ESCONDIDO, Calif. — Darrell Littleton calls them “his guys,” but he does not trust them.
One got drunk and exposed himself to a jogger in a public park. Another was a fire captain until he molested his 13-year-old stepdaughter, went to prison and lost his wife, his job and his home. Now the man sleeps behind a drive-through restaurant.
Mr. Littleton is a parole agent, and “his guys,” about 40 in all, are paroled sex offenders. On a September morning, as he does each day, Mr. Littleton fired up his laptop computer to check on his charges; the signals from their global-positioning ankle bracelets trace dotted trails cutting through a Google satellite map. Mr. Littleton tracks them, calls them frequently and shows up unannounced to make sure they are behaving themselves. But they still struggle to stay straight.
One of his parolees recently harassed a teenage prostitute, and Mr. Littleton had to “violate him” — revoke his parole and return him to prison. Another promised Mr. Littleton that once he is off parole in a few months, and no longer subject to random drug testing, he is going to resume his marijuana habit. And before the day was over, another parolee would emerge as a suspect in a sexual assault on a 9-year-old girl. “Twenty is really the ideal caseload for my guys,” Mr. Littleton said as he drove a high-riding pickup truck on one of several parolee visits he had planned that day. “With that kind of caseload, I could spend more time in the field and less in the office. With these guys, you don’t want them to know you’re coming. You need to watch them when they don’t know they’re being watched.”
A series of high-profile crimes involving parolees in California highlight the challenges of keeping track of them in a state that discharges more than 120,000 inmates annually, more than any other.
Last month, two campus police officers at the University of California, Berkeley, became suspicious of a paroled sex offender named Phillip Garrido and called his parole officer, leading to Mr. Garrido’s arrest on charges of kidnapping Jaycee Dugard, now 29, in 1991, raping her and holding her captive in a backyard encampment.
Like the sex offenders Mr. Littleton supervises, Mr. Garrido had been monitored by GPS and visited at his home at least twice a month by parole agents. But he was still able to keep his secret for 18 years.
In July, a Los Angeles man on parole was arrested in the kidnapping and murder of a 17-year-old girl, and an Oakland parolee shot and killed four police officers before killing himself.
California is the only state that places all released prisoners on parole, no matter the seriousness of their crime. Even at a time of historically low violent crime, critics argue that overloading parole agents compromises public safety.
Legislation passed this month will reduce the “average” caseloads for parole agents to 45, from 70, and nonviolent, less serious offenders will no longer be returned to prison for administrative infractions like missing counseling appointments, ditching parole agent visits or failing drug tests. Agents handling some of the most violent offenders, like Mr. Littleton’s parolees, will also see their caseloads reduced.
Legislators argued that the law was necessary to reduce chronic prison overcrowding. Packed prisons thwart rehabilitation programs and medical treatment and incite riots on a regular basis, according to findings in federal civil rights cases against the California corrections system.
The law was hard-won by the Democratic-controlled state legislature. Corrections officer unions, police organizations and prosecutors opposed it, arguing that even parolees convicted of nonviolent crimes were too dangerous to be left unsupervised.
Mr. Littleton said he thought parolees should be given incentives for early release and reduced supervision inside and outside of prison — G.E.D. courses, drug treatment programs and psychological counseling, for example. But providing services is one thing the legislation does not emphasize.
In fact, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced $280 million in cuts this week to educational and rehabilitation programs inside prison. The cutbacks follow an 80 percent cut in Proposition 36, the state’s largest drug treatment diversion program, even though most parolees suffer from drug and alcohol addictions, mental illnesses and chronic unemployment. A University of California, Los Angeles, study showed that the program, approved by voters in 2000, treated 30,000 drug offenders a year in lieu of prison and saved $2 in taxes for every $1 invested in the program.
Michelle Jackson, a parole agent in Corona, about 50 miles east of Los Angeles, who supervises 40 violent felons, said she would prefer to focus on the social work aspect of her job rather than the law enforcement role but sees few alternatives, even with the new legislation. “Most programs won’t take my guys or they want them to pay, and all my parolees have very low-paying jobs,” she said. “They can’t afford a month’s worth of counseling.”
When Ms. Jackson visits Faafetai Niusila, 39, a muscular member of the Sons of Samoa gang, she chides him for his lack of chivalry toward his wife.
“Really? You’re going to let her carry the groceries by herself?” Ms. Jackson asked as she watched Mr. Niusila’s wife struggle to carry bags into their house. Mr. Niusila, who served 12 years in prison for attempted murder, hustled across the lawn to help.
After Mr. Niusila, Ms. Jackson visited Shelton Miles, 38, who was on parole for shooting a man in 1991. He spent more than 10 years in prison. “Does someone collect shot glasses?” Ms. Jackson asked warily as she spied them on a shelf. If Mr. Miles is caught abusing alcohol, his parole could be revoked.
“No, no,” he said. “My sons’ sports teams give them out.”
Ms. Jackson said that in the absence of appropriate programs, she was more likely to revoke an offender’s parole.
“If employment doesn’t work out, if staying home doesn’t work out, and they start using again or getting in trouble — even if it’s not another crime — we have to violate them to protect the community because we don’t know what will happen,” she said.
That uncertainty keeps Mr. Littleton thinking about his guys even when he is off the clock. Even a vigilant parole agent cannot keep parolees out of trouble every minute of every day, he said.
Around the middle of his shift, Mr. Littleton received an alert that the police here in Escondido, a suburb of San Diego, were looking for a parolee supervised by his office named Ricardo Perez Borbon, 70, in connection with an assault on a 9-year-old girl. Mr. Borbon was on parole after serving 12 years for sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl.
The signal from Mr. Borbon’s GPS anklet indicated that he had lingered near an elementary school an hour earlier and then had gone to his residential construction job before tampering with the homing device a few blocks away. Mr. Littleton gunned his truck toward the location to meet other agents. They found the anklet under a roadside cactus. Mr. Borbon was now a fugitive. “We’ll be focusing on him now,” said Lindon Lewis, Mr. Littleton’s supervisor. “He has our full attention now.”
Mr. Littleton returned to his truck and clipped Mr. Borbon’s mug shot — slicked-back hair, a salt-and-pepper moustache, grim eyes with dark circles underneath — onto his sun visor. The parolee’s face looked down at him.
Posted Friday, Sep. 25, 2009
Organizers of Tarrant County’s second annual Felony and/or Misdemeanor Friendly
Community Career Fair pulled it off Friday, albeit with a lot fewer employers and job seekers.
The organizers invited 170 job seekers — out of 1,000 who registered — to attend
the fair at Tarrant County College South Campus in Fort Worth. Eight employers
willing to consider prospects with felony or misdemeanor convictions signed up.
That contrasts with 800 job seekers invited to last year’s fair and 40 employers
who participated.
The economy dealt a blow to the number of interested employers.
As for the drop in job seekers, who had to clear a number of hurdles
including attending an orientation workshop before being invited to the fair,
"we challenged them a little bit harder this year," said Victor Pratt,
a state contractor who places ex-offenders in jobs and was responsible
for screening job seekers for the fair. "Some of them were weeded out."
Organizers, who had considered postponing the fair to give employers more time
to sign up, declared it a success, based on feedback from the employers
and the face time the job seekers got with them.
"This population has to sell itself, and this was a lot more intimate"
than last year’s, said Angel Ilarraza, coordinator of the Tarrant County
Re-Entry Initiative, which directs strategy for successfully re-integrating
ex-offenders back into the community and organized the fair.
Some of the employers, like Southstar Logistics Llc. of Texas, which
runs a Kroger distribution center in Keller that serves 89 stores, detailed
what kinds of criminal backgrounds it will consider.
Southstar outlines 44 crimes and its policy for considering an ex-offender
three years after conviction, seven years after, and more than seven years.
Minor traffic offenses? No problem. Murder? No. And in between: DWI.
No, within three years of conviction, yes after that.
Debbie Averett, human resources supervisor, said she hired three people
from last year’s job fair, including one man who sent along a testimonial
to be read to this year’s job seekers. A large part of the company’s
philosophy in considering ex-offenders is in giving second chances, she said.
Yvette Kent’s JMC Jewell Management and JMC Professional Services,
umbrella companies for several businesses including construction,
tax, and notary, were looking for employees.
Kent said she needs people for several construction projects and
will consider job seekers with felony convictions, except for crimes
involving abuse of children, women or the elderly. She said she trains
employees in necessary skills, and requires her employees to have a
high school diploma or GED, or to commit to pursuing a GED,
which she pays for.
"We all come from somewhere and our own struggles," she said.
Scott Nishimura, 817-390-7808
www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/southsouthwest/chi-police-chiefs-sw-zone-18sep18,0,6641230.story
By Margie Ritchie
SPECIAL TO THE TRIBUNE
September 18, 2009
Less than five months after taking over as Country Club Hills' first female police chief, Regina Evans was thrust into the spotlight this week when her small south suburban police force played a pivotal role in the investigation of Christopher Kelly's apparent overdose death.
But with 22 years experience in the Chicago Police Department working on the Far South Side, it's no surprise Evans has been handling the bizarre, high-profile Kelly case like a seasoned veteran.
Under Evans, a 46-year-old Chicago native, the Country Club Hills Police Department is turning up the heat on gangs, drug dealers, slum landlords and prostitutes.
She also re-established the suburb's neighborhood watch program, modeling it after the Chicago Alternatives for Policing Strategy (CAPS) program, and she and her staff frequently meet with residents and aldermen.
What she didn't see coming was the Kelly case, in which the former confidant and chief fundraiser for former Gov. Rod Blagojevich died Saturday morning of an apparent drug overdose hours after he was found disoriented in a Country Club Hills lumber storage yard.
"You can't have one agenda. You have to change with the crime and always be ready to change your focus," said Evans, who started as chief on May 1, becoming one of only eight female police chiefs in Illinois, according to the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police.
Other female police chiefs in the Chicago area include Pam Church in Western Springs, Lisa Womack in Elgin and Debra Boyd at Governors State University in University Park. Lori Lelis is currently an interim police superintendent in Cicero.
"In the 1980s, police departments were seeking diversity and it became easier to rise through the ranks. Police departments became more accepting of women in leadership roles," said Church, who became chief in Western Springs in 2005 after serving 22 years in the Downers Grove Police Department.
Major cities such as San Francisco, Detroit, Boston and Washington have had, or currently have, female police chiefs, said Womack, who serves on the executive committee of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
In 2008, there were roughly 212 female police chiefs in the United States, less than 2 percent of the total number of chiefs, said Margie Moore, a spokeswoman for the National Center for Women and Policing, which conducted the survey.
In Country Club Hills, Evans has a confidant in Mayor Dwight Welch, who has retained his powers as a police officer from his days when he was full time with the department.
Often seen with Evans during the Kelly investigation, the mayor stood back on Tuesday as his new police chief led a widely covered press conference to update the media on the case.
Welch, who calls Evans a real "go-getter," said female officers have come a long way since he was a young cop 30 years ago. "In the '70s, women police officers were absolutely treated differently. Many of them were juvenile officers. ... Today, that has changed ... that is a good thing."
Traditionally, female police officers would advance by rising through the ranks of their own department, said Womack, a 44-year-old Texas native.
But she said it's not so rare now for a woman to be hired as a police chief despite coming from outside the department, such as she was when she was hired in Elgin in 2005 after being police chief in Sugar Land, Texas.
In Chicago, Assistant Supt. Beatrice Cuello and Tina Skahill, chief of the CAPS Project Office, are, respectively, the first- and second-highest ranking women in the city's Police Department.
A Chicago police officer for 26 years, Skahill took over as chief of the CAPS project office in March after serving as chief of the Internal Affairs Division, deputy chief of Area 2, commander of several districts and commander of the Office of Legal Affairs. She is also an attorney who attended law school while working as a police officer.
"The department recognizes the need for a well-educated and professional police force," Skahill said.
She is currently enrolled in the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., a government center school for homeland security.
With only a handful of female police chiefs in Illinois, many of them know each other.
Church, 55, who grew up in Decatur, said she knows at least five of them and often sees Evans and Boyd at informal networking meetings.
A mother of two, Evans said she hopes her hiring in Country Club Hills will encourage other women in law enforcement to reach higher.
"With [more] women police chiefs, women see that they can achieve the top position in the organization."
Tribune staff reporter Lolly Bowean contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune
latimes.com/news/local/la-me-shoplift20-2009sep20,0,2554762.story
By Tony Perry
September 20, 2009
Reporting from San Diego
Even by the confessional standards of the "Dr. Phil" television show, it was a whopper of an admission.
The nicely dressed couple said they had roamed several states as shoplifters, stealing mostly toys, selling them on the Internet and making as much as $1 million over seven years.
"I'm no lawyer or a cop," said talk-show host Phil McGraw, his Texas drawl mixed with incredulity, "but isn't that a federal crime?"
The wife paused a second and then said, "Yeah, it is."
Last week, a federal grand jury in San Diego agreed, handing down an indictment against Matthew Allen Eaton, 34, and his wife, Laura, 26. And, just as Dr. Phil predicted, the transcript and video of last November's show are central to the prosecution's case.
The indictment, for moving stolen goods across state lines, says the Eatons sold more than $100,000 using EBay and PayPal over a 12-month period -- a crime that prosecutors call "e-fencing."
More than 500 boxes of toys and other things were carted off when investigators from the San Diego Regional Fraud Task Force raided the couple's home in suburban San Marcos.
The Eatons had approached the "Dr. Phil" show with the offer to tell their story. They answered all his questions politely and with only slight hesitation. They even provided a home video of an out-of-state road trip -- the indictment suggests it was to Arizona and Texas -- in which they smoothly ripped off several stores with their three young children in tow and mailed the goods back home.
The toddlers, they said on the video, are good decoys.
"Sometimes we just kind of go in together as a nice little family to make it seem like we're normal people, and we don't look like the kind of people that steal," Matthew Eaton said. "We have our kids with us, and they usually always buy it."
Laura Eaton provided a typical inventory of the loot. Sometimes they would stuff goodies into their pockets; other times they would boldly walk out of stores.
"We steal diapers, wipes, shoes, socks, clothes, food," she said on the video. "This scanner, desk, the lamp, swords, filing cabinet, TV, this computer, trash can, cabinets, movies, paper shredder."
Dr. Phil is not the only person who was surprised at what the Eatons told him and a television audience of about 5 million.
"In 20 years of fraud cases, I've never seen anything like this: a taped confession before a national audience," said Secret Service agent Greg Meyer, who worked on the case.
Paul Pfingst, a former two-term San Diego County district attorney and now a high-profile defense attorney, said, "In the hall of fame of dumb crooks, these people will have a prominent position."
The arraignment judge, U.S. Magistrate Ruben Brooks, ordered the couple to undergo mental health counseling as a condition of bail.
By the time the couple chatted with Dr. Phil, they knew that the San Diego County Sheriff's Department was already investigating them for shoplifting a toy from a Target store in Vista, a possible misdemeanor. The show propelled the investigation and brought in the feds.
So why did they go on television? Matthew Eaton told Dr. Phil that he and his wife felt gripped by a shoplifting compulsion and that only by blowing their own cover did they think they could stop.
"Putting it out in the open and knowing that everybody's seen us now," he said, "it'll help us to not want to go to the stores because we're going to feel like they're going to recognize us now. And I think it's something to help us stop."
The couple say they are kleptomaniacs, which Dr. Phil, who has a doctorate in clinical psychology, suggested is baloney because he said kleptomaniacs steal for thrill, not profit.
On camera, the couple were matter-of-fact; not remorseful but not boastful, although they admitted the spree was "a little fun." Matthew Eaton said he had thought about stepping up to a more serious crime.
"I've thought of going into a bank and just getting one teller's money and getting in and getting out," he said. "But there's no way I could really do something like that. It's just too dangerous."
Laura Eaton said the couple had dreams of using the profits to start a legitimate toy business. Now they are indigent and could face five years in prison. Their children -- ages 4, 2 and 1 -- were placed with relatives after the couple were arrested.
Matthew Eaton's employment record is checkered. He has worked as a security guard and a supervisor at a gas station. An auto-detailing business he founded flopped, leading him to file for personal bankruptcy in 2000 to try to shed personal debts and a bill from the Internal Revenue Service.
The Eatons moved to Las Vegas in 2007, but within months had moved back to San Diego County.
Some minimal attempts were made to shield their identities on "Dr. Phil." They were referred to only by their last names. No references were made to San Diego or its suburbs.
When the fraud task force cranked up its investigation in recent months, an attorney representing the couple complained that a "Dr. Phil" producer had tricked the couple by promising psychological help and, if they were indicted, bail money and a legal defense fund -- assertions the show denies.
Only one toy is mentioned in the indictment, a Lego Star Wars Millennium Falcon, allegedly stolen from the Target store in Vista, a crime that initially brought the Eatons to the attention of sheriff's detectives.
In court, lawyers for Matthew and Laura Eaton said the couple had long suffered from depression. As the investigation closed in, each found legitimate employment: Matthew as an auto detailer; Laura as a home-care helper for the disabled, their attorneys told the magistrate at arraignment.
Nothing in the indictment or other court documents suggests that the government will try to get Dr. Phil to testify.
On Monday, the couple pleaded not guilty. The magistrate set bail for Matthew Eaton at $35,000; for Laura Eaton at $25,000. She was bailed out quickly, with the help of family members. On Friday, her husband remained in the federal lockup in downtown San Diego.
Each has a lawyer appointed by the court and paid with public funds. Neither lawyer would comment after a brief court session Thursday.
On the show, Dr. Phil had warned the Eatons to quit their life of crime.
"You better stop this, and you better stop it right now," he said, "because they're going to burn you down . . . I'm not just picking on you; I'm trying to help."
It appears his advice was in vain. Four months later, the indictment alleges, the Eatons were still stealing.
tony.perry@latimes.com
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dropouts24-2009sep24,0,1426878.story
By Seema Mehta
September 24, 2009
High school dropouts, who are more likely to commit crimes than their peers with diplomas, cost the state $1.1 billion annually in law enforcement and victim costs while still minors, according to a study being released today.
The California Dropout Research Project at UC Santa Barbara found that cutting the dropout rate in half would prevent 30,000 juvenile crimes and save $550 million every year.
"This study demonstrates the immediate impact dropouts have on both public safety and the economy," said project Director Russell W. Rumberger. "If California could reduce the dropout rate, it could subsequently reduce the juvenile crime rate and its staggering impact on the state budget."
Drop-out statistics are notoriously difficult to pinpoint, but according to the state Department of Education, nearly 19% of students don't graduate from high school. In Los Angeles County, the figure is more than one in five, and at some L.A. schools, fewer than half of students graduate within four years.
The California Dropout Research Project previously studied the economic effect of not finishing high school and found that for each group of 20-year-olds who fail to complete high school (roughly 120,000 per year), the economic loss is $46.4 billion.
Lawmakers asked the group to study the immediate costs of dropping out, so they focused on juvenile crime.
Law enforcement applauded the research and urged more intervention programs to target students at risk of dropping out.
"The connection between dropping out of school and juvenile crime is very clear," said Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer. "The simple fact is if kids aren't in school, they're much more likely to be on the streets causing trouble, engaging in criminal activities such as burglary, thefts, graffiti and arsons."
Dyer and others urged the governor to sign legislation, SB 651, which would require the state Department of Education to produce an annual report that accurately depicts the number of students not finishing school. The report would also identify early signs that a student might be on the path to dropping out, such as truancy. Such indicators would allow schools to target at-risk students.
"Dropout prevention is crime prevention," said Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, chairman of the board of the nonprofit Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a bipartisan effort by law enforcement officials and crime victims. "Schools need better tools for identifying potential dropouts so they can target interventions at the kids who need them most."
Rumberger said the savings from reduced crime could be used to fund drop-out prevention efforts.
"Interventions pay for themselves," he said, noting that the state will see $2 in savings for every $1 invested.
seema.mehta@latimes.com
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA -- THIS JUST IN
Major police raid targets L.A.'s notorious Avenues gang
September 22, 2009 | 4:58 am
Hundreds of police officers and federal law enforcement agents
launched a major assault on the Avenues gang this morning,
hoping to deal a blow to an elusive group they say is responsible
for some of Los Angeles' most notorious street crime.
Under the cover of darkness around 3 a.m., roughly 1,200
heavily armed officers from the
Los Angeles Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration
and several other agencies dispersed from a command post near
the LAPD’s training academy in Elysian Park.
Warrants in hand, they descended on dozens of homes in search
of 53 alleged members or associates of the Avenues gang wanted
on an array of federal charges related to extensive
drug dealing, unsolved murders and other crimes.
Forty-three suspects already are in custody on unrelated charges.
The operation was aimed to bring new charges against 88 Avenues
members or associates, a significant share of a gang
that is believed to have about 400 members.
Some suspects were sought elsewhere in the city,
but the sweep focused on Glassell Park and
other neighborhoods in the northeastern reaches of Los Angeles
-- the center of Avenues territory
since the gang first surfaced in the 1950s.
There were no reports of officers encountering armed resistance.
San Bernardino sheriff's officers say they shot two aggressive dogs
they encountered at one location.
It was not immediately clear how many of the suspects had been
found at their homes and taken into custody.
The names of the suspects and the crimes they were accused
of also were not immediately known, pending the unsealing
of the indictments.
The arrests culminated a yearlong investigation of the gang
run by a unit of LAPD detectives that specializes in gang-related
homicides and a DEA task force.
The Avenues came under scrutiny in the wake of the
August 2008 slaying of Juan Abel Escalante,
a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy. Escalante, 27, was gunned
down outside of his parents’ Cypress Park home early in the
morning as he headed to work as a guard at the Men’s Central Jail.
LAPD detectives led the murder investigation into the killing
because it occurred within city
boundaries. Within days of the shooting, agents from the
DEA task force, which had previously investigated the Avenues,
came to the LAPD with information they had gathered that indicated
members from the gang may have been responsible.
That tip led to the arrest in December of two Avenues members
in connection with the murder.
Months later, a third member was taken into custody,
and charges were brought against a fourth,
who remains a fugitive. In the course of investigating the
Escalante killing, however, the LAPD detectives and DEA agents
delved into the inner workings of the Avenues and began
compiling evidence related to a host of other alleged crimes.
Some of the information was collected during interrogations
of Avenues members and others from the neighborhood
who had been arrested by a special team of 54 uniformed gang
officers deployed in the area. Much of the incriminating information,
however, came from the suspects themselves as DEA agents
secured approval from federal judges for an array of wire taps that
allowed them to listen in on gang members’ phone conversations.
"They could have just stuck with Escalante," said LAPD Capt.
Kevin McClure, who oversees the detective unit. “They could have
said, ‘We got what we came for,’ packed it up
and moved on to something that would have been easier.
This operation was not a result of me
telling them they have to do this. It is a result of this unit saying,
‘There is more here, let’s keep going.’ ”
Over the course of the investigation, cases were built
against Avenues members for their alleged roles
in six other unsolved murders and four attempted murders,
said a top LAPD gang detective involved
in the operation. He requested that his name not be used
because of concerns over retaliation by Avenues members.
The bulk of the charges are for extortion and other crimes
that Avenues members and associates
allegedly committed as part of the gang’s extensive drug
trafficking in the area, police say.
Most of the Avenues members included in the indictment
are being charged under the federal Racketeer Influenced
and Corrupt Organizations Act, which allows prosecutors to
pursue more serious prison sentences. At a planning briefing
last week with representatives from the agencies involved,
there was little question as to what had kept the group motivated.
With the auditorium at LAPD headquarters filled with a few hundred
officers, a recording was played of the phone call Escalante’s
wife made to a 911 dispatcher after discovering him
in the street. “If anyone has any doubt about the rationale
or reason behind this operation, it was this,” a detective said.
At the meeting, officers reviewed the complicated logistics
involved in a gang sweep of such a large magnitude.
With more than a dozen targets located on one street alone,
the routes each team of officers would take and the order
of their deployment had to be painstakingly planned.
Officers were instructed to bring suspects back to the
command post for processing wearing only clothes and a
pair of shoes. Any jewelry, cellphones or other belongings
would clog up what promised to be an already hectic assembly
line of alleged criminals.
Staff from the state’s Child Protective Services department
would be on hand to handle children found in any of the homes,
officers were told.
The gang, named for the avenues that cross Figueroa Street,
has a long, ugly history dating back at least to the 1950s,
when it was linked to many shootouts and killings.
It is thought by some that the group’s origins can be traced
back to some of the hundreds of families displaced from
Chavez Ravine, now home to Dodger Stadium, and the
Rose Hill areas.
The group’s insignia, which many members have tattooed
on their bodies, is a skull with a bullet hole, wearing a fedora.
Various cliques of the Avenues claim Highland Park and
parts of Cypress Park, Glassell Park and Eagle Rock as
their territory. It is linked closely to the
Mexican Mafia prison gang, which demands that the
Avenues and other Eastside gangs
send up a share of the taxes they collect from low-level
drug dealers and others selling goods on their turf.
Today’s sweep is hardly the first time law enforcement has
taken on the Avenues.
In 2002, the city attorney won an injunction against the gang,
making it illegal for members to congregate throughout
much of Highland Park, Glassell Park, Cypress Park
and Eagle Rock. A few years later, federal prosecutors
won hate-crime convictions against Avenues members
for the killings of three black men between 1995 and 2000.
Government attorneys argued that the Avenues launched a
campaign of violence to force black people out of the
Highland Park area in the 1990s and targeted the men simply
because of their race. In 2007, the city used a
narcotics-abatement lawsuit to shut down
the home of a family at the center of the Avenues'
Drew Street clique.
At the time, then-City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo called the house
the gang’s “mother ship.”
In February of last year, the gang re-erupted into the
city’s public consciousness when policy say Drew Street
members gunned down a man as he stood on a curb holding
his 2-year-old granddaughter’s hand.
They brazenly took on police in a running gun battle,
firing at officers with an AK-47 assault rifle in broad daylight.
Most recently, in June 2008, the DEA task force that
came to LAPD detectives with information on the
Escalante killing conducted a similar, but smaller, operation
to the one carried out today. That investigation named
70 defendants.
At the time, LAPD officials assured residents of the area
that they would work to keep the gang from reclaiming
control of the neighborhoods. Drug activity in the area has
slowed considerably in recent months, the detective said,
but considering the size of today’s operation, the gang
clearly has maintained a commanding presence in the area.
"They’ve owned that community for a long, long time,"
the detective said. "Only time will
tell for sure, but I think this will be a blow that will
finally make a lasting impact."
-- Joel Rubin
Photo: Several men suspected of being members or associates of the Avenues gang are held in a booking area after being arrested during a predawn raid. Credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times
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