods. And that's still true today, even though Latino gangs outnumber black gangs 209 to 152. [MORE]

Gang homicide cases pending
Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley's hard-core gang division has about 250 gang-related homicide cases pending. Among 43 of the high-profile cases, 75 gangsters killed 55 people, including a pregnant woman, and 17 teenagers and young children, none of whom were gang members. [MORE]

Part 2 - Losing the war

Recipe for failure
Inadequate resources keep LAPD handcuffed
For three decades, police across Southern California have fought a losing war against street gangs, handcuffed by inadequate resources even as the number of gangsters exploded along with the violence, drug dealing and other crimes they bring with them. [MORE]

Catching up and combating gangs
Gangs have operated in Southern California in one form or another since the turn of the century.
But most law enforcement agencies, including the Long Beach Police Department, didn't dedicate specially trained investigators until gang crimes exploded in the middle 1980s. [MORE]

Interview with a gang member
From his own words
"I was 13 when I got jumped in," says James, a former Crip who would not disclose his last name. "I was tired of never having nothing, and the gang seemed like the best way, the only way, to get ahead." [MORE]

Regrettable mistakes
A lot of gang members are good at talking and looking tough.
But almost all of them, once pushed to talk about the gang life, will admit that the choices they made were mistakes they've grown to regret. The image of gangbangers glorified in popular music videos and movies bears little resemblance to reality. [MORE]

As funding decreases, crime increases
Funding of the tools needed to fight gangs has steadily eroded throughout Southern California in recent years, even as authorities have come to recognize it as the region's No. 1 crime problem. [MORE]

Part 3 - The fear

Living in fear
Terror reigns in the many neighborhoods of Los Angeles overrun by gangs. From the "shooting gallery" in parts of North Hills to the killing fields of South Los Angeles, law-abiding residents live in fear behind steel gates and bars, their children afraid to play outside. [MORE]

Gangs still thriving in neighborhoods
The police statistics say things are getting better: Violent crimes such as murders, assaults, robberies and drug sales declined 55 percent in Long Beach from 1981 to 2001. [MORE]

Part 4 - Agony of victims

Behind each tragedy lie grief and heartache of friends, family
Sixteen-year-old Martha Puebla testified against a man in a double-murder case and a week later was killed across the street from her home in Sun Valley in what police said was an attempt to intimidate witnesses in the case. [MORE]

Targets of gang violence
Ex-cop Richard Elizondo and his son had no sooner arrived home with a truck full of groceries than a volley of gunfire erupted outside their garage. Bam. The automatic garage door closed with a thud. [MORE]

Part 5 - Gangster culture

Revenge is primary motive for endless cycle of gang violence
Revenge mixed with the high-stakes battle for control of drug trafficking drives most gang violence. An insult, a confrontation, one incident leading to another, which creates a seemingly endless cycle of drive-by shootings and street violence that claims the lives of the innocent as well as the gangster. [MORE]

Cop still loves working with gangs
Like a lot of cops Lt. Roger Murphy found his calling fighting gangs, making Los Angeles' meanest streets safer for law-abiding citizens. "It was the idea of catching the bad guys," Murphy said as he patrolled the 10-square-mile 77th Division, the city's most violent. [MORE]

Glimpse into gangster lifestyle
The Rollin 60 Neighborhood Crips is the largest black criminal street gang in the City of Los Angeles with over 1,600 active members - the size of an Army brigade. A dissection of its operations by the LAPD, which was obtained by the Daily News, provides a unique window into the city's gang culture as compiled through oral histories, gang statistics and other intelligence. [MORE]

Part 6 - Greiving mothers

None wounded more deeply by gang violence
Luz Maria Gomez joined the peace movement in North Hills in May, four months after her 17-year-old son, Luis Rodriguez, joined the list of victims of gang violence. [MORE]

Part 7 - Bratton's challenge

LAPD's new chief believes gang problem can be solved
Los Angeles Police Department Chief William J. Bratton believes the region's long entrenched gang problem can be solved - with more cops and more and better prevention and intervention programs. In a series of interviews in recent weeks, Bratton said his two years as head of the LAPD have convinced him that gangs - which account for at least half of the region's homicides - are where the greatest inroads on violent crime can be made. [MORE]

Rampart scandal still haunts
The scandal that erupted in 1999 around Rampart Division gang cop Rafael Perez still haunts the Los Angeles Police Department today and likely will for years to come. Then-Chief Bernard Parks responded to the crisis by disbanding the LAPD's Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums, or CRASH, units, which was its main weapon against gangs, because of concerns about how widespread the abuses were, and because of questions about the management and training of the units. [MORE]

Part 8 - Finding solutions

Gang problem needs to be tackled in the schools, home
The war against gangs in Southern California can be won if the political will can be found to attack the problem as aggressively in the schools and homes as on the streets. More cops. More probation officers and intervention workers. More youth programs. More jobs. They're all needed and they all cost a lot of money. [MORE]

Priest devoted to working with gangs
The Rev. Gregory Boyle in August buried his 129th young victim of more than two decades of gang violence in Los Angeles. The memorial for Arturo Casas, 25, was particularly painful - he was the second graffiti-removal worker employed by Boyle's Homeboy Industries to be killed this summer. [MORE]

Chicago innovative in battling gang life

Officials in Chicago have taken innovative law enforcement, intervention, and prevention steps against gangs - including using a variety of behavioral strategies to change the violent "norms" of gang life - to cut shootings in half in targeted areas. [MORE]