KTLA News: "Police Chief Daryl Gates and Undersheriff Sherman Block testify..." (1980)

Not many people attended today's public hearing on street gangs and many of those that did are involved with the problem professionally like Los Angeles County under sheriff Sherman Block. Traditionally, these gangs have been turf oriented, regarding themselves as soldiers protecting their neighborhood. The relatively new phenomenon relating to these traditional gangs has been the rapid escalation in their violence level to the point where in Los Angeles County now has the unflattering distinction of producing the highest gang related murder rate suffered by any metropolitan area in the nation. 276 gang rel for us to what uh what are we going to do? I mean, we could do we just keep throwing more money at it or do we what are we going to do? >> Well, I don't think you can find a a simple answer to it. U >> I didn't say that. Well, you can go down the the full gamut of of social problems. You know, I I'll buy no jobs. I'll buy all of those kinds of things. I think they're all important. Uh but I think in the final analysis, uh along with everything else we do, we're going to have to communicate that killing someone, harming someone is uh is very very serious and that when that happens, something serious is going to happen to the perpetrator. And we have not communicated that at all. from the chief deputy of the district attorney's office, Kurt uh lives. Specifically, 215 homicides committed since January have been attributed to gangs. That's a 35% increase over the same period last year. There's also been growth in the number of assaults, robberies, and other felonies allegedly committed by gang members. With those numbers in mind, Supervisor Pete Shabbaram asked the bottom line question. This afternoon, the board was scheduled to hear a report on a program that's reportedly been successful in Philadelphia. But some believe it won't work here in Los Angeles. And so, another proposal put together by the county's chief administrative officer, Harry Huffford, is also set for consideration. An important overriding idea that seems to be emerging from this hearing is that gangs are not going to go away no matter what is done. And so if there is a solution to the current problem, perhaps the only realistic one is eliminating the criminal behavior, not the gangs themselves. >> For news at 10, Tony >> Valdez. >> Here we go. The first one is gang violence hearings for some statistics if I may before we start the hearing. So we can see the problem in a larger context. In 19 there is a problem and degree Newark, New Jersey, I understand, and some others large and small have developed schemes whereby law enforcement has broken out of its traditional mold and has invited citizens to participate in these patrol programs. Not just to call up if they see a shooting, but to actually Morning. Good morning. How are you? Fine, thanks. Roger, supervisors, we have where we got to go. Uh, I know it's already been said that we're throwing a half a billion dollars at the justice system right now per year and now we're talking about the possibility of adding three or four million more dollars. And that's all well and good, but I I don't see that as them there as long as they get the message that they're liable to go there if they if they commit crime. But we don't do that. We we I guess we're going to build a few more prisons in the state of California, but I'm not really too sure of that. We've certainly delayed that for an awful long time. But you made the point that even if we had the facility, >> this problem does not limit itself to one area of the county, it spread throughout the entire county. The people involved uh in gang related crimes are not necessarily gang members, innocent bystanders, many times are victims. So the hearings then uh today and next Monday are designed to hear from law enforcement officials, designed to hear from probation department, designed to hear from the community. Uh designed to hear from gang members themselves representing different areas of this county. uh designed to hear from people who are coming from Philadelphia to discuss how they came up with a program which has been quite successful in reducing uh gang violence in their city. And out of these hearings then problems attendance there too have confronted this community for many years dating back to the 1979 a dramatic increase over the 180 such murders that occurred in 1978. From our perspective, the one bright spot in the picture, if such a thing is possible, is the impact that the sheriff's operation safe streets program has had on our target gangs during that same period. A 27% reduction in target gang involved homicides versus the overall 35% increase. a 10% reduction in target gang related offenses versus an overall 23% increase. An increase of 63% in the number of target gang members prosecuted and a 61% increase in the number of such persons convicted. as with any other disease that your department does not view it as that. Uh I believe that your department must somehow shake itself out of its more traditional approach to this and certain other issues. There have been complaints in past years that we have not spent enough on law enforcement. Mr. Huffford has prepared a memo that shows this year we are spending $572 million on law enforcement which is a great deal of money. The whole criminal justice division taking that much money. Uh but some features of your department and other departments are almost pricing themselves out of our reach as taxpayers. How much does it cost to put a 24-hour patrol car on the street? Give or take. I'd say in the neighborhood of $475,000. >> So for a million dollars, a community or a department or an uninccorporated area would only get two and a quarter patrol cars and that would be about it, which is really, I think, breaking the public purse. And since revenue sharing funds were starting to be reduced, it's beyond your control. People are afraid to walk the sidewalks in their own neighborhoods. Now, some cities, Salt Lake City to over 122 active gangs, about 9,000 uh members of those gangs. Uh about 89 of those gangs are street gangs and they are statistically our predominant problem. Uh most of those street gangs are are Latin. However, u there is a increase in the number of black gangs in the uh in the last year. Um we have some absolutely astounding statistics that u I think most of you are aware of. Uh our murders, homicides for the first nine months of this year compared to last year have increased 71%. We've had 146 gang type killings in the city of Los Angeles. We've had over 300 attempt murders, over a thousand over,200 felony assaults and um our robberies committed by gang members have gone up 212%, almost 700 of them. And that's the kind of statistics we have in uh in connection with all of our gangs. Uh homicides in general are up in the city of Los Angeles substantially, but we're finding that that while last year gang homicides constituted about 14%, this year they constitute about 23%. So they have increased in not only in numbers but have increased uh in terms of the their responsibility for the overall homicide rate. Uh we find that uh again predominantly our gang problems are are uh Hispanic Latin. Uh 82 of those murders were Latin. Uh 11 Anglo, seven 18 black and three Asian. Um, and I might say that in that 146 homicides and murders that we've had that um there's a a belief that it's just one gang killing the gang members of of of another gang or rival gang. That's simply not true. 62% of those uh gang killings involved others outside of gangs. People who were simply either sitting in their homes or walking down the street or riding down the street and became the victims of gang warfare. We're pleased to see that uh the CAO the kind we have support for those kinds of programs. We have support for any kind of program that we think uh might have some impact on gang activity. Uh there have been other operations that uh we've had in the city of Los Angeles that have really tried to strengthen reinforce gangs and uh we think those are not the kind of programs that should be supported. those that are willing to deal uh effectively as moderators, as uh people who will get involved in terms of dealing with specific uh uh or potential gang warfare, we're all for them as long as they don't interfere with the normal justice system. Uh the prosecution of those who commit crime. Uh there has been again in the past that kind of approach where there was an attempt to solve problems but also an attempt to interfere with with the justice system in it in its efforts to deal with with the violation of of the law. Uh where we were >> absolutely and not Oakwood necessarily >> and without interfering with law enforcement law enforcement but they attempt to solve some of the street level problems. Uh I'm all for that if if that can be done I I'm all for it. It's hazardous work, difficult work. uh but uh I I think the people that do it have to be uh trained and they also have to be very knowledgeable of what they're doing and what their li what their limitations are. So what you're saying is that you would favor a community approach involvement involvement similar to Philadelphia that assumes training and the proper role not interfering with police and >> and one other thing I I go off to the youth authority uh spend a little time there and come back on the streets. It's no big thing with them. We simply have not communicated uh in this state probably in this nation that killing someone else is a serious serious thing to do. We excuse them with all kinds of thing economic problems disadvantage. They ingest Twinkies. They they ingest PCP. We give them all kinds of excuse excuses. But we never say to them that's a bad thing and since you've done that something very serious is going to happen to you because nothing serious really really happens to them. >> All right. Well, we appreciate you being here. Let me ask where I think we are any real answer either. It's always been said that there's going to be a percentage of the population that's uh let's build some places to keep people. Now, we don't have to keep >> an idea that appears to be emerging from these hearings is that the gangs are going I'm sorry >> an overriding idea that seems to be emerging from these hearings is that the gangs are not going to go away no matter what is done and so if there is an answer to the current problem it may lie in removing the criminal activity I'm An overriding idea that seems to be emerging from this hearing is that gang problems aren't >> I'm sorry I am and death.