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Vow to prosecute and evict violent gang members from South Los Angeles community. By Leslie Evans Thirty-five years ago as the legend has it, T. Rodgers, a member of the Chicago
Blackstone Rangers, moved to Los Angeles and started a local chapter. This eventually
called itself the Black P Stones. Over the years the P Stones grew into one
of the larger gangs in South Los Angeles, affiliating with the Bloods and warring
with the Crips. One community that has suffered the most from the P Stones has
been Baldwin Village. This little enclave, a bit west and south of West Adams,
has irregular boundaries but begins basically at Coliseum and Crenshaw and spreads
out west and south of there for 10 or 20 blocks with its western border generally
given as La Brea and the south as Santo Tomas Drive. The area is called the Jungle, not so much because of the gang members, but
because of lush foliage put in by early developers. The
name has stuck, but the sense of it has changed to signify mean streets and drive-by
shootings. The Jungle was used for a memorable on-location scene in the Denzel
Washington film "Training Day," where gang members with assault rifles
line up on the rooftops of a dead end street. It was filmed on Palmwood Drive
in the heart of Baldwin Village. The new commanding officer at Southwest Police Station, Captain Kyle Jackson,
says that Chief Bratton is determined to roll the Stones out of the Jungle.
At a June 7 meeting of the Southwest Police Station's citizen Community Police
Advisory Board, Jackson reported the start of the Safer City Initiative, which
will supply extra officers to confront particularly tough locations. A total
of 14 specially assigned police are headed for Baldwin Village in response to
appeals by residents to take on the Black P Stones. There are an estimated 700 members of the Black P Stones, 400 of whom live
in Baldwin Village. They are accused of committing 7 murders, 261 robberies
and 40 sexual assaults this year. "The chief has made the determination
that this cannot stand," Captain Jackson told the CPAB members and community
representatives, adding, "I support him 100 percent." Jackson said that the Safer City Initiative officers would go beyond ordinary
arrests for crimes such as drug dealing, assault, and parole violation and would
undertake "an abatement process to remove the Black P Stones by traditional
and nontraditional methods." LAPD is working with apartment owners and
managers to post no trespassing signs. "We will arrest trespassers,"
Jackson vowed, "And any gang member who sells narcotics or commits a violent
crime within 1000 feet of their residence will be evicted." Where apartment
owners and tenants are afraid to act, Jackson said, "We will act for them." Tenants on Section 8 federal housing assistance "who allow boyfriends
or girl friends to sleep over where that person is committing a crime will have
their Section 8 revoked. Those convicted will be mapped out of the area and
it will be illegal for them to return." He said further that the city is in process of instituting permit parking for
Baldwin Village. This will allow two vehicles per tenant. "Tenants who
want visitors can come to the police station to get a special permit." Captain Jackson acknowledged that these are harsh measures. "We are trying
to save lives," he said. "That community has so much lawlessness."
He called on members of the community in Baldwin Village to come out and help
take back their neighborhood. "If we are successful we will use this as a model in other communities,"
the captain added. One member of the audience raised a concern about the relocation of evicted
gang members into other nearby communities. Captain Jackson agreed this will
happen, but responded, "We have a strategy for dispersal. Gang members
are cowards. They don't do anything alone. We want to break this group up, to
force them individually out of that area." He said the City Attorney's
office has made a commitment to pursue the evictions of gang members and their
families where arrests have been made and formal charges have been filed. The police department is also pursuing an injunction against the Black P Stone
gang. Asked about possible violations of civil rights, the captain said that
everything would be done by the book and that no laws would be broken by the
police. He also said he wants the gang members and the community to know this
is coming: "We want them to know what we are going to do. We are going to have foot
patrols that will knock on every door of the most problematic buildings. We
will post flyers explaining the grounds for eviction so everybody knows what
will happen or the grounds on which they can lose their Section 8. Too many
people need our help and they are going to get it."
Original Homies
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Police Target Black P Stone Gang in Baldwin Village
Published: 6/17/2004Evictions Are Coming
Published: 6/17/2004
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