Gang Violence

Mayor Villaraigosa 'Saddened' By Anti-Gang Group Homeboy Industries' Financial Woes

Father Gregory Boyle's recently published book.​Reacting to this week's news that gang-prevention group Homeboy Industries had to lay off 330 of 427 employees, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told Patt Morrison on her KPCC (89.3) radio show Friday that he was "saddened" and "concerned." Homeboy fo ... More >>

Arturo Segura, L.A. Homicide No. 101: 20 year-old Man Shot to Death in South Los Angeles

A 20-year-old man was shot to death in an apparent gang-related shooting in South Los Angeles May 7. View Larger Map Arturo Segura and friends were walking from a liquor store in the 5800 block of Main Street when they were confronted by gang members around 7 p.m. Friday night.

Gang Injunction Targets Drug Dealing In Skid Row

The Row.​City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, with the help of District Attorney Steve Cooley, announced a city gang injunction in Skid Row Wednesday. The filing by the City Attorney's Gang Division prohibits about 80 gang members from throughout the county from coming to Skid Row to sell drugs. " ... More >>

Jose L. Castillo, L.A. Homicide No. 65: Police Investigating Gang-Related Shooting of Two Men in Montecito Heights

Google Maps​Los Angeles Police Department detectives are investigating the gang-related shooting of two men in the Montecito Heights area of Northeast Los Angeles March 29. Officers found Jose L. Castillo, 20, fatally wounded in the 2600 block of Sichel Street near East Avenue 26 around 8: ... More >>

When Ordered, Twitter Monitors Tweet-Bangers For Authorities -- Report

​Representatives of Twitter and Facebook said they cooperate with authorities investigating gangs that use the social-networking tools to communicate about crime, according to a report. "Representatives from Twitter and Facebook say they regularly cooperate with police and supply information ... More >>

L.A. Gang Tours: Exploitation Or Education?

​The first of those L.A. Gang Tours we told you about took place Saturday on a bus filled mostly with journalists, and concerns that the journeys would be exploitative looks at the ghetto seemed to be mostly allayed. "I was skeptical at first, and thought it would be a 'titillating' tour, lik ... More >>

Are Gang Members In L.A. Getting Too Old To Bang?

Chief Charlie Beck.​Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck was asked if one of the reasons gang crime was low in the city because gang members are getting too old to get down. He didn't think so, telling a town-hall gathering of listeners of KPCC (89.3 FM) that "gang membership is not down -- ... More >>

Gang Interventionist Tried For Conspiracy To Be Freed On Bail (UPDATED)

Sanchez.​Alex Sanchez, the Los Angeles anti-gang activist accused by federal authorities of diving back into street life and conspiring to commit serious crimes, was granted bail Wednesday, according to Celeste Fremon's WitnessLA. After two hearings on the matter and much support for Sanchez ... More >>

City Establishes 'Gang Intervention Training Academy'

Mayor V.​The city of Los Angeles is facing a tide of $400 million in red ink, intermittent fire-company closures and probable layoffs. So if you're like us, you were probably just thinking, wow, what the city really needs right now is a "gang intervention training academy." Don't get us wrong ... More >>

Deputy LAPD Chief Acknowledges Rival Gangs Now Might Be Collaborators

myspace.com/world_wide_eighteen_st​Deputy Los Angeles police Chief Michel Moore told La Opinion newspaper that the department is aware of possible collaboration among gangs in Los Angeles. LA Weekly was the first to report a certain quietude and possible business alliances on streets once bloo ... More >>

Gangs Cooperating With Each Other For Better Business, Report States

​As we told you last summer ("Gangs Lay Low, Rake in Dough") some neighborhoods that used to represent bloody fault lines in decades-old gang grudges have been eerily quiet, with some experts theorizing that the sets are working together to comprise a more-efficient money-making machine on the ... More >>

LAPD Chief Breaking Up Effective Enforcement Unit

Chief Charlie Beck.​In his announcement this week that he would put 130 officers back on regular patrols, Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck failed to emphasize that the move would break up an effective, mobile, crime-saturation unit that has been used to target gangs and problem areas in t ... More >>

LAPD Chief Lobbies For Gang Intervention

Chief Charlie Beck.​New Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck appeared before a City Council committee Monday to lobby for cash to fund gang intervention, which he has painted as a key element in dealing with a flood of inmates set to be released by the state of California. Beck has said that ... More >>

Gang Members Get Booked For Facebooking

Mario Rocha was identified and convicted as a gang member despite much proof.​It's something we reported on a few years ago: Gang members are using social networking sites to represent their neighborhoods, show pride in their sets and display their muscles, weapons and bravado. Today, authorit ... More >>

The Gangs Of New Media: Criminals Get Social Too

Assemblyman Alberto Torrico.​Gang members have been spotted on MySpace and YouTube and have now spread to Facebook and Twitter. It's a natural migration: The "sets" rely on technology to communicate like everyone else. But now lawmakers are seeking ways to keep tabs on gangsters online. State ... More >>

Too Much Love: Alex Sanchez's Bail Hearing

Santa Monica Police Tear Into Local Gangs

Some find it hard to believe that Santa Monica, with a median housing price of $1.6 million, is home to two entrenched gangs. The residents of the Pico Neighborhood, near Santa Monica College, know the fact well.SMPDSanta Monica police patrol the not-so-mean Third Street.​ Preston Wayne Brumf ... More >>

Escalante Cover Story Spurs Race Ruckus

Girl Shot at New Helen Bernstein High School in Hollywood

It's a gorgeous high school just off the 101 Freeway, lauded a few years ago by school officials as the new face of once-rundown Hollywood and named after Los Angeles education reformer Helen Bernstein.But earlier today a girl was shot and seriously wounded when she got in the crossfire of street ga ... More >>

L.A. Times Shills for Villaraigosa's 'Summer Night Lights'

Reading the L.A. Times this morning, we stumbled upon Hector Tobar's breathless column about Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's supposed anti-gang program called "Summer Night Lights."L.A. Times columnist Hector Tobar​Tobar visits Ramon Garcia Park in Boyle Heights, one of 16 parks in Los Angeles where ... More >>

Murder Was the Case: L.A. Homicide No. 137: Fatal Drive-By Shooting in Pacoima

A Hispanic male was killed June 24 in a drive-by shooting in Pacoima. View Larger Map According to police, 30-year-old Gerardo Cruz was standing out in front of his girlfriend's house with her brother drinking beer when three alleged gang members jumped out of their blue compact car and "shot up th ... More >>

Feds: Latino Gang Targeted Blacks

The Los Angeles U.S. Attorney's office today announced that about 150 members and associates of the Varrio Hawaiian Gardens street gang have been indicted for racketeering and the shooting of African Americans. The indictments, to be unsealed later today, will reveal details of the gang's alleged cr ... More >>

Bratton's Jump Into L.A.'s Mayoral Race

Angry candidates ask: How can Bratton and Villaraigosa claim L.A. is as safe as 1956?

After Marlo Jones' Arrest: How to Keep Ex-Gang Members Straight?

You've got to hand it to our city's social guardians, they can see a gold lining in every tragedy. In the soul-searching that has followed last week's arrest of gang-interventionist Marlo Jones, several people gave the L.A. Times explanations for his alleged role in robbing a member of the hip hop g ... More >>

Why Do Secret Citizens Control the Gang Contracting?

Villaraigosa says they have to be anonymous. A dead city attorney told him so

Secrecy Rules in L.A.'s $24 Million Gang Program

Carr and Villaraigosa use 50 anonymous people to decide who gets the money

Delgadillo, Villaraigosa and L.A'.s 2008 Anti-Gang Tax

You have to wonder if Antonio Villaraigosa and the Los Angeles City Council will come up with another "anti-gang program" that fails to woo a single kid away from gangs, now that Antonio Villaraigosa and Rocky Delgadillo are openly showing how much they loathe one another. If you didn't catch it, t ... More >>

California Prisons' Big Group Hug

Under court order, races must co-exist

Major Law Enforcement Crack down Nets the Gangsters of Drew Street

A multi-agency task force of 500 law enforcement officers swooped down on members of the avenues gang on Drew Street early this morning. The crackdown netted 32 members or associates of the “Drew Street” clique of the avenues. The operation, which began at 4 a.m., stemmed from a massive 157-pa ... More >>

Fury Over Jamiel's Law

Should a movement to protect kids be named after an alleged gangbanger?

Teaching for America in Crips Territory: Relentless Pursuit

Hope and little glory at an L.A. high school

Anti-gang Founder Marroquin Gets Prison

“No Guns” leader peddled guns while City Hall paid him to fight gangs Hector Marroquin founder of the gang intervention group No Guns, was sentenced today to eight years in prison after pleading no contest to weapon charges. Charged alongside 51-year-old Marroquin was his 25-year-old girlfriend ... More >>

The Gangs of Los Angeles

Our readers write

L.A. Gangs: Nine Miles and Spreading

More codeless, arbitrary and brutal than ever... and coming to a neighborhood near you

Hector Marroquin Jr: L.A.'s Anti-Anti-Gang Activist

Son of �No Guns� founder committed home-invasion robbery while on city payroll

Hector Marroquin's Revenge

Feds arrest “No Guns” activist for selling guns, while L.A. politicians duck

Did City Hall Fund a Gun-Runner?

Feds arrest Hector Marroquin, of the purported �No Guns� anti-gang program

Urine Luck, L.A. Gangs!

Piddling programs — like teaching kids to install urinals — dominate Antonio’s plan to save the city’s youth

Where Are the Adults?

City Hall can�t cope as L.A. neighborhoods get hit by taggers gone wild

They See Dead People

For 1,000 murder victims, a new LAPD cold-case unit finally seeks justice

Ganging Up On City Hall

Is this really a surge in gang crime, or is Villaraigosa peddling fear?

The Mayor's Fake "Worst Gangs"

Cops, gangs, residents — all ridicule City Hall’s politically correct top 11

Clearing the Case

Ham-handed LAPD has trouble getting witnesses to talk in murder cases

The Bastard Question

A former Blood explores the roots of our nation’s longest-running war

Goodbye, L.A. Gangs

If that smart Connie Rice is right, we just need to change society and spend $1 billion

The End Of Murder

If New York can slash homicide by 76 percent, can Los Angeles contemplate a vanishing point?

Broken Bridges

Did City Hall’s plan to fight gangs bankroll a gangster?

From the Hoods to the Woods

How an O.G. gangbanger turned himself into a hardcore firefighter

Race Divide

A white gang member is charged with threatening a black student in Pasadena

''They Wanted All Blacks Out''

Federal trial exposes the Avenues of hate