Michael Krikorian

There probably were more ex-convicts with knockout punches gathered outside a Watts Baptist church at 114th Street and Graham Avenue recently than there were in all the gyms in Los Angeles that day.   The hard hitters — Bounty Hunter Bloods from Nickerson Gardens housing project — were convened at......

Asked if being poor, black and gay hurt him at the start of his career, author James Baldwin famously replied that his situation "was so outrageous ... you had to find a way to use it." Deshawn Cole knows outrageous and he, too, is trying to make the most of......

Manuel Ramirez's bloodied body lay on the grimy Sixth Street sidewalk, partly obscured by a La Opinión newspaper rack, which would feature the Guatemalan-bo...

Betty Day doesn’t take shit from anyone. She’d tell off Obama if he pissed her off. Hell, she’d cuss out Putin in a heartbeat while walking the streets of Moscow at midnight. That’s Betty Day, the godmother of the Jordan Downs.    At a weekly Monday-morning meeting of the Watts......

LeChein Taylor took out a cell phone and called his brother Bo. Bo Taylor, founder of the gang-prevention, intervention and life-skills program Unity One, didn’t pick up. His machine came on: “This is Bo, text me or leave a message.” Bo wasn’t far away — his body lay in a......

Around 7:30 on Friday night, the crew at the EZ Lube on Highland and Melrose lined up and started cheering. Three of them pulled out cameras and started taking shots like paparazzi. A fleet of SUVs filled with very tall men had pulled up across the street at Osteria Mozza......