Stacie L. Patterson Law Blog

Last year L.A.'s murder rate was 314; in the 1980's that number was often close to 1,000.  Mayor Villaraigosa says that violent crime is down by 11% from 2008.   Beginning in the eighties and following into the nineties, Los Angeles gang violence was catastrophic.  In South Central L.A., it wasn't safe to stand in the street, it wasn't safe to sit in your living room at night, it wasn't safe to wear certain colors or push your baby down the street in a stroller.  It has been described as "hell".   

Thanks to LAPD and some former gang members, times have changed.  Working together to promote peace, police have help from ex-gang members turned interventionists.  According to Charlie Beck, the new Los Angeles Police Chief, notifying intervention can help in several ways.  Dispelling rumors is the first line of attack.  Beck says that after a gang shooting, rumors cause the next homicide.  So, intervention calms rumors, and tries to broker peace between "feuding factions".  In addition, they mentor and attempt to "remove gang members from the life of violence."  This tactic has been so successful that L.A. will be opening an intervention academy.  

Some feel that the last time Los Angeles was this safe was in the 1950's.  Lorna Hawkins became a community activist when her first son was murdered in 1988 and subsequently lost another to gang violence in 1992.  Hawkins started the group "Drive By Agony" and has talked to crime victims through her own local talk show and on tour around the world. She has also lectured young people in schools, juvenile detention and prisons.  She feels that groups are coming together to promote peace, that previous gang members are getting older and having kids; kids they don't want to lose to gangs.  Others feel that some gang members just "grow out of it", get tired of losing friends or grow weary of going to jail.

Gang Violence is still an issue, but one that is slowly becoming more manageable through police work and ex-member intervention. 

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If you, or someone you know is alleged to have committed a gang offense, email or call Stacie L. Patterson at (619) 269-8074.