Streets, Sweet, Streets

The battle over the future of L.A.�s Skid Row

Comments (0) By Charles Rappleye Wednesday, Dec 18 2002

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The sergeant fields complaints from businesses, keeps an eye out for felons and new faces on the street, and makes sure that certain hot spots are kept relatively clear. Standing to one side as the denizens of one encampment packed up their scattered belongings, MacDonald said, “I feel like I can make a difference out here.”

But perhaps not the difference the business and political leaders are looking for. Terry Cammack is another Skid Row cop, a senior lead officer with 35 years on the job. He is not afraid to make arrests -- he’s one of the officers who testified against William Nowell. But like MacDonald, Cammack has learned to weigh the situations he encounters on his own scales of right and wrong. “You have to find the median between the extremes,” Cammack said. “We can go out and enforce a lot of different things, but it always comes down to the question ‘Where are they going to go?’”

And as law enforcement increases the pressure, the answer lies farther and farther from the confines of Skid Row. According to Cammack, the policy of containment is already beginning to unravel. He‘s finding homeless encampments in city parks, in the Westlake district and on freeway offramps that he patrols with the CHP. “It’s grown exponentially,” Cammack said. “It‘s wider than you could ever imagine.”