Violence Surge Gang Killings Rise in Los Angeles

By Judy Muller

L O S  A N G E L E S, April 14 — The Alvarado family of East Los Angeles buried their 20-year-old son last week, the victim of a shootout during a gathering of gang members. 

David, also known as "Oso", was buried in a green casket, the color of his gang, the Clovers.

Father Gregory Boyle, a Catholic priest who runs a gang intervention and job program, has buried 103 young people since 1988. But this past year, he said, it got much worse.

"I've buried a lot since July," said Boyle. "A lot."

That's because of an alarming increase in gang killings in Los Angeles — 63 in the first two months of this year alone. That's more than triple the number killed during the same period two years ago. Last year, 364 homicides were attributed to gang violence.

Policing Questioned

Father Boyle believes part of the problem is inadequate policing.

"You have diminished forces," he said. "You have low morale. They're just not there."

So-called "community-based policing" just doesn't exist, Boyle added.

"They're not here in this community long enough to make a difference," he said.

David's brothers, also gang members, agree that a decreased police presence leads to increased violence. Seeing a patrol car come down the street, says Leonard Alvarado, is sometimes enough to break up a potential fight.

"They're not here when things are happening," he said. "They're always there at the end, and late."

Much of the blame of the police failures has fallen on Chief Bernard Parks. The Police Commission cited the increase in gang violence as one of the factors in its decision last week to deny Parks another term.

After the Rampart police corruption scandal, the so-called "crash" gang units were disbanded, resulting in less vigilance over gang activities. The scandal also cost the police in community confidence.

"It makes it harder for us to do our jobs," Lt. Gary Nanson, who heads the San Fernando Valley bureau's Special Enforcement Units, told the Los Angeles Daily News. "That's just the facts."

Low morale in the department has led to a manpower shortage, with many officers leaving the force.

The Los Angeles Police Department declined to comment directly to ABCNEWS.

Economic Factors

There are other factors contributing to the surge in gang violence, as well, including the slump in the California economy.

"There's no jobs for the guys out there," says Leonard Alvarado, "so the guys keep selling drugs to make a living."

There also has been a breakdown in gang truces. Younger gang members have no respect for agreements forged years ago and often seem cavalier about the prospect of dying young.

Intervention programs like Father Boyle's, known as "Jobs for a Future," are trying to keep the peace. At a birthday celebration recently for a 27-year-old staff member, nine different gangs were represented at the celebration. Father Boyle said such events represent small, but important, victories.

"To watch a kid in this office stop imagining his own funeral, but imagining his future, well, I wouldn't trade that part of my life for anybody's," Boyle said.

David "Oso" Alvarado had not only imagined his own funeral, he had actually planned it. Right down to the green t-shirts worn by his fellow gang members.

"He was always a Clover guy, to the heart," said his brother, "just wherever he went."

Now, he has gone to the graveyard, just a few feet from his best friend, who was killed in January. Almost certainly, they will not be the last.