Wilson Urges Crackdown on Carjacking

With a bullet-riddled mini-van as a backdrop and relatives of a slain carjacking victim at his side, Gov. Pete Wilson on Thursday repeated his call for getting tough with thugs and murderers who plague California’s streets.

“Carjacking is a crime that knows no boundaries,” Wilson told reporters at a police impound garage in South-Central Los Angeles. “Anybody is at risk.”

The governor first announced his support of pending legislation that would classify carjacking as a violent crime and impose stiffer penalties in a speech to the San Diego Crime Commission on Jan. 21.

“Enough is enough,” he said in a statement released Thursday before his news conference. “We need to make sure that the perpetrators of these vicious crimes pay for what they do. Stiff and certain punishment is the only way to deter these violent acts.”

Wilson’s call for a crackdown came in the wake of two violent carjackings this week. A 74-year-old Chatsworth man was shot to death and a Los Angeles couple and their 2-year-old son were wounded by gunfire as robbers unsuccessfully tried to commandeer their mini-van.

“We are here because we refuse to surrender the streets of California to thugs and murderers,” Wilson said.

The governor and law enforcement officials at the news conference referred to a carjacking “epidemic” and “an exponential increase” in the crime.

“We’re seeing an alarming rate of carjacking offenses,” said Sandra Buttitta, Los Angeles County’s chief assistant deputy district attorney.

But law enforcement agencies concede that they have no firm statistics on the crime. Their statistics are extrapolated from other numbers. Carjackings are not a separate crime category.

For 1991, Los Angeles police identified robberies in which an auto was the object of attack and estimated that about 4,500 carjackings occurred in the city that year.

For 1992, a similar count through September yielded a full-year estimate of 5,000 to 6,000.

Despite the imprecision of the count, “we as law enforcement professionals notice that they are increasing,” said Agent Wayne Berry, a spokesman for the FBI’s Los Angeles office.

The bureau’s Uniform Crime Reports show a 61% increase in vehicle thefts nationally between 1984 and 1991, Berry said.

How much can be attributed to carjacking has not been determined. What is clear, however, is that the crime is more visible and is perceived as being on the rise.

One difficulty with the estimates is reflected in the disparity in projections for 1992 from the FBI and the LAPD. Berry said the bureau has estimated that 5,000 carjackings occurred in the seven Southern California counties over which the Los Angeles office has jurisdiction. The LAPD projected more carjackings than that just in Los Angeles.

“The media has made this a new cottage industry in the last several months,” said Police Cmdr. John White, who heads the department’s Detective Services Group. “Basically it’s a robbery problem that has been around for years and years.”

White said sophisticated anti-theft devices on cars could be responsible for some carjackings.

“Media attention makes some of these predators think it’s easier to stick a gun in someone’s face rather than try to defeat the anti-theft devices,” he said.

The brutality of some carjackings has generated fears that a person in an automobile--one of the few remaining refuges of beleaguered urban dwellers--is as vulnerable as a pedestrian.

Law enforcement officials advise drivers to stay aware of their surroundings and not stop if there is any chance they are at risk.

If you think someone is following you, drive to a police station or crowded parking lot or start blowing your horn, they say. Don’t drive into a garage or cul-de-sac or down a dark street.

“Do not resist a carjacker,” Berry said. “The main thing is that you don’t want to be a hero in these situations. Cars can always be replaced.”

Legislation that Wilson supports was unanimously approved by a state Senate committee in February. It would:

* Define carjacking as a specific crime.

* Impose a life sentence without parole for a kidnaping committed during a carjacking.

* Provide sentences of nine to 15 years for carjacking, with additional time if a weapon is used or if someone is seriously injured.

* Classify carjacking as a violent felony, adding three years to a sentence.

* Subject minors 16 or older to the possibility of prosecution as adults for carjacking.

* Prohibit plea-bargaining in carjacking cases and prohibit probation or a suspended sentence when a firearm is used to commit the crime.

A federal anti-carjacking law went into effect five months ago. The governor said the state law is needed because carjackings do not always meet the specific circumstances needed to invoke the federal statute.

“Carjackers threaten every Californian who uses a car,” Wilson said. “They must be stopped.

He spoke standing in front of Emmett Barney’s Dodge mini-van. Barney, 22, his wife, Mignon Taylor, 19, and their 2-year-old son were riding on 47th Street on Tuesday when gunmen demanded the vehicle and fired several shots into it before driving off.

Barney, who was wounded in the abdomen, drove two miles to a fire station, where the family was given emergency treatment before being transferred to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. The governor recounted the incident Thursday, saying that Barney’s wife and child are recovering but that he remained hospitalized.

Sam and Meece Ghoraishy, whose father, Naghi, was killed Monday during a carjacking at a Chatsworth gas station, also attended Wilson’s news conference. Sam Ghoraishy told reporters he favors the death penalty for carjackers who kill.

“When you take someone’s life,” he said, “an eye for an eye.”

After the news conference, Meece Ghoraishy, who works at Daniel Freeman Hospital in Inglewood, reflected on her family’s having survived Los Angeles’ riots last spring. Thinking of the emotional toll her father’s death has taken on their family, she added, “But we didn’t survive this.”