In one instance, an African American couple were robbed at gunpoint by gang members who were trying to send a message, prosecutors say. In another, a man waiting at a Florence Avenue bus stop before work was critically injured in a drive-by shooting by Florencia members who apparently mistook him for a rival gang member, according to the indictments.
The gang would "target African American individuals for assault" and leaders made sure "that all the F13 cliques were participating in the assaults of African American rival gang members," the indictments say.
Florence-Firestone is a collection of factories, stucco homes and mom-and-pop stores that has gone through dramatic demographic changes every 15 to 20 years since it formed in the early 1930s.
Poor Southern whites, middle-class blacks and poor Southern blacks have all entered Southern California via short stays in Florence-Firestone.
In the late 1980s, the neighborhood was about 80% African American. But most black residents have moved away. Today, the area is 90% Latino -- mostly Mexican immigrants.
"The last five years has been the greatest influx" of Latinos, said Pastor Chris LeGrande of the Great Hope Fellowship of Faith on Compton Avenue, one of Florence-Firestone's largest black churches.
African Americans and Latinos are often separated by language and culture, and frequently compete for the same jobs. The area has two parks: Washington Park is used mostly by blacks; Roosevelt Park to the north by Latinos.
"I think we adults have many problems in sympathizing with the other race," said Gloria Medina, Spanish-language liaison for the Florence-Firestone Chamber of Commerce. "It's not just the children; it's that we've taught this to children. . . . [We] respect each other, but there's not much closeness."
Sheriff Lee Baca said Tuesday that Florencia's violence was notable given the fact that gang violence in Los Angeles in general has been dropping in the last few years. In Los Angeles, homicides overall so far this year are declining to levels not seen since the early 1970s.
Authorities this year have vowed to focus more attention on race-motivated crimes involving gangs. The push started after a 14-year-old black girl was shot and killed last year, allegedly by members of a Latino gang, in the Harbor Gateway section of Los Angeles.
Last year, members of the Latino Avenues gang were convicted in federal court for a series of assaults and killings in the early 1990s targeting blacks in Highland Park.
