Levels of trust begin to grow when people from the community can have 'heart to heart' discussions with the police; with the City Attorney; with the educators; with the politicians; with each other. The Watts Gang Task Force is a clearinghouse of not just ideas, but of emotions (both negative and positive).
So that is why, for example, the Watts community can put on a three day carnival which closed down (lawfully) some City streets and which drew people from throughout the community - gang and non-gang alike. People knew what was expected of them. The 'interventionists' from the community were there to provide a buffer, with the police providing the ultimate back-up. There was not one incident even though rival gang members came.
Having pulled this off, and of course, there was no press coverage of the good news, the Community, the police, the interventionists, the churches, everyone, could take pride and satisfaction in being able to accomplish something which other parts of the City probably take for granted .
At the task force meetings, there is generally a Deputy Chief of Police, a Commander, and the local captain. This kind of concern and compassion results in a reciprocal kind of respect - such that now when there is a hint of a potential problem, a direct line (literally) exists between the community leaders (interventionists) and LAPD, so that the Police can, with confidence, know what is happening, what is being done, and what needs to be done to quell any problem.
In short, there is trust being built between the police and the community. This is important because the gangs rely on a lack of trust in order to stir up trouble and swell their ranks.
Gangs: May 2008 Archives
You got to feel sorry for poor City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo. He's become the living embodiment of the cliché about no good deed goes unpunished.
A year ago, Rocky announced with Councilwoman Janice Hahn and Mother of Watts founder "Sweet" Alice Harris at his side that he was going to make Markham Middle School in Watts the poster child for a new anti-gang school safety initiative
"Mend Markham" involved everything from school uniforms to teacher empowerment to mentoring and adult supervised after school play with nearly $1 million in public and private funds.
Overlooked was checking out the criminal backgrounds of the people in charge of the school, particularly Assistant Principal Steven Rooney
who was transferred from Fremont High to Markham last fall after beating a rap for allegedly having sex with an underage student who refused to testify in court about their two-year fling. The transfer was part of LAUSD's notorious "dance of the lemons" policy to move its losers to one bad school after another, ensuring that the neediest students get the worst education.
Now Rooney is in jail accused of using force and molesting three teenage girls at Markham. So much for student safety. So much for protecting them from fear and violence.
But that didn't stop Rocky from sending out a mass mailing on April 29 boasting that his "Blueprint for Safer Schools, based on our Markham Middle School Safety Initiative...should inspire a dialogue about how we can do things differently with an eye toward ending fear and violence in our schools."
This is a reader's unfiltered and unverified posting in response to the Grape Street Crips and Councilwoman Janice Hahn controversy. Since it's already available in the comment section of the item headlined Janice Hahn's gang tattoos, it may as well be visible to everyone while it is being checked out.
The basic facts are in the record. City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo sought an injunction on Feb. 15 -- an action that was announced in a press release and not at a news conference as the reader states -- to close down a PCP drug house in Watts and won a judgment shutting down the drug house on April 3. The Los Angeles Times reported on March 27 that 13 Grape Street Crips were indicted on PCP charges.
Clearly, there is more to the story that Fox News broke last week.
Hey Ron -
The name of the "gang leader/drug dealer" who had the confidential LAPD
computer printout in his private vehicle ... Alphonso Foster. (And he
was released from the police station that night)
Turns out that he was recently indicted and arrested in connection with
one of the largest liquid PCP seizures in US history (40 gallons) which
occurred in Missouri in 2006. He is in federal custody now. He was
working with and for Internal Affairs to set up Moreno and Garcia and
get them removed from the Jordan Downs Housing Projects.
Deputy Chief Berkow tried to get the City Attorney's Office to remove
Alphonso Foster from the Grape Street Crip injunction list by going
through DCA Marty Vranicar. The C/A's Office did not remove Foster
from the list and retained the injunction violation case that Foster
had pending in court.
C/A Delgadillo was then seeing how the Moreno/Garcia lawsuit was
evolving into a real bad situation for the city of LA (his office led
by DCA Beth Orellana is defending the City in federal court against
Moreno and Garcia). Delgadillo then made a self-serving move. He
knew that Foster was indicted and to be arrested so he made a large
public spectacle of closing down Foster's mom's house at 10330 Lou
Dillon in Watts, deeming it a gang house and drug producing location
for the Grape Street Crips. It was a major press conference in
February 2008.
It was 20 years ago on Jan. 30 that Los Angeles reacted with horror to the murder of 27-year-old graphic artist Karen Toshima, killed by a stray bullet during a shootout between rival gang members as she walked on a Westwood street.
Her murder shocked the city and attracted national attention. The LAPD tripled patrols around UCLA and 30 officers were assigned to a task force to find her killer. Politicians staged press conference and vowed to take strong measures to quell the gang menace, even promising to hire 150 more cops for the underpoliced city.
TIME magazine concluded its article, noting that "this is not likely to end the debate over life and death in Los Angeles. Not many of the 387 gang-related killings in Los Angeles County last year ended with a press conference announcing an arrest."
The New York Times focused on the backlash in the black community over the attention the Toshima murder attracted, noting it "brought anger from some blacks who, while deploring the Toshima killing, said that no such concerted police and media attention attends the numerous killings of innocent blacks by gangs in the predominantly black south central part of Los Angeles...
''We are tired and we're not going to take it anymore,'' Congresswoman Maxine Waters, then a state legislator, was quoted as saying.
Sound familiar? It is because so little has changed.Gangs still flourish in much of the city, terrorizing vast neighborhoods, engaging in mayhem and murder.
Saving L.A. Project (SLAP)
About Ron
Ron Kaye is the former editor of the Los Angeles Daily News where he spent 23 years helping to make the newspaper the voice of the San Fernando Valley and fighting for a city government that serves the people and not special interests.
Twice in recent years, Los Angeles Magazine listed Kaye among the city’s most influential people, specifically in the area of politics. Kaye has been variously described in the media as the “accidental anarchist,” “the Patrick Henry of the San Fernando Valley” and a “passionate populist.” He is now committed to
carrying on his crusade for a greater Los Angeles as an ordinary citizen. Previously, Ron worked at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner,
Associated Press, Cleveland Plain Dealer and The Australian as well as papers
in Fairbanks, Alaska and Yakima, Wash. He also wrote for Newsweek magazine, The Guardian in London and the National Enquirer.You can email me at ron@ronkayela.com