A Friday night on the front lines of L.A.'s gang wars / The Christian Science Monitor, 7 Mar 2007
http://digbig.com/4rsrw
Daniel B. Wood
Los Angeles saw a 14 percent jump in gang-related violent crime last year. Sgt. Sean Colomey patrols the most gang-ridden neighborhood in the gang capital of America. It is his job to lead 28 specially trained police through an area where assault weapons seem as common as grass, graffiti "tags" define the turf, and 7 of every 100 residents are members of one gang or another.
He is just the man Police Commissioner Anthony Pacheco wants to know. A wave of gang violence, one that some say is the most vicious in city history, has engulfed Los Angeles, and the city's police are mounting an equally historic response. It is Commissioner Pacheco's job to assess how effectively the LAPD is confronting the gangs – whether it has the tools and personnel it needs, whether police tactics stay within the law. He sees the response as a huge and necessary undertaking. No less than "the future safety of L.A. is at stake," Pacheco says." [4 pages]