Law Enforcement

Crime alerts for Valley Glen, Rancho Park, 7 other L.A. neighborhoods
Crime reports are up significantly for the latest week in nine L.A. neighborhoods, according to an analysis of Los Angeles Police Department data by the Los Angeles Times' Crime L.A. database. Six neighborhoods reported a significant increase in violent crime. Valley Glen was the most unusual, recording nine reports compared with a weekly average of 2.8 over the last three months. Rancho Park topped the list of three neighborhoods with property crime alerts.
Los Angeles Times

North Hollywood: Have you seen woman who robbed and assaulted Laurel Canyon resident?
Los Angeles police are looking for a female Hispanic woman who entered a Laurel Canyon Boulevard apartment where she robbed and fought with the tenant. What started as a burglary on the morning of May 8, 2013, in the 5800 block of Laurel Canyon Boulevard escalated to a robbery when the suspect -- a 5-foot-5 Hispanic woman -- woke up the female victim and began fighting with her, the LAPD announced today. The suspect, who entered the residence through an unlocked door, got away with a number of items, including multiple credit cards.
Los Angeles Daily News

Two men wounded in LAPD shootings in Sylmar, East Hollywood
Two male suspects were shot and wounded by Los Angeles police officers in confrontations in the San Fernando Valley and in East Hollywood on Friday night, authorities said. The first shooting occurred about 9:15 p.m. in Sylmar after police tried to stop two men who were walking on a residential street, according to Norma Eisenman, a police spokeswoman. The men began running, Eisenman said, and as the officers gave chase, "one suspect stopped and pointed what appeared to be a gun at the officers, at which time there was an officer-involved shooting."
Los Angeles Times

Man fatally shot at South Los Angeles nightclub is identified
The Los Angeles County coroner's office on Sunday identified a man who was fatally shot during a dispute at a nightclub in the Exposition Park neighborhood of South Los Angeles. Anthony R. Buckner of Los Angeles, 42, was inside a venue in the 3500 block of Normandie Avenue on Saturday about 4 a.m. when he began fighting with another man, coroner's investigator Lt. Cheryl MacWillie and Los Angeles Police Officer Bruce Borihanh said.
Los Angeles Times

California to enforce 'micro-stamping' gun law
A hotly contested California gun-control law that was passed in 2007 is finally ready to be implemented, Attorney General Kamala Harris said this week: a requirement that every new semiautomatic handgun contain "micro-stamping" technology that would allow police to trace a weapon from cartridges found at a crime scene. The law, signed by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, made California the first state to require micro-stamping, which engraves the gun's serial number on each cartridge.
San Francisco Chronicle

AG Kamala Harris meets with DAs to reduce gun violence
Bringing together district attorneys and law enforcement officials from throughout the state, Attorney General Kamala Harris convened a working group Friday to develop a strategy on how to better enforce gun laws, particularly for those prohibited from owning a firearm. "We need to eliminate and reduce gun violence in California," Harris said during a news conference at the Los Angeles Police Department administration building. "We came together to talk about best practices and what we can do to bring our resources together."
Los Angeles Daily News

Oakland police struggle to rebuild
Managing expectations amid a rising crime rate is the latest challenge in California's most violent city. The Oakland Police Department is under pressure to satisfy conditions of a decade-old federal court settlement that stemmed from racial profiling and improper use of force. Two of its chiefs have left in as many years. A quarter of its sworn officers have been lost since 2008 to budget cutbacks. Yet it handles about twice the emergency calls per capita as the average law enforcement agency in the state.
Los Angeles Times

Pensions

Inventing the headline number
The playbook is familiar now-gin up a study on public pensions and government debt to be released to media outlets with a headline-grabbing number shrieking doom for public finances. The latest exhibit is a propaganda piece tossed out to the media by the anti-public employees group California Public Policy Center (CPPC) purposely inflates pension debt. An early entrant into the invention of "studies to grab headlines" was Joe Nation and a gaggle of graduate students at Stanford.
LAPPL Blog

City Election

Spending in L.A. mayor's race breaks records
Spending in the hotly contested two-year race for Los Angeles mayor exceeded $33 million on Saturday, breaking previous records as unlimited outside money continued to play a dominant role in Tuesday's contest. Candidate super PACs and so-called "independent expenditure" donors, which do not have to abide by the city's campaign contribution limits, provided 41% of the $25.6-million total raised just for candidates Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti since the contest began in March 2011, according to campaign reports.
Los Angeles Times

3 competing medical marijuana measures on Tuesday ballot
In a test of public support for medical marijuana, Los Angeles voters will have three different options Tuesday to regulate pot dispensaries, including proposals that limit their numbers and impose new taxes on their sales. Or they can vote against all three, sending a signal that - depending on whom you ask - either means they don't want any dispensaries at all, or, alternately that they want lots of them without limits or caps.
Los Angeles Daily News

People

NASCAR race could be named for Skid Row cop
LAPD Officer Deon Joseph is no stranger to accolades, but the award for which the man who polices Skid Row is currently nominated is, well, different. Joseph is one of five national finalists for a contest sponsored by Canadian whiskey giant Crown Royal that involves renaming an Indiana NASCAR race after the victor. If Joseph gets more online votes than the four other law enforcement and military professionals, then this summer's Brickyard 400 will be called the Deon Joseph Brickyard 400.
Los Angeles Downtown News