Crackdown on Gangs

Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates plans to put up to 1,000 officers on the streets at a time to subdue gang violence in South-Central Los Angeles and other troubled areas. Although outnumbered and occasionally outgunned, the police refuse to give in to a reign of random terror. The new anti-gang task force will put police where the problem is at its worst.

The task forces will deploy nearly one-third of all officers available for patrol, and that means officers must work overtime to keep adequate policing levels throughout Los Angeles. The city has no choice but to pay what it takes to guarantee public safety everywhere.

Los Angeles Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky has requested $2.45 million from the city’s reserve fund to pay for the anti-gang task forces through the end of the current fiscal year. The Council is expected to approve the request on Tuesday.

Since late February, task forces of 150 to 300 officers have arrested 996 gang members, 482 for narcotic-related offenses and 211 for other serious crimes, including one attempted murder. Between them, city and county officers have impounded 500 cars to put a stop to drive-by shootings and confiscated at least 350 weapons. Yet, just last weekend, two suspected gang members fired 10 shots into a crowd, killing one person and injuring nine others, including a four-year-old boy. As the battles rage, gang-related murders are up and drug trafficking is spreading.

As the gang problem worsens--and more people die--there is not much else the city can do immediately, having let the problem build to its present scale. There certainly would be no point in calling in the National Guard, as Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn wants to do. The Guard would amount to an occupation force that would make even worse the concern that during task-force sweeps every black youngster who happened to be outdoors would be suspect.

Law enforcement alone will not solve the problem of gangs, which not only are growing but are becoming more deeply entrenched. Parents, for example, must face up to what gang membership can do to their children. Society must also work harder and spend more money on schools, the creation of jobs and other escape routes from poverty because those are the only reliable long-term solutions to the problem. But, as the gang wars rage, more police are needed on the streets, today. The city must be willing to pay.