Addressing the Fears of, Solutions to Crime in L.A.

Re “I Don’t Know What to Do to Stay Alive” by Paul Dean (Nov. 29): I don’t know what to do to stay alive either.

I came to L.A. in the ‘60s and spent gloriously safe high school and college years here. I began to get an idea of where we were headed in the ‘70s when my then-husband, a savings and loan branch manager, was robbed at gunpoint at his branch office.

While raising four kids in the early ‘80s, I had my home in Cheviot Hills burglarized, and my then-husband had his Mercedes broken into three times.

As the ‘80s came to a close, and I finalized my divorce, I no longer considered me or my children safe. I traded my Porsche for a Jeep Wrangler to look less conspicuous. I moved into the canyons, where ingress and egress is tough for a criminal. I bought a .38 and took a course in how to use it. I took a class in personal protection from a sheriff. Despite all this, an armed robber came into the Westwood Ho in Westwood where I was mindlessly pinching eggplants early one evening, shot his .45 and terrorized all of us shoppers.

I traveled twice to Wilmington, N.C. It is like L.A. was. The local TV channel has a crime report at night--mostly petty theft. I made an offer on a wonderful home contingent on selling mine here. I probably don’t need to tell you that I couldn’t sell mine in any sort of canyon here since the value has crashed about 33%, so I abandoned plans to take my children to safety.

SUSAN M. TELLEM

Los Angeles

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Paul Dean’s anguish over the murder of his friends must be terrible. From his description, no one could deny that crime has wrought a profound deterioration of his life.

I cannot censure Dean if he has feelings of anger and hate toward those who victimized him and killed his friends, but it is hyperbolic for him to depict the entire population of Los Angeles as being under imminent threat of death by bullet, as if this were Sarajevo.

The level and type of crime occurring in all American cities--not only this one--is appalling. But in looking for the origin of this descent, there is no better place to begin that with the problems that many preferred to ignore: the demise of basic education, unemployment, declining incomes, rotted housing.

GALEN VAN RENSSELAER

Hollywood

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I had to add my 29 cents worth to congratulate Paul Dean.

There is no safe place in Southern California. You can check Oceanside off your list. We’ve had 20 drive-by shootings here in a seven-month period. Our city is under siege by gangs, and our esteemed city fathers/mothers are too busy finger-pointing to worry overmuch about the crime here.

The city is broke and cannot hire more police officers. On any given night we have 11 officers to protect 141,000 citizens. We too have weapons behind our doors to protect ourselves as the police cannot. We have sensor lights, dead bolts and a steel screen door. We do not go out at night. We do not answer the door after dark. We do not speak to strangers on the street. I grew up in Inglewood at a time when we didn’t even lock our front door at night. How in the name of God have we gotten from there to here?

ANNE PEAKE

Oceanside

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I grew up reading Paul Dean’s columns in the Arizona Republic in the ‘70s. I loved his specialty--slice-of-life stories about people overcoming adversity, well-told insights into the human condition--tales that assured me the world made sense.

Since moving to L.A. seven years ago, I’ve made the shifts that Angelenos make over time: car doors locked in all neighborhoods at all hours; keys in hand and adrenaline pumping in dark parking lots; fear of ATM machines. The heightened anxiety level just came with the L.A. package, along with the palm trees and balmy weather.

But Dean’s First Person column, “I Don’t Know What to Do to Stay Alive,” was a punch-in-the-gut dose of reality. When life in L.A. no longer makes sense to Paul Dean, it’s time for us all to be afraid.

KATHY SENA

Manhattan Beach

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As a native Angeleno, I was born into the tradition that welcomes all immigrants. This would include Paul Dean. But Dean’s immigrant dream has soured and he hasn’t a clue. I suggest that he read between the lines of his own article.

Dean came here 15 years ago and he felt safe then because, in his own words, crime was “an inner-city problem that most could ignore.” And ignore it they did. What’s more, they moved to white-bread suburbs and demanded lower taxes and more political representation at the expense of the inner city.

I’m sorry, but I think Dean is part of the problem that finds us living in a culture of resentment and selfishness, where our cowed politicians are afraid to tell angry voters that they’re the most under-taxed crybabies in the world.

He can’t understand why our car-jacking, bank-robbing capitol has fewer police per capita than other cities. Hasn’t he noticed that during the last 15 years, L.A. voters have consistently voted down a variety of tax propositions for more police--until the last election, that is. The suburbs finally got it.

I don’t know the answers either, but I do know that L.A. needs an attitude adjustment. And I know that as long as the people in Woodland Hills and Palos Verdes feel absolutely no connection to the people in Watts and Willowbrook, we don’t even have a place to start.

ELLEN GRIFFITH

Los Angeles

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Paul Dean touched the city’s long-exposed raw nerve. How many of us could also contribute stories of lifestyles changed because of the fear that grips us?

The question remains, what can we do about it? Our elected leaders tell us to take our streets back but offer little support to do so. Community or neighborhood watch groups are well-intentioned but offer Band-Aids where major trauma exists. Police are caught in a state of fear, being insufficiently equipped and staffed to do their job and maligned for doing it.

Ultimately, perhaps the best solutions are the same ones that have always been available: education to provide an alternative to crime and a well-staffed, well-equipped public safety force. The source from which both will come is--dare I say the “T word”?--taxes. All the hand-wringing over strained budgets or the promises to find new sources of revenue, such as airport landing fees, cannot hide the fact that funds coming out of the pockets of the citizenry are the only method by which needed public services have ever been or ever will be adequately funded.

NORM SCHNEIDER

Los Angeles

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I read with horror the ordeals Paul Dean so eloquently expressed. Although his experiences seem to represent the extreme end, I too have been touched by crime and marked by fear.

In the 1980s, my L.A. apartment was burglarized twice and my car trunk was broken into five times. In July of this year, I was the victim of attempted rape and battery at 3 a.m. by a creep who entered through the bathroom window. Luckily, my neighbors and the LAPD saved me and I was financially able to move. However, no matter how safe (my new place) now appears, two stories up with security parking and entrance, there is the unreasonable and uncontrollable fear that something violent can happen when I least expect it.

BETH TEMKIN

North Hollywood