Law Enforcement

Crime alerts for San Pedro and seven other L.A. neighborhoods
Crime reports are up significantly for the latest week in eight L.A. neighborhoods, according to an analysis of LAPD data by the Los Angeles Times' Crime L.A. database. Three neighborhoods reported a significant increase in violent crime. San Pedro was the most unusual, recording eight reports compared with a weekly average of 4.4 over the last three months. Mission Hills topped the list of five neighborhoods with property crime alerts.
Los Angeles Times

Submachine guns, handguns stolen from LAPD SWAT-training site
A cache of Los Angeles Police Department submachine guns and handguns was stolen last week from a secured building used by the department's SWAT unit, raising fears that the weapons, which police had altered to fire only blanks, could be converted back to lethal use, police officials confirmed. The weapons, which include 21 MP-5 submachine guns and 12 large caliber handguns, were moved Wednesday night to a multistory building at 14th and San Pedro streets downtown and stored in a locked box on the building's first floor, said LAPD Deputy Chief Michael Downing.
Los Angeles Times

Police cite privacy concerns over their own DNA
Rank-and-file police from Connecticut to Chicago to Los Angeles have opposed what some experts say is a slowly emerging trend in the U.S. to collect officers' DNA. In a still-unresolved dispute in Los Angeles, the police union and top brass have traded salvos over a requirement that officers give DNA samples in shootings involving police and other use-of-force incidents. Union leaders say management won't restrict how the DNA information is used and stored, and the union cautioned officers in 2009 about potential privacy and misuse problems.
Associated Press

Police investigate fatal shootings in South Los Angeles and Watts
A 16-year-old boy died and a 19-year-old was wounded early Sunday morning in South Los Angeles in what police said appeared to be a gang-related shooting. The 16-year-old was riding his minibike in the 6700 block of South 11th Avenue at about 1:35 a.m. when three men got out of an SUV and opened fire on him, said Sgt. Angela McGee with the LAPD's 77th Street station. He died at the scene. The suspects were still on the loose. Also Sunday, detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department's Southeast station were investigating a fatal shooting in Watts. The shooting took place around 1 a.m. at 113th Street and Monitor Avenue.
Los Angeles Times

Don't prejudge police officers' actions
I am continually surprised by the way the news media and the public seem to take joy in criticizing the actions of police officers before it is known exactly what happened in a controversial incident. It seems they think it is possible that law enforcement can be accomplished with no injuries, or no hurt feelings, if officers could just understand the people they come into contact with each day. If only this was possible.
Gary Fullerton/Los Angeles Daily News

Plan to curb robberies is a heady proposition
If I were you, I wouldn't walk into a 7-Eleven or a liquor store in North Hollywood wearing a hoodie or a motorcycle helmet, and I might even think twice about wearing a yarmulke, a dastar, a hijab, a turban or a cowboy hat, pardner. Maybe a stovepipe hat, too. A sign is likely to greet you at the door that will say "Please remove your hat, hoodie or helmet before entering these premises." With it is a depiction of a criminal-looking guy with a hoodie, a goatee and a gold chain around his neck. You can tell by his scowl he's a bad one.
Al Martinez/Los Angeles Daily News

Prisons

Jerry Brown's prison plan under fire from Republicans, Democrats alike
Inmates in orange jumpsuits trudge across the screen against an ominous soundtrack. Gov. Jerry Brown appears in hazy black-and-white footage. Later, a tattooed skinhead and some shirtless thugs loom. "Every citizen should be preoccupied with their personal safety and the safety of their family members," warns Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber, advising people to lock their doors and keep a watchful eye around cars, garages, even barns. The Assembly GOP video could be a preview of campaign ads dogging Brown and Democrats for years to come.
Sacramento Bee

California's execution machine could crank up
Amid renewed efforts to repeal California's death penalty and nearly six years into a de facto moratorium on executions, San Quentin's death row has quietly piled up an unprecedented number of inmates who have exhausted their legal appeals and would face imminent death by lethal injection if the state resumes carrying out the ultimate punishment. At least a dozen inmates could be executed in a span of a few months if an oft-stalled legal challenge to the state's lethal injection method is resolved, roughly the same number of condemned murderers California has put to death in more than three decades of capital punishment.
San Jose Mercury News

Politics

Upset possible in 15th District council race
Absentee ballots for the 15th Council District election are trickling in, and observers say it is looking more likely that an underdog candidate could provide an upset. LAPD Officer Joe Buscaino, who got his campaign mailers to voters earlier than any of his opponents, is said to be leading in polls conducted by his campaign and by others who are watching the race.
Los Angeles Daily News

L.A. council members may exempt themselves from Arizona boycott
Eighteen months after they agreed to boycott Arizona over its handling of immigration enforcement, members of the Los Angeles City Council could sidestep the business ban in a new and dramatic fashion -- by traveling to a conference in Phoenix. Councilman Ed Reyes, who co-authored the boycott in May 2010, introduced a motion Friday that would suspend the travel ban next month so he and his colleagues can attend the Congress of Cities & Exposition, a yearly event staged by the National League of Cities.
Los Angeles Times