Latino gang tried to force blacks out, indictment says

Researchers who study homicides say, however, that such killings are unusual. A recent study by researchers at UC Irvine used data from the four precincts of the LAPD's South Bureau on homicides between 2000 and 2006 and found that black offenders were nearly eight times more likely to kill another black person than to kill a Latino, and Latino offenders were nearly twice as likely to kill another Latino.

A Times analysis of crime data earlier this year found that the vast majority of violent crimes in the city of Los Angeles involved assailants and victims of the same race. Last year, there were more than 2,700 black-on-black or Latino-on-Latino incidents, compared with slightly more than 500 interracial attacks.

The indictments unveiled Tuesday charged 61 Florencia gang members and associates with a variety of felonies, including weapons violations, drug sales and conspiracy to commit murder. More than a dozen of the suspects were in custody on earlier charges, and 11 defendants are still at large. Many charges give prosecutors the option to pursue hate-crime charges once the cases go to court, which would allow stiffer penalties.

Despite the gang tensions, many in Florence-Firestone say residents of different races get along for the most part and see a common enemy in the criminals.

But LeGrande, the pastor, said some residents worried that the thugs would widen their war beyond other gangs.

"At one time parents would say, 'Stay away from the gang and we'll be OK," he said. "Now you don't have to be in a gang."

ari.bloomekatz@latimes.com

sam.quinones@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Florencia 13

* Founded in the early 1950s around Florence Avenue in the Florence-Firestone area.

* Has at least 30 cliques, or subsets.

* Has more than 2,000 members.

* Is active in about three square miles in and around the unincorporated neighborhood.

* Is controlled by senior members, some of whom are also members and associates of the Mexican Mafia, a prison gang.

Sources: Federal prosecutors,

L.A. County Sheriff's Department