Police Give Truce Credit for Drop in Gang Killings

Gang-related homicides in South Los Angeles have dropped markedly--to two last month, compared with 16 in May, 1991--leading police to give new credit to the truce declared between warring black gangs, a high-ranking police official told the Police Commission on Tuesday.

“There’s no question there has been a real decrease in violence among black gangs,” said Deputy Police Chief Matthew J. Hunt, who commands the department’s South Bureau.

“They have come together,” Hunt continued. “How they have is very difficult to determine. Personally, I think it was an outgrowth of a lot of frustration and a lot of concern about the violence that was ongoing.”

Deputy Police Chief Ronald A. Frankle, who represented outgoing Police Chief Daryl F. Gates at the meeting Tuesday, told commissioners that no statistics have been prepared to compare recent gang violence in the South Bureau--known for the most violence by black gangs in the city--with the Police Department’s Central, West and Valley bureaus.

Later, Hunt said that street robberies in the South Bureau had risen in the past few weeks and that drug dealing continued to be high, though he was unable to say whether gangs were responsible. But he reiterated that gang-related violence--namely drive-by shootings and homicides between Bloods and Crips--had dropped, and he expressed cautious optimism about the weekly parties that have brought longtime rivals together.

“I would like to think these gatherings will have some long-lasting effect,” Hunt said, “but if social conditions and unemployment remain the same, you will have continuing unrest, and the police will have to respond to those situations.”

Noting that a series of recent “unity” barbecues at South Los Angeles housing projects have ended in violent confrontations between police and gang members, Hunt said law enforcement authorities and community leaders hope to find new places for the once-rival groups to meet.

Frankle said liquor consumption has fueled the rowdy brawls at the parties, which have prompted tenants to call the police. Once officers arrive, gang members have turned the animosity they once felt for each other toward police, he said.

Hunt also noted that a lack of parking at the housing projects has added to residents’ complaints. He said allegations that police are harassing gang members are hard to prove and so far are unsubstantiated.

Tension at the new gang summits might be eliminated if the groups could meet away from residential areas, at sites with ample parking where liquor is not served, Hunt said. Alternative sites are being discussed by police officials, gang leaders and their community advocates at a series of meetings.

Hunt also downplayed widespread rumors among officers on the street that gangs are uniting to wage war against the police and planning sniper attacks.

“Nobody has any solid information that there is any veracity to any of that,” he said in response to a question by commission President Stanley K. Sheinbaum. “I think the gang members in general would say that we are not planning, we have never planned (assaults on police). That doesn’t mean that some individual may not do something. The potential for that is there. It’s always there.”

In other business, the commission voted unanimously to pay a private law firm up to $25,000 for legal services in case Gates reneges on his retirement date of June 28. The action was a formality, however, because the City Council last week authorized the expenditure of city funds for such legal advice.