LA’s top law enforcement officers — DA, Sheriff and LAPD Chief — joined City Attorney Carmen Trutanich at Skid Row on Wednesday to announce they were going to use a gang injunction strategy to crack down on rampant drug dealing.
Nearly shouted down by the homeless and homeless advocates, they explained they would seek court orders to bar 80 specific people from Skid Row now and seek to ban up to 300 later.
“The single biggest criminal threat facing this area is the open and
notorious drug dealing,” said Trutanich.
What’s interesting, really interesting, about this is how it represents the undoing of the heart of Bill Bratton’s strategy for reducing serious Category One crime — the violent acts that he so successfully brought down during his seven years in LA.
It was the “Baghdad Strategy” to sectarian violence that helped stem the flow of blood in Iraq: Sunnis could do what they wanted in their neighborhoods, Shiites in their neighborhoods, as long as they stopped blowing each other up and gunning each other down.
Here’s the revealing paragraphs in the LA Times story today:
“The injunction is needed because the more than 30 gangs who control the
skid row drug trade have come to a “mutual understanding” to forgo
rivalries, keep the peace and share business, according to Peter Shutan,
a deputy city attorney.
“The action is the latest step in the city’s attempt to crack down on
crime on skid row. The area has been home to the city’s most
concentrated police presence since 2006, when Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa
and then-Police Chief William J. Bratton deployed 50 extra officers
there as part of the controversial Safer City initiative. Dozens of
undercover narcotics officers were deployed to the same area.
“Crime has dropped sharply in recent years — property crime dropped 44%
and violent crime dropped 40% between 2005 and 2009. The decline has
coincided with a downtown revitalization effort that has brought luxury
lofts and trendy shops to the urban core.”
Think about it: 30 gangs have a “mutual understanding” that allows them to engage in rampant drug dealing on Skid Row and avoid the murder and mayhem usually associated with the inevitable rivalries that occur.
They are doing so despite the presence of 50 extra cops and the result is a drop of 40 percent or more in serious crimes against people and property — categories that exclude drug dealing. In fact, of the more than 50 crimes LA readily provides statistics about, drug arrests and seizures are not included.
When I checked more than a year ago, the LAPD’s numbers for drug arrests and seizures showed declines far greater than the numbers for declines in serious crimes.
Nearly two years ago, I wrote about my theory of what was going on in the streets of LA, about how the tough gang cops and many narcotics officers were being assigned to other duties, about how former gang members were being hired to intervene with the gangs to keep them from killing each other or innocent people and to keep the cops from rousting them for drug dealing and other less serious criminal acts.
I wrote then: “It’s a devil’s deal if ever there were one…What’s the price of peace?”
The few paragraphs above are the closest the media has come to engaging the “Baghdad solution” in LA and the announcement Wednesday by local law enforcement officials represents a repudiation of that strategy.
It’s a morally repugnant strategy but I still don’t know if it’s right or wrong because we never have discussed it publicly and looked at the alternatives.
The decision to end the policy on Skid Row should give us a clue. If the 30 gangs and up to 300 gangsters are barred from downtown, where will they set up shop and will they still avoid violent turf wars if there isn’t a cop on every corner keeping the peace?
Another example of Bratton’s “VooDoo” crime control strategies! Wait ’til they start to actually study the LAPD reporting activities and find the systematic under reporting of crime city-wide! Yes, L.A. is the “safest” big-city in America and we have 1950′s crime rates! Yeah, that’s why none of us wants to walk or even drive through parts of this city after dark. It’s about as safe as……. Mexico!
That’s pretty disgusting you’re attributing Bratton’s success to some Baghdad strategy you made up 2 years ago. At least back then you had the common decency to state it was a product of your own speculation, instead of treating it as fact like you are now.
Meanwhile you totally ignore the Broken Windows theory that has defined the guy’s entire career, which he’s consistently employed year after year since he was NYPD.
Pretty low and dishonest
8:50 has it right: Bratton brought down crime in Skid Row by some 40% you admit, deployed 50 cops, and downtown merchants and residents have been very happy with the results – a dramatic turnaround from what had been there before, and a significant reason that upscale condos and stores have felt safe enough to open up nearby. SO of course, you have to find a way to discredit it, by virtue of some “Baghdad strategy” you concocted as an analogy. (Without, as 8:50 notes, admitting that you’re only quoting YOURSELF as a “source” of the term or concept.)
Your only possibly sincere point is at the end: If your “can never do any wrong and I’ll continue to spin for him til I drop” Clown/Bully Carmen’s strategy only manages to push drug dealers out of this one area, they’ll just go somewhere else – dispersed around the city, or to numerous mini-Skid Rows, where the cops can’t monitor let alone control them nearly so well.
Meanwhile, the Police Political League today is again decrying the effective cuts in the force, resulting from cuts to the civilian work force, requiring cops to fill in at desk jobs civilians had done (for much greater cost, some “savings”) as well as to stay home because of reduced overtime. So Paul Weber warns there are fewer cops on the streets, and crime will continue to soar.
BUT WAIT: Weber was one of the major critics of Chief Bratton’s push for 10,000 and ideally 12,000 cops – preferring instead to keep the force at a smaller number in order to use the LAPD budget for greater salaries/benefits for existing cops.
NOW he’s actually speaking out of the other side of his mouth, and saying that fewer cops on the streets mean more crime?
You two are peas in a pod: attack Bratton’s strategies and policies BECAUSE he’s been so successful and proven right, but then, use the same arguments he made — fewer cops on the streets means more crime, especially during economic hard times, whether in L A or what they’re seeing in NYC — to bolster your own demands and arguments. You, Ron, Weber (who ruined the credibility of the once-respected PPL), Don Novey his “political consultant” with the street-smart speech, recently relieved of duty doing same for the state Prison Guard Union in an acrimonious situation (together they have thrown away millions of the rank and file’s dues at wrong candidates who couldn’t deliver, have earned a reputation as being reactionary and recalcitrant, and thrown away the union’s credibility in the process), Zine, Cooley and a handful of other Republicans and your mouthpiece screamers on AM radio, and Jill Stewart at the L A Weekly, have made a cottage industry of trying to trash Chief Bratton in tortuously illogical, biased ways, no matter what BECAUSE he is regarded everywhere else as “America’s top cop” who earned that designation the old-fashioned way, and you can’t stand it.
Szabo in the house! A sure sign that this blog is having an impact: The establishment’s Spin Team is out in force at 8:50 and 10:09…
Ron, stick to City Hall and the Mayor, City Council, DWP.
Thats where the problems lie.
This is a stupid article, beneath you and suggests you have scores to settle with Bratton or someone at LAPD.
The City is burning; dont get diverted with these stupid articles.
12:00: Are you Brandon Mylenek?
12:27: This IS about the mayor, and his politicization of crime stats in order to justify expansion of the police department — which is one of the planks in his leadership-by-press-release paltform. He wants to be the mayor who planted 1 million trees, hired 2,000 cops, greened the DWP and saved the failing public education system.
But PR isn’t leadership, and his feckless pursuit of phony initiatives (i.e. what Ron calls the Baghdad strategy here, or the bullshit rationale behind the current showdown at DWP) has created a track record that writes the real script of his administration: Failure.
A bitter bully like Trutanich only knows one way…the old days way. Wait until you see how this one blows up in his face.
10:09 is the anti-Trutanich paid troll who can be found on every blog to discredit him and anyone who praises him.
Yeah 11:44, you make a lot of sense given Szabo never had anything to do with Bratton. Bratton doesn’t even work for the city anymore, why would Szabo care. Fuckin idiot
What exactly has almighty Carmen “I made more in the private sector” Trutanich done since he was elected?
Oh yeah he locked a guy up and gave him the most ridiculous bail in LA’s history. Then after everyone laughed at him, he lowered it.
Szabo has everything to do with Villaraigosa, and Villaraigosa desperately needs to avoid any undermining of the crime stats that were manipulated to justify his expansion of the police force….
I was one of those Bratton supporters until I found out what he, Beck, Gerald Chaleff and the gang banger Mayor were all up to and that’s lying and corruption. The PPL lead by the dumb ass Paul Weber have hurt the cops on the street with their dumb ass negoiations on the cops Overtime. Now cops are screwed thanks to them. The PPL spends over $2 million on political campaigns and lost $400,00o down the toliet for Essel. Bottom line is the PPL needs to fight for their cops not politicans. I agree that LAPD needs to stop screwing around with the crime numbers and truth be told CRIME IS UP PEOPLE. The gangs are killings all over the city but the weak Media reports what Beck and Mayor tell them. Cops don’t know who is running LAPD. They say there is no leadership, no politicans with guts and the city is a hell hole.
Szabo has everything to do with Villaraigosa, and Villaraigosa desperately needs to avoid any undermining of the crime stats that were manipulated to justify his expansion of the police force….
Yeah and basic reading comprehension states this article is about Bratton and some conspiracy that Ron made up
A lot of cops will tell you that the conspiracy between Villaraigosa and Bratton to manipulate the crime stats by making a Hamsterdam deal with the gangbangers is far from being made up. But keep spinning, brother. You’re making my point for me…
Beck and Chaleff are taking LAPD in a whole new direction in the gutter. People were protesting the Mexico consul general’s office because of the violence in Mexico and the drug cartels. But instead of staying away from political and bad issues Beck Farmer John idiot is attending this masquerade bs event and making cops go who don’t think they should be there and lots of people agree. Why is Beck getting involved in political issues? His job is to fight crime period. First Cesar Chavez Breakfast. Sat. at Cathedral with the new political Bishop Gomez, Mayor, Jan Perry, John Mack, Chief Charlie Beck
Assembly House Representatives,
Consulate General of Mexico, Juan Marcos Gutierrez-Gonzales-Keyonte speaker.
THIS IS BULLSHIT THAT LAPD IS EVEN INVOLVED IN THIS CRAP. Is it any wonder cops are demoralized and hate the new management
A lot of cops will tell you that the conspiracy between Villaraigosa and Bratton to manipulate the crime stats by making a Hamsterdam deal with the gangbangers is far from being made up. But keep spinning, brother. You’re making my point for me…
Yeah and these cops’ names are Freamon, Sydnor, and McNulty. And can’t forget Lt Daniels, he was one of the LAPD’s finest, especially when he reached out to that kid after Prez pistol whipped him in the eye. Prez, on the otherhand was not a good cop, but definately made amends when he joined the LAUSD faculty
2:43, everyone knows the Hamsterdam conspiracy was fabricated by Villaraigosa to hide the fact Omar Little was murdered by Kernard. Think about it. Without any stick-up men robbing drug dealers on skid row, they’re now free to go about they bizness
Breaking News guys: Mayor and Council found $ 30 million under the mattress (DN). Actually, the report was that City got more revenue then expected.
Are there any thoughtful,serious adults in City Hall? This Mayor must have lost it. His behavior is bizare.
Drive to limit unions’ political efforts abandoned because in Orange County they couldn’t get enough signatures. The proposal called for a ban on paycheck deduction of dues used for political purposes. They should have come to Los Angeles because many cops would have signed the petition themselves. They’re tired of PPL wasting their union dues on dumb candidates and not putting more of their effort to fight for them.