Wave Of Homicides Plagues California Cities

7 Disturbing Murder Spike In 2002 Has Communities Calling For Help

 

Dec 31, 2002 9:58 am US/Pacific
(AP) (LOS ANGELES) "Stop the killin.' Save our children."

The chant echoed through South Los Angeles on a recent night as 70 community members drove or marched under police escort to sites on streets and sidewalks where people died in a wave of homicides this year in the nation's second-largest city.

And it resonated up and down California as 2002 drew to a close with a number of other cities also facing disturbing increases in homicides, much of it involving gangs.

Some cities saw a decline in bloodshed, but even without complete statistics for the entire year, Attorney General Bill Lockyer this month acknowledged what he termed "a painful truth" in reporting preliminary figures showing crime rising in California.

The six-month figures revealed a 3.3 percent increase in violent crime, including a 16 percent rise in homicides, over the same span in 2001.

Los Angeles had 652 homicides as of Dec. 21, up 11.5 percent over last year and the most since 1996. While nowhere near the totals of the 1980s and early 1990s, Los Angeles' current numbers contrast sharply with those of the nation's other big cities.

New York, with more than twice the population of Los Angeles, reported 503 homicides as of mid-November, down about 12 percent from the same time last year. Chicago had 571 homicides through Nov. 21, down from 598 over the same period.

Los Angeles was not alone in driving the homicide numbers up: Long Beach, for example, recorded a 71.8 percent jump for the first nine months of 2002. Fueled in part by gang violence, Long Beach had 65 homicides by Dec. 6 -- more than in all of 2001.

Homicides were also up in San Francisco, with a reported 23.9 percent increase from January through November. However, all other violent crime categories were down, including rape, robbery and aggravated assault.

San Jose was on pace to top last year's homicide total, with 25 reported as of Dec. 18. Fresno had 40 homicides in the first 11 months of the year, compared to 35 for the same period in 2001, but rapes were down 22 percent and aggravated assaults were down nearly 17 percent.

San Diego, however, reported an across-the-board decrease in crime totals for the first 10 months of the year. Homicides were down 19 percent in the period, while rapes were down 6.9 percent and robberies were down 7.5 percent.

"We've had an incredible run down here in San Diego," said police spokesman Dave Cohen. "We've had a decade of pretty decent crime numbers given the size of our city and the fact that it continues to grow."

From 1996 to 2001, the rate of reported homicides decreased statewide by 30 percent in part because of a good economy and a decline in the crack trade. But in the past few years, the trend started to reverse itself in many places.

After experiencing the largest ever one-year drop in California history of 14.9 percent in 1999, the state's major crime rate increased by 3.7 percent in 2001.

Experts have long linked downturns in the economy to crime waves. But the flare-up in gang violence in Los Angeles was attributed mainly to turf wars over the drug trade, and other factors. According to police, gang members newly released from prison are using violence to reassert their positions.

The homicide statistics were translated back into faces at the Los Angeles Police Department's 77th Street Station, where a mothers group decorated a Christmas tree with photographs of victims, and into individual stories through the "Stop the Killin"' campaign by the anti-crime group Central Recovery & Development Project.

At each crime scene a police officer recounted details of the crime and members of the group gathered in prayer around a candle. Group director Ed Turley told them at the end of the night that their effort would pay off.

"The level of murder that was happening when we started this movement is not happening now," he said. "Soon enough everyone will be saying, 'Stop the killin' and the killing will stop."

Los Angeles police Capt. Nancy Lauer, who oversees patrol for the department's Southeast Station, said the grassroots campaign has helped.

"It sends a really positive image to the community that the Police Department and the community are committed to working together to address crime and reduce gang violence in these neighborhoods," Lauer said.