At Spirited Rally, Baca Urges End to Gang Violence

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca asked religious leaders and community activists Thursday to unite with law enforcement to combat racial tension and gang violence in the county’s African American and Latino communities.

“The value that you have is that you turn lives around,” Baca said to the gathering at sheriff’s headquarters. “Your level of leadership are the beacons and the oases, not only of hope but safety zones, where people can bring their feelings of despair in the door.”

The meeting, which attracted about 300 people, had been scheduled for at least two weeks prior to Monday’s controversial shooting in Compton, where deputies fired 120 rounds in a residential neighborhood, injuring a deputy and an unarmed suspect, and leaving nearby homes pocked with bullet holes.

The incident has spurred the ire of Compton residents. Baca has expressed concern over the tactics of his deputies and an internal investigation is underway. Baca briefly touched upon the incident, as well as his walk through the Butler Avenue neighborhood Wednesday afternoon.

“I wanted to hear their pain,” Baca said. They “know the pain in a broader and greater and deeper way than any of us.”

After the incident in Compton, Baca promised a full investigation of the shooting, and on Thursday, he said the Sheriff’s Department also needed to make an effort to work closer with communities affected by violence.

“We in law enforcement always stay on our side of the fence, and I’m tired of being fenced in,” Baca said. “I need to be a good partner.... We need to come to your house.”

Baca asked the crowd more than once: “Do you feel where I am here?”

The meeting took the tone of a pep rally as Baca called for representatives of every faith to form partnerships with law enforcement, renew a sense of purpose in youth, and replace “a gun in the hand of a misguided youth with a helping, guiding hand.”

The meeting was organized by the Sheriff’s Department and the Clergy Council in response to an upswing in “black-on-brown and brown-on-black” gang-related killings, Baca said.

“We have neighborhoods that are being left behind. Young men that have lost a sense of human purpose will turn to gangs, will turn to violence,” Baca said.

Baca spoke primarily in generalizations about bridging gaps, building partnerships and reaching across racial and socioeconomic divides.

The crowd reacted to Baca’s pleas for intervention and prevention with vocal affirmation, applause and standing ovations.

Then the crowd moved outdoors for a news conference and rally, where a scheduled lineup of speakers took turns passionately supporting the sheriff and his vision for change.

Bishop Edward Turner, founder and director of the Sheriff’s Clergy Council, brought the rally to a close.

“I say we exchange a gun for a hand,” Turner said. “Our children haven’t learned that their lives are a miracle and the miracle must be protected and developed. Put your guns down and stop your killing. We need you to live, we need you to dream, we need you to believe.”