War Zones in Our Midst

It all seemed so routine and innocent. A public bus pulled to the curb near a junior high school on South Vermont Avenue. Students boarded for the ride home. Taunts were exchanged, then shots. Four passengers, including a student, were wounded. Nobody died--this time. As gang violence escalates, some sections of Los Angeles begin to sound like war zones.

Gunshots are a deadly fact of life in parts of South-Central Los Angeles. The frightening battles also rage on the Eastside. The death and destruction know no boundaries. As the body count rises, authorities search for ways break the growing state of siege.

Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates wants more police, significantly more than the 150 officers recently approved at great expense by the mayor and the city council. People who live or travel where the violence is most threatening also want more officers in their hard-hit communities.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block, who also wants more deputies, got 75 of them last week--30 for a special gang unit, Operation Safe Streets, and 45 for countywide assignment. The Board of Supervisors approved $1.5 million in emergency funds to put more deputies on patrol, beef up the county’s anti-gang programs and study whether more deputies are needed.

Authorities can expect help from the Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation. Uniformed but unarmed, its rangers will patrol six parks and recreation centers, including a playground that a new generation has turned into a jungle of guns, drugs, booze and trouble. The rangers hope to reclaim the turf so that youngsters can play without fear. If the pilot program works, city officials will extend it to 60 additional parks.

Parks should be sanctuaries for youngsters, as should schools. Officials at John Muir Junior High School, near the scene of the bus shootings, are beefing up security with roving patrols, which should reassure youngsters who commute to school by bus.

The gang problem is getting more attention these days, as it should. Twenty-three victims of gang shootings are dead already, and the year is young. If that murderous pace is allowed to continue, records will be shattered--as will lives.