77th Street Division's community is engaged

The "STOP THE KILLIN' campaign" kicked off the first in a series of weekly planned events on August 29th, with visits to some of the 83 year-to-date homicide sites in LAPD's 77th Street Division.

What a success!

Well over 100 community members including family members of victims, Neighborhood Watch groups, ministers, gang councilors, government officials, and LAPD personnel first met at a local church, and then drove around the Division in a long caravan of automobiles, police cars and vans making stops at recent crime scenes.

LACP's Bobbie Logan and Bill Murray were happy to attend, and LACP will be promoting and participating in these events in the future.

The group's intention is to stage regular events, dramatically pointing out the need for community involvement to reduce the gang related homicide rate.

Congratulations to all who participated, and special thanks to both Deputy Chief Willie Pannell, commanding officer of Operations South Bureau, who attended the rally, and to 77th Street Division's Captain James Miller, who acted as the group's personal guide.

The officers did a great job escorting us around the area, deftly moving the caravan from location to location as we visited quit a few homicide sites.

Here's how the event, deemed the first in a series, was originally described:

Stop the Killin' in South Bureau campaign
by Ed Turley

The "STOP THE KILLIN' campaign" officially kicked off this year on March 29, as a response to the sharp increase in murders in the City of Los Angeles.

Through August 17, there were 407 murders in the City of LA. The majority of these have occurred south of 10 freeway, in South Central Los Angeles, and the majority are gang related ... most of the victims and suspects are African American and Latino males under the age of 30.

LAPD's 77th Street Division has been particularly devastated, with 78 homicides recorded year-to-date.

All citizens of Los Angeles should be outraged and feel a sense of urgency about this, and not wait until someone close to them becomes a victim. Murder is a health, moral and spiritual problem, and it requires a response from all, particularly the church community of all faiths and religions.

We are trying to put together a simulcast Townhall meeting to reach all citizens during prime time. We want to help put faces on the murder count --- the mothers, the children left behind, the children killed, the college students killed --- there have been many tragic endings.

The victims were singled out because they were black or brown, appeared to be under the age of thirty and were in the neighborhood of a rival. This is an "epidemic." Most of these killings have been committed execution style, not as drive-by's, meaning that they are done with more intent and hatred for senseless reasons.

Many want this to stop but see no way out. We must physically guide them out, and show them they must STOP THE KILLIN'.

In the days following the uprising of April 29, 1992, there were concerned people who came from all over to help cleanup and rebuild South Central Los Angeles, especially "whites" in our City. That same kind of concern and help is needed again now to address the murder rate.

Please join us … and help STOP THE KILLIN'.

Sincerely,
Ed Turley

Director, Central Recovery and Development Project (CRDP)
323 / 231-5407

visit the website:
http://www.crdp-gang-intervention.org