Katz was a prosecutor in the infamous hit-and-run case of Australian businessman and Girls Gone Wild distributor Ryan Bowman, who in the winter of 2010 struck and killed 21-year-old West Hollywood resident Lauren Freeman as she crossed Sunset Boulevard just before midnight.
Witnesses attested that Bowman's recklessly speeding gray Bentley — which he then abandoned, sans front bumper — threw the young, blond pedestrian 50 feet in the air.
"Like a piece of trash on the road," Freeman's father raged in court. "My little girl!"
But it could be argued that things worked out well for Bowman, specifically because he chose to flee the scene of his vehicular homicide.
Prosecutors couldn't prove he'd been drunk or grossly negligent before leaving Freeman to die, for one thing. It was too late to test Bowman for drugs or alcohol by the time he turned himself in to L.A. County Sheriff's investigators. So DA Steve Cooley's team worked out a plea deal: Bowman would spend just one year (six months with good behavior) at the comfortable Seal Beach Police Detention Center. Even that was an unusually harsh sentence for a single felony violation of the California Vehicle Code — likely thanks to the emotional courtroom testimony provided by Lauren Freeman's grieving parents.
Bowman was forced to look the Freeman family in the eye and acknowledge the tremendous loss and pain he'd caused. Most Los Angeles–area drivers who flee the scene never have to deal with it again. "Unless there's a good possibility to follow up, like an eyewitness account or a license plate or videotape from a nearby business, there's really not much we can do," says LAPD Cmdr. Smith.
Although Villaraigosa and Beck take credit for low levels of violent crime that today match those of the idyllic 1950s, it seems impossible that half of all auto crashes in 1956 were hit-and-runs, or that thousands of people were being left injured, or worse, on the city's streets each year.
The current crop of City Hall politicians have backed major and costly efforts to fight gang crime and graffiti but have no visible campaign aimed at tackling what appears to be a citywide morality crisis and crime wave. Marie Hardwick hopes that car-on-pedestrian crimes like the one she endured get moved up on Beck and Villaraigosa's list of public safety priorities.
"Even though I didn't die, I think this is a key case just to show how unimportant the hit-and-run department is in the LAPD," she says.
But it's not Hardwick's job to make Beck, Villaraigosa, the City Council or LAPD get serious about it. She's busy working through long, painful hours of physical therapy and picking up the pieces of her life.
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A few of L.A.'s hit-and-run victims
Thomas Price, 22, an aspiring firefighter, struck and killed Dec. 2 in Reseda.
Lina Andrade, 62, killed Nov. 18 in Westlake when a driver blew through a stop sign. Left a 92-year-old mother.
Miguel Mendez, 18, special needs student at Banneker Special Education Center, killed Nov. 17 by a minivan.
Amos Romasoc, 63, father of three, killed in Hollywood on Sept. 10 at a bus stop by a 2010 Chrysler Sebring.
Andrew Lopez, 17, a high school senior, killed by a U-turning car as he skateboarded to soccer practice Aug. 23 at Budlong Avenue and Martin Luther King Boulevard.
Doug Harden, 42, ran across Olympic Boulevard in Mid-City on July 14 to check his lottery tickets and was struck by a black SUV trying to pass other cars.
HOW MANY L.A. PEDESTRIANS ARE HIT BY BICYCLES A YEAR? I can find no statistics on this whatsoever for Los Angeles. In New York, it's over 1,000 a year. That's why I'm giving out FREE BIKE-BELLS at Franklin and Vermont in Los Feliz Sunday April 21st from 1 pm to 4 pm. Please come and tell all your bicyclist friends to come. http://screencast.com/t/a3Yt39KR
There was a hit and run not too long ago in front of where I live. A black truck hit an elderly gentleman crossing the street. The man flew about ten feet from the center of the cross walk to bus stop pole where he injured his back, legs, and head. The man was unconscious for about 20 minutes. The ambulance took quite a while to arrive that night. I suppose when someone calls and says "a homeless man was hit by a car" the response isn't so quick.
About two years ago as well I witnessed two hit and runs- this time with parked cars on the same street Roscoe- In the first one the boy was drunk at 10am in the morning- had no car insurance and totaled three parked cars (one of which was my sister's), drove into the sidewalk and destroyed a brick wall. On the second, the man somehow managed to hit two parked cars while attempting to do a fast U-turn. His car flipped over. The man jumped out of the car- walked into our complex and sat in one of the outside benches. His car blew up into flames shortly after. The paramedics and fireteam arrived shortly after.
I have been meaning to attend neighborhood council meetings to address this but even through the website- you can see very little will be achieved by this. Most council members are on the board as volunteers and thus dedicate the little time they have free to addressing neighborhood concerns. Not to mention, the first time I ever attended one of this the turnout pretty much consisted of the board and a few family members.
@oneolive Asto the NC's, citizens' failure to participate is why most are ineffective. Hollywood United Neighborhood Council [HUNC], however, conducted a series of public meetings concerning the slow First Responder times in Los Angeles including holding a Town Hall. After the testimony of citizens, of rank and file LAFD members and review of considerable new data from Fix The City, Inc., a private group which has uncovered tons of data which the City had been hiding, HUNC called for a Federal Grand Jury investigation into the downsizing of the LAFD based on the falsified 1-12-2011 LAFD deployment report and the 75% downsizing of FS 82.
HUNC had the assistance of local grassroots organizations, like Fix The City, HELP, and homeowner groups in this endeavor. No NC can do all the work necessary, and all NC's need credible grassroots organizations to bring data to their attention. Together the grassroots and NC's can make a difference.
However, it seems that Mr. Oneolive's NC failed to support HUNC -- Why? Maybe because Mr. Oneolive did not bother to participate and he did not work to have his NC support HUNC's call for a Federal Grand Jury.
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Roadblock is right - LA Weekly is responsible for a lot of the 20,000 hit-and-run crashes, because they and other irresponsible media support measures that would permit illegal immigrants to drive in Los Angeles. LA Weekly is no longer a pro-Los Angeles publication; just like the L.A. Times, they are a hypocrite-whore.
@bogard222 permitting undocumented individuals to obtain driving licensees is a different issue. It sounds ridiculous for anyone to argue that the majority of hit and runs are from undocumented drivers. The article only addressed this issue become countless of uninformed individuals tackle undocumented individuals as the cause for issues like this, attempting to degrade their hunanity by labeling these people as irresponsible, soulless foreigners who cause more trouble than the majority of criminals that are documented and continue to exist, slipping through the cracks of the law-enforcement system.
@wolfmann4u What? You mean that if a cop tries to stop a jay-walker who is an illegal, the illegal won't stop??? Really?? And the cop does what? Sigh and say, "Oh well I asked him to stop and he didn't so there's nothing I can do."
By the way, LAWeekly, your articles against those who actually do try to hold drivers accountable for wreckless / callous driving doesnt help the climate in LA. That piece on the stop sign cameras in LA parks was awful and one sided. Not many like red light cameras, but the articles didn't speak on any ways to hold drivers and speeders accountable otherwise. All you guys did was slime the park and recs people who installed the cameras. In fact, the topanga stop sign claimed "no collisions" in the article yet a quick look up on SWITRS and I found 3 report-able collisions at that intersection with injury. That kind of reportage does no favors to the safety of vulnerable road users who hope that one day drivers will calm down and drive safely in their 2 ton machines.
THANK YOU Jill Stewart for the shout on the SoCal connected video spot.The LADOT designs race track streets, posts unrealistic / inconsistent speed limit signs in huge bold print telling people they should be driving at 45MPH from RED LIGHT TO RED LIGHT. That is a HUGE part of the problem. You cant average more than 20-25MPH in any city urban environment in the world. There is no reason to design streets or post speed limits that facilitate anything more than 25mph in urban settings.
@roadblock Many urban areas can handle speed limits greater than 25 mph. Where do you get your data? Do you just make it up?
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I love how the police chief 3rdworld enabler / creator AVOIDS the issue. Why? Because he's trying to HAND DRIVERS LICENSES TO PEOPLE WHO HOPPED OUR BORDER TO GET HERE! It's NO coincidence that 1/2 the hit runs are most likely by the one 1/2 of our population who hail from Mexico and Central America. In those countries they don't exactly STICK AROUND either after plowing into some poor soul. LA is going DOWN the tubes. We absorbed TOO MUCH 3rd world poverty over the last 20-30 years. It is at an INSANE level now. Illiteracy, Stupidity, Gang Thuggery....YOU name it. THEY BRING IT TO US! WHY? Because it's simply TOO difficult to adapt to a complex CIVIL society. We are facing a BREAKDOWN in LA. Nearly all our homicides are LATINO yet the mayor and chief LIE and say we are in the IDYLIC 1950s ERA OF NON VIOLENCE? I guess they just don't COUNT Tonys people then eh? Those folks? the gangbangers stabbing, shooting and HITTING AND RUNNING just don't add up in the Tally of crime and death here? I am an LA native.
SICKENED by the trash..........the POVERTY unrelenting POVERTY FLOOD from Mexico and Central America here.
Erasing DIVERSITY and creating and 3rd world Latino Cesspool of my home town. RICH OR POOR Now here...
NO middle class.
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@Thevoiceofreason you're a stupid dumb motherfucker. get a life and ge an education. dumbfuck.
Roger Slifer is yet another victim of both a heartless hit-and-run coward and incompetent police work.
Roger Slifer is still in a coma after being run over at the corner of 5th and Colorado in Santa Monica. Hundreds of friends on Facebook are saddened and angry. http://www.facebook.com/SLIFER.Needs.You?fref=ts
@flintdille Please do not confuse Los Angeles with Santa Monica. 5th and Colorado is in Santa Monica, not in Los Angeles. It is still a tragedy, but the LAPD would not be involved in apprehending the driver. Also, despite all its other failing, the City of LA is not responsible for a defectively designed intersection which is outside its city limits.
BTW, other than buildings which may be too lose to the curbs and may obstruct vision is there any thing wrong with this intersection's design?
Remember reading a few years ago about an LAPD task force that worked in the northeast San Fernando Valley and specialized in pulling over cars with expired registration tags. In most cases the cars were impounded. The task force was credited with a very large drop in hit and run crashers, but was disbanded after community activists and politicians complained it unfairly targeted "the poor".
The sad truth is that people are completely disconnected and lacking any form of empathy towards pedestrians, bicyclists, and other drivers. That rat brain "fight or flight" takes over and people don't want to face their responsibility of common decency and respecting other's lives. As a cyclist; I commute often, and I have "close calls" almost every time. I've also had a dear friend who was hit-and-run, spent two weeks at CS ICU and months and months of recovery. Driver's lack the skills and driver education to understand how to drive around pedestrians and cyclists. Not to mention all the distractions. Cell phone, radio, texting, coffee, booze, smokes… And the laws are a joke. Even if your caught it seams the worst is maybe six months to a year in jail. This is the part that needs to change. If you leave the scene it should be a felony with a minimum of three to five years, and driver education is also key. I just don't understand how a driver could hit someone and just leave them for dead. How could you live with yourself?
@turbodropshop25 You are correct, people become cocooned in their cars and as a lifelong cyclist, I have seen the same thing. To many drivers, an unarmored cyclist is another vehicle that is just an irritation, a toy, not deserving of any respect or courtesy. I think we need PSAs to encourage people to share the road with cyclists, while on the other hand, cyclists who pull outrageous stunts in traffic and give riders a bad reputation need to be ticketed too. The "Critical Mass" type of lunatics have done lasting damage to bicycle commuters, who are - in the minds of many drivers - roped in with two-wheel miscreants. Cyclists have to be assert their right to the road, to a lane if they are keeping up with traffic, but not run lights or consciously get in the way of faster moving traffic. Cyclists need to ride a steady and consistent line, so that their behavior is logical and predictable to the drivers around them. It is a two way street.
@turbodropshop25 Exactly. The easiest way to murder someone with a maximum sentence of 6 months is to run them over with a car. You can do this with your kids, wife, mother, father, or anyone else. And it's just as easy to do as a rich person -- since we all know (contrary to factual data) that it's the illegals in LA who are perpetrating these crimes (even though the statistics say otherwise). And what's the big deal? So HALF of all crashes with peds/cyclists are hit and runs -- the glass is still HALF full - right? The worst that can happens is you get 5 years after admitting that you wanted to brutally kill some cyclists by slamming on your brakes at 30 mph -- which you did ... http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/01/cyclist-sentenced.html
@uberfahr @turbodropshop25 Can you enlighten us as to the breakdown of the general population in Los Angeles County v.s. who is responsible for hit and run accidents? I am not convinced all the majority of accidents are caused by westsiders in their Range Rovers and BMWs as in the article. Logic dictates that when the penalties are light (which they are, far too light), only people who are 1) Under the influence 2) Illegal or 3) Without insurance or all of the above would fail to stop, right? By constantly throwing the charge of racism (and sorry, illegal alien isn't a race, even Hispanic isn't a race but an ethnicity) out there when the persistent problem of hit and run drivers comes up, you do nothing to solve the problem. There are two answers 1) Make it clear that hitting someone in a cross walk or on a bicycle will be taken seriously and 2) Make the penalties for hit and run much more severe, not a slap on the wrist. The only difference between the way an illegal alien who engages in hit and run and a legal resident who does the same thing is treated should be the deportation after their prison sentence has been completed.
@ethanlosangeles @uberfahr @turbodropshop25 If what you say is true, then we need to license illegals so that we can get a handle on the problem. Forcing them underground is like outlawing Pot -- a dumb idea that does nothing to reduce its use.
@uberfahr @ethanlosangeles @turbodropshop25 Actually, if you read my reply, you would noticed that I stated I was a "lifelong cyclist." I have ridden well over 100,000 miles on bicycles, hundreds of miles a week when I was in my twenties and thirties. I did hundred mile plus rides twice a week for many years. I served on the Board of Directors for the United States Cycling Federation at the OTC, ran a velodrome and ran a competive team for a dozen years, served on municipal bicycle commissions and coached dozens of road and track cyclists, so I actually have a bit of experience, not only across the states but in Europe as well. Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Germany, France, Switzerland and more. So, you may be surprised to learn that my experiences track with yours as far as the lack of courtesy and decency of well-to-do drivers. I heartily concur, but the idea that these are the people who are most responsible for the hit and run problem is just preposterous. Even if they were the worst, most misanthropic drivers on earth, they make up a tiny percentage of the driving public to cause the "Rich Guy Hit and Run Driver Epidemic" that you claim has descended on Los Angeles. I have ridden in virtually every section of Los Angeles and Orange Counties on a bicycle, from Palos Verdes, to the San Fernando Valley, to Pasadena, the San Gabriel Valley and East Los Angeles. We used to ride from Pasadena to Newport and even Dana Point and back on training rides. I rode winter, spring, summer and fall, rain or shine, so I have experienced all types of drivers and have had six concussions to show for it. Americans in general are not used to cyclists, so many of them are loathe to share the road with them. However in many places in Europe you must ride in segregated bicycle paths, which isn't always the best thing either. And, try riding late in the afternoon in Parisian or Roman or Melanesian traffic and see if it is any better than Santa Monica or Beverly Hills. Now, as far as my personal observations, I feel that busy westside commuters are the worst. I have been forced off the road by a woman picking up her children in a Porsche and been cut off and cussed at my all manner of people in luxury cars. I have commuted through East Los Angeles, South Central as well as Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Pasadena. I have ridden up all the canyons, from Nichols in the east to Mandeville, where the evil "doctor" almost killed the cyclist. So, while I heartily agree - based on great personal experience and comparing notes with other cyclists - that the busy self-important well to do to wealthy person can be a terrible driver, I don't know of any evidence that they are overrepresented in hit and run accidents. The fact that the L.A. Weekly writer chose such examples is as meaningless as it would be if he wrote about four stories of blue-eyed auburn haired actresses causing accidents. Would we then conclude that Lindsay Lohan is responsive for 100% of the traffic accidents in Los Angeles? No, I would guess his choice was either random or in deference to the P.C. Curtain than curtails almost any honest discussion of any problem where a particular racial or ethnic group is overrepresented. If you watch "Law and Order" you would conclude that Wall Street Bankers and hedge fund managers commit virtually all the murders in New York, not the black and Hispanic drug dealers and gang bangers who actually do. I was the victim of a hit and run accident, hauled away in an ambulance from the scene on Glendale Boulevard near Los Feliz, but I wouldn't conclude that a large percentage of hit and runs were done by 17 year-old Mexican-Americans. I have been hit by rich and poor and with that one exception, everyone else stopped. So, I think you have let your personal experience cloud your vision. Political correctness has put blinders on many of us and to deny the greater tolerance for drunk driving among non-assimilated Hispanic immigrants, is to deny reality. Most of the guys I grew up with ended up in the CHP or LAPD and a frank discussion with a person who is not speaking officially should set you straight if you do not believe this. Now, lest you believe this all "racist" nonsense, please look up "The Scott Gardner Act: Detention of Illegal Aliens for Drunk Driving." Now, if the problem is a figment of someone's imagination, than why pray tell is there a bill to address it? " According to ICE director John Morton, in FY2011 the agency removed 35,927 individuals who had been convicted of driving under the influence (DUI). This is 9 percent of the total number of removals (396,906) for that year. That works out to almost 100 alien drunk drivers removed every day of the year." Furthermore: "In all jurisdictions for which data were obtained, the number of arrests of illegal alien drunk drivers was significant, representing at east 7 percent of all illegal alien arrests. In some areas, drunk drivers represent one-fifth to one-third of the criminal illegal aliencaseload — far more than the corresponding share of ICE's caseload. In one county examined, Rockingham County, N.C., more than half of all the illegal aliens in jail had been arrested for drunk driving. Clearly, in these communities, immigration law enforcement is contributing to public safety, as it results in the removal of individuals whose behavior is dangerous to others.
@ethanlosangeles @uberfahr @turbodropshop25 You can see from this article that for the first time the LA Weekly uncovers the basic data of a whopping 48% of accidents as hit and runs. This data was not available before and thus we must work with what we have -- all of us -- including your prickly highness.
You are eager, as per further comments below, for me to "put up or shut up" on my claim that more luxury cars are involved in hit and runs than others. While the 2009 data is the first AVAILABLE data to shed light on the fact that 48% of accidents in LA are hit and runs, the Berkeley research per below (and here again: http://articles.latimes.com/2012/feb/27/science/la-sci-0228-greed-20120228) clearly points to the observable phenomena that expensive cars are more likely to break the law and run red lights, cut off pedestrians, etc. This is a very strong study with strong indicators, unlike the wild claims and fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants accusations that you are making only by a convoluted logic based on 'feel.' There is no 'feel' about the observable data that I cite -- and the inference that I make based on research: more expensive cars are involved in more traffic infractions and ergo, more likely to be involved in a hit and run (with data that indicates a sense of entitlement by such drivers given their sense of 'higher stakes') is much closer than ANY of the data presented here regarding your claim and that of others on this thread that illegals and uninsured and intoxicated drivers are the bulk of the problem. Further, as a cyclist (which I assume that you are not) it is clear from 10 years of experience in LA that expensive cars are more volatile (more likely to be on a cell phone, distracted, more hurried/impatient). In fact, the only time that I have been hit was in Santa Monica in a bike lane by ... guess what ... a Lexus turning left into me because they were in a hurry. And to help convince you that I have little ax to grind with rich people in expensive cars, I did not wage a law suite against the driver who was courteous and reasonable and paid for fixing my bike. Since I am insured for all medical expenses, this did not seem relevant to me (legal suite etc.).
Think about the fact that EVERY documented story on this thread (main story and comments) involves a luxury car. Is that somehow NOT evidence? Or are you just grasping for more hate to throw at people -- people who are probably NOT the problem -- which is not tantamount to me condoning intoxication while driving, illegal citizenship, or uninsured drivers. But I can only speak from what is observable -- and to date, it is the expensive cars who are most likely to be problematic for me as a cyclist -- and the research seems to support it.
If you have better research -- based on your hateful claims -- please do share -- or shut the f@ck up.
My gripe: It's those dangerous bicyclists that we need to be talking about, not this easy-way-to-kill-someone-by-car-without-any-follow-up (given our official priorities). Plowing a car into a person is a lot easier than those little bullets loaded into those tiny barrels. All I can say is that bicyclists are the problem when it comes to safety and proper conduct on our streets. Not our beautiful cars nor our kind, responsible drivers.
@uberfahr You are either satirical and hilarious or extremely arrogant and callous. I'm really hoping it's hilarious!
It would be impossible to go through life not hating everyone if that ever happened to me. Hopefully there's a hell for those a holes.
Any bets on why...how about, unlicensed, uninsured and a good chance undocumented..what other possible reason would there be to leave someone you just hit lying dead or injured in the street, like some road kill? Fear of being caught is a great motivator.
@sgcode3 how about DRUNK. How about just being a disconnected asshole speeding in a bubble down streets designed to facilitate speeds in excess of 45mph from red light to red light? By the time someone even realizes what they did they are down the block and they just selfishly think "oh that didnt happen"
@roadblock roadblock Sure and how about adding to that unlicensed, uninsured and maybe undocumented...drunks! Not sure that makes it any better but whatever works for you!
@roadblock While there is little doubt that legal, people with licenses are guilty of many hit and run accidents, illegal aliens - drunk or sober - are a significant part of problem. I was hit by such a driver ten years ago and, when these cases are solved, many of them turn out to be illegal, unlicensed drivers. The answer is not to award licenses to people who are not here legally. No other nation that I know of licenses people who are breaking their laws, least of all Mexico. Even if we give illegals licenses it doesn't follow that they will obtain insurance and become fully legal drivers. Remember, if they are illegal, a license doesn't make them legal and they can have the same concern about immigration that they have without a license. Their lobby is pushing the notion of blurring the distinction between a legal immigrant - who has applied and waited years to get here - and an illegal one for their own reasons, not out of concern for other drivers, pedestrians or bicyclists.
@sgcode3that's fine, I'm not denying that is part of the equation, but all I see in these comments are people unwilling to reconcile that "legal" people make up a good portion of traffic criminals as well. Again, with so few resources dedicated to taming LA traffic and solving traffic crimes, we cant just blame one particular group. It is EVERYONE. Ive seen cases of minivan moms committing hit and runs (and the cops not giving a f***)
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That's mainly because there are so many illegal alien drivers in L.A. not wanting to stick around to answer questions.
@tncdel right. You keep telling yourself that. Meantime, it's the Lexus' and Mercedes' and BMW's that are STATISTICALLY the culprits. Rich people have MORE to lose. 1+1=2.
@uberfahr @tncdel Again, please show us a breakdown that proves that wealthy people in their luxury cars are responsible for the majority of hit and run accidents. Your constant refrain makes it pretty clear that you have some sort of deep seated social agenda with luxury car drivers (I drive a 1999 Ford but I commuted to work on a bicycle for 13 years and six concussions) rather than a wish to really shed light on what has been a persistent problem for as long as I can remember. A person, rich or poor who is not driving under the influence with a license or insurance doesn't have anything to lose at all in the vast majority of accidents. And, if someone is really rich and receives a fine, he or she can afford it, so less to lose. A rich person who looses a license can hire a driver, can't they, so this supposed motivation for rich people being behind the majority of hit and run accidents seems like something from a feverish imagination. Again, people usually flee the scene of an accident because they are drunk, stoned or don't have a license or insurance, it is not a difficult equation when you apply a little common sense. And, the answer to the problem is also easy, more professional police work, which means taking these heinous accidents seriously, tougher penalties and greater awareness of pedestrian safety through smart cross walks and increased enforcement. When the West Hollywood Sheriffs have increased enforcement of crosswalks through traffic enforcement, I believe they saw a reduction in pedestrians being struck in crosswalks.
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@uberfahr @ethanlosangeles @tncdel he above was from the House of Representatives hearings on the bill.The story below is from WRAL, a news station in North Carolina:"Seven-year-old Marcus Lassiter won't see his eighth birthday. GeorgeSmith was on his morning commute to Duke University but never made it towork. Betty Coates might struggle with daily tasks for the rest of herlife.Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell sees a pattern amongthe cases of these victims of drunken driving: Each accused driver wasin the United States illegally.Bizzell pointed to HipolitoHernandez, an illegal immigrant who faces second-degree murder chargesin the hit-and-run that killed Marcus last Sunday."This case here is a prime example of the justice system letting the people down," Bizzell said.Nearly 300 illegal immigrants were convicted on driving-while-impaired charges and placed in North Carolina prisons in 2007.Hispanicsalso account for 18 percent of drunken-driving arrests, while making upless than 7 percent of the state’s population, according to a studyfrom the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Centeraired in WRAL's documentary "Thestudy also showed that Hispanics involved in car crashes were 2.5 timesmore likely to be drunk than white drivers and three times more likelyto be drunk than black drivers.In the three cases listed above,each of the accused drunken drivers had extensive contact with thejudicial system – but had managed to elude the immigration system untilthese incidents.Hernandez, who originally gave an alias to policewho arrested him Monday, had been charged with DWI four times. Thosecases were either pending, dismissed on technicalities or reduced.WRAL uncovered no evidence that immigration authorities ever detained Hernandez during those times in court."He(Hernandez) shouldn't be here to start with. But he is," Bizzell said."He's violating the law. He's driving drunk. He's killing kids."Hernandez stands accused of murder in the case but has not beenconvicted of any charges.Eblin Fabiel Ocampo Cruz, 22, wasconvicted in the wreck on Interstate 540 that injured Betty Coates onOct. 25, 2007. An illegal immigrant, Cruz was charged with a DWI in 2006and had been in court six times that year.Ricardo Contreras-dela Torre had been deported from the U.S. twice before he plead guilty toDWI in the motor-vehicle death of 54-year-old George Alwyn Smith onJune 4, 2007.A new law, though, has begun changing the judicialprocess for those suspected of being illegal immigrants. When suspectsare fingerprinted and processed in jail, their information is oftencross-referenced with immigration records.U.S. Immigration andCustoms Enforcement has placed a detainer on Hernandez. Cruz andContreras-de la Torre will be deported when they finish their prisonsentences – both set to no more than three years, thanks to plea deals.Latino advocacy groups often urge the public to step back from the emotion over immigration and focus on the individual crimes.Advocatesadmit that drunk driving is a problem within the Hispanic community andhave aired public-service ads to combat the problem.Drunk driving is also the No. 1 killer of young Hispanic men, according to the UNC study.Bizzell said the tragedy is that deaths such as Marcus' and debilitating injuries such as Coates' are preventable."Thisisn't about race. This isn't about Mexico versus the United States,"Bizzell said. "It's about a drunk Mexican that's illegal, driving drunk,no operator's license, stolen vehicle, killing a little 7-year-oldboy." (Cullen Browder story)Now of course, I am being civil to you, no accusing you of "hatefulclaims." Whenever I read about "hate" and such in relation to anyinconvenient story, I know that someone can't use logic and statisticsto argue their case.If you notice the stats in the news story, Hispanic drivers had arate 2.5 times that of whites and 3 times that of blacks. So, the issueisn't about race because whites and Hispanics are both Caucasian andblacks had a rate of less than whites and greatly less than Hispanics.All ethic and cultural groups don't have the same problems at the samerate, only someone with P.C. blinders would advance that notion. Iwould not advance the notion that there is an issue with genitalmutilation among African-Americans or Asians, nor would I accuse Muslimsof having a problem with widow burning, but no matter how one wants tocut it there is a major issue with Hispanic drunk driving and hit andrun accidents and there is hard evidence to support the "hateful" claimsthat injure your multi-culti heart. I could copy and paste hundreds ofarticles on people who have been killed and maimed by illegalimmigrants, giving you the anecdotal evidence you hold dear as well asthe statistics, but it's a waste of time, because nothing it seems willmake you believe that our problem with hit and run drivers is due toMercedes wielding rich people, not to illegal aliens, driving without alicense, insurance, ties to the community who have the ability to fleeto their native country. If this wasn't an issue the Hispanic communitywould not sponsor PSAs to attack the problem would they? The fog ofpolitical correctness can only cloud reality in the mind of someonedevoid of all logic. Da Nile isn't only a river in Egypt.
@ethanlosangeles @tncdel OK: Here is the data that you claim and I do stand corrected: "The facts are straightforward - unlicensed and suspended or revoked licensed driversare involved in hit-and-runs 51.2% of the time."
See: http://cbsla.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/los-angeles-traffic-whitepaper-ver-3.pdf
@ethanlosangeles @uberfahr @tncdel Again, please show us your side of the coin -- show us even a shrapnel of data that suggests that in LA or elsewhere, hit and runs involve mostly the uninsured, illegal population, or intoxicated persons. Otherwise, you are claiming things based on a very poor set of assumptions. By the way, please don't consider yourself a mathematician based on your use of the word "equation."
I was one, there was a witness, the driver was my neighbor...and the LAPD detective told me they couldn't do anything.
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To all the people talking about "illegals." I don't buy it. Show me the stats. In my EXTENSIVE experience working with thousands of cyclists across Southern California, I've seen it all and even experienced it myself when I became a hit and run survivor in 2009. I was lucky. I got his plate. I had a community of people to help track down the asshole that carried me on his hood and threw me 50-75 feet before he drove around me and took off. No thanks to the LAPD this time. When I hit up the LAPD the morning after I got out the hospital THEY HAD NOT DONE ANYTHING. They did not run the plates they did not discover a match 2 miles up the street. Why? I dont know. Even when I had given the officer on scene a plate number. The person on the phone said it would "take 2 weeks to run the plates" I was devastated. They told me "you could drive around and see if you find the car." Well myself and another rider who goes by DJWheels on Midnight Ridazz tracked him down through a connection in the CHP and online googling FB etc.The guy who hit me? Insured citizen driving a 2009 Jaguar. Dude in fact is a connected city hall lobbyist. Funny thing was I was just downtown that morning making public comment in City Hall about helping us create safer streets for cyclists. We will never know if he was under the influence - it was 1AM but we do know that he was not "illegal." In fact, he was well capable of taking care of the situation had he stayed.I don't know what it is about people behind the wheel... or maybe just people in general but it's NASTY what happens out there and we've got and under funded LAPD traffic investigations unit AND we have a city attorney who is scared to take hit and run CRIMES to a jury trial. So these criminal drivers get plea deals for low sentences and they DO NOT LOSE THEIR LICENSES. THIS NEEDS TO CHANGE.
THANK YOU LA WEEKLY FOR FINALLY FINALLY having the GUTS to shed light on this and call it an EPIDEMIC. I know 12 people who were hit and run personally just this year and even when a driver has beed ID'd in one case... she got off.
POLITICIANS and POLICE NEED TO ADOPT A NEW POLICY that protects people who walk and ride bikes on all of OUR public streets! That policy needs to include speed limit enforcement.The LAPD and the LADOT need to STOP advocating for speed limit increases and crosswalk removal. Believe it or not they have been showing up at transportation committee meetings and speaking in favor of this for years. The LAPD needs to GET AGGRESSIVE on cyclist and pedestrian hit and run response time. As of now LAPD RARELY sends a cruiser to a suspect's residence even in the RARE instance where a license plate is captured. That needs to change. We need immediate response otherwise value-able evidence is lost for the CA and DA to use in prosecution.
We need, as my friend Alex Thompson advocates, a LIFE Before LICENSE attitude in state law. As of now drivers rarely lose their license or they can drive to and from work. That's bullshit. Leave the scene and lose your license for 5 years. Kill someone, leave the scene and lose your license forever.
-roadblock
Midnight RidazzWolfpack Hustle
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@roadblock How do you show stats when they're "hiding in the shadows"? Or does the scenario only apply when "they" want something from us?
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@sgcode3 not completely understanding the point, I am not arguing that a healthy amount of hit and runs occur because of licensing issues, but again, in my experience the hit and run drivers that have been caught - very few but it has happened - they were not undocumented people they were US citizens. I can rattle off 4 cases of the top of my head. In fact, I would argue that undocumented immigrants would logically be driving a lot more carefully just out of self interest and the desire not to get pulled over. But no reliable stats exist to prove either case because of the low amount of resources dedicated to traffic crimes.
@roadblock @sgcode3 Well, the writer should do a follow-up that addresses this issue specifically. I know a number of people however who have worked traffic enforcement with LAPD and all of them see the illegal population as a significant part of the problem if not the most significant part of the problem. Again, people who fail to stop may be bad, even evil, but they have specific motivations and most of the time it will be because they are impaired (which is taken seriously) or without insurance. There are huge swaths of Los Angeles that are filled with illegal residents, but licensing them isn't going to make them fully legal (that is a federal issue) and while it may make life easier for them, it isn't going to mean they will buy car insurance. Or, are we going to add that to their tab too? Give them a license they are not entitled to and provide them with "free" car insurance when many legal residents strain to buy it for themselves. So, while the legalization lobby may claim everything will be great once we give everyone licenses, it isn't going to make them responsive enough to buy insurance. So, if you really buy into the idea that the licenses will solve everything explain how you will solve the insurance problem, cause they don't give it away, in the end, someone has to pay for every "free" government program, or at least pay the Chinese back at some point in our grand-children's future when most of our budget goes to interest.
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Racism and bigotry do not make people safer. I have had over 30 years dealing with the LAPD Traffic Investigators and the problem starts with the City Council.
The city council intentionally underfunds the LAPD just as it underfunded the LAFD. Of course, the LAPD does a terrible job -- it has way too few investigators and the quality of most is atrocious. The reason we have incompetent traffic investigators is that we do not fund the LAPD. I have seen officers sweep up and throw away all the debris from any accident when a witness was trying to document the accident scene. I was at another accident scene where it took over one hour for the Pacific Division officer show up for an accident at Vine and Yucca in Hollywood and then he refused to take any notes. I asked him why he want not writing down any distance or making any diagram and he replied that he could remember it until he got back to the station! I asked when that would be and his shift had another 5 hours. In another incident, a CHP just threw car parts over the edge of the freeway and told the injured motorist, "it's your insurance company's problem."
The focus is not on this investigator's arrogance and incompetence, but on the fact that when the city refuses top fund the LAPD, we get crap like that for officers.
This problem has been going on for decades -- yet mayors going back to the corrupt Dick Riordan refuse to provide adequate money to either the LAFD or the LAPD. The result is a high death toll -- lack of enforcement means there is no penalty for felony hit and run which encourages Hit and Run's.
Also the racist anti-Mexican attitudes seriously aggravate the problem. If we licensed everyone and then spent the money to enforce the law, "illegals" would have much more to fear from fleeing than from stopping. Also, we need a system to spot un-insured cars.
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