Crime and Punishment Criminal Justice LAPD

On Which Way LA? Monday at 7 p.m. Talking About LA’s Homicide Drop

LA’s murder stats are down to under 300 for the first time since 1967. There are many possible causes for that single heartening number, all of which is what I chat about with Warren Olney’s winter vacation replacement, Sara Terry, for Which Way LA? which airs at 7 p.m. on KCRW.

Just to be clear, however, while the numbers are improving, the tragedies have not gone away. The Homeboy Industries staffer killed two weeks ago, 27-year-old Luis Diaz, was buried amid much heartache and many, many tears last Thursday. And I just learned of the death of another young man, Cesar Guerrero, who was shot to death on Sunday.

So while the statistics released this week give us something to celebrate, there are still nearly 300 deaths to mourn in our city, just under 170 more in LA County (which has experienced a similar drop in homicide numbers).

Listen live or click here for the podcast link.

27 Comments

  • Yet the deaths of law enforcement officers are up nation wide, 20% by shootings alone. A tragedy that you don’t see mentioned very often in the media.

  • From the LA Times:
    “Brown ready to play hardball with state budget”.

    Celeste, it could get really ugly if he does what he’s reportedly said he wants to. Deep cuts in education and welfare programs. Also, he’s calling for additional increases to state college tutition.

    $28 billion has to be trimmed. Can’t do that painlessly.

  • For the record SF, I’m not happy about it. AT ALL.
    Also, like you, I think JB’s ideas make sense. There’s only one way to trim 28 billion from the budget. We are going to have to pay the piper for our past belief that there is such a thing as a free lunch.
    We are about to find out the hard way that there is in fact no such thing.

  • Gee, Surefire, that is one stretch. Do you have facts proving this correlation, or are you just blowing smoke?

    Hey, no doubt we all could dig up so called liberal policies that may buttress your argument (or vice-versa; gun control anybody?), but you could do better presenting your case.

  • A solar eclipse occurs so SF beats his drums to make the gods spit back the sun. The sun returns, proving to SF the efficacy of his action.
    I can see that.

  • What facts are needed? Are less people being executed, yes. Are more cops being killed, yes. Is the state of California, as one example, releasing “supposed” non-violent offenders and quit checking on some parolees that have caught new cases, yes.

    If punishment is just a word and no action goes along with it will a certain segment of the population say screw it and do whatever they feel, of coures. Are there stories in the news day after day that proves my answers, yep.

    Do I need to post them all, I don’t think so because anyone can see it’s the truth.

    Mom let you have the computer back Robbie?

  • Why Randy because you say so? You all proud because you posted in Latin like some kind of elitist dick? You don’t know if a connection exists or not unless you’re in touch with the criminal community and know what they talk about and what they think?

    You’re not smart Randy, you’re a douche that hops on a board to try to act superior and most likely have little male dna floating through your I’m guessing 155 lb tofu eating frame.

    Douche.

  • Come on Celeste, keep it up so at least Randy can see it and tell me off like the little school marm he is.

  • I’m not taking the bait. You have provided zero linkage between the reduced numbers of executions and cops killed by criminals.

    FWIW, I’m 54 years old, 6’2″ weigh 200 pounds (and am losing weight to about 185), work out 5-6 days a week, don’t know what I can bench press these days as I’m recovering from a shoulder impingement, but used to be able to bench 250 without breaking a sweat, could easily do 10-15 pullups and an equal number of bar dips before an arthritic wrist limited that. When the weather’s warm I can easily put 30-50 miles on my mountain bike in the afternoon.

    I love red meat. A nice sirloin medium well is my idea of heaven along with pulled pork and brisket.

    Just sayin’

  • I didn’t have to provide anything professor I asked the question could there be a connection? Did you answer that, nope. You opted for the smart ass way out, as per usual.

    I also don’t agree with your response Celeste. This is Randy’s typical elitist arrogant and pompus way of answering what I post which makes it a direct attack on my person. i base that on how often he does it, it’s not like a one time thing and you know it.

    You don’t give all the answers or provide facts reagrding everything you post and nobody else does either. Randy wants to make his education the corner stone of what he rights and I believe he doesn’t care one bit about cops or their deaths or what I wrote at all. I hate cop haters if I haven’t nade that clear and feel they are all weak and disgusting people to their core. If Randy had an actual point to make he would have answered my follow-up in post #9. As I’ve said before he acts like a post monitor with my posts and nobody else’s which is b.s.

    Back to Randy, you’ve got me by an inch and nowhere else. Course I can’t lift what I used to at 56 but adding kettle balls to my work out routine has helped with my over all fitness, you should try it if you haven’t. I work out daily and always will, miss very few days but I’m not here to measure dicks Randy cause you still post like a tofu eater to me.

    Bottom line, you want to comment like an elitist ass to my posts I’ll respond in the same way. You actually want to argue a point professor put it up because picking apart a post in the manner you do isn’t one bit manly.

    Just saying…

  • I don’t know if you deleted my last comment Celeste. I certainly don’t agree if you did, but I’ll be a little nicer with my response to Randy and you. His attacks are personal when he constantly responds in only that arrogant, pompus and put down style to me. It’s not manly or smart it’s what we used to call in sports “bush”.

    If he’d like to comment on my post maybe he should post something that can actually debate the facts I posted in #9 or have someone explain to him that this, “Could there be a connection?” is a question not a statement. What he didn’t do wa show there wasn’t one so his little trip to Latinville
    was all show.

    I’m real impressed with your physical stature Randy but working out has been my life, without going into details we seem fairly the same size and if you haven’t tried it I’m getting a kick out of adding kettle balls to my routine…just saying.

  • I asked the question could there be a connection?

    Poppycock. You wrote the following:

    Way to go liberals, yeah I put this at your feet. People know they won’t get executed so their more comfortable shooting at cops.

    That’s what I responded to. That’s a statement, not a question. If you’re going to accuse someone of a blood libel, you should have proof of same.

    Randy wants to make his education the corner stone of what he rights and I believe he doesn’t care one bit about cops or their deaths or what I wrote at all.

    I’m sure you know the old saying about opinions . . .

    FWIW I’ve got a healthy respect for the cops in my neighborhood and an even greater respect for the firefighters. Not so much for the sanitation workers, especially after the snow storm.

    Course I can’t lift what I used to at 56 but adding kettle balls to my work out routine has helped with my over all fitness, you should try it if you haven’t.

    Given it some thought, but one thing that I have found helpful is a rope pull machine that is good for flexibility and building some more strength in my upper back where I have a few niggling injuries. As I get older, I’m putting a greater emphasis on flexibility.

    but I’m not here to measure dicks Randy

    Then perhaps you shouldn’t have insulted my stature. Indeed, I have not engaged in any ad hominem attacks on you since Celeste laid down the law. Perhaps you can find it in yourself to afford me the same courtesy.

    Warm regards,

    RP

  • As for as me being elitist, my ethnic background is Ukrainian Jewish from my father’s side and Alabama hillbilly with Scots, Irish, French (Huguenot), English and Dutch on my mother’s side. I grew up in Florida, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee and spent a few years in Germany when my adoptive dad was stationed there.

    I live in a multi-ethnic community in Queens, NY, a borough, with the exception of Jamaica Estates, Neponset, Douglaston and perhaps the Rockaways is about as thoroughly middle class one of the five boroughs as they come. I own a co-op apartment in a 90 unit building that is hardly deluxe: no doorman and not much in the way amenities, but it’s home.

    I have a BA degree from a state university and went only to public schools. The one thing that I have always done – and, in which take a great deal of pride – is read and gather information well. The only belief I’m beholden to is the truth. If it makes you feel better to call me elitist, by all means have at it. An objective observer of the facts will realize that is nonsense.

  • January 5th, 2011 at 6:24 am
    SF/ I asked the question could there be a connection?

    RP/ Poppycock. You wrote the following: Way to go liberals, yeah I put this at your feet. People know they won’t get executed so their more comfortable shooting at cops.

    SF/ I wrote that afterwards, you decided to attack that instead of answering if there could be a connection so all you’re doing is waltzing around it. No poppycock RP the question about the connection came first. On some other issues I blame both liberals and weak conservatives.

    RP/ That’s what I responded to. That’s a statement, not a question. If you’re going to accuse someone of a blood libel, you should have proof of same.

    SF/ Unlike you who likes to play little games by putting people down regarding how someone feels and the way they articulate it on any given subject, I’m a little more straight forward and go into a conversation thinking people will actually argue if they have a point opposite mine not nitpick the way my thought is forwarded. I’m ok with debate, true debate, but what you don’t seem to realize is that this isn’t a court of law where proof is a requirement of a post. When you consider I threw outa question first that seemed obvious to me. That being said show me a group of conservatives, a healthy sized one at that who don’t believe what I posted is a possibility. That group should also have some expertise in the field of dealing with criminals. Most people here don’t have a clue, not even a little one about how these people think, I do. You can disagree with that but my resume points it out clearly.

    SF/Randy wants to make his education the corner stone of what he rights and I believe he doesn’t care one bit about cops or their deaths or what I wrote at all.

    RP/I’m sure you know the old saying about opinions . . .

    SF/ I’m sure you do as well you didn’t care or comment about the links I posted, just got all upset because I put the blame on liberals. Celeste and I differ on how we feel about certain ways the criminal justice system runs but there is no doubt in my mind she gets very upset when cops die in the line of duty. I don’t see that from as many on the left as should be speaking out when these tragedies occur which speaks to, in my opinion, their lack of character.

    FWIW I’ve got a healthy respect for the cops in my neighborhood and an even greater respect for the firefighters. Not so much for the sanitation workers, especially after the snow storm.

    SF/ I respect firefighters but there’s no comparing the two jobs, the job of a cop is much more difficult and most firefighters I know would agree with that.

  • You come off as an elitist to me in the manner you respond to mostly my posts.

    Just saying…

  • You come off as an elitist to me in the manner you respond to mostly my posts.

    And I need only consider the source and it truly doesn’t bother me.

    I wrote that afterwards, you decided to attack that instead of answering if there could be a connection so all you’re doing is waltzing around it.

    So what? The ad hominem was clearly designed to inflame. Why bother to debate whether there was a question, when you made it abundantly clear that your mind was already made up.

    Unlike you who likes to play little games by putting people down regarding how someone feels and the way they articulate it on any given subject

    Really? I’m the one who puts people down? Did I call you a “tofu eater,” a “douche” or a “dick?”

    Sorry, but you have no moral authority on criticizing anyone for putdowns.

  • I don’t throw out my thoughts to inflame Randy, I do it to stimulate conversation.

    The fact that cops are being shot at more, attacked more and killed more over the past 2 years, not just one, are facts. That less people are being executed nation wide is a fact. That prisoners read papers speak to each other as well as friends, crime partners and family members are facts. That prisoners have all the info you and I do, regarding these facts, on the outside are facts.

    That mostly by a large percentage liberals are the ones that scream for reductions in sentences, elimination of the death penalty, more rights for prisoners and are in agreement with just about any law or policy that restricts law enforcement efforts to punish as severly as possible even the worst of criminal offenders is a fact.

    With all that in mind and like I said before, knowing how criminals work after a long career of dealing with them, it isn’t too far a stretch for me to think there could be a connection in the rise of officer fatalities and reductions in swift and sure punishment to the worst of offenders.

    I truly could give a damn about your opinion because you won’t base it on facts only what I feel is your Amnesty International type outlook on life that you still apparently let guide, facts be damned.

    It’s amazing you truly haven’t argued anything, only been crying about my style and posting error filled thoughts that are easy to disect.

    Your afraid of debate, no different that most any other leftie and will find excuses to cry about to avoid it. You should feel lucky I even responded to such drivel.

    Wow, I sound pompus. How do you like it?

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