Platform : ‘Curious People Can End Up Shot’

SOCORRO MARTA. Resident of East L.A. for 14 years, mother of 17-year-old daughter and 21-year-old son

Here in the [housing project of] Aliso Village, we hear gunshots every day. Just this past Monday at around 1 in the afternoon, this car drove by and killed this young man, he couldn’t have been more than 18. About a month ago, they stole my neighbor’s car, they broke into someone else’s car to steal the stereo and the other one they just broke her car window.

One time, about four months ago, me and my brother were coming back from work at midnight, when we got back to the neighborhood police cars where everywhere. A man had just been killed in the street and the police did not want anybody going in or coming out. When we insisted that we lived there and that we wanted to get home to check on our kids, they just got their shotguns out and pointed them at us, it was scary.

About a week ago, on First Street, this car full of guys asked two girls something and next thing we knew, the people in the car were shooting at the two girls. One got killed and the other one got wounded. I can’t move away because I can’t afford a more expensive apartment on my minimum-wage job and my son and daughter are still in school, at community college and high school. If I had a good job and my kids would work, I would probably move. I think that people here think that the police are afraid of the gangsters. The police do help but they aren’t enough of them against thousands of gang members.

It gets me mad to see a six-year-old already wearing baggy pants and oversized shirts. They can’t even walk right. Parents don’t tell them to take that stuff off. And when pizzas are delivered, kids steal them from the drivers, sometimes right in front of their parents.

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RICARDO SANCHEZ. Hollywood resident for four years, has 16-year-old stepdaughter

Hollywood is like any other area in Los Angeles. It has gangs, drugs, prostitution, robberies and all types of criminal activity. When it comes to gangs and all that, I have seen these kids, probably 14 or 16 years old, who go to this school in the neighborhood. Sometimes they start a fight and they take out knives and sometimes even guns.

About three weeks ago, there was a fight in front of my apartment, and these kids had knives and all. I called the police and all they did was ask them to move on. There are probably about two shootings a week in this area. If I feel that the shots are too close, then I call the police and report the incident. In the building where I live, you can see lots of bullet holes.

But I have had a very positive experience with the police in general. They have helped us initiate Neighborhood Watch and one of them saved my life once.

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CLARA CHAVEZ. Resident of Pico-Union for 15 years, has daughters 11 and 16 and a son, 8

Fifteen years ago I felt more safe in this area. Today there is no security whatsoever. I don’t feel protected by the police at all. I remember that it used to be that we could walk at 11, 12, or 1 in the morning. Today, after 7 p.m., we need to be inside our apartments.

When there is a shooting outside my apartment, I don’t go out for anything, nor do I let any of my kids to go out. Sometimes people want to be curious, and they can end up getting shot. About two months ago they killed this kid outside our apartment. A car drove by and they just started to shoot. The kid was only 16, barely starting life.

None of my kids are in gangs, heck no! My 16-year-old daughter has to be back right after school. Some parents, they might see their kids doing something wrong but they don’t say anything. I had a friend who invited me [as part of a church program] to go at night to pick up the kids that were in the streets to take them back home. A lot of parents acted as if nothing had happened, even when they realized that their daughter or their son had been outside very late.

I wish that police would protect the poor areas more, because sometimes when I call them to report a shooting or a crime they ask, “Is anybody dead? What color was the car?” They come very close to asking me to go out there and hold the suspect until they arrive. It’s ridiculous.

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QUINTINA ASTORGA MARTINEZ. Resident of Pacoima for 15 years, single parent of three teen-age daughters

There are drugs, lack of security, prostitution and gangs in Pacoima. Many people would ask why I don’t you just leave the area, but I don’t want to give up on the area that means so much to me.

Four weeks ago there was a group of youngsters that were celebrating because one of their friends had gotten out of jail. Some innocent bystander got shot because the [gang kids] thought he was from another gang, you know, another neighborhood.

I think it’s an advantage to have daughters instead of sons, because men tend to go out more often. My daughters, I keep a tighter grip on them. I try to do things with them. I ask them to compare the life that they have now with the life that they see their friends as having being gang members. Their friends’ parents don’t make sure that there is food in the refrigerator, and [some have] a mother that does not care about them at all.

I would tell the mother of the 3 year old girl that it could have happened anywhere, not only in that area, but anywhere, violence is everywhere.