Fear In Our Streets: L.A. Gangs Continue To Plague The City

Nobody Fixes It
One of our TipWonks has sent us this comprehensive report from the L.A. Daily News. This multi-part article addresses the Gang Problem that Los Angeles has had for over 30 years.

According to the Daily News, the first gang task force was created to combat criminal street gangs in 1975. Since that time, the population of Los Angeles has increased some 44%. During the same time, the number of gang members has ballooned over 400%. In terms of real numbers, in 1973, there were about 12,000 identified gang members. Today, there are over 57,000.

At the same time, the number of law enforcement personnel has only kept pace with the overall population increase. What this means is that the number of gang members per officer, has actually quadrupled.

We know what the problem is. The threat to children in the schools is real, as can be seen by the drive-by shooting of kids that largely goes unreported, or is relegated to the back section of the newspaper. The mystery is why doesn't anyone actually do something about the problem?