GANG-FREE ZONES PROPOSED BEEFED-UP FORCES WOULD PROTECT SCHOOL AREAS.Byline: Rick Orlov Staff Writer Prompted by the drive-by shooting drive-by shooting Public health A phenomenon in which one or more persons–commonly members of street gangs, open fire à la Al Capone from moving vehicles, often in retaliation for an alleged wrong-doing by a rival gang last week of a 15-year-old high school girl, Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. city and school officials vowed on Monday to create gang-free zones around campuses, using a ``flying squad'' of officers to quell problems. Mayor James Hahn For the Iowa politician, see . James Kenneth "Jim" Hahn (born July 3, 1950) is an American politician from the Democratic Party. He was the Deputy City Attorney (1975-1979), City Controller (1981-1985), City Attorney (1985-2001) and Mayor of Los Angeles, California met with Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Roy Romer Roy R. Romer (born October 31, 1928 in Garden City, Kansas, United States) was the 39th governor of Colorado and served as the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District from 2001 to 2006. , as well as LAPD 1. LAPD - Link Access Procedure on the D channel. 2. LAPD - Los Angeles Police Department. officials, and drafted a plan for a pilot program that initially would involve 20 schools. While details still need to be worked out, officials plan to deploy school police to various campuses at different times of the day to head off trouble. ``We are not going to tolerate this continued violence,'' Hahn said after the closed-door meeting. ``We want students to feel safe going to school and going home and we want the whole community involved.'' The meeting follows Thursday's shooting of Deliesh Allen, who was shot in the head by a stray bullet while waiting for a ride outside Locke High School Alain Leroy Locke High School is a Title 1 co-educational public high school located in Los Angeles, California, United States, and is part of the Los Angeles Unified School District. It is named after Alain LeRoy Locke. Locke is located in South Los Angeles near Watts. in South Los Angeles South Los Angeles is the official name for a large geographic and cultural area lying to the southwest and southeast of downtown Los Angeles, California. The area was formerly called South Central Los Angeles, and is still sometimes called South Central. . The girl remains in critical condition, and an 18-year-old gang member, Dejuan Hines, has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. During an emotional news conference, Councilwoman Janice Hahn said Allen's shooting should serve as a rallying cry for the community. ``Parents shouldn't have to worry about getting a call during the day that their child was shot. Parents shouldn't have to wonder as they're driving to pick up their kids at school that they might be a victim. The only thing parents should be nagging their kids about is finishing their homework.'' The pledge was similar to one the mayor made three years that was only partially fulfilled. ``It looks to us like it's just grandstanding,'' said Ace Smith, campaign consultant to Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, who is challenging Hahn in the May 17 mayoral runoff. ``It sounds like what the mayor announced three years ago to create a crime-free zone in parks and he wasn't able to do that. ``Frankly, we'd be surprised if anything does come of this.'' In 2002, after the gang shooting of a 13-year-old boy at a city recreation center, Hahn proposed creating ``crime-free parks,'' with beefed-up police patrols and stiffer penalties for offenses committed there. The Los Angeles Police Department "LAPD" and "L.A.P.D." redirect here. For other uses, see LAPD (disambiguation).  This article or section is written like an . and the Recreation and Parks
Department implemented a system to improve police response to incidents
at parks, officials said. Other restrictions were never implemented
because the City Attorney's Office was concerned they would violate
the constitutional right to free assembly.
Hahn said he also will ask City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo to draft measures to allow officials to close down buildings where gang members live or congregate - similar to the injunctions now in place against 22 gangs in the city. Romer said the Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. will put up $900,000 to match a federal grant awarded last September to hire 30 additional officers to create a flying squad to staff the anti-gang program. ``We were afraid we would have lost the grant, but we were able to come up with matching funds to hire these officers,'' Romer said. LAUSD LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles, CA) Police Chief Alan Kerstein said officials expect to concentrate their initial efforts on middle and high schools, but would not rule out elementary schools near where gangs are active. ``We are going to develop the criteria for where we have the worst problems at schools and target those,'' Kerstein said. ``It will not be just one area of the city. If we have a problem in Van Nuys, we'll go there. Anywhere we have gang activity, we will be trying to deal with it actively.'' Kevan Otto, president of the Los Angeles School The Los Angeles School of Urbanism is an academic movement emerged during the mid-1980s, loosely based at the University of Southern California and UCLA, that poses a challenge to the dominant Chicago School of Urbanism. Police Association, was dismayed that it took a shooting to propel Romer to find the money. ``It's frustrating because we've been begging him,'' he said. ``Unfortunately, it's just like everything else in the school district; somebody has to get killed or injured before they do something.'' Staff Writer Jennifer Radcliffe contributed to this report. Rick Orlov, (213) 978-0390 rick.orlov(at)dailynews.com |
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