Garcetti Visits CSUN for Campaign Stop

Citing his roots as the son of a South-Central Los Angeles gang member, Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti urged an audience at Cal State Northridge on Thursday to actively fight gang activity, truancy and domestic violence.

“We’ve been sensitizing our judges, police and others to the problems,” he said. “But now you have to do something about it to break the cycle of violence. We all have to do something.”

The 15-minute speech was given to several dozen people at a University Club luncheon for the Tri-Chamber, which comprises chambers of commerce from Northridge, Chatsworth and Granada Hills. As Garcetti cited county figures on domestic violence homicides (one every seven days) and public school dropout rates (41%, including 82% of the prison population), the crowd frequently gasped.

Garcetti spent several minutes at the start of his talk discussing his past, recalling his parents’ status as immigrants from Mexico and his father’s numbers-running and gang associations. His mother had 18 siblings, he said.

Garcetti, who is running for reelection against John Lynch, stressed his office’s record, particularly its Hardcore Gang Division. He mentioned Monday’s murder convictions of two 20-year-old Van Nuys men involved in a fatal shooting at Fallbrook Mall in 1995.

“I have tried to do more than respond to yesterday’s crime. I’m zeroing in on children and juvenile crime,” he said. “My opponent [Lynch] says this is not the job of the D.A. He says that’s for schools and parents to deal with. He says the job of the D.A. is to sit in his office, have a cup of coffee and wait for the police to bring in the next case.”

In a brief question-and-answer session, Garcetti asserted his support for the “three strikes” law, insisted that Los Angeles is unfairly maligned by the media for its crime rate, and said the jury system needs to be simplified.