Latino Versus Black Gang Violence Reaches New Heights in Los Angeles
National Attention Spurs New Crime Strategies, Fresh Round of Community Criticism

By COURTNEY WALKER

Los Angeles -- Gang violence between blacks and Latinos in Los Angeles is hardly new. But last year’s killing of 14-year old Cheryl Green in city’s Harbor Gateway neighborhood brought the national spotlight and a bevy of FBI-endorsed strategies to curb what police here call racially-motivated gang violence.

Police say Green was killed because she was black and have described the murder as a hate crime. Following the arrest of two members of the 204th Street gang, a Latino gang with 120 members, in connection with Green’s murder, FBI Director Robert S. Muller III joined Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and local law enforcement at a news conference to announce an ambitious campaign to combat gangs in the city. The news conference was held in Harbor Gateway, a neighborhood of 12-square blocks in southern Los Angeles. On this day, Harbor Gateway was ground zero for Villaraigosa’s war on gangs.

Under the new initiative, the Los Angeles Police Department would share gang intelligence with federal authorities and police departments from surrounding cities. A greater emphasis would also be placed on search warrants, hate crime investigations, curfew laws and other statutes to arrest gang members. Moreover, Los Angeles authorities would recommend that more gang members be prosecuted in federal courts where there’s no parole and the prisons are far from the city, thus sealing off the gang members from associates and gang activity.

While the new strategies were applauded by City Hall, in prosecutorial chambers and by victim’s families, some have questioned whether the new strategy goes far enough in tackling the city’s gang epidemic. What’s more, community members and criminologists are skeptical of reports and statistics suggesting that violence between Latinos and blacks, and gang violence overall, has risen.

Green’s killing appears to be lending support for the city’s heightened push for more funding to fight gangs. Los Angeles’ gang prevention efforts cost an estimated $82 a year. In his proposed fiscal 2007-2008 budget, Villaraigosa requested an additional $168 million on gang prevention programs, including $3 million to expand the city’s gang reduction program, which provides high-risk youth, juvenile offenders, and current and former gang members with alternatives, such as counseling, job training and placement, mentoring, referrals and education assistance. Moreover, the budget calls for $6.2 million in overtime funding for police in known gang territories. The LAPD will also hire 780 new officers under the budget as part of a plan to add 1,000 officers to the force by 2010.
The gang-related funding requests outlined in the mayor’s budget represent in many regards a reaction to criticism that the city didn’t do enough to prevent youth from entering gangs. One such critique was levied in a report commissioned by the Los Angeles City Council and conducted by the non-profit The Advancement Project. The report called for a “Marshall Plan” with neighborhood and schools-centered strategies that addresses public health, parenting, job development and other conditions that are the major drivers of violence and gang proliferation. The report contained more than 100 recommendations for reducing gang activity.

“After a quarter century of a multi-billion dollar war on gangs, there are six times as many gangs and at least double the number of gang members in the region,” said the report, which was presented to City Council members by Connie Rice, the noted civil rights attorney and the group’s co-director. “Suppression alone—and untargeted suppression in particular—cannot solve this problem.”