LAT: L.A. mayor seeks federal aid to combat gangs

[ellisonz]

L.A. mayor seeks federal aid to combat gangs
By Megan Garvey and Patrick McGreevy, Times Staff Writers
January 4, 2007

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Wednesday appealed to U.S. Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales for additional funding and prosecutorial help to combat rising gang-related crime, kicking off what officials say will be a yearlong push to tackle one of the region's most intractable problems.

Citywide, gang crime increased 14% in 2006 — the first rise in four years and an uptick that Villaraigosa and LAPD Chief William J. Bratton say threatens to overshadow last year's overall 8% drop in serious and violent crime.

"We agreed that Los Angeles is the epicenter of the nation's gang crisis and an effective assault on gang crime will require increased suppression, intervention and prevention measures," Villaraigosa said after his 40-minute meeting with Gonzales in Washington, D.C.

The mayor sought millions of dollars in federal grants to target gangs in trouble spots such as South L.A., parts of the San Fernando Valley and Boyle Heights. He also asked Gonzales for continuing help from the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles in prosecuting gang members for federal crimes and focusing attention on foreign-born gangs such as Mara Salva Trucha, a gang from El Salvador.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-gangs4jan04,0,2177611.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[psychopomp]

1. Cops cannot stop the gangs

Often enough, street beefs are just an extension of something that went down inside anyways, so putting more youths in jail won't help.

The only way to get rid of the gangs is to provide jobs, hope and opportunity to people of the barrios and ghettos and we are a long way away from seeing a special federal mandate for that...

[ellisonz]

3. Well thats fine...

But I don't think releasing 200,000 folks from jail early in 2002 because of budget shortages helped. Moreover, there must be both social rehabilitation and law enforcement acting in concert to tackle the problem. Finally, these are not the 1990's style gangs anymore neccessarily, Mara Salvatrucha is an international organization. So Villaraigosa is really doing the right thing by trying to get the Feds to hold up their end of the bargain. Like it or not, gang related crime went up %14 last year in LA. This is serious.

[brentspeak]

9. People don't join gangs because they couldn't get a job

They join them because they're not interested in getting a job. Sometimes, they're motivated by peer pressure, or because everyone else is doing it, or simply because they want to be criminals. When Stanley "Tookie" Williams, one of the founders of the "Crips", killed his victims in the late 70's, he did partially because he enjoyed killing people.

[manic expression]

26. Yeah, people in gangs just like to kill people for sport

:eyes:

Jobs in the inner cities, when they can be had, pay next to nothing. It is very hard to support yourself. Gangs provide what is scarce in the areas they are strong in: a group, a place to feel that one belongs. Furthermore, when people see others with wealth (nice cars, etc...), they want it for themself as well, so where do they turn? Gang activities bring in money that other jobs do not.

Look at the root causes.

[krispos42]

2. Of course gang crime is up

The FBI and other law-enforcement bodies that tackle organized-crime have seen their efforts hastily refocused on terrorism, hunting down leads gasped out by some poor slob on his tenth hour of waterboarding just to make the pain stop.

"Yusef says that Al-Qaeda is going to blow up the South Dakota State Fair in Huron by dropping a barrel of Mentos into a rail tanker full of Diet Pepsi! Quick, to the Rushmore State! We must save the World's Biggest Pheasant so Dick Cheney can shoot it in the face!"

[ClintonTyree]

6. For the record.....

Diet Coke works much better than Diet Pepsi in the Mentos/diet soda phenomenon. More carbonation. ;) Just a silly sidebar.

[krispos42]

14. lol I sit on my fat ass corrected n/t

[High Plains]

10. Hey, I live in Huron, SD. We are deeply concerned about...

...possible Al Qaeda attacks on the World's Biggest Pheasant. Send more national security funds!

[krispos42]

13. I used to live there

Don't ever go to Huron Baptist Church. The pastor and his wife are total asses. I know from personal experience.

How's that turkey plant doing? I heard the beef plant got canned.

[High Plains]

16. The turkey plant is doing fine.

Employing lots of locals and Mexicans, too. We now have two Mexican restaurants and two Mexican stores in town. Love those tacos de carne asada.

So, yes, the working class here now has two choices: They can work the turk (the turkey plant) or work the jerk (the Jack Links beef jerky plant in Alpena).

It's a brand new day in Huron, South Dakota!

[krispos42]

17. Oh, you mean Taco John's and Mazatlan have competition now?

And I miss buying the bulk LSI scraps at the Fair City Foods. Four buck a pound for jerky!

<edit: Taco John's, I meant Taco John's>

[High Plains]

19. Yeah, La Victoria in the 300 block of Dakota Ave. South

Dude, I've eaten so much beef jerky around here I've used up my lifetime quota.

[krispos42]

27. Is the place any good?

My ex will be there this weekend for a belated Christmas with the creatures that are, unfortunately, her parents.

[DerBeppo]

4. Maybe if the city council learned to say "no"

to con men like Hector Marroquin and his No Guns group, then maybe there'd be some money left over for more enforcement. Then again, with half the murders in this town being gang on gang violence, it's far safer in most neighborhoods than the chicken little crowd is willing to admit.

[Gman]

7. Sieze any and all gang members' guns

then let them fight for theirselves in court to get their guns back. The guns are all stolen anyway.

[benEzra]

11. If they're gang members...

they probably would already be precluded by Federal law from so much as touching a gun in the first place, under the Gun Control Act of 1968; many would be underage for legal gun possession; and carrying a gun without a state-issued license is usually a felony, anyway. Meaning, that if they nab an actual gang member, they can do more than just take his gun; they can charge him with multiple federal and state felonies.

[pitohui]

15. they'll steal more guns, put gang members toting guns in prison

i don't know los angeles but in new orleans on new year's day 112 guns were stolen from a sporting goods store in metairie

today we have 5 murders in orleans parish alone in 14 hours, including a woman gunned down in front of a toddler

http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?/base/news-29/1167921849101640.xml&storylist=louisiana

these can't all be individual "beefs," it seems clear to me that gangs have deliberately targeted this area because of a perception that there is no law and order here

if these are national and even international crime organizations, it is way past time for the feds to get off to DO something, they cry about terror, well, we're being terrorized every damn day

[Howardx]

8. what a debacle that was

i just read about that in the weekly

[ClintonTyree]

5. I thought Laura Bush had that problem all smoothed over?

She was appointed, by hubby, as "Gang Czar" last year, wasn't she? :shrug: I wouldn't have thought the gangs stood any chance whatsoever up against "Pickles", that they'd throw down their arms and all start singing, "kumbaya", together.

Another failure from the Bush administration. Go figure.

[Retrograde]

18. you beat me to it

I thought Laura was going to resolve that little problem - IIRC one DUer explained that she was the right person for the job, as a used-to-be librarian, because the Crips were all Dewey Decimal and the Bloods were down with the Library of Congress catelog!

But, of course, it's all Pelosi's fault, as she takes office today.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

12. Ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

But I guess that makes too much sense.

[coalition_unwilling]

20. I wonder if some of that federal aid will be used to combat the

Los Angeles Police Department, which is one of the biggest and best-armed gangs in the city. They're notorious for shooting innocent children who have carjacked vehicles, beating black motorists when they think there are no video cameras around, harassing homeless in downtown's Skid Row who are in the way of the property developers.

Still, I guess a "War on Gangs" will provide more jobs domestically than a "War on Terror". Whatever . . .

I've lived in LA for 15 years, btw.

[ellisonz]

22. Say what you will...

But if the LAPD went away it would be unchecked anarchy, and that is not an exaggeration. Yes, there have been some very serious errors that deserve full consideration and prosecution. Crime is no joke, maybe you should see some of the less than stellar parts of the city?

I'm born and raised in LA and am away for college. I miss the food...

[coalition_unwilling]

23. I lived in Oakwood (Venice) for about 10 years. Live in Mar Vista now,

on the border of Culver City. Worked on outskirts of Skid Row (close to the LA Times headquarters downtown). If the LAPD went away, there would be anarchy (which I think by definition is "unchecked") and that might be bad and it might be good. But 10-year old black boys who carjacked cars would not get gunned down. And mentally deranged fathers holding their young daughters would not be gunned down (the daughter, that is).

Fact is, the police of any society tend to reflect the interests of the substructure they "protect and serve." LAPD protects the interests of the elite and ruling class at the expense of the working class. Ironic, since LAPD are themselves working class.

[ellisonz]

24. I generally agree...

But you still have not addressed the fact that the police do serve a vital service in society of enforcing law and order. I understand the significance of the materialist analysis, but that in and of itself does not disprove a functionalist analysis of the role of police in society.

I don't like pigs anymore than you do, but I understand why we need them.

[DBoon]

29. Per population, LA has far fewer cops than other big cities

By a huge margin.

Thanks to a lot of anti-tax stuff.

My theory is that the LAPD makes up in ferocity for what they lack in numbers.

Or, if there were more cops, you could keep public order without as much police abuse.

[krispos42]

28. Innocent carjackers?

When did carjacking become legalized?

The children carjackers my not have been shot for a justifiable reason by the police, but the kids are far from innocent. And, since I can't see any ten-year-old forcing my butt out of my car without pointing some sort of weapon at me, I doubt the children carjackers were unarmed, either.

So, how's that gun control in California workin' out for you?

[pitohui]

30. that caught my eye too

at this time of century i would not shed a tear for any carjacker shot dead on the spot frankly, i'm tired of the bullshit, there are other ways to steal cars that don't involve any human confrontation, a carjacker wants the power trip of maiming, raping, and killing, it ain't just about joyriding

[krispos42]

31. glad to know I'm not the only one seeing throught the spin! :-) n/t

[slackmaster]

21. Feds should pitch in to cover incarceration/prosecution of illegal immigrants

Thanks to Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, California may soon see more illegal immigrants getting deported after release from jail, instead of returning to our streets and continuing to commit crimes. Baca has been given the green light to start helping the federal government gather the information it needs to send these criminals home after they have served their time here in the United States.

"People who come here illegally and commit crimes need to be prosecuted, do their time and then return to their home country," Baca told the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors last week when he asked for, and received, their permission to train clerks to identify convicted illegal immigrants among county-jail inmates and turn them over to federal immigration officials....

...At last week's hearing, Baca told the Los Angeles County supervisors, "The magnitude of illegal immigrants in prisons and local jails in the United States is huge. It is well over $1 billion in costs." Yet last year, Congress allocated only $281 million for SCAAP. Los Angeles County received $13.8 million, although officials say illegal immigrants cost the county $80 to $100 million a year....

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2005/01/31/jnelson.DTL

[leftyladyfrommo]

25. Well, he will just have to get in line. First we have to create jobs

for the people in Iraq. And completely rebuild the country.

Then we might actually be able to spend some money in this country.