- The LA murder rate is going up and the police chief has
requested more officers. But California is broke and cannot afford to recruit.
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- Civil rights lawyer Connie Rice warns that with too few
officers to "police humanely", parts of the city may as well
be in Falluja.
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- Los Angeles is notorious for gang violence, but even
by LA standards 2002 was gruesome. With 658 murders in just that one year,
it became America's murder capital.
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- Of those murders, almost half were directly related to
gang turf wars involving drugs and guns. And of those gangs, most are based
in south-central or south-east LA.
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- With a spiralling murder rate and poor police-community
relations following the Rodney King riots and the Rampart corruption scandal,
the city appointed a new chief to clean up its act.
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- Amid much fanfare and hype William Bratton - the man
credited with cleaning up New York's once-soaring crime rate under the
political stewardship of former mayor Rudy Giuliani - was brought in to
get LA under control.
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- Chief Bratton immediately appointed a second deputy charged
with concentrating some officers in gang areas and targeting gangs. He
also prioritised improving relations with minority communities.
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- 'Shovelling quicksand'
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- And 2003 saw the overall murder rate fall in LA by 23%,
but so far this year the murder rate is back on the increase across the
city.
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- The LAPD's figures show a 5% year-on-year rise in homicides
from Jan to April 2004.
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- And while the number of homicides fell in some neighbourhoods
last year, it only ever continued to rise in the hardcore gang areas.
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- In civil-rights lawyer Connie Rice's words, the officers
are simply "shovelling quicksand" - and without more equipment,
back-up, effective witness protection, training and, crucially, more officers,
they are fighting a losing battle.
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- And she should know. Having worked with the community
and the LAPD on various initiatives and reform programmes ever since the
1992 Rodney King case sparked riots, she is now about to begin investigating
the newly re-opened Rampart police corruption scandal inquiry.
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- Aside from a rising homicide rate, Ms Rice warns that
the gangs are crossing a line that has not been crossed before: They are
now targeting police officers themselves.
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- She says: "It's one thing for gangsters to exchange
fire with the police in situations, but we are now starting to see sniping.
We are now seeing the ambushing of cops by gangsters and we should be panicking.
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- "We are on the way to a point of no return and we
will end up in a Falluja situation. It is already a Falluja situation in
some areas. LA is on the road to Falluja."
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- Ms Rice also claims potential witnesses are even being
murdered by criminals inside jails because the prisons are "so overcrowded
and thinly staffed". She says this has happened five times already
this year alone.
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- She also says the situation with gangs was so out of
control that even older gang leaders were frightened of today's members
because they do not operate within a moral framework at all.
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- "Who's bringing them up?" one former Crips
gang leader asked Ms Rice after telling her even he feared the younger
gangsters. She warns when that happens, "We should be very, very afraid."
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- Occupying army?
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- Ms Rice says the way LA is policed needs to be overhauled.
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- She says the LAPD's tactics resemble those of an occupying
army that is effectively at war with the community and only hopes to hold
criminals in one area.
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- "It's a containment model. It's highly aggressive
but we don't have enough cops to police humanely, just to keep crime contained."
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- Police officers routinely stop and search people in a
bid to get information and under the law they are free to stop anyone on
probation. In these areas Ms Rice says you can presume that 80% of the
population are on probation.
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- She describes these tactics as creating "a police
state, it is not a constitutional democracy in these areas", and believes
the only way to control the gangs effectively is for the police to become
part of the community.
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- She says the police must "act like part of the community,
live there and talk to people because the LAPD needs community intelligence.
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- "The community is the only place. They are the only
ones who know who is psychopathic and who's just wearing gang colours because
they might get beaten or even killed."
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- She claims that while Chief Bratton has made "big
changes at leadership level that doesn't mean the desk sergeant gets it."
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- Ms Rice is not optimistic for the future; she thinks
it will take from 15 to 20 years before the changes Chief Bratton has succeeded
with at leadership level reach the rank and file officers.
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- California is broke and the city has not been able to
fund recruiting the extra officers Chief Bratton requested.
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- Ms Rice claims the city is about to close 10 swimming
pools and business analysts are warning that teenagers face the toughest
holiday job market this summer for 40 years.
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- With the existing, simmering tensions, without any increase
in police numbers and a reduction in facilities and employment, Connie
Rice warns LA is facing a "very long, hot summer."
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- In a statement to the BBC an LAPD spokesman quoted Chief
Bratton as saying: "At a time when youth gang murders are on the rise,
we need Congress to reject proposed cuts to juvenile justice funds.
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- "Instead, we must increase investments in the proven
community programs working with our police to cut gang crime."
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- © BBC MMIV http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_world/3771411.stm
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