GANG-VIOLENCE CRISIS L.A. SLAYINGS UP 26% AS MENACE REACHES EPIDEMIC PROPORTIONS.

Byline: Beth Barrett Staff Writer

Even as violent crime declines overall, gang-related slayings have soared across the country and now represent a major law enforcement crisis in Los Angeles, other major cities and even rural communities, according to a study released Tuesday.

While funding of juvenile programs was being cut, gang activity spread rapidly from Los Angeles to the rest of the country, and homicides linked to juveniles in gangs have soared from 692 nationally in 1999 to more than 1,100 in 2002, the study found.

``More and more kids are trading school colors for gang colors and more parents are trading graduations for funerals,'' said Sanford Newman, president of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a Washington D.C.-based anti- crime organization of 2,000 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors and victims of violence that prepared the report, ``Caught in the Crossfire: Arresting Gang Violence by Investing in Kids.''

In Los Angeles, overall gang homicides are up 25.9 percent, from 81 through early April 2003 to 102 during the comparable period of 2004. The increase follows a 26 percent drop in L.A. gang-related homicides, from 350 in 2002 to 259 in 2003.

Los Angeles' 48,000 gang members make up just over 1 percent of the population, but account for about half of the city's homicides.

``Gang violence in America is once again on the rise,'' said Los Angeles Police Chief Bill Bratton during a teleconference on the report. ``This is a pending crisis. We know it's coming. We can guarantee it's coming.''

The report noted that since 2002, federal funds for juvenile programs have been cut 44 percent and potentially might be cut 40 percent more soon.

Violent crime trends - including a dip in spousal homicides - have ``hidden'' the sharp increase in gang homicides, said James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University in Boston.

``This is not a blip, but a several-year pattern.''

While gang violence declined through the 1990s, it began to climb in 1999, ``when we let down our guard,'' he said.

Bratton said L.A. has had success when police and other agencies have targeted neighborhoods in tandem with prevention and intervention programs. But he noted there aren't enough officers on the streets, sheriff's deputies in the jails, prosecutors or youth programs to do all that's required.

``There literally is the feeling the war on crime has been won. The war on crime has not been won. But, we know how to win it.''

The report cites dramatic drops in youth gang violence in Boston, Philadelphia and Baton Rouge, La., where there have been those collaborations, close supervision of young people and a wide variety of community support services.

``We can't simply arrest our way out of the crime problem,'' Bratton said. ``This report proves that the 'one-two punch' of targeted police enforcement and intensive intervention with children yields dramatic results in cutting gang crime.

``We think of prison as punishment, but in many instances we're just reinforcing their loyalty to the gang. To them, prison is like going to finishing school.''

Fox said often gang leaders return to their neighborhoods from prison as ``celebrities.''

``More young kids are attracted to gangs. They're too young to have witnessed the bloodshed of a generation ago.''

They see the status and the thrills, not the ``early grave.''

The report identified three kinds of gangs.

--The traditional gangs are those that formed before the mid-1980s to defend turf from which to sell drugs and commit crimes, using automatic weapons in drive-by shootings to enforce boundaries or settle disputes.

Some traditional gangs now have tens of thousands of members - though the average is about 180 - and operate with elaborate structures and rules, much like the Mafia, the report said.

Traditional gangs, like the Crips and Bloods in L.A., have tried to export their gangs through chapters in other cities.

--More recent gangs formed in the 1980s as ``crews, cliques, or posses.'' Typically smaller, around 25 members, they are more likely to sell drugs, but not to identify as much through ``colors,'' hand signals or gang graffiti.

--The newest gangs formed in the 1990s in smaller cities, suburbs and rural areas. They tend to be more diverse - including women and middle-class members - and less violent or involved in drug sales, the report said.

Some violent inner-city gangs, or traditional-style gangs, like MS-13, a Salvadoran gang, are moving into older suburbs.

A survey of youth gang activity in 2003 found that 87 percent of cities with 250,000 or more people have gangs, while 38 percent of suburban counties and 12 percent of rural counties do.

``It is soon coming to a town near you,'' Bratton said.

Beth Barrett, [phone]

beth.barrett(at)dailynews.com

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GANG-RELATED CRIMES

SOURCE: Los Angeles Police Department 

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