As many as 60 residents of an unincorporated neighborhood bordering Duarte and Monrovia took to the streets.

They marched down thoroughfares known for gang-controlled crack houses.

They promised to take back their neighborhood. They promised to help deputies from the sheriffs Temple Station catch criminals.

Folks lined the street and applauded the message. Some cheered the marchers from behind barred windows. A few even joined in.

Sound familiar?

According to an article published Oct. 2, 1994, the march was organized by residents of unincorporated Los Angeles County who were sick and tired of gang violence.

Somebody must have been smoking deja vu this past week. On Monday, a very similar march took place along Huntington Drive. Melissa Pamer reported that as many as 400 took part in the event sponsored by a group calling themselves Enough is Enough.

Weve decided to take our streets back, declared David Jones, a minister who helped organize Mondays event.
Interestingly enough, the headline of the 1994 article expressed a very similar sentiment: Theyre taking back the streets from gangs.

In todays paper, Pamer reports that since Jan. 30, Monrovia police and sheriffs deputies have made 112 arrests. Of those, 34 were felony busts. Less than half of the 34 are thought to be gang members.

People who live in the area tell Pamer they like the increased police presence.

Residents say they think the crackdown is making a difference, Pamer told me Wednesday.
And to some degree it is.

On Friday Jimmy Santana, a 19-year-old Latino resident of Duarte, will be in court for a preliminary hearing on charges he shot a 16-year-old black teen.

The teen, shot on Jan. 12, remains in the hospital, officials said. The shooting was part of a string of racially motivated gang attacks that left four people dead and several others injured in Monrovia, Duarte and surrounding unincorporated communities.

Following Tuesdays column, which suggested area officials might consider a gang injunction in Monrovia, the Crime Scene Blog became the center of a debate on the merits of the suggestion.
I wrote that few would complain about an injunction.

To which a blog commenter, I think its unfair to suggest there wont be too many law-abiding taxpayers who will complain.

Especially considering the fact the constitutionality of such measures has reached as high as the U.S. Supreme Court. That is to say, people have complained and those complaints have been taken seriously.”

On the other hand, a commenter named FX wrote, So far the extra police have been welcome by the great majority of residents. I see many people giving the patrols a thumbs-up as they drive by. I hear NO complaints about the extra police. Even some drunks I know dont complain, the drunks now take a taxi instead of drinking and driving … most residents at the moment, want to return to the quiet and boring Monrovia of before.

My only reply is, which before? 1994 or something more recent?