Marchers Demand More Police on Eastside

Shaken by a recent surge in violent deaths on their streets, residents of several Eastside neighborhoods marched on police headquarters Monday to demand a greater police presence in the troubled area.

“We are under siege and we are not getting the services we need from the Police Department,” said Ross Valencia, a Boyle Heights community activist who helped organize the rally. “We have a dire need for more protection from the police.”

Fourteen people, including a pregnant young mother and an off-duty U.S. Marine, have been slain on the Eastside since the first of the year, most of them in gang-related violence. Last year, 38 people were killed in the area, which is served by the Los Angeles Police Department’s Hollenbeck Division.

The Eastside figures mirror a trend across the city, officials have said. In January, there were 76 homicides citywide, nearly twice the number last year, officials said.

Organizers of Monday’s rally, which drew about 200 residents and community activists to the Boyle Heights neighborhood and then to police headquarters at Parker Center downtown, sought to distance it from the current political struggle over leadership of the Police Department. Mayor James K. Hahn has said that he opposes a second term for Police Chief Bernard C. Parks.

Several speakers, including Valencia, stressed their support for the Police Department, even as they said more effort and officers are needed to fight rising crime.

Politics intervened nonetheless. When Parks appeared to address the crowd outside his headquarters, several audience members interrupted, shouting at him and calling for his removal. Others shouted them down.

Parks urged the marchers to recognize what he called a “remarkable change” in the level of violence in their neighborhood in the last several years, despite the recent spike in homicides.

“Just a short time ago, Hollenbeck suffered 97 murders in one year,” he said, compared with more recent years that averaged 40 or fewer homicides. “There’s still a lot to be done,” he added, but asked the audience to keep the recent figures in perspective.

Residents said they blame the spike in crime on a shortage of officers at the division, especially those assigned to narcotics and gang details. Police and city officials have said that the LAPD is about 1,200 officers below its authorized strength citywide.

Parks and other police officials said the department has tried to cope with the crime wave by transferring extra resources and officers into the division.

Capt. Paul Pesqueira of the Hollenbeck Division, who watched the rally outside Parker Center, said he understood the community’s frustration. He said the additional resources at the division are beginning to help.

Among those who spoke was George Gutierrez, who witnessed the death of his brother in January. Robert Gutierrez, 51, was shot to death in front of his Boyle Heights home Jan. 30 after he confronted a gang member, police and relatives said.

Standing beside his sister and other family members, George Gutierrez wept as he appealed to police to do more for the neighborhood and help prevent another such killing.

“We’re here to share our pain and to support our police,” Gutierrez said. “I know they’re working beyond the call of duty and I thank them from my heart. But we need more.”