Antonio “Taco Runt” Villariagosa’s Mexican
welfare state of Los Angeles (your welfare for illegals dollars at work):
“But Villaraigosa said that the new plan is not as piecemeal as previously, and that the FBI, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, county probation agents, county and city prosecutors, and the U.S. attorney's office have signed on to step up pressure.”
Man pleads not guilty to tattooing
7-year-old boy
Saturday, April 25,
2009
(04-25) 11:42 PDT Fresno, Calif. (AP) --
A Fresno man charged with tattooing a gang insignia on a
7-year-boy while the father held him has pleaded not guilty.
Tracy Gorman entered his plea Friday in Fresno County Superior
Court. He faces felony charges of aggravated mayhem and street terrorism.
Fresno police say the 20-year-old tattooed the boy's belly with a
dog paw. It is the insignia of the Bulldogs, who are Fresno's largest criminal
street gang.
A warrant has been issued for the father, identified as
26-year-old Enrique Gonzalez.
Investigators learned of the crime Tuesday when the boy's mother
brought the child to the offices of a multi-agency gang task force.
Los Angeles names and targets city's worst 11 gangs
Mayor and police chief
vow to pursue the groups with local-federal law enforcement teams. Experts
question the strategy.
By Patrick
McGreevy and Richard Winton
Times Staff Writers
February 8, 2007
Launching a counteroffensive against organized street thugs, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and police officials took the unusual step Wednesday of identifying the city's 11 worst gangs, then promising to go after them with teams of police, federal agents, probation officers and prosecutors.
Facing 720 identifiable gangs with 39,000 members, the city's plan would target the most dangerous groups, which total at least 800 members. Those gangs are thought to be responsible for a disproportionate amount of mayhem.
The gangs on the list are believed to have committed 6% of the violent crime that occurred in the city last year.
How many local and federal officers will be committed to the anti-gang push remained unclear, however. And given the complexity of what has been a long-standing social problem, some experts questioned whether the plan would be any more effective than past police crackdowns.
Overall, serious crime declined in Los Angeles last year, but violent, gang-related crime increased 14%.
Gang crime was even higher in areas such as South Los Angeles, where it increased 25%, and a section of the north San Fernando Valley where it grew by nearly 160%.
"Street gangs are responsible for the majority of all the murders in Los Angeles and nearly 70% of all the shootings," Villaraigosa said Wednesday at a previously scheduled international summit on gang issues in Universal City. "We must work to address gang violence in a truly comprehensive way."
Although the police had identified certain gangs on occasion, especially when they appeared to be involved in high-profile crimes, the LAPD historically has not called out their names "because of the widely held perception that doing so elevated the criminals' influence and standing in the gang community," the mayor's plan says.
"This new strategy abandons the earlier posture and challenges these menaces by exposing their corrosive behavior to the scrutiny of a more informed and confident community," the plan says.
But Wes McBride, executive director of the California Gang Investigators Assn. and a retired Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy, said he was "not sure" that identifying the gangs was a good idea.
"These guys keep the clippings, and I don't know if you can really say which are the most dangerous gangs on any one day," he said. "It is the kind of advertising you don't need."
McBride said he feared that some gangs would feel slighted if not named and might try to up the ante with more violent crimes.
Najee Ali, a community activist and former gang member, said he also was opposed to any ranking system. "The mayor and chief shouldn't be legitimizing the gangs," he said. "To the gang members it is a badge of honor."
The list of targeted gangs includes the 204th Street gang in Harbor Gateway, which is believed to be responsible for recent racially motivated attacks and will be the subject of a special abatement effort. The list also includes Canoga Park Alabama, whose members' recent violent acts have contributed to gang crime skyrocketing 43% in the San Fernando Valley.
The other gangs on the list include 18th Street Westside in the LAPD's Southeast Division; the Avenues gang in the Northeast Division; the Grape Street Crips in the Southeast Division; Black P-Stones in the Southwest Division; the La Mirada Locos in the Rampart and Northeast divisions; the Mara Salvatrucha in the Rampart, Hollywood and Wilshire divisions; the Rollin' 40s and Rollin' 30s Harlem Crips, both in Southwest, and the Rollin' 60s in the 77th Street Division.
The Mara Salvatrucha gang has up to 50,000 members in six countries, but police will focus on cliques that operate in a few local high-crime neighborhoods.
The LAPD already has shifted 18 additional officers to the 204th Street gang turf and is expected to double that amount soon. Smaller deployments are expected for other gang-infested neighborhoods.
An additional 50 officers will be assigned to a Community Safety Operations Center in the Valley, which will analyze real-time crime data to rapidly and strategically deploy officers, including high-visibility patrols, in crime-ridden regions of the Valley.
The mayor and chief are set to formally unveil their plan at 2:30 p.m. today at the Valley's Mission Community Police Station.
Most of the gangs on the list already have been hit with injunctions that restrict their movements and ability to socialize, and some have been in the crosshairs of local and federal authorities for years.
But Villaraigosa said that the new plan is not as piecemeal as previously, and that the FBI, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, county probation agents, county and city prosecutors, and the U.S. attorney's office have signed on to step up pressure.
"We, the police, law enforcement, can do a great deal working collectively together, with force magnification, to reduce this problem," said Police Chief William J. Bratton on Wednesday.
But, Villaraigosa added, the gang-suppression plan was only the first step in stabilizing crime-ridden neighborhoods. He said the city would later provide prevention and intervention programs to keep young people out of gangs.
The chief acknowledged that with a police force already stretched thin and expansion occurring slowly, he would have to redeploy existing officers to hot spots in the immediate future.
McBride, the gang expert, cautioned that plans without resources often fall short.
"Until everyone hires a bunch more cops, you are shoving sand in the wind," he said.
In addition to releasing a list of targeted gangs, the LAPD has submitted the name of a fugitive gang member for placement on the FBI's most wanted list and will submit another name when the first fugitive is captured, officials said.
The submissions will come from the LAPD's own list of its 10 most wanted gang fugitives, which also was released Wednesday. It includes Merced "Shadow" Cambero, from the Avenues gang, and Kody "Monster Cody" DeJohn Scott, from the 8-Trey Gangster Crips.
Also, the plan includes the appointment of an LAPD gang coordinator, creates a South Bureau Criminal Gang Homicide Group, designates additional patrol officers in gang territories to enforce injunctions and warrants, and proposes community symposiums on gang awareness in affected neighborhoods.
Malcolm Klein, a professor emeritus at USC and a gang expert, said the city's gang plan would appear to use a "tip of the iceberg" strategy.
"Targeting hot spots for gangs — that is not much different than the past," Klein said.
He also questioned the methods used to choose which gangs belonged on the worst 11 list.
"The level of violence generated by a gang makes sense to me. But the interracial conflict [at the root of the 204th Street gang murders] is not common, and shooting at police officers also isn't common. The last two are more political than rational."
However, the idea of focusing on the most violent gangs was supported by Alex Alonso, an academic who studies gang territories in Los Angeles and runs the website streetgangs.com.
"What they did under [former Police Chief Daryl F.] Gates didn't work: Suppress everyone. Now they want to be more focused on the most hard-core gang members, that 10% who are really responsible for violence," Alonso said.
Times Staff Writers
February 8, 2007
Launching a counteroffensive against organized street thugs, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and police officials took the unusual step Wednesday of identifying the city's 11 worst gangs, then promising to go after them with teams of police, federal agents, probation officers and prosecutors.
Facing 720 identifiable gangs with 39,000 members, the city's plan would target the most dangerous groups, which total at least 800 members. Those gangs are thought to be responsible for a disproportionate amount of mayhem.
The gangs on the list are believed to have committed 6% of the violent crime that occurred in the city last year.
How many local and federal officers will be committed to the anti-gang push remained unclear, however. And given the complexity of what has been a long-standing social problem, some experts questioned whether the plan would be any more effective than past police crackdowns.
Overall, serious crime declined in Los Angeles last year, but violent, gang-related crime increased 14%.
Gang crime was even higher in areas such as South Los Angeles, where it increased 25%, and a section of the north San Fernando Valley where it grew by nearly 160%.
"Street gangs are responsible for the majority of all the murders in Los Angeles and nearly 70% of all the shootings," Villaraigosa said Wednesday at a previously scheduled international summit on gang issues in Universal City. "We must work to address gang violence in a truly comprehensive way."
Although the police had identified certain gangs on occasion, especially when they appeared to be involved in high-profile crimes, the LAPD historically has not called out their names "because of the widely held perception that doing so elevated the criminals' influence and standing in the gang community," the mayor's plan says.
"This new strategy abandons the earlier posture and challenges these menaces by exposing their corrosive behavior to the scrutiny of a more informed and confident community," the plan says.
But Wes McBride, executive director of the California Gang Investigators Assn. and a retired Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy, said he was "not sure" that identifying the gangs was a good idea.
"These guys keep the clippings, and I don't know if you can really say which are the most dangerous gangs on any one day," he said. "It is the kind of advertising you don't need."
McBride said he feared that some gangs would feel slighted if not named and might try to up the ante with more violent crimes.
Najee Ali, a community activist and former gang member, said he also was opposed to any ranking system. "The mayor and chief shouldn't be legitimizing the gangs," he said. "To the gang members it is a badge of honor."
The list of targeted gangs includes the 204th Street gang in Harbor Gateway, which is believed to be responsible for recent racially motivated attacks and will be the subject of a special abatement effort. The list also includes Canoga Park Alabama, whose members' recent violent acts have contributed to gang crime skyrocketing 43% in the San Fernando Valley.
The other gangs on the list include 18th Street Westside in the LAPD's Southeast Division; the Avenues gang in the Northeast Division; the Grape Street Crips in the Southeast Division; Black P-Stones in the Southwest Division; the La Mirada Locos in the Rampart and Northeast divisions; the Mara Salvatrucha in the Rampart, Hollywood and Wilshire divisions; the Rollin' 40s and Rollin' 30s Harlem Crips, both in Southwest, and the Rollin' 60s in the 77th Street Division.
The Mara Salvatrucha gang has up to 50,000 members in six countries, but police will focus on cliques that operate in a few local high-crime neighborhoods.
The LAPD already has shifted 18 additional officers to the 204th Street gang turf and is expected to double that amount soon. Smaller deployments are expected for other gang-infested neighborhoods.
An additional 50 officers will be assigned to a Community Safety Operations Center in the Valley, which will analyze real-time crime data to rapidly and strategically deploy officers, including high-visibility patrols, in crime-ridden regions of the Valley.
The mayor and chief are set to formally unveil their plan at 2:30 p.m. today at the Valley's Mission Community Police Station.
Most of the gangs on the list already have been hit with injunctions that restrict their movements and ability to socialize, and some have been in the crosshairs of local and federal authorities for years.
But Villaraigosa said that the new plan is not as piecemeal as previously, and that the FBI, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, county probation agents, county and city prosecutors, and the U.S. attorney's office have signed on to step up pressure.
"We, the police, law enforcement, can do a great deal working collectively together, with force magnification, to reduce this problem," said Police Chief William J. Bratton on Wednesday.
But, Villaraigosa added, the gang-suppression plan was only the first step in stabilizing crime-ridden neighborhoods. He said the city would later provide prevention and intervention programs to keep young people out of gangs.
The chief acknowledged that with a police force already stretched thin and expansion occurring slowly, he would have to redeploy existing officers to hot spots in the immediate future.
McBride, the gang expert, cautioned that plans without resources often fall short.
"Until everyone hires a bunch more cops, you are shoving sand in the wind," he said.
In addition to releasing a list of targeted gangs, the LAPD has submitted the name of a fugitive gang member for placement on the FBI's most wanted list and will submit another name when the first fugitive is captured, officials said.
The submissions will come from the LAPD's own list of its 10 most wanted gang fugitives, which also was released Wednesday. It includes Merced "Shadow" Cambero, from the Avenues gang, and Kody "Monster Cody" DeJohn Scott, from the 8-Trey Gangster Crips.
Also, the plan includes the appointment of an LAPD gang coordinator, creates a South Bureau Criminal Gang Homicide Group, designates additional patrol officers in gang territories to enforce injunctions and warrants, and proposes community symposiums on gang awareness in affected neighborhoods.
Malcolm Klein, a professor emeritus at USC and a gang expert, said the city's gang plan would appear to use a "tip of the iceberg" strategy.
"Targeting hot spots for gangs — that is not much different than the past," Klein said.
He also questioned the methods used to choose which gangs belonged on the worst 11 list.
"The level of violence generated by a gang makes sense to me. But the interracial conflict [at the root of the 204th Street gang murders] is not common, and shooting at police officers also isn't common. The last two are more political than rational."
However, the idea of focusing on the most violent gangs was supported by Alex Alonso, an academic who studies gang territories in Los Angeles and runs the website streetgangs.com.
"What they did under [former Police Chief Daryl F.] Gates didn't work: Suppress everyone. Now they want to be more focused on the most hard-core gang members, that 10% who are really responsible for violence," Alonso said.
(INFOBOX BELOW)
Top targets
Here are the areas where the gangs targeted by Los Angeles city officials operate:
1. Canoga Park Alabama
2. Avenues
3. Mara Salvatrucha
4. La Mirada Locos
5. 18th Street Westside
6. Black P-Stones
7. Rollin' 30s
Rollin' 40s
8. Rollin' 60s
9. Grape Street Crips
10. 204th Street
………………..
Tax to fight gangs set for ballot
With street violence on
the rise, the City Council agrees to ask voters to OK a levy on parcels to pay
for intervention and prevention programs.
By Patrick
McGreevy and Steve Hymon
Times Staff Writers
January 24, 2007
Desperate to stem the rise of gang violence in Los Angeles, the City Council agreed Tuesday to draft a ballot measure that would impose a parcel tax to raise $50 million or more annually for intervention and prevention programs.
However, council members said it was unlikely the proposal would go onto the ballot until next year, skipping the municipal election in May.
Also Tuesday, City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo released his plan for reducing gangs, which includes a call for school uniforms to be required for all Los Angeles Unified School District students, legal action to shut down the headquarters of the 10 worst gangs, and expanding his assignment of prosecutors to every police station and to neighborhoods around gang-plagued schools.
Delgadillo also said he would seek to expand the city attorney office's truancy program to numerous of middle schools, obtain stay-away orders for those who do not live in the neighborhoods they terrorize and push for legislation to increase penalties for gang-related crime.
Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who wrote and championed the proposal for a parcel tax to fight gangs, said action was needed because of the 267 gang-related homicides last year and the 14% increase in gang crime citywide.
"We have a major crisis in the city of Los Angeles," Hahn said. "I think the time is right that we ask the voters of Los Angeles if they would be willing to partner with us for a sustainable comprehensive approach to gang violence."
After a sometimes emotional debate, the council voted 13 to 0 to direct the city attorney to draft language for a ballot measure.
Another vote will be necessary to put it to voters.
Hahn reluctantly agreed to remove a commitment to the May election from the council resolution after some of her colleagues said it was likely to fail because it needs two-thirds support to pass and voter turnout is expected to be low.
Hahn represents parts of South Los Angeles, including the Harbor Gateway neighborhood that has seen two killings of African American residents by Latino gang members in as many months.
One was the Dec. 15 slaying of 14-year-old Cheryl Green. A Mexican immigrant was fatally shot Dec. 5 by a youth who witnesses believe was black, although his identity was shielded by a hood and mask.
"I have felt overwhelmed by the gang violence in my council district. I have felt desperate," Hahn told her colleagues, her voice cracking with emotion. "There was a huge part of me that just did not want to wait."
Hahn said she believes voters would support a parcel tax, which she estimated would cost property owners a flat $5 per month.
The vote to draft the ballot measure was particularly striking given the council's leeriness of tax hikes following two recent failures. City voters refused, in November 2004, to go along with a countywide sales tax increase to pay for more police, and they rejected a $1-billion affordable-housing bond last fall.
Hahn would like to see the measure go to voters early next year and is hoping that the state Legislature will act to move the presidential primary election forward to February. Meanwhile, she hopes to secure additional funds for city gang prevention programs during council budget negotiations in May.
Councilman Herb Wesson raised the need for a compromise on the timing of the election, telling his colleagues that his considerable political experience told him a ballot measure wouldn't win in May.
"People in our community are depending on us to do this right," Wesson said. "Let's not just deliver a ballot measure, let's deliver a winning ballot measure."
Some council members objected that a May vote would not provide enough time to digest and act on a study released last week by the Advancement Project that recommended an overhaul of intervention and prevention efforts.
The study said the city has failed to reduce gang violence, in large part because it lacks coordination and focus for the 23 scattered anti-gang programs it currently funds to the tune of $82 million a year.
Councilman Tony Cardenas, who leads a council committee on gang programs, said the city has not determined how much money is needed to get the job done, and he worried that $50 million might not be enough.
Councilman Dennis Zine, although he voted to draft the tax measure, questioned whether voters would support it less than a year after the council increased trash fees to pay for 1,000 more police officers.
The concern about overburdening taxpayers was raised by Veronica Perez Becker, a vice president of the Central City Assn.
"Before imposing more taxes on your constituents, we urge you to take a careful look at the collective impact of recent tax increases," Becker told the council.
In a telephone interview, Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., predicted the council would face a tough time selling another tax hike to voters. "They have an uphill battle," he said.
In recent years, two other California cities — Santa Rosa and San Bernardino — have won voter approval for tax increases to combat gangs. In both instances, however, the added charges also helped pay for more police.
Times Staff Writers
January 24, 2007
Desperate to stem the rise of gang violence in Los Angeles, the City Council agreed Tuesday to draft a ballot measure that would impose a parcel tax to raise $50 million or more annually for intervention and prevention programs.
However, council members said it was unlikely the proposal would go onto the ballot until next year, skipping the municipal election in May.
Also Tuesday, City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo released his plan for reducing gangs, which includes a call for school uniforms to be required for all Los Angeles Unified School District students, legal action to shut down the headquarters of the 10 worst gangs, and expanding his assignment of prosecutors to every police station and to neighborhoods around gang-plagued schools.
Delgadillo also said he would seek to expand the city attorney office's truancy program to numerous of middle schools, obtain stay-away orders for those who do not live in the neighborhoods they terrorize and push for legislation to increase penalties for gang-related crime.
Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who wrote and championed the proposal for a parcel tax to fight gangs, said action was needed because of the 267 gang-related homicides last year and the 14% increase in gang crime citywide.
"We have a major crisis in the city of Los Angeles," Hahn said. "I think the time is right that we ask the voters of Los Angeles if they would be willing to partner with us for a sustainable comprehensive approach to gang violence."
After a sometimes emotional debate, the council voted 13 to 0 to direct the city attorney to draft language for a ballot measure.
Another vote will be necessary to put it to voters.
Hahn reluctantly agreed to remove a commitment to the May election from the council resolution after some of her colleagues said it was likely to fail because it needs two-thirds support to pass and voter turnout is expected to be low.
Hahn represents parts of South Los Angeles, including the Harbor Gateway neighborhood that has seen two killings of African American residents by Latino gang members in as many months.
One was the Dec. 15 slaying of 14-year-old Cheryl Green. A Mexican immigrant was fatally shot Dec. 5 by a youth who witnesses believe was black, although his identity was shielded by a hood and mask.
"I have felt overwhelmed by the gang violence in my council district. I have felt desperate," Hahn told her colleagues, her voice cracking with emotion. "There was a huge part of me that just did not want to wait."
Hahn said she believes voters would support a parcel tax, which she estimated would cost property owners a flat $5 per month.
The vote to draft the ballot measure was particularly striking given the council's leeriness of tax hikes following two recent failures. City voters refused, in November 2004, to go along with a countywide sales tax increase to pay for more police, and they rejected a $1-billion affordable-housing bond last fall.
Hahn would like to see the measure go to voters early next year and is hoping that the state Legislature will act to move the presidential primary election forward to February. Meanwhile, she hopes to secure additional funds for city gang prevention programs during council budget negotiations in May.
Councilman Herb Wesson raised the need for a compromise on the timing of the election, telling his colleagues that his considerable political experience told him a ballot measure wouldn't win in May.
"People in our community are depending on us to do this right," Wesson said. "Let's not just deliver a ballot measure, let's deliver a winning ballot measure."
Some council members objected that a May vote would not provide enough time to digest and act on a study released last week by the Advancement Project that recommended an overhaul of intervention and prevention efforts.
The study said the city has failed to reduce gang violence, in large part because it lacks coordination and focus for the 23 scattered anti-gang programs it currently funds to the tune of $82 million a year.
Councilman Tony Cardenas, who leads a council committee on gang programs, said the city has not determined how much money is needed to get the job done, and he worried that $50 million might not be enough.
Councilman Dennis Zine, although he voted to draft the tax measure, questioned whether voters would support it less than a year after the council increased trash fees to pay for 1,000 more police officers.
The concern about overburdening taxpayers was raised by Veronica Perez Becker, a vice president of the Central City Assn.
"Before imposing more taxes on your constituents, we urge you to take a careful look at the collective impact of recent tax increases," Becker told the council.
In a telephone interview, Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., predicted the council would face a tough time selling another tax hike to voters. "They have an uphill battle," he said.
In recent years, two other California cities — Santa Rosa and San Bernardino — have won voter approval for tax increases to combat gangs. In both instances, however, the added charges also helped pay for more police.
PATT MORRISON
No case, no justice
Rage engulfs a neighborhood in which a 9-year-old girl
was shot in her home only to have her alleged killers released.
Patt Morrison
January 25, 2007
BY NOW, Charupha Wongwisetsiri has been cremated and her mom has moved out of the Craftsman condo in Angelino Heights where 9-year-old Charupha was shot as she stood in the kitchen.
The two guys who the cops believe shot the little girl — unintentionally, but dead is dead — have been sprung from jail. They're back at home, right across the street from where Charupha lived.
The neighbors are steamed. The cops met with them last weekend and, insofar as you can read a cop, the cops are steamed too, a neighbor told me. No gun. No good witnesses. No case — yet.
Sometimes, in the imperfect universe of law and justice, you can't get the killers. Nobody wants this to be one of those times. Nobody wants Charupha's to be another face in the Los Angeles family album of the blameless dead — kids, church ladies, grandpas — whose killers never answer for what they did.
The D.A.'s office in Los Angeles County maintains a hard-core gang division, and for nearly three years, Joseph Esposito has been its assistant chief. Esposito and his detectives spent most of Christmas puzzling out what happened on Dec. 20 along East Kensington Road. As far as they can tell, a supposed gang-banger drove up and leveled a gun at the pair of guys in the driveway across the street from Charupha's, and the two pulled their guns and opened fire. They didn't hit the guy in the car. (His gun evidently jammed anyway.) Instead, one bullet flew across Kensington and through the walls, and Charupha dropped where she stood.
The driveway guys were arrested. After no gun turned up and a witness changed his story, they were released.
"I ended up getting phone calls from citizens basically furious with me," Esposito told me. "One lady said to me, 'You're irresponsible for not charging these two guys with murder.' That to me is an irresponsible statement. I'd like to, but I can't.
"I'd like to say to everyone: 'You've gotta be kidding me — you don't think we've looked at this case from every imaginable direction inside and out?' But we've got to work within the four corners of the law."
Dura lex, sed lex: The law is hard, but it is the law. If you can't make the case, you don't have a case.
The D.A.'s paperwork makes it clear that no one is closing the book on this. But it also says that one witness gave "a factual scenario that may give rise to a valid claim of self-defense." And hasn't that raised some holy hell.
Whoever fired the fatal bullet, the real killer may be the man who pulled his gun first, even though it jammed. It's corkscrew logic when you can connect the dots between a different gunman and a little girl's head, but it's codified in California's jury instructions: Someone who defends himself, even if that defense kills someone else, isn't guilty; whoever started the crime chain is guilty.
As Esposito explained, say two robbers go into a 7-Eleven and point a gun at the clerk. The clerk pulls a gun to protect himself and ends up killing someone. "The blame isn't on the clerk, it's on the person who came in and provoked the use of force." The most serious charge the pair from the driveway might face could be illegal gun possession.
Esposito gets it from friends and family on cases like this, people telling him, "Well, they're gang members, they shouldn't have a right to anything."
On the blog packing.org, gun owners have been hammering away over gangbangers' rights and gun owners' responsibilities: "We as LEGAL gun holders are responsible for the terminal resting point of each bullet fired. How is it that some low life scumbag can have a weapon on them and walk away after killing a child?"
East Kensington Road is quiet — quieter than it's been in a long time, says Patti Good, who's lived there for ages. Black-and-whites cruise past now with gratifying frequency. There's been hardly a peep out of the two alleged shooters, and some other dicey neighbors have moved out.
The hard-core gang division's conviction rate, Esposito told me, is in the 90th percentile — 9 out of 10, maybe better. The raw numbers are so big that, on paper, one more, win or lose, is a blip; but in the recordkeeping of the human mind, 10 or 20 triumphs wouldn't blot out the one that got away.
…..
January 25, 2007
BY NOW, Charupha Wongwisetsiri has been cremated and her mom has moved out of the Craftsman condo in Angelino Heights where 9-year-old Charupha was shot as she stood in the kitchen.
The two guys who the cops believe shot the little girl — unintentionally, but dead is dead — have been sprung from jail. They're back at home, right across the street from where Charupha lived.
The neighbors are steamed. The cops met with them last weekend and, insofar as you can read a cop, the cops are steamed too, a neighbor told me. No gun. No good witnesses. No case — yet.
Sometimes, in the imperfect universe of law and justice, you can't get the killers. Nobody wants this to be one of those times. Nobody wants Charupha's to be another face in the Los Angeles family album of the blameless dead — kids, church ladies, grandpas — whose killers never answer for what they did.
The D.A.'s office in Los Angeles County maintains a hard-core gang division, and for nearly three years, Joseph Esposito has been its assistant chief. Esposito and his detectives spent most of Christmas puzzling out what happened on Dec. 20 along East Kensington Road. As far as they can tell, a supposed gang-banger drove up and leveled a gun at the pair of guys in the driveway across the street from Charupha's, and the two pulled their guns and opened fire. They didn't hit the guy in the car. (His gun evidently jammed anyway.) Instead, one bullet flew across Kensington and through the walls, and Charupha dropped where she stood.
The driveway guys were arrested. After no gun turned up and a witness changed his story, they were released.
"I ended up getting phone calls from citizens basically furious with me," Esposito told me. "One lady said to me, 'You're irresponsible for not charging these two guys with murder.' That to me is an irresponsible statement. I'd like to, but I can't.
"I'd like to say to everyone: 'You've gotta be kidding me — you don't think we've looked at this case from every imaginable direction inside and out?' But we've got to work within the four corners of the law."
Dura lex, sed lex: The law is hard, but it is the law. If you can't make the case, you don't have a case.
The D.A.'s paperwork makes it clear that no one is closing the book on this. But it also says that one witness gave "a factual scenario that may give rise to a valid claim of self-defense." And hasn't that raised some holy hell.
Whoever fired the fatal bullet, the real killer may be the man who pulled his gun first, even though it jammed. It's corkscrew logic when you can connect the dots between a different gunman and a little girl's head, but it's codified in California's jury instructions: Someone who defends himself, even if that defense kills someone else, isn't guilty; whoever started the crime chain is guilty.
As Esposito explained, say two robbers go into a 7-Eleven and point a gun at the clerk. The clerk pulls a gun to protect himself and ends up killing someone. "The blame isn't on the clerk, it's on the person who came in and provoked the use of force." The most serious charge the pair from the driveway might face could be illegal gun possession.
Esposito gets it from friends and family on cases like this, people telling him, "Well, they're gang members, they shouldn't have a right to anything."
On the blog packing.org, gun owners have been hammering away over gangbangers' rights and gun owners' responsibilities: "We as LEGAL gun holders are responsible for the terminal resting point of each bullet fired. How is it that some low life scumbag can have a weapon on them and walk away after killing a child?"
East Kensington Road is quiet — quieter than it's been in a long time, says Patti Good, who's lived there for ages. Black-and-whites cruise past now with gratifying frequency. There's been hardly a peep out of the two alleged shooters, and some other dicey neighbors have moved out.
The hard-core gang division's conviction rate, Esposito told me, is in the 90th percentile — 9 out of 10, maybe better. The raw numbers are so big that, on paper, one more, win or lose, is a blip; but in the recordkeeping of the human mind, 10 or 20 triumphs wouldn't blot out the one that got away.
…..
Gang members accused of killing witness
A man stabbed 80 times
may have seen who shot an L.A. girl, 14.
By Amanda
Covarrubias and Sam Quinones
Times Staff Writers
February 24, 2007
Members of a Harbor Gateway gang accused in the racially motivated slaying of 14-year-old Cheryl Green later killed a man who witnessed the attack, fearing he would testify against them, prosecutors charged Friday.
Five members of the 204th Street gang allegedly stabbed 21-year-old Christopher Ash 80 times and cut his throat before dumping his body in the middle of a Carson street Dec. 28, according to the L.A. County district attorney's office.
Lt. Roger Murphy of the Los Angeles Police Department's Harbor Gateway gang detail, said Ash lived in an apartment in the heart of 204th Street gang turf and associated with members of the gang. Ash, who was white, had been questioned about Cheryl's Dec. 15 killing, but he neither cooperated with detectives nor asked for witness protection, Murphy said.
An LAPD crackdown after Cheryl's slaying resulted in the arrests of several 204th Street gang leaders, and Murphy said that instilled an "atmosphere of paranoia" in the gang.
"Whoever they think is the weakest link, they tend to go after," he said. "It might have been done to send a message to others."
Several other witnesses to Cheryl's killing have moved out of the neighborhood, said Najee Ali, an African American activist who has worked to build a gang truce in Harbor Gateway.
"It was one of our biggest fears and concerns after Cheryl's murder that we knew that this day would unfortunately come," he said.
The charges mark another twist in a murder case that outraged the community and prompted a major LAPD campaign against street gangs, focusing particularly on those that target victims based on race.
Cheryl was standing with a group of friends on Harvard Boulevard, just south of 206th Street, during the day when two men approached them. Without saying a word, one suspect pulled a gun and opened fire, killing Cheryl and wounding three others, witnesses and police said.
Authorities declared Cheryl's slaying a hate crime, concluding that members of the predominantly Latino 204th Street gang killed her as part of their effort to intimidate black residents of the Harbor Gateway district.
The violence highlighted the racial tensions that have plagued the working-class neighborhood east of Torrance for a decade.
Cheryl's mother, Charlene Lovett, said Friday she was saddened that her daughter's killing might have spawned more violence.
"It's crazy. It's horrible," she said.
Each of the five suspects named Friday is accused of one count of murder, with special circumstances of intentional murder of a witness to a crime, lying in wait and carrying out the murder to further the activities of the gang. They are to be arraigned Monday in a Long Beach courtroom.
The defendants were identified as 18-year-old Jonathan Fajardo, who had already been charged in Cheryl's murder; Jose Covarrubias, 20; Robert Gonzalez, 29; Raul Silva, 31; and Daniel Aguilar, 19.
The complaint filed by the district attorney's office alleges that Covarrubias and Gonzales were the ones who used a knife to kill Ash.
The 204th Street gang has 120 members and is accused of terrorizing African American residents in a nearly 2-square-mile area it considers its turf, according to the LAPD.
Most residents of Harbor Gateway are Latino, and authorities say the gang has been harassing black residents for years.
Blacks in the neighborhood say they've been shot at, chased and beaten by members of the gang. A building being erected by a black contractor was burned in 2005; arson investigators suspect that it was started by 204th Street gang members but can't prove it, according to a Los Angeles Fire Department report. Some black residents of the area say they avoid a market — the neighborhood's only business — because it is in the heart of the territory the gang claims.
Cheryl's killing made national headlines and prompted Police Chief William J. Bratton and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to launch a campaign focusing on 11 specific gangs, including 204th Street.
The crackdown is beginning in Harbor Gateway, where authorities said they've boosted patrols and used other legal tools to combat gangs. Police are planning to ask judges to approve "stay-away" orders for gang members to keep them out of the neighborhood.
Lovett, Cheryl's mother, said she was glad police were focusing more on Harbor Gateway and hope the charges filed Friday mark a step forward.
"They are doing a good job catching these guys," she said. "They need to continue what they're doing. They're being quick about it. That's the good thing."
A decision on whether to seek the death penalty against any or all of the defendants will be made by the district attorney's office as the case moves closer to trial.
Times Staff Writers
February 24, 2007
Members of a Harbor Gateway gang accused in the racially motivated slaying of 14-year-old Cheryl Green later killed a man who witnessed the attack, fearing he would testify against them, prosecutors charged Friday.
Five members of the 204th Street gang allegedly stabbed 21-year-old Christopher Ash 80 times and cut his throat before dumping his body in the middle of a Carson street Dec. 28, according to the L.A. County district attorney's office.
Lt. Roger Murphy of the Los Angeles Police Department's Harbor Gateway gang detail, said Ash lived in an apartment in the heart of 204th Street gang turf and associated with members of the gang. Ash, who was white, had been questioned about Cheryl's Dec. 15 killing, but he neither cooperated with detectives nor asked for witness protection, Murphy said.
An LAPD crackdown after Cheryl's slaying resulted in the arrests of several 204th Street gang leaders, and Murphy said that instilled an "atmosphere of paranoia" in the gang.
"Whoever they think is the weakest link, they tend to go after," he said. "It might have been done to send a message to others."
Several other witnesses to Cheryl's killing have moved out of the neighborhood, said Najee Ali, an African American activist who has worked to build a gang truce in Harbor Gateway.
"It was one of our biggest fears and concerns after Cheryl's murder that we knew that this day would unfortunately come," he said.
The charges mark another twist in a murder case that outraged the community and prompted a major LAPD campaign against street gangs, focusing particularly on those that target victims based on race.
Cheryl was standing with a group of friends on Harvard Boulevard, just south of 206th Street, during the day when two men approached them. Without saying a word, one suspect pulled a gun and opened fire, killing Cheryl and wounding three others, witnesses and police said.
Authorities declared Cheryl's slaying a hate crime, concluding that members of the predominantly Latino 204th Street gang killed her as part of their effort to intimidate black residents of the Harbor Gateway district.
The violence highlighted the racial tensions that have plagued the working-class neighborhood east of Torrance for a decade.
Cheryl's mother, Charlene Lovett, said Friday she was saddened that her daughter's killing might have spawned more violence.
"It's crazy. It's horrible," she said.
Each of the five suspects named Friday is accused of one count of murder, with special circumstances of intentional murder of a witness to a crime, lying in wait and carrying out the murder to further the activities of the gang. They are to be arraigned Monday in a Long Beach courtroom.
The defendants were identified as 18-year-old Jonathan Fajardo, who had already been charged in Cheryl's murder; Jose Covarrubias, 20; Robert Gonzalez, 29; Raul Silva, 31; and Daniel Aguilar, 19.
The complaint filed by the district attorney's office alleges that Covarrubias and Gonzales were the ones who used a knife to kill Ash.
The 204th Street gang has 120 members and is accused of terrorizing African American residents in a nearly 2-square-mile area it considers its turf, according to the LAPD.
Most residents of Harbor Gateway are Latino, and authorities say the gang has been harassing black residents for years.
Blacks in the neighborhood say they've been shot at, chased and beaten by members of the gang. A building being erected by a black contractor was burned in 2005; arson investigators suspect that it was started by 204th Street gang members but can't prove it, according to a Los Angeles Fire Department report. Some black residents of the area say they avoid a market — the neighborhood's only business — because it is in the heart of the territory the gang claims.
Cheryl's killing made national headlines and prompted Police Chief William J. Bratton and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to launch a campaign focusing on 11 specific gangs, including 204th Street.
The crackdown is beginning in Harbor Gateway, where authorities said they've boosted patrols and used other legal tools to combat gangs. Police are planning to ask judges to approve "stay-away" orders for gang members to keep them out of the neighborhood.
Lovett, Cheryl's mother, said she was glad police were focusing more on Harbor Gateway and hope the charges filed Friday mark a step forward.
"They are doing a good job catching these guys," she said. "They need to continue what they're doing. They're being quick about it. That's the good thing."
A decision on whether to seek the death penalty against any or all of the defendants will be made by the district attorney's office as the case moves closer to trial.
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