Every few years, an act of gang violence rises above the rest, sparking outrage across Los Angeles and vows to finally conquer the gang problem.
When Karen Toshima was killed by gang crossfire in Westwood Village in 1988, then-Police Chief Daryl F. Gates intensified Operation Hammer. The gang sweeps yielded thousands of arrests but also generated much criticism about mistreatment by officers.
The 1995 killing of 3-year-old Stephanie Kuhen when her family drove onto a dead-end street in Cypress Park resulted in another gang crackdown.
When William J. Bratton became chief in 2002, he was faced with a string of 20 gang shootings -- including the death of 14-year-old Clive Jackson. He declared war on gangs, referring to them as domestic terrorists.
Last week, he and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa declared war again -- the inspiration this time the racially motivated killing of Cheryl Green, a 14-year-old African American, by members of a Latino gang in the Harbor Gateway neighborhood.
The new crackdown -- targeting 11 gangs -- might suggest that the Los Angeles Police Department is trying again where it has failed before.
But it's more complex than that. Though gang crimes jumped 14% in 2006, they are down significantly from the early 1990s and even more compared with the mid-1980s. According to LAPD statistics, there were 7,714 gang crimes last year, compared with 10,945 in 1995.
"What we are doing is no different than what we have been doing. As a Police Department we have always been assertive, very aggressive in going at gangs," Bratton said. "What we are doing with this effort -- it's more comprehensive."
But what some critics of the crackdown find familiar is the race to respond to a killing that garners news media attention and public outrage -- an approach they say is not always comprehensive or effective.
"It is the same prescription every time they have a major event," said Malcolm Klein, a veteran gang sociologist and USC professor emeritus. "Gangs are defined as a crime problem and not a community problem. This is old fashioned suppression in a new guise, and where is the proof that has worked?"
He noted that since 1980, when gang slayings topped 200 in Los Angeles, the city has focused most of its gang response on policing.
A month ago, Connie Rice, director of the Advancement Project in Los Angeles, produced a comprehensive plan for the city to overhaul gang intervention programs and try to use means other than law enforcement to address its 39,000 gang members.
