Local News in Brief : ‘Era of Gangsterism’
The Los Angeles Police Department is “prepared to do anything,”including devoting more than 100 additional officers if need be, to “eradicate the effectiveness” of the city’s more than 200 street gangs by 1991, Asst. Police Chief Robert Vernon said Monday.
Speaking at a press conference called in response to six suspected gang-related shooting deaths over the weekend, Vernon said, “We’re in another era of gangsterism . . . (like the) so-called Capone era” in Chicago.
The LAPD has declared 1988 the “Year of Gang Control,” Vernon said, and the force’s entire Metro Division will be deployed, if necessary, to help in the fight.
City Councilman Nate Holden, endorsing a proposal in a letter from Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, also called for new state legislation that would allow authorities to detain juvenile gang members picked up for curfew violations. Holden said he favors jailing parents as well as their children if it would help stem curfew violations that lead to gang violence.
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