Compton Ca

First Amendment activists and a member of Congress said this week that the FBI may have stepped out of line with a letter accusing a Compton rap group of encouraging "violence against and disrespect" for law enforcement officers. "The FBI should stay out of the business of censorship," said Rep. Don Edwards (D-San Jose), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on civil and constitutional rights, when informed of an Aug.

Brandy Rice eyed the test question. She thought of what her tutor directed her to do: Read the entire sentence. Read all the answers. Instead of playing multiple-choice roulette with the answers as she had so many times before, she followed the directions. Rice, 26, was one of 20 Compton Adult School students in a tutoring program for the California High School Exit Examination. The tutors weren't teachers, but teenagers from Palos Verdes High School. The tutors carpooled from the green, laid-back beach community on a hill to Compton every Saturday for five weeks.

At least 72 people were killed in Compton in 2005, the highest toll in a decade for a city that has ranked among the most dangerous in the nation for 30 years. The rise in homicides frightened residents who have long lived with high levels of gang violence but had seen a downturn in violent crime in recent years. In addition to those killed in Compton, at least nine more people were shot to death in unincorporated areas within a few blocks of the city boundary.

Four days after 10-year-old Erica Miranda was shot while playing basketball outside her home, a physical therapist walked into her hospital room and told her it was time to try to get up. From her bed, Erica looked up at the blond woman in scrubs. She looked at her mother, who had been by her side nearly every minute since the suspected gang shooting. She looked at her stepfather, who massaged her shoulder and wiped away the tears dribbling down her cheeks. "It's all right, mami," he said.

More than 250 officers swept through Compton and nearby areas in a series of raids, arresting 15 alleged gang members accused of operating the most lucrative PCP ring in Southern California, authorities announced Thursday. Authorities served search warrants on 22 sites in 10 cities, rousting the alleged leader of the drug ring, Roderick Cardale Reed, from his bed at a residence in Rialto.

Turn the corner onto West Tichenor Street from Wilmington Avenue, no more than a mile from the 91 Freeway in Compton, and here is what you see: the back end of an Arabian horse trotting up the street. Here is what you hear: roosters crowing, chickens clucking. Across the street from the well-tended and carefully rehabilitated home of Danny and Arron Afflalo lives Eddie Stovall. In Stovall's driveway is a horse trailer, in his backyard three horses. "Red Cloud, Cheyenne and Lightning," he says.

On the fringe of Compton's manufacturing zone lies a row of boarded-up single-family homes that shelter not humans, but a billion-bug-and-worm breeding enterprise. It's nicknamed "Worm City," and Fred Rhyme is its mayor. FOR THE RECORD: Mealworms: An article in the Dec. 13 California section about a Compton worm farm incorrectly attributed a quote to Rosa Gomez. It was Daniel Cervantes, a resident near the farm, who was washing his car when he said, "They've been here all these years before I moved here in 2004."

From the moment he arrived at the backyard stables in Compton, Sterling Love had been stalling. The 12-year-old had come to go horseback riding. Instead, he did everything but -- avoiding horses just as he had done each visit since he'd been bucked three weeks earlier. As Love sifted through a pile of helmets, fumbled reluctantly with the horse's bridle and let out a long sigh, Mayisha Akbar watched him.

It is a Sunday morning and there is still dew on the grass outside Faith Inspirational Missionary Baptist Church. Already, God has received a standing ovation. The thermometer on the wall claims it's only 75 degrees in here, but congregants are dancing in the aisles, some with their shoes kicked off and stashed under the pews. Their sweat mixes with their tears, and for once in Compton, they are tears of joy. "People of faith!" thunders the Rev.

In most urban American settings, the Compton Courthouse would seem a modest structure. But here, rising 14 stories above the flats of South L.A.--a low-slung landscape of scrappy bungalows, storefront churches and off-brand retailers hawking fried turkey or discount electronics--it's a formidable presence. From a distance, the block of white concrete striped with black windows resembles an enormous cage, or a prison cell.

Sophia Taylor fidgeted with the drawstrings of her hooded sweat shirt as she sat inside the darkened examination room. It had been more than five years since her last vision exam, and her sight had gotten worse. When the doctor entered, he asked the 24-year-old a series of questions: Why has it been so long? Had she ever worn glasses? Does she still wear them? Taylor explained that she lost her last pair of glasses, which were never replaced. That was in the seventh grade. "My mom said I didn't need them," the Long Beach woman said.

Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies expected heavy business Tuesday during its annual "gifts for guns" program in Compton. And sure enough, scores of people lined up to turn in various weapons in exchange for retail and supermarket gift cards. But they were surprised at the man who pulled up in a sport utility vehicle with 58 guns -- mostly handguns but also some assault weapons. Dressed in a sweat shirt and jeans, the man offered his cache in a nonchalant fashion. As is the policy for such events, deputies asked no questions and eagerly took the guns.

On the fringe of Compton's manufacturing zone lies a row of boarded-up single-family homes that shelter not humans, but a billion-bug-and-worm breeding enterprise. It's nicknamed "Worm City," and Fred Rhyme is its mayor. FOR THE RECORD: Mealworms: An article in the Dec. 13 California section about a Compton worm farm incorrectly attributed a quote to Rosa Gomez. It was Daniel Cervantes, a resident near the farm, who was washing his car when he said, "They've been here all these years before I moved here in 2004."

The corner of Rosecrans and Bradfield avenues in Compton might not have the fanciest decorations or the tallest Christmas tree. But for passing motorists, it's a holiday scene they won't soon forget. Lined along the street are rows of Christmas trees in a rainbow of colors -- yellow, pink, orange, blue, red, white and, yes, green. Standing outside Compton Nursery on Friday, owner Gonzalo Gonzalez, 54, said the tradition of coloring evergreens began about seven years ago when a customer made an unusual request.

Russell Otis, who directed Dominguez High School in Compton to five state boys' basketball championships, was convicted Tuesday of misdemeanor child molesting, a crime that, withstanding appeals, would bar him from coaching or teaching minors. The 47-year-old Otis, sitting stern-faced as the verdicts were read, was acquitted of committing felony theft and forgery by depositing a $15,000 Nike check written to the Compton Unified School District into his personal bank account. After 11 days of deliberations, the Los Angeles County Superior Court jury in Compton deadlocked 10 to 2 in favor of conviction on a felony charge of meeting a minor for lewd purposes.

Lakeisha Hamm has not slept in days. Each time she lies down, the killing of her 13-year old son last week in Compton replays in her mind like a movie. She hears gunshots, rushes to the front door and sees a body drop to the ground. She knows her son is outside. She sprints toward the victim. Terror washes over her as she recognizes his shoes. On Thursday, Hamm buried her son Marvin Nicholson. She cried as she entered the small Inglewood chapel, filled to overflowing with more than 150 friends and family.

The Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies who fired 120 rounds at an unarmed car chase suspect early Monday appeared not to have a coordinated plan and at times worked at cross-purposes, department officials said Tuesday after a preliminary investigation. As a result, some deputies opened fire because they erroneously believed that the suspect had shot two colleagues, while others were firing because they thought the suspect was trying to ram officers, Capt. Ray Peavy said.

For years Compton has struggled against a lousy reputation. Its name has been invoked by rappers as a euphemism for violence, rebellion and poverty. "It's the home of the jackers and the crack. (Compton!) Yeah, that's the name of my hometown," sang the rapper The Game. But these days, Compton is starting to look almost suburban. Since last year, Staples, Target, Best Buy and Starbucks, among other national retail chains, have opened stores in the city.

Tim Lewis has a bedtime routine. He flips on a small portable television, reclines the front passenger seat of his 1993 Toyota Camry and leans back till his trim, 6-foot-2 frame is nearly horizontal. Often he drifts off to sleep with the TV on. "I've gotten used to it," Lewis, 52, says of living out of his car. "Sometimes it's tough, but I'm a tough guy."

Sheriff's investigators are searching for a gunman and a motive in the fatal shooting of two men and a woman at a Compton apartment over the weekend that comes at a time when the community has seen a drop in violent crime. The fatal shootings occurred shortly after 7 p.m. Sunday at a small apartment behind a barbershop on a stretch of East Rosecrans Avenue that is plagued by gangs and crime, authorities said. The motive in the killings remains unclear, said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Lt.