Recently in Gangs Category

A new study from Harvard looks at the changes in the Los Angeles Police Department over the last nearly 20 years. Today, 53 percent of new graduates were Latino, compared with 45 percent in 1990.

dailynews.com

Los Angeles police detectives are asking for the public's help in identifying the suspects responsible for the shooting deaths of 25-year-old Alejandro Robleos Perez and 19-year-old Javier Cordero Gonzalez.

The men were killed Saturday, May 16, 2009 about 4:30 a.m. near 2909 West Hyde Park Boulevard. The victims were standing on the sidewalk when the suspects approached them. The suspects suddenly began shooting multiple rounds, killing Perez and Gonzales.

Detectives have not determined whether the shooting is gang related.

Anyone with information regarding this murder investigation is asked to contact Criminal Gang Homicide Group Detectives Kenneth White and Refugio Garza at (213) 485-1383. After hours or on weekends, calls may be directed to a 24-hour, toll-free number at 1-877-LAPD-24-7 (527-3247) or by texting CRIMES (274637) and beginning the message with the letters LAPD. Tipsters may also submit information on the LAPD website: www.lapdonline.org. All tips may remain anonymous.

The city of Los Angeles is offering a $50,000 reward to help locate a murder suspect.

On January 25, 2008 about 11:30 p.m., Alvaro Ely Calderon was walking near the intersection of Strathern Street and Bellaire Avenue in North Hollywood when someone shot him. Witnesses saw a white, four-door Toyota, Honda or Nissan speed away from the scene.

Cops are asking that anyone with information about this crime call North Hollywood Homicide Detectives at (818) 623-4075. After hours or on weekends, calls may be directed to the North Hollywood Watch Commander at (818) 623-4016, or a 24 hour toll-free number at 1-877-LAPD-24-7 or by texting CRIMES (274637) and beginning the message with the letters "LAPD." Tipsters can also submit information on the LAPD website www.lapdonline.org. All tips may remain anonymous.

Police announced the arrest of a man and an accomplice believed responsible for the murder of a 24-year-old man named Victor Solis.

Solis was killed May 2, 2009, at 1:45 p.m. at Pepper Street in Cypress Park. He was discovered shot inside a vehicle. He was taken to a local hospital but he died.

Detectives identified two suspects, 21-year-old Adrian Martinez and 18-year-old Joshua Ricardo Galindes. Both men were believed to be gang members. Detectives believe Galindes was the triggerman.

Martinez late last week. Police found Galindes Monday afternoon in an area he was known to hang out in and saw him getting out of a car carrying a gun. Galindes tossed his weapon and tried to run away but was caught a short time later. His gun was also recovered, although it was not the same caliber as the weapon used in the killing, police said.

Police are asking that anyone with additional information is encouraged to contact LAPD Northeast Division detectives at (213) 847-4261. After hours and on weekends, calls may be directed to a 24-hour, toll-free number at1-877-LAPD-24-7 (527-3247). Callers may also text "Crimes" with a cell phone or log on to www.lapdonline.org and click on Web tips. When using a cell phone, all messages should begin with "LAPD." Tipsters may remain anonymous.

Relatives of a 17-year-old youth slain by an illegal alien -- sparking an unsuccessful drive to put what became known as "Jamiel's Law" on the city ballot -- have sued the county for wrongful death.

This afternoon at 12:30, Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo is holding a press conference to announce his latest crack down with a gang injunction against Barrio Van Nuys.

"BVN or Barrio Van Nuys gang is as dangerous or as potent as MS-13, 18th Street or any gang in the city," Delgadillo said Wednesday after filing paperwork seeking the injunction in Los Angeles Superior Court.

dailynews.com

Cops put out this release about a homicide in Pacoima.

Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) detectives are asking for the public's help to find the persons responsible for the shooting death of 19-year-old Samuel Trujillo of Pacoima.

On Wednesday, September 10 at about 8:40 p.m., Foothill patrol officers responded to a radio call of a shooting that occurred in the 11600 block of Woodcock Avenue in Pacoima. When officers arrived, they found a victim of a gunshot wound.

The victim was transported to a local area hospital where he later died of his injury.

Investigators believe that unknown suspects approached Trujillo and exchanged words concerning gang affiliation. The suspect, who was accompanied by several others, shot the victim.

The suspects are described as male Hispanics, in their 20s, wearing dark clothing.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Foothill Homicide Detectives Jose Martinez and Joshua Byers at 818-834-3115. After hours and on weekends calls may be directed to the 24-hour, toll-free number, 1-877-LAW-FULL (529-3855).

Two months after he took over the city's anti-gang programs, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Monday attributed a sharp drop in gang violence in some of the city's worst neighborhoods to a late-night summer program that offers sports, movies and marble tournaments in eight city parks. dailynews.com

A stray bullet struck and killed a 9-year-old girl in South Los Angeles Wednesday night.

Two male teens opened fire on a group of people near East 76th and South San Pedro streets around 8:45 p.m., and "a stray bullet struck a girl in the chest," Officer Jason Lee of the Los Angeles Police Department's Media Relations Section said.

9-years-old ...

dailynews.com

Criminal Justice Center
• Preliminary hearing in the case of Michael Henschel and Alan Mitchell, Valley businessman and an associate charged in a widespread real estate fraud case.

San Fernando Courthouse
• Trial status conference in in the case of Kimberly Carter, a Northridge woman charged with murder.
• Testimony in the trial of Roberto Mendez Alba and Edwardo Medina, charged with kidnapping for ransom.
• Arraignment for Ernesto Romero, Ritchi Palomo, Eddie Alvirez, Oscar Abdiez Andia, Victor Torres, Ronald Ruiz and Erik Viveros charged in a gang-related kidnapping for ransom.
• Jury trial in the case of James Anthony Rojas, a Mission Hills man charged in widespread real estate foreclosure fraud case.

Antelope Valley Courthouse
• Sentencing in the case of Christopher Anthony Hall, a Palmdale RV driver charged with murder and attempted murder.

Van Nuys Courthouse
• Status hearing in the case of Jesse Bernard Winnick, a man charged with fatally stabbing his mother.

San Fernando Courthouse
• Pretrial conference in the case of Jacquelin Linaras, charged in the death of an infant.

Van Nuys Courthouse
• Preliminary hearing in the case of Kevin Lamont Thomas, a former coach at Birmingham High School charged with sexually molesting four teenage girls in a private basketball camp he ran.
• Pretrial conference in the case of Bennett Ira Goldberg, a man charged with animal cruelty after his dog died in a hot car.

Pasadena Courthouse
• Jury trial in the case of Ezel Ethan Channel, a Nickelodeon employee charged with child molestation.

So you have heard about gangs in schools and in the military. But the National Football League?
I don't know, but here's an interesting article today in the LA Times that really shows just how wide the sphere of influence for gangs are.

Now let me just state for the record that I don't believe just because you are in a gang or have friends that are gang members you are a criminal or commit crimes. But a lot of law enforcement disagree and they view gang members as part of a "criminal syndicate."

Here's the article

Hand signals captured on videotape are once again being scrutinized around the NFL. Only this time, it's not the New England Patriots studying them for a competitive advantage, but league officials in search of a more sinister message.

The NFL, concerned that some players might celebrate by flashing the hand signals of street gangs, has hired experts to examine game tapes and identify the gestures.

"There have been some suspected things we've seen," said Milt Ahlerich, the league's vice president of security. "When we see it, we quietly jump on it immediately, directly with the team and the player or employee involved to cease and desist. Period."

Ahlerich says the league has long warned its players about the influence of gangs and other forms of organized crime, but that those admonishments have intensified since the 2007 killing of Denver Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams, who was gunned down after an altercation involving known gang members.

My colleague, Larry Altman, over at the Daily Breeze in Torrance got the scoop today of a ring of burglars busted in some 40 cases from the South Bay to Tarzana. Check out the Crime and Courts blog for more.

Ex-LAPD cop, Danny Mastro, spent 26 years seeing firsthand what gangs can do to the city of Angeles. Now as a retiree, he's planning anti-gang efforts in Simi Valley to make sure that the gang problem doesn't come over the hill into Simi from L.A. by expanding schools' intervention and prevention programs.

LAPD Chief William Bratton and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa held yet another press conference this week to tout falling crime numbers. This time, it was the mid-year report. (See story for details)

Numbers are a tricky thing and often politicians use them to tell the story they want to tell in the press, so I asked Cmdr. Jerry Szymanski over at Valley Bureau --who I am sure wants to also tell a story of cops supressing gangs-- about how these crimes are classified and possibly manipulated.

First of all a crime is considered a gang crime if the suspect or the victim is a gang member _ regardless of what motivated the crime. For instance if a gang member is robbed at a liquor store: gang crime. If a female gang member is raped by her non-gang boyfriend: gang crime. And vice-versa.

The department tracks 12 violent gang crimes; homicide, aggravated assault, attacks on officers, rape, robbery, carjacking, kidnapping, shots fired into dwelling, arson, criminal threats and extortion.

Arguably, there's ways to hide gang crimes from other crimes. For instance, you can classify the number of homicides, which are up, as non-gang crimes and make it look as if gang crime is falling all together.

But Szymanski assured me this wasn't the case and frankly few people have a good inside view of what the LAPD is doing other than federal monitors. But to be sure he pointed to a statistic that most accept as one of the best ways to measure violence in the city: the number of people shot.

Across the board, it's falling whether it is a gang crime or not.

In the Valley, year to date, there's been 125 people shot compared to 172 last year.

A Vineland Boyz member will spend the rest of his life in prison for shooting to death a 16-year-old girl who had testified against one of his fellow gang members. Raul Robledo was sentenced to the life term in a closed hearing Monday. The 30-year-old shot Martha Puebla outside her San Fernando Valley home on May 12, 2003. Days earlier she had testified at a hearing against Jose Ledesma, a fellow gang member of Robledo's. Ledesma and another member, Javier Covarrubias, admitted their roles in Puebla's death and are serving life sentences.

I wrote about Puebla in the pages of the Daily News in 2003. Her family told me she was a caring aunt to a then-7-year-old nephew who, admittedly, associated with troublesome friends.

She was shot across the street from her home in the 7600 block of Case Avenue. She was standing in front of her house, talking to friends when a man walked up to her and fired several shots from a pistol, then took off in a dark blue midsize sedan.

Family members told me that before the man fired the gun, he asked her sister, ``Do you know me?'' and Puebla responded no.

Police said then that the case was a "slap at the fiber" of the criminal justice system because they rely on witnesses to come forward and they promised to pursue the case with "great vigor."

While LAPD Chief William Bratton said that media has been playing up the city's race problem, his counterpart at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has a completely different view.

So let me be very clear about one thing: We have a serious interracial violence problem in this county involving blacks and Latinos.

Some people deny it. They say that race is not a factor in L.A.'s gang crisis; the problem, they say, is not one of blacks versus Latinos and Latinos versus blacks but merely one of gang members killing other gang members (and yes, they acknowledge, sometimes the gangs are race-based).

But they're wrong. The truth is that, in many cases, race is at the heart of the problem. Latino gang members shoot blacks not because they're members of a rival gang but because of their skin color. Likewise, black gang members shoot Latinos because they are brown.

Here is his full editorial in the LATimes

A popular 17-year old football player who was slain last weekend after he confronted gang members crashing a graduation party will be buried Friday at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery.

Jesus Florian, known to friends as "Chimpo," was beloved among students at Francis Polytechnic High School.

"There was a lot of grief about the loss," said the school's interim principal Gerardo Loera. "He was a popular guy."

Over the past week grieving Polytechnic students raised $4,540 for Florian's family while the football booster club raised $3,000 for them.

Police said Florian did not associate with gangs but the shooting comes amid a spate of juvenile homicides in the San Fernando Valley _all gang-related.

On May 12, Manuel Rodriguez, a 16-year-old was shot and killed as he rode his bicycle near Remick Avenue and Weidner Street in Pacoima.

On May 5, Alejandro "Slash" Villa, a 14-year-old was shot in the back and killed after a fight with a group of teenage boys along the 12700 block of Van Nuys, less than a block from his Pacoima home.

On April 18, Victor Fajardo, a 15-year-old was shot and killed as he walked along the 7000 block of Ethel Avenue near Madison Middle School in North Hollywood.

The youngest of those murdered, Villa was a former Maclay Middle School student who had attended meetings at Communities in Schools, a gang intervention group, but friends and family said teetered on the edge of trouble.

His killing prompted a series of meetings at the school where students range in age from 9 to 14 years of age and experts say the lure to gangs begins. Counselors met with the parents of at-risk youth, each from separate gang territories to warn them of the dangers.

But some just didn't believe their young children could get tangled in the violence.
Now, with the summer months approaching --traditionally the most violent days in the city-- gang intervention groups and others are worried about the numbers of teens on the streets.

"There's no outreach out there. There are things to do for kids but it is minimal, especially in this part of the Valley," said Luis Rodriguez, author of "Always Running La Vida Loca, Gang Days in LA" and owner of Tia Chucha's Cafe in Lake View Terrace.

Police are still searching for Florian's killers and a $50,000 reward is expected to be posted next week.

SUN VALLEY -- With police still searching for the killers of a 17-year-old Polytechnic High School football player shot to death at a house party, officials announced Wednesday they will be seeking a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

Police say Jesus Florian, known as "Chimpo," was not associated with gangs but confronted gang members who crashed the party after midnight Saturday. He was shot several times in his upper torso.

It's unclear why he confronted the shooter, but the high school graduation and birthday party near Neenach Street and Amboy Avenue had just been winding down. Police say teens had been dancing, and the person who threw the party was not involved.

City Councilman Tony Cardenas, who represents the area, introduced the reward motion to the council Wednesday. It is expected to be approved next week.

"This is another tragedy involving a promising student who had a wealth of opportunities and a bright future brutally taken away from him," he said.

The suspect is described as a Latino in his late teens or early 20s with a shaved head and a thin mustache, 5 foot 8 to 5 feet 9 inches tall with a stocky build.

Anyone with information is asked to call LAPD North Hollywood detectives at 818-623-4045.

Los Angeles Police detectives are asking for the public's help to identify the person(s) responsible for the shooting death of 21-year old Derek Chambers.

On Saturday evening, May 31, 2008, at around 11:00 p.m., Southeast patrol officers were patrolling in the area of 108th Street and Figueroa Street when they heard four to five shots from the immediate area. The officers saw several people who were fleeing eastbound on 108th Street from Figueroa Street. As officers continued to investigate they found Chambers in front of 511 W. 108th Street, who had been shot multiple times.

Los Angeles Fire Department Paramedics transported Chambers to local hospital where he died from his injuries.

No suspects were seen. Witnesses told investigators that they had seen a dark four-door sedan drive away after hearing the gunshots.

The motive for this shooting is unknown, however it was likely gang related. The suspect(s), vehicle and weapon remain outstanding.

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call South Bureau Homicide Detectives Roger Allen or Scott Wilhelm at 213-485-1383. After hours and on weekends, call the 24-hour toll free number at the Detective Information Desk at 1-877-LAW-FULL (529-3855).

lapdblog

NPR is taking a deep look at rising gang violence in Los Angeles, starting out in South L.A. during a ride-along with veteran LAPD Sergeant Herb Cirilo. npr.org

Gunmen killed the head of Mexico's federal police force early Thursday in a brazen hit against the man who had become the public face of the country's war on drug cartels.

What's wrong with this picture?

U.S. border authorities no longer apprehend illegal immigrants only as they enter the country. Now they're catching them on the way out. At random times near the Tijuana-San Diego border, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers have been setting up checkpoints, boarding buses destined for Mexico and pulling off people who don't have proper documentation, latimes.com.

More on the death of a 14-year-old boy, Alejandro Villa ...

PACOIMA - In one of the last photos taken of Alejandro Villa before he was shot to death less than a block from his home, he is smiling, sitting in the back of a limousine.

The snapshot is from a quinceañera, where the 14-year-old boy danced so much and had such a good time that he promised to dance more often, his sister said.

And for months, he had been telling his mother he was going to stay out of trouble. He even had joined a boxing class through the gang intervention group Communities in School.

But Alejandro teetered on the edge, sometimes mixing with the wrong crowd. And in the end, his words to his family weren't enough.

dailynews.com

Officer Ryan Whiteman is in the vanguard of a push to target hard-core gangs, not with sweeping paramilitary force but with aggressive, targeted enforcement by officers who know the players in the hood, the The Times reports.

From the LAPD. A homicide in South L.A.

On April 19, 2008, at about 4:15 a.m., 31-year-old Charles Corey was in front of his apartment building at the 3200 block of West 60th Street when a suspect in a tan, newer-model car, possibly a Toyota Corolla, drove by and fired multiple gunshots. Corley was hit several times and collapsed on the street. The vehicle and suspects proceeded eastbound on West 60th Street toward 8th Avenue.

Los Angeles Fire Department personnel responded to the incident and the victim was transported to a local hospital where he underwent surgery and was placed on life-support systems until his recent death on April 23, 2008, at 12:50 p.m.

The motive for the murder is unknown and the suspects, their vehicle and weapons remain outstanding.

Anyone with information is asked to call South Bureau Homicide Detectives Bill Ritch or Bertha Durazo at (213) 485-1383. After hours and on weekends, calls may be directed to a 24-hour detective information desk at 1-877-LAW-FULL (529-3855).

Anyone out there know this kid, a 15-year-old shot in a gang related incident? Anyone else out there as outraged?

Police say a young teenager was shot to death amid gang related shooting yesterday evening in North Hollywood.

The shooting happened around 7:15 p.m., in the 7000 block of Ethel Avenue. When police arrived they found the body of 15-year-old Victor Fajardo lying on the sidewalk suffering from gunshot wounds.

Paramedics rushed Fajardo to Holy Cross Medical Center where he died.

According to investigators, two Latino men confronted Fajardo as he walked along the sidewalk. One of the men pulled out a handgun and brutally shot Fajardo. Both suspects drove off in a 2000 or 2004 black Mustang.

Detectives have few leads and described the gunmen only as Hispanic.

Anyone with information regarding this shooting is asked to contact North Hollywood Homicide Detective Richard Wheeler at 818-623-4075. During off-hours or on weekends, call the 24-hour toll free number at 1-877-LAWFULL (529-3855).

Calling around to the Mission Division yesterday, cops told me the story of a group of young gangsters who went on a robbery spree in Sylmar. The youngest suspect is 16 and he's accused of wielding the weapon during the hold-ups. It wasn't some gang initiation rite either. They were doing it for the thrill.

SYLMAR - Five suspected gang members, including a 16-year-old boy, were arrested in connection with a string of at least seven street robberies over the last couple of weeks in the Sylmar area, police said today.

Sunland residents, Miguel Ramos Jr., an 18-year-old auto bodyshop worker, and Melissa J. Graciano, also 18, were arrested April 8 after a hold-up at a Sylmar smoke shop, said Los Angeles Police Officer Christine Mondell. They are accused of stealing a vaporizer used to smoke pot, Mondell said. Both allegedly are members of the Toonerville gang, police said.

They and three others, Francisco J. Carranza, a 20-year-old gardener from Sylmar, Sylvia Medina, 21, a customer service rep from Pacoima, and an unidentified 16-year-old boy are accused of ripping off a couple thousand dollars from at least seven people at gunpoint on the streets of Sylmar over the last two weeks. The 16-year-old is accused of wielding the gun during the heists, Mondell said. He is an alleged member of an up-and-coming gang known as 2XL.

dailynews.com

Here's a few headlines from the Daily News crime pages ...

• I'm chasing down some more details on a homicide from Sunday night in North Hollywood. Here's what we have so far. A man was fatally shot as he sat in the passenger seat of a car parked outside a liquor store, authorities said Monday. The shooting occurred about 9:30 p.m. Sunday at Sherman Way and Lankershim Boulevard, said Officer Sara Faden of the Los Angeles Police Department's Media Relations Section. North Hollywood has seen more than five homicides so far this year, appears to be the the highest number in the Valley. dailynews.com

• In case you missed it, I wanted to throw some props to my colleague Troy Anderson who wrote about court security problems as threats against judges and other officials has skyrocketed.

  Even as Los Angeles County's sprawling court system seeks to mete out justice, security is becoming a growing concern as the number of threats against its 600 judges, commissioners and referees has more than doubled in the past two years. Threats against court personnel surged from 99 in 2006 to 267 last year, according to court records. And as violence and threats have risen, security costs have soared from $132 million three years ago to $169 million.

  dailynews.com

• And a promotion at the LAPD ... Terry S. Hara became the highest ranking Asian- American in Los Angeles Police Department history as he was promoted to the rank of deputy chief during a ceremony at the Police Academy.

LAPD officer Manuel Tarango uses a microscope to look at a .380 bullet shell casing at the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center/LA Regional Loboratory. The shell casing comes from the gun of a suspect in a shooting in the Valley.

Rachel takes us into the offices of the LAPD's ballistics unit for a story about how cops piece together bullet fragments and shell casings found on the streets to the people responsible for pulling the trigger.

She writes that the unit is the backbone of law enforcement and can make or break cases.

dailynews.com

The Los Angeles Times today has a piece chronicling the life of a part of South Los Angeles reeling from violence, a neighborhood where shootings occur, where residents try to get cops to tackle the problem of mobile prostitution vans and to crack down on unscrupulous landlords who run slum apartments where many of his students live in dangerous and unsanitary conditions. One resident doesn't bother calling the cops. "No one does, she explained, not so much because the police are feared but because you will become a target yourself if you are known to have ratted out a criminal."

latimes.com

From the Los Angeles Police Department's overnight significant crimes report ... A possible gang shooting occurred yesterday afternoon at 2:32 p.m. in the 9000 block of Orion Avenue in North Hills. Three Latino boys ages 13 to 16 believed to be in an unknown gang used a semi-automatic pistol to shoot at a possible rival. Nobody was hit and gang detectives today are trying to sort it all out. LAPD Detective Todd Booth, up at the Mission Division, said police are getting conflicting reports about the case.

If anybody on the street out there knows what happened, drop us a line.

The Los Angeles Police Department recently updated its top 10 most wanted gangster list.

With the March 25, capture of the LAPD’s sixth Top-10 Most Wanted Gang Member, Police Chief William Bratton and Mayor Antonio Villaragosa today announced the name of the next local gang member to be added to the list.

Gildardo Pena, 28 is a member of the Toonerville criminal street gang. An arrest warrant for murder was issued for Gildardo after he was implicated in the November 6, 2005, shooting death of 45-year-old Donald Nelson. The murder occurred at midnight in the 7000 block of Valmont in Tujunga. Nelson was killed for the gang’s belief that he was providing information to police about Toonerville gang members.

The suspect should be considered armed and dangerous. He is Hispanic 5’11, 176 pounds and has back hair and brown eyes. Members of the community are encouraged to call their local police station or the LAPD’s toll free number at 1-877-LAWFULL (529-3855).

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Wendy Greuel held a press conference yesterday to announce that her office, local residents in the North Hollywood area and police have helped increase the number of graffiti paint outs and cut gang-related crimes as part of a year-long community empowerment plan.

"Last year our valley neighborhoods saw graffiti rise, gang crime increase and illicit activity spread," Greuel Greuel said, joined by LAPD Deputy Chief Michel Moore and local residents. "We launched an aggressive campaign to take back our streets. One year later our success is clear. Thanks to an unprecedented level of community engagement and an influx of city services, we are keeping our streets safe and clean."

Greuel noted that since March 2007 the program has helped increased graffiti removal in her district by 52 percent and kicked up the number of Neighborhood Watches by 25 percenty.

Gang-related assaults in the southeast San Fernando Valley dropped by 46 percent in the first three months of 2008 compared to the previous year, she noted, without providing the data. As part of her effort to clean up neighborhoods, Greuel has sponsored seven town-hall style meetings on public safety, that saw over 1,000 residents and a mural program for 300 elementary and middle school students.

In addition, she has led residents to adopt over 40 graffiti hotspots, sponsored, installed 100 new street lights in alleys and secured funding for 10 cameras.

Greuel kicked-off her public safety campaign after LAPD announced that gang crime had risen in the San Fernando Valley by 40 percent over the previous year and graffiti had increased 300 percent in Council District 2.

The "Broken Window" theory states that in order to fight violent crime, it is necessary to also crack down on minor crimes like vandalism. All urban blight contributes to the progressive deterioration of neighborhood safety, but no vandalism is more inherently tied to violence and gang activity than graffiti, she said.

"We know that the safest neighborhoods are the most engaged neighborhoods," said Moore, the Valley's top cop. "Councilwoman Greuel and her engaged residents have provided critical support to our police work in the Valley."

New Neighborhood Watch signs for the Teesdale Neighborhood Watch were put up. It became one of the 24 Neighborhood Watches under the effort. Since its inception in early 2007, the Teesdale Neighborhood Watch has worked with Councilwoman Greuel to purchase and install a Q-star camera in a nearby graffiti hot spot, condemn a local abandoned building, eliminate illegal dumping in local alleys and increase graffiti reporting.

"This neighborhood has really turned around in the last six months thanks to the community's work and the support of Councilwoman Greuel," said George Characky, a founding member of the Teesdale Neighborhood Watch. "We used to have huge issues with illegal dumping and graffiti. Now my wife and I drive through the neighborhood and we are just thrilled."

As part of her effort to reduce gang violence across the City of Los Angeles, Councilwoman Greuel recently introduced measures that will implement the Controller's reforms of the City's anti-gang efforts. The recommendations include institutionalizing evaluation criteria to measure the success of city-funded anti-gang programs, re-procuring all current gang prevention contracts and re-programming $19 million of City funds to more effective gang prevention programs.

The buzz this morning is over the big front page mea culpa The Los Angeles Times wrote over a recent story about a brutal 1994 attack on rap superstar Tupac Shakur.

They were hoodwinked by a con artist informant who faked up documents to look like legitimate FBI file papers. Today, The Times' reporter Chuck Philips and his supervisor, Deputy Managing Editor Marc Duvoisin, who were responsible for the story, apologized as they took the heat.

The Shakur article appeared on latimes.com last week and two days later in the paper's Calendar section. The criticism came first from The Smoking Gun Web site, which said the newspaper had been the victim of a hoax, and then from subjects of the story, who said they had been defamed, The Times reported today.

"In relying on documents that I now believe were fake, I failed to do my job," Philips said in a statement yesterday, according to The Times. "I'm sorry."

In his statement, Duvoisin added: "We should not have let ourselves be fooled. That we were is as much my fault as Chuck's. I deeply regret that we let our readers down."

Times Editor Russ Stanton announced that the newspaper would launch an internal review of the documents and the reporting surrounding the story.

The Shakur article described a Nov. 30, 1994, ambush at Quad Recording Studios in New York, where the rap singer was pistol-whipped and shot several times by three men. No one has been charged in the crime, but before his death two years later, Shakur said he suspected allies of rap impresario Sean "Diddy" Combs.

The assault triggered a bicoastal war between Shakur and fellow adherents of West Coast rap and their East Coast rivals. One such rival, Notorious B.I.G., whose real name was Christopher Wallace, was shot to death, as was Shakur.

The Shakur story said The Times had obtained FBI records in which a confidential informant accused two men of helping to set up the attack on Shakur -- rap talent manager James Rosemond and James Sabatino, identified in the story as a promoter. The story said the two allegedly wanted to curry favor with Combs and believed Shakur had disrespected them.

The purported FBI records are the documents Philips and Duvoisin now believe were faked, The Times reported.

The story prompted vehement denials from lawyers for Combs and Rosemond, both before and after publication, according to The Times.

latimes.com
dailynews.com

For weeks, LAPD Chief William Bratton has been saying it appears none of the high profile killings/shootings this year were racially motivated. The LAPD even released a report analyzing homicides last week. The agency came to the conclusion that most killings are Latino on Latino or African-American on African-American, not inter-racial. But he and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa went off message Wednesday admitting that in Los Angeles (the city that spawned the movie "Crash") it's hard to deny there could be racial tension.

``In a city as diverse as this one, is there conflict among races? Of course. Is it increasing? It may be. But I can tell you this, it's nowhere near what we've heard, frankly, from some of the media sources when these incidents occur,'' Villaraigosa told a crowd of reporters gathered for a press conference with U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey.

Bratton followed with, ``Do I personally suspect that race might have been a factor underlying
the gang issues? I do. Can I prove it? I cannot.''

Their comments ended up being some of the most interesting during a press conference to announce the capture of a top 10 gang member, the indictment of 13 Grape Street Crips and associates who allegedly ran a PCP ring and to assure the public the feds and the city are working hard to fight gangs.

Even Mukasey jumped in.

``When somebody is murdered, whether they're African-American or Caucasian or Asian or Hispanic, that is a tragedy and it's a tragedy we don't want to suffer," he said.

From yesterday's LAPD incident report, a man jewelry carrier was robbed yesterday at 3:45 p.m. at Ventura Boulevard and Matilija Avenue in Sherman Oaks as he was walking from an unknown store to his car when two men - no descriptions were immediately available - drove, simulated a handgun, smashed his rear window and took jewelry that was in backpacks before disappearing.

Detective Dan Nee, who specializes in these kinds of heists tells me that could be part of an ongoing trend of Colombians and others from South America who have been targeting jewelry salesmen and stealing their jewelry. Nee said it appears to be the same M.O. although he will need to see the crime report before he can make a more educated guess.

Nee is investigating at least two other recent incidents nearby, one in Studio City and one in North Hollywood. I wrote about them earlier this year.

NORTH HOLLYWOOD - A burglary from a car recently at a gas station in North Hollywood has been tied to a South American jewelry theft ring that has been targeting the San Fernando, San Gabriel valleys and Los Angeles areas in recent years, a detective said today.

The latest incident took place just before 11 a.m. on Jan. 31 at a gas station in the 12500 block of Ventura Boulevard, said Los Angeles Police Detective Dan Nee. Two men, described as Latino, and one wearing a hat pulled low on his head, smashed through a vehicle window and stole from the backseat a case containing between $40,0000 and $50,000 in finished gold jewelry.

They had likely targeted the jewelry salesman and followed him from his home as he set out on his sales calls in the downtown Los Angeles Jewelry Mart for the day, Nee said. It wasn't the first time the victim had been targeted. Last year about the same time, thieves stole about the same amount of jewelry from him, Nee said.

"As a result, he's retiring from the business," said Nee.

No suspects have been arrested. A surveillance video from the gas station caught two suspects in a late 90s Nissan Maxima with no license plates.

Nee said he believes the thieves are among one of several crews from Colombia targeting the San Fernando Valley. Trained as pick-pockets in their home country, then graduating to jewelry thefts, Nee said he has seen several groups follow jewelry salesmen from their homes then rob them for 10s of thousands of dollars in loot.

A jewelry salesman was robbed in December outside a Starbucks in the 12800 block of Ventura Boulevard in Studio City.

We have the scoop this morning from the LAPD's North Hollywood Division about a series of raids on Vineland Boys gang members, the ones you may recall were responsible for the shootout in 2003 that left rookie Burbank Officer Matthew Pavelka dead and wounded his partner Gregory Campbell. I bet the gangsters are wishing they had chosen a lower-profile enterprise.

NORTH HOLLYWOOD - Nearly 200 cops blitzed the North Hollywood area this morning, arresting nine suspected members of the Vineland Boys gang on narcotics and gun possession charges in an operation dubbed 'Wild Card,' a detective said this morning.

LAPD Metro officers, gang cops, and school police fanned out during pre-dawn raids at 15 homes mostly in the North Hollywood area where the Vineland Boys claim as their turf, police said.

Wild Card is the police department's effort to challenge a particularly active and violent clique of Vineland known as the Jokers, police said.

dailynews.com

A year after Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and LAPD Chief William Bratton declared gangs public enemy No.1, crime has plummeted, homicides are at 30-year lows, and for the first time cops are working with hard-core gang interventionists to quell rivalries. Despite the gains, though, some of the boldest initiatives of Villaraigosa's anti-gang plan are barely getting off the ground, while other efforts that have been touted as "successes" aren't so clear-cut. A gang czar appointed in June who was supposed to bring the problems into sharper citywide focus so far has little power.

dailynews.com

My competitor over at The Times, Richard Winton, a prolific writer and stand-up all around guy, wrote a story today about a raid in which Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies nabbed a prolific tagger said to be responsible for over $100,000 in vandalism. In this photo above is Sheriff‘s Deputy James Johnson leading Gustavo Romero, 23, to a patrol car. The arrest warrant named Romero in 72 acts of vandalism, resulting in $108,000 of property damage.

latimes.com

Keeping you up to date on last summer's slaying of 31-year-old Eric Perez, a suspected gang member from Arleta. A man who was arrested last month was re-arrested last Thursday after a short search in the Sylmar area.

Murder charges have been filed against Santos Anthony Topete. He was arrested Feb. 7 at a gas station near Foothill Boulevard and Maclay Street, after a roughly 30-minute search by police, said Los Angeles Police Lt. Ernie Eskridge.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office has filed murder charges with gang and gun enhancements against Topete in connection with the death of Eric Perez, 31, a suspected gang member from Arleta, police said. Perez was shot at 12:30 a.m. July 1 after leaving a party in the 16000 block of Los Alimos Street in Granada Hills, police said. Topete was previously arrested Jan. 8 in connection with the slaying, but the DA's Office declined to file murder charges then for a lack of evidence.

A woman who said she was Topete's fiancee said the incident occurred before she was in the picture, but that, "he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"He's a good person," said the woman.

Los Angeles County Superior Court records online show that Topete was convicted in November 2005 of engaging in a speed contest and being an unlicensed driver.

dailynews.com

There was a gang-related homicide in North Hollywood Friday night. I just spoke with Detective Rich Wheeler, a supervisor over at the Los Angeles Police Department's North Hollywood station about it. No arrests have been made. Here's what I've got so far.

NORTH HOLLYWOOD - A 31-year-old man with no apparent gang ties was fatally wounded Friday night in a drive-by shooting two blocks away from his North Hollywood home, police said.

Alvaro Ely Calderon was on his way home from an am/pm mini market with a 40-ounce bottle of Miller Lite when somone inside a white vehicle fired shots, striking him at least four times before 11:40 p.m. on Bellaire Avenue near Blythe Street, said Los Angeles police Detective Rich Wheeler.

Calderon died later at a local hospital.

The gunman was inside possibly a Honda or Nissan car with as many as four people in it, Wheeler said.

Calderon, who is divorced and has a child has no known gang ties, nor any gang-related arrests, Wheeler said. He was living with his mother and father who were asleep at home at the time their son was shot.

"This is a murder you hate to get," Wheeler said. "There's not a lot of good, juicy clues to follow up on."

Anyone with information is asked to call Wheeler or Detective Martin Pinner at (818) 623-4075.

dailynews.com

With a horde of cameras focusing in on them, a line of LAPD detectives joined with Chief William Bratton and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced Tuesday the department had cracked one of 2007's most brazen and chilling crimes -- a 23-day-old baby shot allegedly by 18th Street gang members trying to collect "taxes" from street vendors near MacArthur Park. (see entry below)

The crime gripped the mostly immigrant community, and took a throng of police and media attention to break the silence.

As a grip of cameras gathered on Tuesday for the press conference announcing the news, several Spanish language reporters kept turning back to the untold assaults, shakedowns and intimidation that continues in the neighborhood.

Did you know about these, one reporter asked.

Yes, was the answer.

It's not going to go away soon.

Last year, the LAPD reported extortion cases citywide were up 200 percent from 14 to 28.

But those are the reported crimes and some believe just the tip of the iceberg. Police know that many, many immigrants fearful of retaliation and of being deported, will not talk to cops, and others fear retaliation.

Police announced the arrests of eight gang members in connection with the slaying of a 23-day-old baby - you read it right, a 23-day-old baby - killed during a likely extortion attempt near MacArthur Park in September. The baby Luis Angel Garcia, was shot at Sixth Street and Burlington Avenue. Francisco Clemente, 37, also was shot and critically injured. Police said they believe Clemente was the intended target of an extortion attempt. This case is one of the most egregious that we've seen in a while. Wonder if this is the youngest murder victim. There's really not a whole lot more to say about this case. Stunned.

Here's an update to an earlier post from last week.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office declined to file murder charges against a 20-year-old man who was arrested in connection with a suspected gang-related shooting that left a 31-year-old man dead and wounded another man this summer.

dailynews.com

San Fernando Valley gang homicides fell nearly 40 percent in 2007 to 29, down from 48 the year before, the Los Angeles Police Department reported. Overall gang crime was down about 5 percent in the Valley and around 4percent citywide. Citywide, gang homicides fell to 216 from 294 in 2006, a 26.5 percent decline, the LAPD reported. Aggravated assaults citywide and in the Valley fell by about 9percent. But gang-member attacks on police officers jumped from 16 to 23 in the Valley, a 44percent increase. In contrast, gang attacks on officers fell citywide to 89 from 91, the LAPD said.

dailynews.com

A long-awaited court case looks like it could be moving forward today involving three accused members of the Armenian Power street gang who are charged in a shooting that wounded a rival Latino tagging crew member in Glendale in 2006 after an alley fight between the two groups.

It looks like both the victim's gang and the suspects' gang were flexing their muscles over turf.

The boys who were 15 and 14-years-old at the time of the April 17, 2006 shooting at Adams Street and Elm Elk Avenue are being tried as adults and police are still seeking an additional suspect, whose fingerprint was allegedly found on the revolver that was believed used in the shooting.

According to transcripts of the March 2007 preliminary hearing, Boris Voskanyan, Karapet Tumanyan, and Sevak Mehrabian were allegedly in a car and pulled up alongside Augustin "Icer" Rodriguez and his friends on Adams Street and Elk Avenue. Someone inside the car allegedly fired between three and four shots, wounding Rodriguez, who testified in court as belonging to a tagging crew called Krazy Demons.

The shooting capped a fight apparently that broke out earlier between Armenians and Latinos, according to court testimony. One shot was fired in the air in an alley during the scuffle, sending people scattering. Later the group of Armenians in the car pulled up alongside of a group of Latinos, shouted "Westside A.P." - for Armenian Power - then fired.

Rodriguez suffered a bullet wound to his left thigh and has since recovered.

Testifying at the preliminary hearing, Rodriguez said he believed there were two males in the front seats and three in the back. He said he did not get a good look at the triggerman who he believed was sitting in the back seat and wearing a black hood over his head.

“I didn't get a good look at him, because when I looked over, I saw the gun and he had his hood on and I went to the floor,” he testified.

Witness Victor Escalante couldn't identify the shooter either.

“I just saw a gun come out, and it just shot,” he testified. “I just saw my friend, Augustin, just limp across the street ... We pulled up his pants and it was all bleeding.”

Police recovered a silver Taurus .38 caliber revolver with wooden grips believed used in the shooting, the court papers said. It was found a day after the shooting inside a box in the carport area at the Glendale apartment complex where Tumanyan lived.

During an interview with police, Mehrabian told detectives he was in the car, in the front passenger seat, at the time of the shooting and fingered Karapet “Violent” Tumanyan as the driver. He identified Boris “Shades” Voskanian and Hayk Antonian, the fugitive, as sitting in the backseat.

He said that if any shooting happened inside that car, it “came from the back of the car.” Antonian was arrested the next day and police said he gave them a key bit of information, telling them that when he and his associates typically hide guns, they keep them in a covered toy wagon in the carport area of Tumanyan's home, Glendale Police Detective Matt Irvine testified.

Police did not find the gun there, but did later found it in one of two boxes in the carport area, Irvine testified.

Antonian, who was detained for questioning, was released for a lack of evidence, a mistake, Irvine acknowledged in court.

After police had the gun analyzed, they found only one print – belonging to Antonian and police issued a warrant for his arrest.

“At the time, a day after the shooting, our belief was that Hayk was neither the driver or the person who brandished the gun in the initial confrontation, nor the person who actually shot Rodriguez,” Irvine testified. “And therefore, we felt at the time that he was more useful to us as a witness than as a suspect. In retrospect, that thinking was incorrect.”

Tumanyan, Mehrabian and Voskanian face attempted murder and other charges. Stay tuned for updates about the status of the case.

Police made an arrest in a gang murder case.

GRANADA HILLS - A 20-year-old man was arrested in connection with a gang-related shooting that left a 31-year-old man dead and wounded another man this summer, police said.

Santos Anthony Topete, unemployed from Sylmar, was arrested Tuesday at his home in connection with the July 1 killing of Eric Perez, a suspected member of the San Fer gang, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

The shooting occurred at 12:30 a.m. as two men were leaving a party in the 16000 block of Los Alimos Street in Granada Hills, police said. The suspect fired multiple rounds striking each victim numerous times. Both victims were transported to a local hospital in separate, private vehicles.

Perez, of Arleta, died shortly after his arrival at the hospital. The second victim, an unidentified 25-year-old resident of Sylmar, was treated for his injuries and later released. Mission gang unit officers LAPD homicide Detective Terence Keyzer said Perez was a member of the San Fer gang a Pacoima gang.

Topete was in jail awaiting a court hearing.

The cops threw the book at these guys.

Five people have been charged with attempted murder and other counts in connection with a takeover robbery of a San Fernando Valley medical-marijuana dispensary that sparked renewed concern about the safety of the facilities and forced the owner to shut down out of fear.

dailynews.com

Doing my routine checks of all the arrests from overnight around the city, I got the story of a drug rip off crew with a back story that gets real murky and involves a drug sale to a teen girl who overdosed this summer. This is the top of the story.

Three men have been charged and a fourth was being sought in connection with a semi organized dope-rip off ring that targeted dealers in the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood.

The latest arrest came Wednesday when one of the suspects, Fatshi A. Touresian, a 21-year-old North Hollywood salesman, showed up in a Van Nuys courtroom to appear on an earlier case of vehicle tampering. He was booked into the Los Angeles County Jail on charges stemming from a pot rip off in April at Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Mulholland Drive that went bad when Jeffrey Jenkins, 25, was shot in the neck and survived, said Los Angeles Police Detective Martin Pinner. Bail was set at $626,570.

dailynews.com

NORTH HILLS - Leaning against her rake in her front yard, Augustina Cervantes peered toward the end of the block across from North Hills Park, where just a few months ago heroin addicts roamed like zombies looking for a fix and violent brawls were commonplace as children played. Now Cervantes feels safe enough to come out at 10 p.m. and rake leaves in front of her small house festooned with Christmas lights. Crime dropped 29 percent. dailynews.com

Could it have been love that caused a boyfriend and girlfriend duo, both members of the Clanton Street gang, to allegedly jack a 2000 Saturn the other night in North Hollywood and take the jewelry from the motorist and his female passenger? Or was it spur of the moment? Leo Vasquez, 30, and Angelia M. Langley, 28, are accused in the Nov. 24 heist at Saticoy Street and Coldwater Canyon Avenue in North Hollywood, police said. The two will now spend time apart, housed in separate county jail facilities, facing carjacking charges, with bail set at over $1 million, said Los Angeles Police Detective Sean Mahoney. Langley, unemployed from Torrance, and Vasquez, a driver from the Rampart area, were arrested by, get this, school police who were flagged down by a friend of the owner of the Saturn, who happened to spot the car rolling on Norris Avenue in Pacoima last night, Mahoney said. Apparently, Mahoney said, the duo were on their way to Langley's sister's house in Pacoima when they were arrested. Smart move, huh?

Wow. I can't imagine what it would be like to put together a story like this.

Even after Addie and I split, I would still drop in on Li’l Mike. When he saw me walk in the door, he’d get this really big smile on his face, rush over and punch me in the leg. But eventually the visits faded, and the last time I saw Mike he was maybe 6 or 7 years old. Then last summer, Addie called. I hadn’t spoken to her in years. Michael, now 19, had been arrested and charged with a gang-related murder.

Michael Krikorian, formerly of the Times, now an aspiring novelist, wrote this searingly memorable first person piece in the New York Times Magazine about his ex-girlfriend's son who turned out not to be his kid. It's a hell of a story, but I'm sure glad I'm not writing it. Well done, Mr. Krikorian.

Something looked unusual as LAPD Sgt. Christopher Crosby swung 19 George 80 down Nordhoff Street onto Columbus Avenue. The streets once prowled by homeboys were now walked by women, strolling unaccompanied down the street with groceries and strollers.

"Man, look at that -- ladies walking their dogs," Crosby marveled. "You never used to see that."

Long a problem area, even with the federal and city-funded Safer City Initiative officers on patrol, North Hills was quiet Tuesday night. Crime rates leaped earlier this year in spite of the dozens of extra officers, but as Crosby pointed the Crown Victoria left on Rayen Street, then right on Kester Avenue, things looked downright placid.

"We came by here," he said, pointing at the Sepulveda Recreation Center, "late last night, around 2, and people were playing tennis. Tennis! But if we don't keep it up, the gangs will come right back."

Crosby, a surfer, martial artist and dog enthusiast, serves as the Mission Division's gang sergeant. He's friendly, laid-back and looks pretty much like you'd expect a cop to look.

As a kid, he was a trim baseball player, but at 18, he grew five inches to his present 6-foot-3 and hit the weight room. He topped out at 285 pounds and in his vest, gunbelt and blues, he cuts an imposing figure.

The streets were pretty empty and the radio was all but silent as Crosby eyed dark streets and peered into cars. Shrugging off the cold that blanketed the late November air, he stopped for a cup of coffee.

"I'm gonna order the manliest drink there is," he said, voice dropping an octave.

A few minutes later, he had his peppermint Frappuccino, with extra mint and whipped cream, in hand and his slick-top was headed northeast toward Sylmar. He called out the demarcation between Astoria Garden Locos and San Fer territory along the way, pointing out the liquor stores and motels they use to meet and scheme.

There was a call of a 459 Hot Prowl on the outer edge of the 28-square-mile division and the gang units headed up to see what was afoot. Turned out to be nothing. As did a door knock on a Paca with a drug charge who wasn't home. Up and down the streets, all around the territory, everything was sleepy.

By 10:15 p.m., the soccer games back on Columbus had died down, but the cars kept churning, looking for anything suspicious. A few gaunt, wild-eyed men scurried around, couples kissed goodnight and men tried to jump start their cars back into working order.

Eventually, a Valerio Street gangster turned up on Kester and Rayen. He was 19 and skinny, known as Silent. He wore a Saints jersey, Raiders jacket, baggy jeans and low-top Reeboks. A pair of young gang officers, just off their probation in 77th, had him hooked on the edge of the soccer field. Everyone was calm.

"So what's going on, man?" Crosby asked.

"Nothin'," Silent said. "Just tryin' to visit my kid."

His high school girlfriend and baby son lived across the street. He'd run from the cops before and they'd busted him for meth possession in the past.

"Are you on probation?" one officer asked him.

"Not that I know of," Silent replied.

"You don't recognize us?" the cop said. "That hurts."

"Man, and we were the ones who arrested you, too," his partner said.

"Your name's all over the neighborhood," Crosby chimed in. "Why do we see 'Silent' on the walls?"

"I don't do that no more," Silent said. "Since I got out. Since my son was born."

"Oh, well is there another Silent?" Crosby asked. "A Big Silent? A Little Silent? How about Very Silent?"

While awaiting for a probation officer attached to the unit to arrive, Crosby shot the breeze with the gangster, advising him to go back to school and find a career. He slipped in questions about VST's activities, asking who was beefing with who and who was friendly. Silent did not live up to his name.

"If you guys were to take me in for some reason, could you take me to say goodbye to my girl and my son?" he asked.

"Absolutely," Crosby told him.

Silent shifted and yawned nervously in the cold, his eyes a little watery. The gangster's cell phone rang and his girlfriend wondered why he was taking so long. But he came up clean, with no outstanding warrants or drugs in his pockets, so they searched him and Crosby wished him a good night.

A couple blocks later, the unit pulled over a couple more gangsters. They claimed they were on their way to church, but, given the fact that the clock was close to midnight, it seemed rather unlikely. One ended up in a squad car and by the time the cops and probation searched his home for a weapon, his father was very, very disappointed in the way his son's evening finished out.

By the time the unit circled back to the station, things were even slower. No shootings, no foot pursuits, barely even any lawbreakers out on the streets. And that seemed just fine with all involved.

Photos by Hans Gutknecht, staff photographer

Every gangster I've ever met, repentant or otherwise, tells variations on the same story. Usually, they're poor, their parents are either split up or both working and they have no one to look out for them after school lets out. And so, without anyone to fill the void, they hang out with a bunch of other kids, get into trouble and, pretty soon, it's too late to get out of the lifestyle.

Ten years ago, after a particularly sad gang shooting that killed a little girl, the City of Los Angeles tried to step in where parents could not. It funded the Bridges program, a series of after school programs to help kids who might fall in with gangs. Rather than hanging out and getting in trouble, they brushed up on their studies, played sports and went on trips.

There are basically two kinds of stories told about programs like this:
1.) "I could have joined a gang, but instead I joined a team," said a student.
2.) "This is a waste of my taxpayer dollars," complained someone somehow connected to politics.

I joined the long list of chroniclers when I went to Sutter Middle School on Thursday night. I'm not sure where my story fits in the cavalcade of pieces over the years, but I hope it showed that the program got through, at least to some of the 3,000 or so kids who've passed through it over the years.

And I will say this: after a long day at the office, dealing with not-very-cooperative people on the phone, crimes and corporate greed, it was nice to see a bunch of kids having a good time. Will programs like Bridges cut off gangs' recruiting base for the next generation? Probably not all on their own, but it certainly seems like a good start.

Mr. Becerra at our downtown competitor went cruising with the South Bureau gang unit in Southeast division.

Saturday night, July 21, and it's been slow in South Los Angeles, scary slow. Two Los Angeles police officers stop a pair of young gang members for jaywalking, a good excuse to ask some questions.

The gang member, a lanky 20-year-old who goes by the name Mally, chews coolly on a toothpick. A large gilded crucifix dangles from his neck as he and a friend slouch, handcuffed, against a rusting gate on a street corner just west of the Nickerson Gardens projects.

Much like the night itself, the full story starts slowly and builds in dramatic intensity when violence breaks out. It's a great piece, well worth the time to read the whole thing. Rick Loomis compliments the words nicely with some great photos.

The most chilling moment to me didn't come during the actual shooting, however, but when a 14-year-old tries to confess to possessing a gun, so his big homie won't get arrested. I always want to believe in people's ability to turn themselves around, but if you're volunteering to pick up a case at an age where you should be still learning algebra, the future does not look bright.

And Mr. Becerra does a great job of showing exactly that.

Hans and I spent some time in the Southside while working on our series on Kristina Ripatti and Tim Pearce and Mr. Becerra's account rings true on many levels.

There are a lot of guns and there's a lot of anger down there. It's not surprising. When you're stacked into rundown apartments and your neighbors were shooting at you, it's not hard to see why you might be tempted to pick up a gun. Then a fight breaks out, another young kid who happens to be walking past gets killed and the cycle begins anew.

The thing that's most striking is the crowds that gather 'round. The story and its companion slideshow capture that really well. Cops wade into these disputes, sometimes with a kid bleeding his life away in the middle, and they're surrounded by dozens and dozens of onlookers.

Some are just curious, some have more malicious intents. Even on minor traffic stops, you can have 50 people clustered around, watching and offering commentary. And yet, when it comes time to ask who pulled the trigger, miraculously, no one saw nothin'. Some other mother's son goes to the morgue and everyone else goes on with their lives.

Three Pacoima gangsters have been charged and a fourth person was being sought in connection with an hours-long carjack and robbery spree that spanned the northern part of the San Fernando Valley, police said this morning.

The case began Nov. 3 when the suspects took a car at gunpoint in the 16900 block of Devonshire Street in Granada Hills, then crashed it, police said. They then tried to steal another car, but failed and instead robbed the victim, said Los Angeles Police Department Detective Dave Peteque. They then robbed somone else before going to a gas station where they approached three women in a Mitsubishi Montero, and asked them if they wanted to party before ordering them at gunpoint them to drive to another location where they picked up a friend, Peteque said.

dailynews.com

Jason beat me to the punch in posting this item on Victor Tovar, who traded what he saw as a dead-end life as a gangbanger for a more comfortable future as a firefighter. I wanted to take a couple minutes to expand on it, though.

I heard about Mr. Tovar through Paul Vinetz at a San Fernando Valley Coalition on Gangs meeting a few months ago. It took us awhile to connect, but it was well worth the wait. Vinetz filled me in in advance, then introduced me to Mr. Tovar last week when he spoke in front of a group of kids who'd gotten in trouble.

I've met a lot of guys who cliqued up when they were young, regretted it later, but couldn't pull themselves out. But Mr. Tovar really seems to be something different. He doesn't have the swagger or the gangster's cadence anyore. If he didn't talk about his past, you'd have no idea he came from the lifestyle. But when he talks about the trouble he used to get into, his voice has the deadly serious tone of someone who's known that fear.

We talked for a good amount of time after he addressed the kids and I asked him why kids join gangs. He offered a few thoughts: lack of parental supervision, a breakdown in the traditional family structure, kids who watch too many violent movies. Then he turned it around and asked me my thoughts.

Here's what I told him: anytime people don't have hope, they're gonna start looking at ways to get into trouble. While there's always going to be incorrigible troublemakers who will never go straight, I think most people will play by the rules so long as they believe they'll get treated fairly. It's when they can no longer see a point to going to school, working a job and obeying the law, that's when they'll start reaching for that strap or looking at a bag of meth as a means to pay the rent.

And I told him that guys like him are an important part of that equation. I don't know if he got through to any of those kids in the audience, or anyone who read his story in the newspaper, but if anyone saw themselves in his story and dreamed for something better, then he succeeded. Guys like him show that just because you messed around in your youth, just because you grew up in rough circumstances, doesn't mean you have to live life as a screw-up.

We tell terrible stories all the time, news about death and drugs and ruthless gangs who do rotten things to innocent kids. They're sad, but they're necessary. But we've got to keep looking for the Victor Tovars, too, to remind people that there's a different, better way.

I was traipsing through the Internet this morning, looking for a phone number for Operations Valley Bureau, when I found it turned up in a very odd place. Lt. Gary Nanson, who coordinates gang efforts for OVB, showed up in an article in a Canadian newspaper, criticizing his north-of-the-border counterparts' handling of a homicide.

"They're using traditional ways of solving a homicide," said Lt. Gary Nanson, head of the LAPD's Valley Gang unit. "They're actually embarrassing themselves."

(Cpl. Dale Carr, spokesman for the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team) took exception to the comment, saying Nanson "has absolutely no basis to make a comment like that. That's an uninformed, unresponsible quote from him."

Nanson seems to have either really ticked off the Canucks or inspired equal agreement that they don't know what they're doing.

I've interviewed the lieutenant a few times and it sounds exactly like something he'd say. He's an intense, outspoken guy who will go on at length about what he sees as the failures of law enforcement to respond to gang violence. He foresees a future where gangs will evolve into sophisticated, more organized operations relying on financial crime, rather than traditional stuff on the street. As such, he'd like to see more gang intelligence and detectives, rather than uniformed officers doing suppression.

My only question is: how the hell did the newspaper find him? Whatever the case, the veteran cop probably won't be enjoying any Labatts courtesy of the IHIT next time he's up in Surrey.

Former Gang member Victor Tovar turned his life around and became a Los Angeles City firefighter. Photo by David Crane/Staff Photographer.

My esteemed colleague Brent Hopkins writes a moving portrait today of a former gangbanger who turned firefighter. Brent writes:

Bullets killed a couple of his friends and paralyzed two more. Plenty more ended up in prison or hyped on heroin.

"I was jacked up," he said. "I had tattoos on my neck and my arms. I was smoking weed every day. My family disowned me. Society disowned me. I felt like I was on my own."

dailynews.com

Quick one here on the rappin' gangster of Toonerville. Mr. Castro's on the trial trail, once again.

Convicted multiple killer Timothy Joseph McGhee might have received a reprieve on a date with the death penalty Friday when a mistrial was declared in the penalty phase of his trial.

His autobiographical notebook of gang lyrics, in which he boasted about his crimes, proved vital in the conviction - which is not affected by the mistrial in the penalty phase.

Here's the whole thing.

Also, Mr. Blackmoore weighs in with some choice words that we're not allowed to use in the newspaper.

After I picked on newspaper op-ed pages the other day, I should say that I understand some of their dilemma. Every time I write a story with the word "gang" somewhere within, the phone calls start up, nice and early. People offer their opinions, generally at loud volume and often spiced with racist diatribe, rarely having the guts to put their name to it.

Now, under the veil of Internet anonymity, it gets even more extreme. Monday's piece about community attempts to clean up the Dronfield Villas was the latest to inspire the yakking.

For example, an ex-Sylmar resident wrote to suggest that the real problem was that the community allowed Mexicans to move in. His suggestion: deport everyone of Mexican ancestry and the gang problem would magically disappear. When I pointed out to him that nearly everyone involved in the effort to oust the gangs, from the cops, to the residents, to the community-based organizations, was Latino, he launched into an even more vile screed.

So here's the dilemma: On one hand, I feel like I should hold people like him up for the public to see. On the other, I don't want to give the loudly vocal minority (I hope) a platform for their extreme views. While It's a Crime isn't exactly Speakers' Corner, I still don't want it to turn into an "I can yell louder than you can" contest. Now I understand the dilemma faced by the newspapers' letters editors.

Here's what I settled on-- folks who offer some sort of constructive suggestion or legitimate points about the topics we cover, comment away. Those of you who just want to rant endlessly, I'm sure the talk radio stations would love to hear your theories.

LAPD Senior Lead Officer Charles Chacon of the Mission Division walks though a 64-unit townhome complex at the corner of Astoria and Dronfield, in Sylmar last Tuesday, where there are three different gangs terrorizing residents with violence, drug deals, prostitution and graffiti that covers pretty much every surface
including trees. (John Lazar/L.A. Daily News Staff Photographer)

Brent today hits us with a wallop of a piece from the hood, a neighborhood in the northeast Valley where gang graffiti is not the only problem, but it has a mix of competing gangs, where people have sex in public, drug deals go down in front of kids, and to quote Sgt. John Artes, an ex-gang member rents a garage to a current member who's bringing in girls to run some sort of prostitution ring.

dailynews.com

Normally, I don't pay a whole lot of attention to the arguments in newspaper opinion pages. While I think we've got a good crew over at Friendly Fire (and I think Mr. O'Connor's blog is really, really cool), in most publications, the opinion page is a snapshot of what's wrong with political discourse today.

Generally, the columns and the letters to the editor on any subject, from taxes to the war to immigration, are just variations on "Conservatives are good and liberals are bad!" with "Liberals are good and
conservatives are bad!" as the counterpoint. Whatever the issue, it seems to inevitably devolve into a war of bumper sticker slogans where conservatives tell us that Bill Clinton was a pervert, while liberals will counter with the claim that George W. Bush either isn't very smart or he's a liar. Both sides point fingers, play loose with the facts and generally seem uninterested in actually fixing whatever the dispute is, preferring instead to belittle anyone who doesn't agree with them. And that gets us absolutely nowhere.

This is all a long-winded way of setting myself up to get sucked into the same nasty game.

This morning, while enjoying some peppers and eggs, I happened across a column in our own pages by Doug McIntyre, normally a radio host for KABC.com. The headline "Gangs have our libraries under siege" caught my eye, so I continued on.

First, let me say that I'm not a talk radio listener, so I don't know a whole lot about Mr. McIntyre or his show. Judging from his biography and some of the things he has posted on his Web site, it sounds like we agree on some issues and part ways on others. I will give him credit for having a nuanced variety of opinions you don't normally hear from commentators, nor does he seem to be as shrill as some of his contemporaries.

So, with that in mind, I have to respectfully disagree with his argument. Mr. McIntyre throws out some stats about how Los Angeles has recorded 1,500 incidents in the past 18 months, with "an obscenely high number of serious assaults by gangbangers, including robberies, beatings and shootings." It appears that he's basing his outrage on this recent article by John L. Mitchell in the Times. He keys in on Mr. Mitchell's descriptions (at least I'm guessing that's where he got it, since he doesn't attribute his facts) of the Mark Twain Library, which he describes as "a free-fire zone, caught in the sinkhole of a city capitulating to gang culture." He likens the situation to Nazi book burning, the Taliban destroying the Buddhas of Bamyan and the destruction of Garfield High's auditorium, allegedly caused by an arsonist.

That's where his facts start to slide, as he blames it on multiple "arsonists," rather than a single, 16-year-old freshman who was apparently upset with a teacher. He says there was "usual public hand-wringing... and little else." I suppose the benefit concert headlined by Garfield alumni Los Lobos at the Gibson Amphitheatre a few weeks ago was just hand-wringing, but that's not the main point of my argument.

It's also worth noting, when you click the link on Mr. Mitchell's article above, that most of the incidents mentioned involve things that are merely unpleasant, such as people with bad body odor, creepy, such as public masturbation, or crazy patrons. There are several gang crimes cited-- and they're certainly horrible-- but the article also says that after a bad attack on a Twain patron in August, the library posted a couple security guards and the problem kids moved on.

After setting up this introduction, Mr. McIntyre hits this thesis: "The city of Los Angeles has surrendered to the gangs. There are still some small pockets of resistance, a few isolated yelps of protest, but we have largely accepted the degradation of colors, tagging, banging and bling."

And, in addition to his library example, Mr. McIntyre hangs his argument on the Anthony Sena mural that Rick wrote, blogged about and video-ed the other day. He insults Mr. Sena, a murdered spray-painter and tattoo artist by referring to him as an "artist" (quote emphasis his) and suggests that the controversial mural represents the full-on invasion of gangsters.

He even takes graffiti expert Ed Moreno to task, writing "It saddens me to read LAPD Officer Ed Moreno of the West Valley Division's Gang Impact Graffiti Detail to tell the Daily News he has come to passively accept the unacceptable. Describing the Sena mural, Moreno said: 'Nothing on that wall says gangs.' Everything on that wall says gangs! Everything in Los Angeles says gangs!"

Now I've met and spoken with Officer Moreno several times and I know that he's a sharp, respected cop and that he did his homework on the mural before speaking to Rick. He interviewed Jeff Measles, the primary artist behind the display, and received assurances that if the mural gets tagged over, there will be no reprisals.

Here's a fuller context Moreno's comments from Rick's article that Mr. McIntyre omits:

Meanwhile, some support for the mural comes from an unlikely source: graffiti experts, including LAPD Officer Ed Moreno, who works with the West Valley Division's gang impact graffiti detail section.

Despite criticism that it glorifies gang culture, Moreno said, "Nothing on that wall says gangs."

Mr. Sena, known by the moniker 'Ohjae,' doesn't sound like a perfect citizen, but, if you read Rick's well-balanced piece, you'll see that he'd moved on to achieve success as a legitimate artist. As much as critics want to deny that art can come from a spray can, I've seen it used to sell cars at the LA Auto Show and videogames at E3. In the same way that tattoos migrated from biker gangs' arms onto the backs of squeaky-clean college girls, graffiti art has moved from its strictly sketchy past into the mainstream.

That aside, Mr. McIntyre's argument that gangs have taken over all of Los Angeles is simply not true. Looking at the LAPD's most recent stats, there were 5,758 gang-related crimes in Los Angeles through September. While that sounds frightening (Egads! Around 21 each day!), it's also 200 fewer than the city recorded the year before, a 3.4 percent reduction in gang crime. In the West Valley area where Officer Moreno goes after actual taggers and gangsters with cans of Krylon, gang-related crimes dropped 3.1 percent since last year.

Don't get me wrong, any gang crime is unacceptable. And it's an especially emotional sort of law-breaking because gangsters tend to be big, scary-looking guys who operate under seemingly alien codes of conduct. Whenever their bullets miss one another and end up in an innocent neighbor or child playing nearby, the wounds sting even harder because it's unpleasant to think that these guys with tattoos on their faces live in our communities.

But if we're going to work together to fight back against gangs' influence, we need reasoned debate, not rhetoric such as this:

When schools and libraries become free-fire zones and young lives are snuffed out in front of tattoo parlors with cutesy-pie names making light of smack (Needle Pushers, get it?) and it's considered an honor to have your life memorialized in spray paint on a liquor-store wall, the canary in L.A.'s coal mine is on life support.

If the people of Los Angeles don't act, we'll take our place alongside those who accommodated the book burners in Germany and the Taliban Buddha bombers. We have a choice - library cards or toe tags. What's it gonna be?

Cops from Chief Bratton on down will tell you that the key to combating crime is an informed, involved community. If we're going to have that, to really rise up against the gang lifestyle, the community needs to arm itself with facts instead of hysteria. Scaring people out of the library because it's an alleged hotbed of gangsterism, a supposition not borne out by fact, playing up arguments over a painting instead of focusing on real crime and attacking a cop whose expert opinion doesn't square with a narrow thesis will not help bring us any closer to a real solution.

As always, we welcome your thoughts and comments on this clearly sensitive subject. Perhaps I'm totally off-base on this, but I'm curious to know what y'all think.

Authorities recorded a record number of arrests of criminal aliens and fugitives this year in the Los Angeles area, federal officials said today.

Some 2,667 immigration violators have been taken into custody between Jan. 1, 2007 and Sept. 31, 2007 - a 63 percent increase over last fiscal year, according to the latest statistics available. Of those arrested, 576 had criminal histories in addition to being in the country illegally.

Among the criminal aliens taken into custody recently by the Fugitive Operations Teams was a Maywood man convicted of beating another man to death here more than a decade ago. Luis Medina Gonzalez, 34, was arrested Oct. 24 at his home and deported to Mexico the following day.

Medina was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in August 1996 on charges stemming from a fist-fight that left another man dead. He was ordered deported based upon his criminal conviction, but failed to comply with the immigration court's order. Medina also has a prior conviction for narcotics charges.

"As a country, we welcome law-abiding immigrants, but foreign nationals who violate our laws and commit crimes against our citizens should be on notice that ICE is going to use all of the tools at its disposal to find you and send you home," said Jim Hayes, Los Angeles field office director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention and removal operations.

ICE established its Fugitive Operations Program in 2003 to eliminate the nation's backlog of immigration fugitives and ensure that deportation orders handed down by immigration judges are enforced. Today, ICE has 75 Fugitive Operations Teams deployed across the country. In fiscal year 2007, those teams accounted for more than 30,000 arrests nationwide.

This year, for the first time, the nation's fugitive alien population showed a decline, officials said. Estimates now place the number of immigration fugitives in the United States at slightly under 597,000, a decrease of more than 35,000 since October 2006.

The second highest ranking member of the Mexican Mafia in Riverside County was captured in Mexico. Tony Gonzales Rodriguez was arrested by Mexican officials in Baja California and turned over to U.S. authorities on Saturday. The 37-year-old man was indicted earlier this year on federal drugs charges. Eme directs gang violence and methamphetamine and weapons deals in Coachella Valley, the feds say.

Eme has recently been the focus of a new book, "Mexican Mafia," by our compadre, Tony Rafael, who peeled back the layers of the entrenched and secret prison gang by looking at the work of a veteran prosecutor who took several of the Eme associates head on in court. Rafael also writes under the nome de plume of Wally Fay at his blog, In the Hat.

The Times today has an interesting story out of Compton. A Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department gang task force in place there has helped push down the gang crime rate over the last two years. Deputies report 29 slayings so far this year, the lowest in 20 years. Gang violence has been falling in Compton for nearly two years, since Sheriff Lee Baca assigned a special team to tackle the problem. There were 65 homicides there in 2005. The sheriff’s task force has been confronting suspected gang members and searching them and their homes for guns. latimes.com

Greetings, dear It's a Crime readers. You may recall, a few months ago, we met up with Paul White of the West Valley Leadership Academy. He tipped me to the story of Dantae Livingston, an ex-gangster who renounced his gang ties in favor of schoolwork. Last I hear, Mr. Livingston was still doing well, working and attending classes.

Anyhow, White's back with an editorial on The Huffington Post, Stopping and Preventing Gangs: There's No Right Way to Do the Wrong Thing.

Paralleling the nation-wide growth of criminal gangs, is the growth of so-called gang prevention groups run by "former" gang members. The most well-known organization of this kind is Homeboy Industries of Los Angeles. Sacrilegious as it may seem to some readers, this venerated group of gangsters and its iconic leader, Father Boyle, are actually part of our (growing) gang problem.

While I don't share White's opinion (I think both Homeboy and Communities in Schools, whom White also criticizes, provide an important component to gang intervention-- so does the LAPD, for that matter), it's an interesting piece and he can speak with authority, given his results. Read on and let us know what you think.

Here's a pair of unusual ones out of our friendly rivals downtown.

First off, check out Ms. Leovy's interview on Gangsters Anonymous at The Homicide Report.

"It's a 12-step program, based on Alcoholics Anonymous. We are recovering gangsters who meet to help each other stay crime-free. We believe the gangster mentality is a disease--a mental disorder. We are sick. We suffer from a criminal mentality. But recovery is our responsibility. " - Kenny Mitchell, 44, longshoreman and founder of Gangsters Anonymous.

And when you finish that, pour yourself a drink, kick back and treat yourself to The exotic dancer, the police chief and the dividing line by Peter H. King. It's an absolutely phenomenal read, telling the crazy tale of a cop, his stripper wife and two feuding towns on the Utah/Nevada border. Not in my wildest dreams could I imagine such a bizarre set-up.

WENDOVER, UTAH -- Sylvia, for whatever reason, needed another pair of shoes. So, on a late Wednesday night in mid-August, police chief Vaughn Tripp headed across town in his red Chevy pickup, hauling high heels to the club where his wife performed as an exotic dancer, stage name "Ecstasy."

"I don't smoke cigarettes, I don't drink alcohol and I don't do drugs. Never have," he declared, not long after he'd been battered by the tabloid whirlwind created when his wife was arrested on narcotics charges.

And it only gets better from there. King really knocks this one out, capturing the sadness and craziness with a great tone. As strange as the story becomes, he never loses the emotions of the characters. Well done, sir.

Midway through an extremely long day on the job, I dropped in on Lt. Tom Smart of LAPD's West Valley Gang unit. He loaded up his slick-top hybrid and toted me around for awhile and we got to chatting.

It was a quiet, slow day and the conversation meandered from the old days of policing "when you just had your stick and your mouth to protect you" to Lee Harvey Oswald to gangster etiquette. That led us to how gangs recruit.

"If they don't get affection, kids go and look for it with the gang instead of Little League or piano lessons," he said.

But not all of them-- plenty of kids who grow up in jacked-up households reject that and go onto become upstanding, law-abiding citizens. Even the gangsters often dream of holding down respectable jobs, sometimes more unusual ones than you'd think.

"Almost every single guy you arrest says they wanted to be a cop," he continued. "'Oh, yeah, I was gonna do that, then I got the whole felony drug thing.' They wanted to do it for the same reason they join the gang-- the camaraderie, the family, the sense of belonging."

So what's the solution? How do we get kids to become the next generation of police officers instead of their "clients?" What makes some get into trouble while others stay straight? And for that matter, what makes cops sometimes go bad? Or gangsters sometimes go straight?

I wish, dear readers, that I had those answers for you. But I fear that it's quite late and I'm not quite as keen an observer of human nature as the lieutenant. So we'll save that for another time, when I'm sure I'll be able to decipher all the mysteries of the human soul. In the meantime, just make your kids read Harry Potter. Little League and piano lessons might not be a bad idea, either.

The Times takes a look at rent and taxes today, and not the kind paid for your apartment and on your 1040EZ form. Like many forms of gang crime, though it initially only affects a small slice of the population, it can spill over violently to hurt innocent folks unconnected to the business. Most recently, this had tragic consequences for a .

Here's the crime story of the day, so far.

It wasn't the tasty Egg McMuffins that two Vineland Boys gangsters were after yesterday morning at the local McDonald's fast food restaurant. They had their eyes on the pair of $130 Nike Air Jordans worn by an unsuspecting man coming out of the restroom.

The men beat the 26-year-old victim, knocked him down, pulled off the blue and white tennis shoes, and then went on a mini crime spree before police caught up with them and took them into custody, police said. Nobody was seriously injured.

The drama began about 9:30 a.m. yesterday at the restaurant at Vineland Avenue and San Fernando Road. Carlos Silva, 20, and Edgar Lopez, 18, both documented members of the Vineland Boys gang, are accused of punching and kicking Tony Gudino as he came out of the McDonald's restroom and stealing his shoes, police said. Gudino was treated at a local hospital for bruises on his face and head and released.

After the attack the men then went to Sun Valley Park nearby, took a purse off a park bench, rifled through it and then when the owner's boyfriend grabbed it back, took a hammer out of a man's shopping cart and threatened him with it.

Read the rest here.

Our competitor Ms. Leovy at the Homicide Report posted something that caught my eye on the always touchy subject of Black-Latino tension today. I'll paste a bit, then jump back in....

"LAPD is not on the brink," of a major inter-racial crime wave, three University of California Irvine scholars have concluded after examining assault, robbery and homicide data in the city's southern police precincts.

The study by Hipp and fellow UC Irvine criminologists George E. Tita and Lindsay N. Boggess compared aggravated assault, robbery and homicide cases between 2000 and 2006 in the four precincts of LAPD's South Bureau against 2000 Census data. It found that black offenders were nearly eight times more likely to kill another black person as to kill a Latino, and Latino offenders were nearly twice as likely to kill another Latino as a black person.

For the rest, click here.

I haven't read the study myself, so I can't offer much analysis, but it definitely goes against the oft-repeated idea that Blacks and Latinos are more likely to target one another for crime. That's not to say it's not a serious problem -- whenver race gets injected into an already emotional crime, it resonates much more deeply with everyone. And certainly, if you're the Black guy who gets shot by Canoga Park Alabama or a Latino randomly targeted by some Rollin' 60s looking for revenge, it's a serious problem.

As reporters, what are we to do with this? I don't know, it's a hard call. When it's a straightforward robbery or murder, where the crime went down because of greed or other typical criminal motivations, perhaps we over-report the racial angle. But if you've got La Eme ordering hits on Blacks to claim turf or vice versa, I think the media has a responsibility to report it as a hate crime. Any time that regular folks can get drawn into criminal beefs through no fault of their own, then it bears mentioning.

Ultimately, the final commenter (at least when I last checked) on Ms. Leovy's post has it right: "At the end of the day we all bleed the same color. Red." It kind of sounds like a t-shirt slogan, but it's right on. It'll be a long time, I'm afraid, until we put our racial issues aside. But until we do, we're going to keep seeing people lying face up in the church whose only crime was being born a different color than the man on the other side of the gun.

As promised, Rick's got the updated news on the BHS shooting arrests.

VAN NUYS - Police arrested two gang members Friday on suspicion of shooting a man Monday outside a restaurant near Birmingham High School, authorities said.

Montes, a North Hollywood resident, and the other man arrested, Walter Oswaldo Guerra, 18, of Van Nuys are both members of the Mara Salvatrucha gang, police said.

For the full story and a map, click here to read the rest at Dailynews.com.

Rick's on the scene as we speak, but here's a quick link to Jason's early post on the arrest of two Mara Salvatrucha members for a pair of shootings near Birmingham High School in Van Nuys.

Here's the top:

In that shooting, a 23-year-old man was shot in the leg and elbow by two Latino males who approached him as he sat at a Jack In The Box Restaurant on Vanowen Street, just east of Balboa Boulevard, near Birmingham High School, said LAPD Sgt. Teresa Wilson.

Read the rest at DailyNews.com and we'll try to get ya more as soon as we can.

Two gang members have been charged in a January driveby killing that left a 17-year-old rival dead. Edilberto Olivares, 19, of North Hollywood and Mardoqueo Guevara, 23, were being held at the Los Angeles County Jail on murder charges in connection with the Jan. 31 slaying of Daniel Martinez.

Our competitors over at the San Fernando Valley Sun have a well-put-together story on gang life. In it, they chat with Ernie Simental, a Blythe Street member who claims the gang but says he's no killer, Roberto Perez, who says he's inactive with Langdon Street, and Donald "Big D" Garcia, an ex-gangster who now works for Communities in Schools.

It's told in their own words and provides a good look into the pressures to join a gang and to get into trouble. It looks like Ernie, who seems like a smart guy, is beginning to think of a better future than jacking bikes and brawling:
There’s always fighting, and over a street that doesn’t even belong to us. That’s how stupid it is, but it’s the reality. It’s crazy, the reality of it, when you think about it, when you try to look at it from the inside, it’s so confusing you don’t know where to start.

He's pretty evocative of why the gang problem's so frustrating: you're dealing with emotional, irrational kids whose bad decisions are magnified because they involve violence and crime. Even for guys like him (and I think I may have met him while doing a story on the job program he got booted from last year after a parole violation), who want to do something with their lives, who realize that killing each other over street signs is futile, they keep messing up. Here's hoping he'll be one of the ones who gets straight and does something with his life. Otherwise, he'll join the ranks of forgotten statistics.

To follow up on Rick's post from last night, I'm glad to say we sent someone to check out the goings-on. Mr. Dobuzinskis, normally seen East of the Five, did a fine job covering the event with this story.

The Los Angeles Police Department launched its end-of-the-summer raids in North Hollywood on Friday.

More than 150 officers from the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, Los Angeles Unified School District Police, Burbank Police Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, California Department of Corrections and Los Angeles County Probation focused on gangs and tagging crews linked to criminal activity in the North Hollywood and Sun Valley communities.

The operation went down at 6 a.m.

The cops served probation and parole compliance checks, arrest and warrant searches at 58 locations. A dozen people were arrested, including four juveniles. The gangs and tagging crews targeted were the Vineland Boys, 18th Street, North Hollywood Locos, North Hollywood Boys and Clanton (C-14).

18th Street is listed as one of the department's top targeted gangs.

Cops recovered three firearms, two machetes, narcotics including methamphetamine and marijuana, and several shaved keys that are believed to be used to steal cars.

Cops also say they seized a wealth of intelligence on gang activity in the eastern corner of the Valley.

The raids come as police report that gang-related crimes have increased in North Hollywood by 24 percent over last last year to date. In a recent four-week period, police in North Hollywood reported a 54.5 percent drop.

As of July 30, gang crime in the Valley is up 5.9 percent, a total of 47-additional crimes. While gang homicides are down 4.3 percent -- 22 through July 30 compared to 23 during the same time period last year -- some of the increase in gang crime can be attributed to more assaults against cops. This time last year, there had been seven; so far this year there have been 22, an increase of over 200 percent.

Through Aug. 18 crime is down 1.7 percent. That includes a 24 percent reduction in homicides - 42 compared with 55.

Cops say that gang crime accounts for 22 percent of of all crime in the Valley.

This is still developing, but cops were out in force this morning in predawn raids across the San Fernando Valley, a task force of police is cracking down this morning on gang members, career criminals, parolees and probationers in "Operation Heatwave." dailynews.com

Last week, Hans and I took a little Wednesday night trip with Lt. Tom Smart and his officers of the Gang Enforcement Detail for LAPD's West Valley station. Smart's a friendly, engaging guy who seems to embody all the qualities that his last name suggests.

The squad was checking up on Canoga Park Alabama members out on parole. They'd been getting guns lately -- an AR-15 turned up on an earlier caper and this gentleman who lives across the street from Lanark Park was suspected of possessing a strap. To paraphrase my late grandmother: when you're on parole, that's a no-no.

Around 9:45 p.m., the cops strode into the courtyard of 21817 Lanark Street. No guns drawn or battering rams this time, just a firm knock on the door of an upstairs apartment and an announcement that the police had come to visit. Little kids kept wandering the complex. This wasn't the first time cops had come calling.

The gentleman with whom they'd hoped to chat wasn't at home, but his aunt, who lived there, eventually showed up to let the cops and a probation officer attached to the unit inside. She didn't look thrilled to have them digging through her nephew's belongings, but both sides were cordial. Her apartment was nicely kept up, filled with religious statues and sweltering in the late summer heat.

The probation officer in charge of the search noted that the gangster kept his room in nice shape, very neat, very clean. Unfortunately for him, that made it easy to find the paintball gun, collection of gang hats and small bottle of booze all verboten under the terms of his probation. As the cops prepared to cart it all away, his mom arrived and claimed the liquor as her own. She thought her son, who was supposed to be home by then, was at his girlfriend's house. She received a warning that he had to abide by terms of his probation-- no staying out late, no alcohol, no hanging around with the homeboys, no gang attire-- or he'd be headed back behind the walls.

As the cops finished the check, they discovered one final thing in his collection of gang artifacts: a copy of Rick's story on Canoga Park Alabama. The coppers got a good laugh out of that one-- it wasn't the first time they'd found news clippings about the gang in its members' possessions.

While we here at It's a Crime don't condone lawbreaking in any form, we're glad to see someone's reading the paper.

A judge today sentenced two gang members to 15 years to life in prison for the beating death of a 17-year-old Glendale boy. dailynews.com

A 20-year-old man who miraculously survived a gunshot wound to the head after a fight outside Millie's restaurant last month was identified today as David Soto. dailynews.com

An accused West Valley area gang member has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder, and gang and gun charges in connection with a 2004 shooting that injured a Canoga Park Alabama gangster in a rivalry. dailynews.com

The stupid crook story of the day ... A parolee and suspected Pacoima gangster wanted in connection with a narcotics case was in custody today after his attempt to steal a car was foiled when he couldn't shift it into gear. dailynews.com

Statistics are a tricky thing. They can be manipulated and used to twist reality or they can reveal hidden trends. Depending on who you talk to that's exactly what the newly released gang crime numbers revealed.

Earlier this week LAPD Chief William Bratton and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa touted a more than 20 percent drop in gang killings across the city. That meant 40 less people have died this year than last.

It means less tears shed, funerals held and parents and children asking why.

Everyone applauds the effort but there was another number that the official press release offered little details on and that was a 14.8 percent rise in gang crime in the San Fernando Valley. Unfortunately, at the time the LAPD was reluctant to detail exactly what that rise meant.

The LA Daily News finally got those numbers and though gang-related crimes in the Valley are only a fraction of those documented in the worst parts of the cities, the cases are still rising.

Some of those figures never got into the story I wrote, just like too many crime stories never get into the paper. So, I wanted to provide them here.

Following are crimes in the San Fernando Valley and their corresponding cases in the first six months of 2007 and then 2006
homicide 19, 22
aggravated assaults 344, 289
attacks on officers 17, 7
robbery 236, 195
carjacking 21, 23
kidnapping 5, 3
shots in dwelling 6, 6
shots fired 186, 183

Just a note, the LAPD considers any crime "gang-related" if the perpetrator or the victim is a documented (via CalGangs) gang member.

Two brothers killed in San Diego
My friend's cousins, two brothers in their 30s from San Diego, were shot and killed on July 7. They were at a gathering when a gang member opened fire on them. My friend tells me that he heard a 14-year-old kid was arrested and confessed to the killing, saying it was part of his "initiation." I haven't seen anything about an arrest. Here's an early report from the San Diego Union-Tribune

Sufficient evidence to proceed with trial in teen's death
A detective testified at a preliminary hearing that a Latino gang member told him the shooting of a 14-year-old African American girl last December was "an accident." The shooting, which killed Cheryl Green and injured several others, caused an uproar at City Hall and elsewhere, as politicians, community leaders and citizens called for action against gang warfare.
4knbc.com

Sheriff's deputies in Palmdale have been busy as of late, catching and cuffing 500 suspected scoundrels in an anti-gang push over the past three months. Deputies arrested 36 known gang members and contacted or cited 222 other gangsters. Since Sheriff Lee Baca convened the task force in March, street crime's down 15 percent.

"So far, the feedback has been all been positive," Sheriff's Lt. Bobby Denham said. "People have been telling me they've noticed a difference, and deputies have noticed a difference, too. It's been a morale boost."

Among the arrests deputies made were 217 for warrant violations, 111 for illegal narcotics possession and 14 for illegal firearms possession, Denham said. Our colleague Gideon Rubin's on the story up in the AV.

And speaking of the other Valley to the north, the folks at the AV Press have a story about a reputed Crip by the name of Deandre Brumfield, who was arrested recently in Alaska. Mr. Brumfield is suspected in the August 2005 slaying of Quinton Eugene Wright and the Press recounts the grim tale of how Wright ended up shot six times after the two exchanged words. According to the story, Brumfield used foul language around a woman, Wright asked him to stop and the two argued until Brumfield claimed the Crips. Wright said that could get him killed in the AV, then Brumfield allegedly drew a gun and killed Wright.

Deputies believe he fled to Anchorage, even sparser Crips territory than the fine city of Palmdale. Someone tipped off the state police and they grabbed him June 19.

Fun while it lasted, huh? Three juveniles from a Van Nuys gang have been charged with multiple counts of robbery and carjacking in a weekend crime spree that started in Palmdale and ended when they crashed the car into a parked car in Sun Valley. dailynews.com

Two reputed Chatsworth Skinheads gangsters pleaded guilty last week to assault charges stemming from a fight in which they targeted a group of Latinos at Chatsworth Park in March. Zachary Lee Gleed, 19, and Jonathan Thomas Spear, 18, face a year in Los Angeles County Jail when they are sentenced later this month.

What follows is a tale of a little-known crime, this one based on police reports, that highlights the activities of a group of skinheads, active in the northeastern corner of the San Fernando Valley and, police say, are connected to the Aryan Brotherhood, who confronted Latinos, shouted racial slurs and attacked them before police arrived.

Reward offered in shooting death
In what is becoming a fairly regular occurrence, city officials offered a $50,000 reward today to help jar the public's memory regarding a homicide. Police said that 19-year-old Hector Balderas was gunned down in Panorama City on March 25. They believe it may have been a mistaken identity gang-related shooting. Balderas was not a gang member.
Daily News

White supremacists found guilty
A partial verdict was reached against two white supremacists before a juror was excused for medical reasons in this interesting case out of Orange County. Michael Lamb and Jacob Rump still faces other charges, including murder. Prosecutors allege that Lamb executed a fellow Public Enemy Number One gang member for giving details of the gang's operation to a local news show.
LA Times

I talked today with Los Angeles Police Detective Dave Peteque, in the gang unit at Mission Division. I wanted to know about an arrest of a suspected gang member with a gun from overnight. This kind of story traditionally doesn't make headlines in a newspaper. It's not uncommon. And no one was hurt. But what follows is a narrative as told by Peteque of a slice of life that I hope can shed light on suspected gang crime in the San Fernando Valley:

At 10:30 p.m. July 1, two friends from Barrio Van Nuys, Luis “Mugzy” Serna and Lionel Arechiga, pulled into the parking lot of La Sierra nightclub on Van Nuys Boulevard, a parking lot that police say attracts a lot of shootings and police call outs. The two men got out of their Chevy Blazer, walked over to a van and peeked inside. Police officers, who were patrolling the area, noticed, thought the men were going to break into the van and pulled up. Serna saw the cops, reached under his shirt, allegedly pulled out a 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun and tossed it to the ground next to the van.

LAPD radios crackled with the call a little after 7:20 p.m. Friday: man stabbed in Lanark Park; suspect at large; victim gone from scene.

Officers from the Devonshire and West Valley stations headed for the Canoga Park gathering place. It’s been the scene of several brown-on-black incidents with Canoga Park Alabama, but this didn’t appear to be a racial run-in.

When cars arrived at the south side of the park, anxious witnesses gathered to describe what happened. One woman, keyed up and arms covered in the victim’s blood, described it like this: two guys got in a beef over a girl, one punched the other, the other stabbed him and everyone scattered. The puncher managed to get on his bike and ride away, the stabber fled in the confusion.

Time magazine has this story today about a raging gang war going on in Rio de Janeiro. Over 1,000 cops armed with assault weapons got into a gun battle with gangsters in a one of the city's most dangerous neighborhoods, killing 19 suspected crooks, the story says. With the raid, the cops officially break their non-aggression pact with the gangs, after years of giving the traffickers free reign to live in the neighborhoods as long as they don't cause any trouble. The gangs apparently weren't holding up their end of the bargain. time

The photo drew me in. I was reading The Times yesterday and had to see what this was all about. Tattoos completely cover this guy's face. Here's how the story read:

A prison inmate out for a medical appointment wrested a gun from a corrections officer and killed him, then led police on a high-speed chase in a stolen sport utility vehicle before his capture at a fast-food restaurant, authorities said. Curtis Allgier fired a shot in the Arby's that hit no one before a customer grabbed the gun.

Click below for your morning crime report.

Click below for this morning's latest crime news ...

Click below for your morning dose of crime news to get your day started.

The Washington Post today writes a dramatic piece on former Death Row Records rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight, who's not doing to badly even as he claims he's $137 million in debt. The Post leads the story off like this:

Five-star hotel, poolside cabana. Marion "Suge" Knight Jr., dethroned rap mogul, ex-con, self-proclaimed penitent, is kicking back with his crew: Personal assistant. Trusted friend from back in the day. Young Life, a rapper just starting out, stops by for a huddle.

An automatic mister spritzes cool water in the air. The hotel chef pops in for a chat, while a beautiful Brazilian massage therapist serves up complimentary foot rubs. Suge -- pronounced like the first syllable in "sugar" -- unties his blindingly white sneakers, stretching out his 6-foot-3, 315-pound body on a lounge chair.

Rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight Jr. and Death Row Records, the label he co-founded that helped bring gangsta rap to mainstream audiences in the early '90s, have been no strangers to controversy.

Follow the ups and downs of Knight's career, from his time atop the rap music world to the allegations and arrests that led to his label filing for bankruptcy in 2006.

"Everybody here loves Mr. Knight," the masseuse says, after he peels a bill from a fat wad. She hugs him. "He's so generous."

washingtonpost

It was just a routine stop of a couple reputed gangsters and their girlfriends, when a cop motioned Sgt. Tim Sincock over.

"Hey sarge," he told Sincock. "The guy in the 'cuffs says he knows you. Says you were his DARE teacher."

The supervisor shook his head and offered a frustrated smile.

"Sounds like you've got Jerry."

Click below for all the crime news in the area ...

This morning I thought I'd try something different. I'm doing a round-up of all the crime and cop related stories locally, then taking a look at gang stories from around the world to give you a sense of just how widespread this issue is.

Click below for the stories.

NORTH HOLLYWOOD - A $50,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspects involved in the slaying of 15-year-old Francisco Garnica. Francisco was shot on Nov. 16, 2006 while walking on the east sidewalk of Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood -- the heart of 18th Street gang territory, cops say. Police say there were 18th Streeters hanging around that fateful night, but that witnesses are too afraid to say anything about the case out of fear of retaliation. Read the story here.

Homicide detectives were busy this weekend in the San Fernando Valley. Two men were shot and killed. Both cases looked like they were after or during parties. One of them is being tagged by the coroner as gang related. An 18-year-old man was killed in Granada Hills after a party was letting out. A 28-year-old man was killed outside a gas station near an Armenian club in Tujunga. So far there are few details, but you can read the story about the Granada Hills case here and the case in Tujunga here.

Keep reading this blog for further details. And if you have any tips, drop me a line.

Click below for the full plate of headlines about crime and cops ...

You've got to check all these crime stories. Click below.

Immigration officials announced that over the last three months they have arrested 124 gang members in Los Angeles who are in the country illegally. Those arrested now face immigration charges, federal prison and deportation.

The arrests are part of a national effort by local law enforcement and the U.S. Immigration and Cultural Enforcement to track and arrest gang members who are in the country illegally.

Recently federal law officials announced the opening of a regional gang intelligence center in El Salvador. And earlier this year, immigration officials posted agents in the San Fernando Valley to focus on illegal immigrants that are gang members.

Nobody knows for sure how many gang members are illegal immigrants. Gang experts and law enforcement disagree, with experts putting the figure around 10 percent of all Los Angeles gang members.
As if the issue of gangs and immigrants alone weren't sticky enough, the combination has made for some very complicated scenarios. Recently, gang members have been invoking their membership to gain asylum.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and LAPD Chief William Bratton were up in D.C. pleading with Congress to approve a bill that would toughen federal penalties for gang-related violence and provide more than $1 billion for anti-gang programs over five years.

Since 2001 more than 4,000 have been killed in gang violence in California, Villaraigosa told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"That's more lives than we lost in Iraq," a statement Villaraigosa's office released said.

Since launching an anti-gang initiative nearly six months ago, gang-related crimes in Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley have dropped as much as 30 percent in the first five months of the year.

But critics have said despite the efforts, Villaraigosa has not developed enough intervention programs. The federal legislation would provide some of that needed money but would also federalize some gang street crimes.

Two weeks ago, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced a $48 million anti-gang initiative to treat convicted gang leaders like sex offenders by using satellite tracking devices.

Click below for all you wanted to know about Los Angeles crime.

If you haven't yet, you've got to pick up a copy of the book "Into the Kill Zone, A Cop's Eye View of Deadly Force" by former Los Angeles Police Officer David Klinger, now a criminology professor at the University of Missouri, St. Louis. In his words, Klinger began the journey of his book years ago when as a young officer in L.A., he killed a man to save his partner's life. His gripping book is told from interviews with unnamed officers who've had to use their weapons in the line of duty and who explain how they feel about what they did.

Good morning. Got news here. Click below.

Good morning ... All the crime news that's fit to print is after the jump. Click below.

Click below for a full plate of crime news and assorted mayhem ...

The old gangster sounded so casual on the other end of the phone.

"Hey," he said, "it's Mario. How are you doing?"

He had an off-hand manner, the way you might address a friend you hadn't seen in a few weeks. Certainly not like someone facing 32 months in the pen after getting caught slipping, with a pound of meth in your car and a nine in your house. Then again, Big Spider has never been a traditional guy.

He was calling from Pitchess Detention Center, his home for a few more weeks until the state takes custody of Mario Antonio Corona and puts him in prison. The USC-educated former gang leader looked like he'd turned his life around, only to watch it fall apart when he was arrested on February 28. Three weeks ago, he pleaded no contest to charges of transportation of a controlled substance and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

He was calling to say he was sorry.

Gangs are a big problem in the state and the nation, says Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today as he proposed a new anti-gang plan that involves treating gang members with the same harsh measures used against sex offenders and creating a new statewide anti-gang czar. You can watch a video of Governor's plan here.
dailynews.com

Good morning ... A little crime news with your coffee ...

• No charges were filed against two suspects in the April 26 murder of Marat Manukyan, killed after a beef over "disrespect."
  dailynews.com
  
• Guilty pleas in a case of food stamp fraud ...
  

  The owner of several markets in the “skid row” area of downtown Los Angeles has pleaded guilty to defrauding the federal Food Stamp Program out of more than $6 million by purchasing benefits for 50 cents on the dollar. Tigran Malkhasyan, 42, pleaded guilty to five criminal charges Tuesday morning before United States District Judge S. James Otero. Malkhasyan specifically pleaded guilty to conspiracy, wire fraud, food stamp fraud, money laundering and making false statements to the United States Department of Agriculture.

  
  U.S. Attorney's Office
  
• USA Today does a profile of Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton as he faces an uphill battle to reform his department and seeks a second term.
  

  Crime and violence are down under Bratton's watch. But gangs still grip neighborhoods with fear in this sprawling city, racial tensions are taut and drug problems fester. And by his own acknowledgement, Bratton still wrestles with one of his biggest tasks: reforming the character and culture of a police department that continues to make headlines for use of force with the public it is there to protect.

  
  usatoday.com
  
• My colleague Rick Coca gets the story on a trench rescue yesterday afternoon. He writes that Los Angeles Police first responded to what proved to be an erroneous call about an assault with a deadly weapon involving men with shovels, were the first emergency workers on scene, but found that two men were buried up to their shoulders in dirt. They got out OK.
  dailynews.com
  lafdblog