Rising Crime in Los Angeles: A Program of Counterattack

If there are any Angelenos who require fresh reminders of the gravity of our regional crime problem, the latest FBI crime report, sadly, will provide them. It suggests that reported crime here is generally higher than elsewhere, and that last year Angelenos were almost one-third more likely than the average American to be a victim of crime.

No doubt the crime epidemic has roots in the current economic slump, which is particularly severe here. Even Orange County, often thought to be a suburban haven, had a crime rate that approximated the worrisome national average. The impact of the large population of illegal immigrants on crime is a factor, obviously, but it is hard to assess: It’s true that 13% of state prison inmates are illegal immigrants; it’s also true that many more are their crime victims.

Fortunately, some of our top local public officials are committed to change. Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan is working hard to add police officers to the LAPD. Chief Willie L. Williams is trying to implement police reform and community policing. On the state level, Gov. Pete Wilson is working with law enforcement officials such as L.A. County Sheriff Sherman Block to maximize resources in very tight economic times.

Private citizens also can help fight crime. Here are some ways:

1. CONSIDER THE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF BUYING A GUN: You are far more likely to accidentally kill or maim a family member with that new gun than stop an intruder. Indeed, a study published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine found that homicides are almost three times more likely to occur in homes where guns are kept than in those where they are not. You will not be an exception to the rule.

2. VOTE FOR PROPOSITION 172: By not allowing the state sales tax to drop by one-half cent next Jan. 1, you can continue to fund vital public programs, especially law enforcement and police programs. If this sensible measure is defeated, then you can expect further cuts to law enforcement programs that depend on tax money from Sacramento.

3. SUPPORT GUN CONTROL: Write Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Sen. Barbara Boxer or your House representative to say that you support politicians who take on the National Rifle Assn. and fight for strict gun control. For its part, The Times will soon propose a program of tough national measures. Local gun control is ineffective if it is only local.

4. WRITE THE PRESIDENT THAT CALIFORNIA NEEDS MORE HELP: President Clinton has a lot of challenges, with Congress, with Russia, with Somalia, with the North American Free Trade Agreement, with health care reform. But that must not deflect his Administration from focusing on Southern California, the nation’s most economically troubled region. We urge Clinton to make the region a pilot for the social programs he advocates, including the police corps (see below), welfare reform and his novel national service program to put more youth workers on the streets.

5. SUPPORT THE BEST ELEMENTS OF CLINTON’S ANTI-CRIME LEGISLATION: This massive legislative package, which still has to work its way through Congress, contains some good and necessary features, including the Brady bill, which requires a five-day wait before a gun can be given to a purchaser. A separate and equally welcome bill contains $100 million for new police officers under the police corps program. Mayor Riordan, though he apparently has abandoned his goal of increasing the LAPD by the exact number of 3,000 officers, has lost none of his fervor for building up police manpower and no doubt hopes that some of that manpower can come from this bill.

6. TELL YOUR LOCAL PUBLIC OFFICIALS THAT YOU WOULD SUPPORT A CAREFULLY DRAWN SPECIAL TAX TO CREATE MORE POLICE: Proposition M, a city measure on last year’s ballot, got 63% of the votes. It would have funded 1,000 more police officers through an average property tax increase of less than $100 a year. But a two-thirds vote is required to increase property taxes (the Proposition 13 legacy). That’s a high hurdle, indeed--but not an insurmountable one. If you want more policing, tell your elected representatives that you’re not only willing to vote for a specifically targeted police revenue measure in your locality but that you’re willing to go out and beat the drum in the campaign.

7. VOLUNTEER TO HELP LOCAL POLICE: Ultimately only citizen involvement can reduce crime. We all need to speak out about crime, and get involved. Civilian patrols can discourage criminals and give the police many more eyes and ears.

8. PERSIST WITH EFFORTS TO TAME THE GANG CULTURE: The seemingly overwhelming gang problem need not overwhelm us. All of this region’s efforts to improve and reform its schools, improve and reform its police and to improve the inner-city economy directly and indirectly affect the gang problem. Better schools, a better local economy, more effective policing--all these help. We also need to support specific programs, such as Los Angeles’ ambitious Hope in Youth anti-gang program, to steer young people onto life’s right path. Southern California’s gang problem threatens to undermine our neighborhoods, our schools, our economy.

Los Angeles must meet the challenge--rising crime--with new programs, revised strategies and a deeply engaged population. With anything less than a major effort, we will fail the test of this crisis.