FOLLOW THE GANG MONEY: HOW IS LA USING OUR $25 MILLION?
For our first LA JUSTICE REPORT project, we’ll be turning a spotlight on LA’s gang prevention and intervention programs.
(YOU CAN DONATE TO THIS PROJECT HERE)
In this season of budget meltdown and city layoffs, the City of Los Angeles has more than $25 million allocated for gang violence prevention and intervention—all of which comes directly out of the city’s general fund.
At a meeting of the City Council Tuesday, the $$ amount will, once again, be discussed, but little will be said about the details of how those multi-millions are spent.
We know that LA has a gang problem that still blows unbearable holes in our communities, so gang intervention and prevention is essential—-AND we know our city is in a state of fiscal crisis. As a consequence, we believe it is time that we found out exactly what we are getting for that $25 million.
Are the various gang prevention and intervention programs that are receiving up to $1.5 million each effective or not? What kind of real life results have those funds produced?
LA has had a past of giving big bucks to pet gang programs, many of which proved spectacularly ineffective. Thus when all of the city’s gang $$ were consolidated under the banner of the mayor’s office, Mayor Villaraigosa promised transparency and accountability about money spent in relation to on-the-ground outcomes. But two years later, we know almost nothing about who decided how those dollars were doled out, or what practical difference our tax dollars have made in the communities most affected by gang violence.
The FOLLOW THE GANG MONEY series will rigorously investigate the use of LA’s gang money—the good, the bad, and the hidden issues—and bring back a comprehensive report.
MATTHEW FLEISCHER, who will be the lead writer and reporter on the Follow the Gang Money series, is our first member the LA JUSTICE PROJECT reporting team.
Matt is a veteran LA-based journalist and editor who has been a staff writer with the LA Weekly and senior editor of the LA City Beat. He is currently a contributing editor to the Los Angeles Times Magazine, editor for Fishbowl LA, and he writes for several other outlets both print and online.
Matt has been honored by the Association for Alternative Newsweeklies and by the Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) for his story “Navahoax.” His story “Children of the Revolutionary” was honored by the The LA Press Club and First Amendment Funding Inc. He won an Overseas Press Club for reporting he did on the West Bank. Plus Matt is a recipient of a 2007 Village Voice Media Fellowship.
In short, he’s an excellent reporter AND a good writer. (And a good guy. That’s important to add.)
Matt has also asked me to inform you that when he’s not writing, he wanders, usually by foot.
So go check out the LA Justice Report and the first story pitch at Spot.Us and let me know what you think.
“We know LA is the gang capital of the world”
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Los Angeles must be proud, Si Se Puede !!
We know LA is the gang capital of the world
Been to Rio de Janeiro lately?
Rio De Janiero is best known as the “Thong” capital of the world.
Celeste, first of all I don’t consider you a xenophobe or a racist, in my book you have shown a sensitivity that is usually lacking in a media that typically resorts to titillation, half truths, and guilt by association and ethnicity. I enjoy your blog daily and consider you a breath of fresh air in the usually polluted blogosphere. But, when you post up a subject like this one, that deals with the gang problem and corruption (which is an important cause for concern), and as a header use a photo showing prominently the Mexican hero of the revolution “E. Zapata”, and also shows a “descanso” that has the Catholic Saints and the patroness of Mexico “ La Virgen de Guadalupe” featured, then it promotes the idea and stereotype of Mexican Americans as “the problem” vis a vis gangs.
Yes I know that in the Mexican American culture there is and has been a historic problem with gangs and especially in Los Angeles, but in reality it is a very small percentage of the total population and culture of the Mexican American communities that are involved with gangs. As you know the Italian community has complained of smear tactics and of the media using a broad brush to insinuate that all Italian Americans are somehow involved or hooked up with the Italian Mafia. We know this is false and is stereotyping a whole ethnic group.
When there is conversation about the gang culture there is a common misperception by the nation as a whole that it is the Mexican American community that is the culprit, and yet any rational person knows that gangs are a problem everywhere in the country and that gangs can be found in all communities, Mexican American, White, Black, Asian, Armenian, Russian, Puerto Rican, Native American, or any other racial or ethnic group.
My point is finally, that when the gang problem is being discussed it is kind of unfair to feature a banner that depicts the culture of one group of Americans (Mexican Americans in this case), as the poster boys for the gang problem as a whole.
I hope I am not coming off as too pedantic but it is this kind of depiction (the banner above) that helps stereotype one group of citizens for the sins of but a few, and feeds the xenophobes in society (as the previous poster has proven him/her self) more fodder for their racial stereotyping.
DQ, good point. To be honest, it never occurred to me. It’s a photo I took myself when a young man whom I know was killed. It was a memorial put up for him by others whom I know. So to me its simply expresses sorrow over gang violence. Personal sorrow, as it happens.
But I understand that others could take it differently because of all the cultural symbols. I can’t change it this minute, but I’ll change it out shortly. Thanks for the thoughts.
The drug gangs in Rio have been able to shut the city down on more than one occasion and shot down a police helicopter last year.
1260 civilians were killed by police in Rio de Janeiro state in 2007. LA is like Switzerland compared to Rio.
Okay, Randy, you’ve convinced me. I just this minute rephrased that line. Now, guys, go over and do that 3 question survey and lets fund this puppy!
Wow, I actually agree with Randy and most of what DQ said.
D.Q./ Yes I know that in the Mexican American culture there is and has been a historic problem with gangs and especially in Los Angeles, but in reality it is a very small percentage of the total population and culture of the Mexican American communities that are involved with gangs
That being said D.Q., whose responsibility is it to change things in that community? I mean you’re only dealing with a small percentage of people right? Many in the community don’t trust cops though the force now days looks more like them than me, many not even involved in gangs turn their back on what gangs are doing to their own families and friends, politicians are mostly useless and like other ethnicities you spoke of they don’t reach out often enough to those who look different than they do.
So the problem continues, going through cycles of fewer killings to major spikes and the wheel goes round and round. What does the Mexican American community have do to clean their own house and come down from that “poster child” setting?
SF, yes your correct in your assesment about the community taking responsibility for any number of problems in the Mexican American community. And all communities of LA need to take more responsibility and become more involved in prevention and support for thier respective communities, inclucing the LAPD. I understand that it takes time and effort to change the LAPD attitude about the communities it serves. Yes I like that term, to serve the community and it’s people, for years LE had an “US vs Them” attitude and instead of getting involved and up close with the community it was for many decades at odds with the people. And this is one of the reasons that so much distrust and suspicion about the police evolved. Lets face it, most people didn’t trust the LAPD or LASD on the Eastside due to the siege mentallity of the LAPD for so many years. This left a vacuum in the community that allowed gangs to proliferate and hide behind, that is with bad experience a general distrust and dislike of LE became the norm.
Sure it’s a tough job being a cop sometimes but in order to get the community on thier side they must change the attitude of “We are the LAPD and the rest of these people are assholes to be treated with rudeness and distain”.
I hope we have all learned from past mistakes and can in the future are able to deal with each other with respect and understanding.
Curious, but in my own personal experience with cops I have found it was and is always the old veteran cops, homicide detectives and old narcotics and robbery detectives who seemed to have a more sympathetic philosophy about the poor or working class neighborhoods. Maybe it just came with the years.
What it mot mentioned above is the galmorization of the cholo lifestyle in the latino community. I have read many post by young and old telling stories about “pachucos” beating someone’s face until it looks like hamburger. With this type of acceptance and glamorization of aborrent behavior is it any wonder things never change?
So much for communities taking responsibilty, of course it’s always easier to blame the “man”, “society”, “racism”, “cops” and etc. que no?
Wait a dog-gone minute. Did Celeste now use a blurry picture of African-American at a friend’s funeral? Of the all the gangs in Los Angeles what percenatge are African American?
WTF, for some reason I can’t easily lay my hands on recent percentages. In 2000, as nearly as I can tell, the LA gang member population was about 47 percent Hispanic, 31 percent African American, the rest Anglo and/or Asian. But gang counts are iffy at best. Even the sheriff admits that CALGang, the database, is miles away from accurate.
As for the funeral pictured in the new picture, it was a mixed race funeral filled with mostly former gang members. The dead young man (in his 30s, but still young to me) was an African American former gang member named Timothy Record who was very bright, very charismatic, with a horrorshow upbringing that he never quite shook—but still had a smile that could light up the world.
He was shot to death while sleeping in his car on February 28, 2009. Whoever killed him emptied his gun into the car and into Tim. He left behind three beautiful little boys. The eldest was brave and stoic at the funeral. The youngest cried so searingly hard, that hearing him one could scarcely breathe for the pain of it.
The homeboys—former and present—and the homegirls who attended his wake were Latino and African American both.
The earlier picture, the one I took down, was of the sidewalk memorial for Miguel Gomez, the first of the two Homeboy Industries graffiti removal crew members who were shot to death in broad daylight in the summer of 2004. Father Greg shut down the graffiti removal business after that.
A lot of city officials begged him not to. But those closer to him understood that no one could bear another death on the crew. And there would have been another death.
Unfortunately I have many photos of many funerals of many young men whom I have known well to chose from.
PS: You’re quite right. I deliberately screwed around in Photoshop with the image, mainly because I didn’t want any one person to be recognizable. But those who were there would know the scene in a heartbeat, despite the blurring.
The problem with you Don Q is the cops are always the major problem with you. They get the majority of your words of blame, not the gangs, their do nothing families or corrupt politicians and the victims in your own community are mentioned only as an after thought.
Sad.
The stupidity of some gang families amazes me. Gangster “A” get shot by Gangster “B” and will be going belly up. Gangster “A’s” family will donate organs but they want some of his sperm frozen so he can be a “daddy” at some point.
True story.
Well I don’t know about my problem SF, but I do acknowledge that the Mexican American community has had a historical problem with gangs in LA, although the number of gang members are a minute percentage of the Mexican AMerican population.
And in trying to be honest and frank I also acknowledge that the historic lack of respect and positive interaction from the LAPD and LACS have just exascerbated the gang problem due to the East side communities by and large dislike and distrust of the LAPD and LACS. Whether you want to just point fingers at others and continue with the siege mentallity and denials is your problem.
I’m more afraid of police than gang members.
The reason the U.S. cannot get a handle on the gangs and drugs flowing through our country, is our country has become so sissy-fied, lip-wrist, sissy-la la, and afraid of stepping up for what is good and right. It is deserving of the beasts that prey on its citizens and the downfall which is sure to happen to this country-sooner than we would like, and then, those who take over, devide, and take, this country over, do you think they will have mercy. No! They will clean up the gang and drug problem and kill the good law abiding citizens, that is you, your children, etc., and those who are not killed will be the slaves of the winner. God out country out.
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