LAPD Boosts Efforts to Aid Neighborhood

As hundreds of parishioners at St. Agatha’s Church erupted into cheers, Los Angeles city officials Sunday promised to dedicate more resources to fighting crime in their South Los Angeles neighborhood.

City Councilman Martin Ludlow and Deputy Police Chief Earl Paysinger, commanding officer of the LAPD’s South Bureau, said they will soon provide two police officers to the full-time job of shutting down houses used for drug dealing. Ludlow also told parishioners that he would institute an anonymous hotline for residents to report crime, and would meet with them this week on plans for a new youth center.

“Amen,” answered the congregation, many of whom have been meeting since January with organizers from the Pacific Institute for Community Organization to come up with strategies to address high crime and the lack of youth activities in the neighborhood.

One woman testified that she lives in fear after one of her neighbors began dealing drugs out of his home, attracting customers -- many of them scantily clad women--at all hours of the day and night. The woman, who said she did not want her name published because she fears retribution, said she has been robbed twice by people she thinks wanted money to buy drugs.

But she said calls to the police got her nowhere.

Residents said they hope that by having two officers work full time with prosecutors from the Los Angeles city attorney’s office, they will be able to tackle the problem.

Paysinger said he decided to spare the two officers from his overburdened bureau because residents had lobbied so hard.

He gestured to the crowd of 500 and said, “The reason we are doing this is because they stepped forward.”

Ludlow, meanwhile, told residents he would meet with them this week to come up with a plan to get a new youth center in the neighborhood.

But the councilman added that residents need to do their part to put pressure on politicians in Sacramento to provide funding for local government, noting that Los Angeles will lose $19 million a month from now until June unless Sacramento finds a way to replace funds that local government lost when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger repealed the car tax increase.

Parishioners said they were delighted with the response from officials, and planned to keep the pressure on them to make sure the promises were fulfilled.

“We’re tackling some of the most difficult problems in our city,” said parishioner Mary Ellen Burton-Christie. “For too long, this part of Los Angeles has been ignored ... forsaken.”