Racial tension on LA's Streets
Despite Tuesday's shooting of a six-year-old black boy by Latino gang members in a Harbor Gateway area known for racial tension, LAPD Chief William Bratton says race wasn't a factor. And he bristled at a reporter's suggestion that it was increasingly a problem on LA streets.
Here, thanks to KTLA, is Bratton chiding KABC reporter Leo Stallworth.
A recent spate of high-profile gang shootings -with victims including a star athlete, students and infants -
have put Bratton on the defensive with city council members expressing outrage in this DN story over the violence and asking the city to review its response.
Homicides have jumped 24 percent this year from 54 victims to 67. Even though those classified as gang killings are still down. In the Valley there have been 14 homicides since March 1, one less than last year.
And some have suggested that the city is reluctant to confront race. An AP story quotes Joe Hicks, vice president of Community Advocates Inc. and former executive director of the city's Human Relations Commission, saying that race is part of a complex gang problem.
"There seems to be some reticence to talk about what is taking place," Hicks said. "There certainly appears to be a racialized component."
Comments
here is another senseless murder in our los angeles county area.A innocent child who had not even began to live his life. let's for one minute put race out of the picture let's use A HUMAN BEING this has reach into this family home and also the home of the murders. we need to start trying at some point to reconcile our diffrences and stop this hurt and pain, toward one another. It is digging into our homes, emotions, feeling and understanding while we all bleed the same red blood the BLOOD OF JESUS who gave us life and breathe. i you or my nieghbors who our entire community wake up and be on the wonder if today is my day or i cant go to that store wake up and look at the babnies in your home and family and say i rebuke this life. father grasp hold to your sons as you look into your own hearts if you are bangin look in the mirror at you and ask yourself what do you see and if you like what see what you have become and have you done onto you and others i send this cry out to our communities of los angeles county to please stop hurting us and yourself as these sensless murders are reaching into you and killing us slowly as human being please for me and my grandsons who i love so dearly
Posted by: kimberly smith | March 9, 2008 1:34 PM