204 Arrested in Weekend Sweep
The Los Angeles Police Department’s Operation Hammer anti-gang task force arrested 204 people over the weekend, including 121 suspected gang members, police said Sunday.
About 250 officers were assigned to the operation that ended early Sunday in South-Central Los Angeles. Of those arrested, 40 were suspected gang members taken into custody on felony charges, including nine for alleged narcotics violations, a police spokesman said. Police also confiscated seven guns and small amounts of cocaine, marijuana and PCP.
In six Operation Hammer sweeps this summer, hundreds of suspected gang members have been rounded up and police have noted a 7.3% drop from last year in gang homicides in the area, the spokesman said.
“The task force is doing their job,” Cmdr. William Booth said, but, because of jail overcrowding, the people they arrest often are “being put right back out on the streets.”
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