L.A.’s top cops at odds: William Bratton, Lee Baca disagree on role of race in gang violence

Los Angeles’ two top lawmen are increasingly at odds over the extent to which gang violence is being fueled by racial hatred.

Police Chief Chief William J. Bratton and his top deputies have long cautioned that race-motivated violence remains fairly rare and that gang feuds over turf and drugs are the leading cause of such violence.

But over the last few months, County Sheriff Lee Baca has publicly voiced a more ominous view of violence between Latino and black gangs. This week, he went further than ever before, saying in a Los Angeles Times opinion article that “some of L.A.’s so-called gangs are really no more than loose-knit bands of blacks or Latinos roaming the streets looking for people of the other color to shoot.”

Baca’s comments have prompted debate in law enforcement circles – with some LAPD officials questioning why the sheriff is being so vocal.

“The sheriff is saying we need to examine this issue in the light of day to keep it from spreading because we won’t be able to address or reverse it, if we deny it,” said civil rights attorney Connie Rice. “Chief Bratton is saying something equally valid, which is if you overemphasize race, you may be pouring jet fuel on the fire.”

Baca, in an interview today, said he’s speaking out because he considers racial animus among various gangs a serious problem that is not being discussed enough. Baca this week announced his department would create a Gang Emergency Operations Center to better deal with such violence.

“We need to talk about this in a more public way,” Baca said, adding he’s heard about the tension from community activists, beat cops, gang intervention officers and deputies who guard the county’s jails. “It’s a small percentage but a significant percentage.”

But Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Charlie Beck, who heads the department’s anti-gang efforts and homicide detectives, said he disagreed with Baca’s conclusions about race and gang violence.

Beck, who has spent more than three decades working on the city’s gang problem, agreed that race is a major factor in the violence that plagues county and state prisons, and is a problem on school campuses. But, he said, Baca was wrong to say that the same factors are at play with gangs on the streets.

“His reality is largely formed by what is happening in the jails,” he said. “But I think you have to look at violence on several different levels… . In the world of serious gang crime in the city – which accounts for the vast majority of gang activity in the county – race is not the primary factor. Are there isolated instances? Yes. But are gang members commonly going around to kill and harm people because they are another race? Absolutely not.”

A Times examination of slayings in 2007 largely backed up Bratton’s assertion about the racial factor in gang killings. The Times has analyzed the circumstances of 562 Latino and black homicides from 2007 in which the race of the suspects was known, including all LAPD and sheriff’s cases, plus those of smaller police agencies such as Long Beach and Inglewood. The analysis found that nearly 90% of both black and Latino homicide victims had been killed by suspects of their own race – a rate almost identical to that of the city of Los Angeles.

The issue has been a particularly sensitive one for Bratton and his command staff in recent months.

Faced with a serious rise in the homicide rate in the early part of the year and several high-profile killings, Bratton, Beck and others battled media reports and public perception that the violence was racially motivated. In one instance, Bratton angrily confronted a television news reporter who challenged the chief’s stance on the issue. Bratton’s assertion that the high number of killings was an anomaly has been largely borne out as the homicide rate has fallen significantly in recent months.

“It’s important that people be well informed when they are forming their opinions about crime in the city,” Beck said. “What we don’t want to happen is for them to draw conclusions that then become the reality.”

Baca acknowledged that the Sheriff’s Department doesn’t have statistics showing a major rise in race-related violence. But he said there is a strong perception in the community about growing racial tensions that must be addressed.

“The question is not how often, but why this has happened,” she said. “We don’t need piles of bodies to make the point that this is happening.”

Baca, who oversees the Los Angeles County jails, said he’s been dealing for years with violence – including several major riots – involving black and Latino gang members.

Indeed, some community activists concerned about brown-on-black violence have cited several high-profile incidents that have sparked widespread fear.

Federal prosecutors last year charged members of a Latino gang with a violent campaign to drive blacks out of the unincorporated Florence-Firestone neighborhood, which allegedly resulted in 20 homicides over several years. In the Harbor Gateway district of Los Angeles, police launched a crackdown last year on another Latino gang accused of targeting blacks, including 14-year-old Cheryl Green, whose death became a rallying point. In 2006, members of the Avenues, a Latino gang, were convicted in federal court for a series of assaults and killings in the early 1990s targeting blacks in Highland Park.

 andrew.blankstein@latimes.com

 joel.rubin@latimes.com