233 Suspects Seized in Weekend Sweep

The Los Angeles Police Department renewed its controversial program of saturating gang-infested neighborhoods this weekend as an anti-gang task force of 200 officers swept through the Harbor, Southeast, Southwest and 77th Street divisions.

Arrests of suspected gang members totaled 233. Ten guns were seized.

The sweeps, which began in February, have led to more than 20,000 arrests and involved as many as 1,000 officers at a time. Gang slayings have claimed more than 245 lives in areas patrolled by the police and sheriff’s departments through Sept. 30 this year. The toll in 1987 was 387.

The task force, which concentrated on high school football games and dances in South-Central Los Angeles on Friday, made 156 arrests that night, with 98 of them gang-related, including 18 felonies, police said. On Saturday and early Sunday, 53 arrests were made with 38 of them gang-related felonies. The task force also issued 197 traffic citations.