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One Way to Take Care of Business
UPDATE, Feb. 4: More detailed information and the community meeting info can be found on this new article.
An e-mail has been floating around the Silver Lake-Echo Park area talking about a recent series of robberies over the past month:
This past Friday January 30, a friend of mine was brutally assaulted walking from Blair’s near Hyperion to Edendale Bar and Grill on Rowena. It was maybe between 11:30 PM or 12:30 AM near the West Silver Lake Street entrance on Rowena. He was pulled into the back of a dark driveway, had a gun pressed against his temple and then savagely thrown to the ground and beaten, crushing his left cheek; he blacked out and doesn’t remember what happened next. He couldn’t see both suspects but got a look at one who he describes as a tall, young Hispanic male.
The e-mail, which has the community questioning why the police have been silent on the issue until now, continues to state that police officers at the hospital mentioned this was one of nine robberies of a similar nature (the full text of the e-mail is posted below).
According to Captain Lance Smith of the LAPD's Northeast Division, there were nine violent robberies in Silver Lake and Echo Park in January. Four of them were centered around Rowena and Hyperion and another four happened near Sunset and Alvarado. "We don't think there's association between all nine," he said over the phone. The ninth incident happened at an ATM in another part of the division.
"Violent crime is up slightly and property crime is down significantly" Chief William Bratton said at today's LA Police Commission meeting. He noted that the increase is unusual in the current economic climate noting that property crimes--which tends to go up when the economy is sour--are down.
Citywide, robberies are up 8.1%, he said. Other statistics shows that rapes are up by 13.1% and aggravated assaults have increased 1.5%. In total, there was a 5.5% increase in crime last month, but property crime was down 8.6% overall.
Captain Smith wanted to emphasize that these crimes are not hate crime related, as some rumors state. However, he said that the division has experienced six hate crimes in the last six months towards blacks, gays and a church.
Councilman Tom LaBonge, who represents parts of Silver Lake and is possibly planning a community meeting for later this week said he was looking into the incidents. "Walk tall and walk smart wherever you go," he wisely recommended.
The LAPD is planning a press conference for 5 p.m. today to disclose more details.
UPDATE: In an e-mail from Tom Labonge's office, the number is now up to 10 street robberies. More details are forthcoming.
The e-mail being sent around the community:
Dear neighbors,
This past Friday January 30, a friend of mine was brutally assaulted walking from Blair’s near Hyperion to Edendale Bar and Grill on Rowena. It was maybe between 11:30 PM or 12:30 AM near the West Silver Lake Street entrance on Rowena. He was pulled into the back of a dark driveway, had a gun pressed against his temple and then savagely thrown to the ground and beaten, crushing his left cheek; he blacked out and doesn’t remember what happened next. He couldn’t see both suspects but got a look at one who he describes as a tall, young Hispanic male.Larry was rushed to Kaiser on Sunset and when the police came, one exclaimed that this was the 9th such assault by the same suspects in 2 weeks in the Silver Lake area, almost one assault a day!!! The police also said they were just there the night before with another victim who had his face sliced from the corner of his eye to the the corner of his mouth by the same SOB, they also said they (the police) were on it.
I think if they were truly “on it” we SL residents would have been warned somehow, either by fliers or a news blurb. My friend is puzzled by the attack and thinks it’s a hate crime since they didn’t take his wallet nor his watch but isn’t quite sure. I am scared but really really pissed at the police for keeping the 9 assaults, one after the other, on the down-low, so I’m going to spread the word somehow and someway.
A friend and I are making fliers and going to some of the neighborhood bars, cafes and stores and posting warnings. If you have any ideas- contacting the news, email blasts etc., let me know or just help spread the warning any way you know how.
PS. Another female dog-owner/friend on Michelterona and Sunset was sexually assaulted 3 weeks ago at 7:30 PM by a tall white male with shoulder length hair. He didn’t care if she had her 140 lbs dog with her, he grabbed her from behind, pushed her up against a wall and began to fondle her and only let go when he saw a family walking towards them down the hill from Micheltorena.
I apologize for all the somber news but I’m sure you’d rather be safe than sorry.
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I am so completely in shock by this whole thing! I live less than a block from where all of this has been happening! The only way I found out was because I overheard my neighbor telling someone about it outside! I cannot believe no one had put up any warnings until today. With all the grocery stores, 2 laundromats, and several restaurants in the immediate area, people are constantly walking around. There is an elementary school right across from where the last incident occured!
I love news like this.
Keep trying to gentrify the area; you WILL fail and this WILL continue!
Wow. So crime is just supposed to be the status quo for certain neighborhoods? What a shitty additude.
This is not a case of white people/upwardly mobile people trying to put a stranglehold on local culture or something, this is random people going about their business in peace and being targeted for no apparent reason and attacked. NOTHING to do with gentrification. This is not acceptable in any circumstances, and the more you rationalize it like that the more you create an "us vs. them" dynamic that implies that those people are somehow getting what they deserve.
I grew up in a neighborhood that was infested with gangs and they held the whole community in fear - black, white, and latino alike. This kind of behavior is not justified, period.
Just to add to the above, don't you think the people who were there before the gentrification wanted to live in a crime free environment, or are you implying that lower-income people don't mind?? Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's not the case. They put up with it because they don't have a choice and they won't speak up for fear of retaliation (sp?).
The manager of my building's (on Hyperion and Sunset)husband was killed in a drive by in front of our building about 10 years ago. I have a feeling that it's worth a stupid gelato shop coming into the neighborhood if that's what it takes not to live in fear of that kind of shit.
Alexcantsee - that comment is not constructive at all - it's really disturbing that you "love news" in which people are being violently assaulted.
I live in the neighborhood and I just wish that the Neighborhood Crime Alert system I signed up for with the police was actually in effect - I'd say 10 assaults in less than a month centered in the same small area is plenty enough to warrant a Neighborhood Crime Alert - but I've never received a single email or text through their system.
Alexcantsee is just some petulant rich kid from Pacific Palisades, he's just scared and throwing a tantrum
On election night in Nov my friend was carjacked at gunpoint in front of his house not far away in Echo Park. This kind of thing didn't just start a month ago, its been growing since fall. He got a similar reaction from the police "yea there's been a lot of this going on lately".
Sometimes I get the impression that the LAPD and local news prefer not to publicize violent crime too much.
Where I grew up in Philadelphia every crime was reported on the news in graphic detail, but here for some reason a lot of violence gets passed over.
There might be some function in it, possibly to prevent "broken windows" but it might also be to keep the LAPD looking rosy, acting as if crime isn't happening.
Maybe that's not a fair assessment, but it definitely is bothersome that in this day and age the police can't communicate with the community better.
I live 50 yards away from Blair's and I had NO IDEA this happened until I read LAist. I'd like to think I have some sort of protection because I have a 120 lb. American Bulldog that could take down anyone, but all bets are off when the other dude has a gun. I'm going to make sure I have nothing of value on me when I go out on walks anymore.
Oh, and Alexcantsee's profile says he lives in Hancock Park, so he has the "luxury" of living in an area that was gentrified from its inception. Maybe if it didn't cost a fortune to live in places like Hancock Park we wouldn't have to look for housing in areas like Silver Lake and Echo Park...or, you could stop being a contrarian douchebag and leave a constructive comment that doesn't alienate people.
Take some self-defense classes.
crime is just supposed to be the status quo for certain neighborhoods?
It has been this way in many neighborhoods, often brought upon by institutional neglect.
Yes, I am aware of that. My point is that it's not acceptable to say "well that's just the way it is". That's bullshit.
I find it more unacceptable to have an idealistic view of your "white-picket fence" neighborhood. Shit does not matter, wherever you live. I live in Hancock Park and had a couple of B&E's in my house. Unless you enjoy on paying higher residential taxes, expect nothing to change and no help from the poh-poh.
Learn some Karate, carry some mase, blow a whistle. Do something.
Who said anything about having an idealistic view? Maybe some in the area do, but I can only speak for myself, and I don't.
However, when there's a rise in crime it's unusual and needs to be addressed. Yes I agree it's up to each individual to be proactive, whether it's carrying mace or a knife or whatever, but that doesn't change the fact that it SHOULD NOT be tolerated. Silver Lake, Watts, wherever...
Criminals go where they know the population is unprepared and easily frightened and there isn't a lot of police attention. I don't see what any of this has to do with gentrification except in a really round about way.
I lived in LA my whole life. I remember as a kid I had to leave the Echo Park recreation center before sundown because shit like this occurs. 9 Street robberies over the course of a month is NOTHING. 9 is a blessing, shit used to be way worse in Echo Park. As more and more individuals attempt to move in and gentrify this neighborhood some resistance will occur; especially in this kind of economy. I don't condone violence, but I do embrace resistance to gentrification. But I don't want to get into that.
Well I grew up in Los Angeles too - Venice to be precise - and I had a similar experience of not being allowed to walk around after dark, shootings every weekend, being afraid of drive-bys because my room was in the front of the house. Fuck, I never even learned how to ride a bike because shit was so sketchy I didn't see the point!
This is a serious issue to me because the REASON that gangs are allowed to take control of an area is because it is ACCEPTED, which is what you are doing Alexcantsee. Yes I get your point that crime was much worse in the area (EP) years ago, but that doesn't mean that we should be cheering on 'only' six attacks in one month as opposed to more.
In regards to your gentrification comment, do you think the attackers asked for tax statements?? NO, they randomly picked guys walking down the fucking street!!
This is not some glorious class struggle "resistance", this is a small group of individuals taking advantage of a low crime rate and people who subsequently can be caught unawares. Don't make it a symbolic struggle about "gentrification" (everyone's favorite fucking word) because you are only justifying unjustifiable behavior.
To reiterate an earlier post, I really doubt that the people in the neighborhood before the economic upswing are cheering these guys on as some kind of anti-gentrification warriors. Remember, the victims were ALL races, which doesn't leave anyone immune to them.
Honestly Alexcantsee, I know I shouldn't get so riled up about a stupid comment board but your perspective on this is so naive...
It's common knowledge that Echo Park/Silverlake has become a prime real estate destination for the 20-30 something professional. You pack your shit, you move in, and then events like these occur and have been occurring. What are your options?
Ask the police for cooperation? Tried in past: didn't work. If you do increase your residential taxes the police will make an extra effort to surveillance the area greatly; historically, it's always worked that way. Shit, the mafia works that way. Pay for your protection.
But will you have the cooperation of everyone in the neighborhood to agree to increase taxes? Will the less affluent agree? It's about money, therefore, I do believe that this is a class struggle. In my opinion, the fact that you need to be told this is more naive. Don't get mad. I guess we just disagree on this.
Increasing police surveillance will just flood crime into another community, it doesn't solve it. Are you OK with that? This is called... oh, I won't call it gentrification, you don't like that. How about "urban colonialism"? Ahh, that's more like it. I'm not condoning violence, nobody wants to be attacked or have their stuff stolen. But what is the price of our peace-of-mind? What methods can you take without economically affecting the less affluent?
I believe it is an individual effort, not a solution by a civic institution i.e. The police. People should learn how to defend themselves, carry a weapon, a whistle, don't walk by yourself in the middle of the night like a fucking dumbass, you're just asking for it. I carry a Smith-Wesson extremeOps, street-legal 4-inch knife with me everywhere I go, and I know defensive techniques. That's my Peace-of-mind. My methods come off nomadic, but I'd rather have confidence in my defensiveness rather than a dependence on the police.
Since December 30th, the Silver Lake and Echo Park communities have experienced ten street robberies where all the victims were males walking alone. Six of them took place in Echo Park around Sunset and Alvarado through the first week of January (only one took place later in the month) and in the last week, four were committed in the Rowena-Hyperion area of Silver Lake. One such incident over the weekend, where the victim later woke up in the hospital, spread like wildfire through e-mails and community-made flyers handed out on the streets.
Another victim was walking on St. George Street at 2:30 a.m. last Friday night when two male hispanic suspects walked up from behind him while he was talking on his cell phone. They asked him for his property, knocked him to the ground and used a knife to cut his face.
But not all the incidents have taken place late at night. One 19-year-old victim was robbed and stabbed at 3:30 in the afternoon on Glendale Blvd. The suspects pulled up in a car, jumped out, robbed him, and drove away.
Unfortunately, our community is lulled into a false sense of security because the LAPD crime maps on http://www.lapdcrimemaps.org/ contains wholly incomplete data.
You should research the ten robberies that the Northeast division claims is a part of this “trend.” None of the Silver Lake robberies including the slicing of the victim’s face robbery on Rowena appear on the crime maps. This total numbers fuzzing and creating public ignorance of crime in their own backyard. This is a prime hit story in the making for the LAIST or the LA Times to uncover. I’ve tracked dozens of robberies and ADWs in Northeast, Rampart, and Hollywood Division that do not appear on LAPD crime maps.
Reach out to Councilperson, the LAPD Northeast Captains, and the Los Angeles Police Commission and ask why we were are being denied this info on the LAPD public crime maps. This map is suppose to inform the community with current data on major crimes in our neighborhood. This data is being grossly omitted and jeopardizes our safety. Because we are not informed, we are lulled into a false sense of security. Ask these officials why this is happening. Intentional fuzzing of the crime stats? Bureaucratic indifference? We must demand answers because we are not being served. As a result, we are being placed unknowingly in harm's way.
is this guy joking? gentrification is an excuse for violence? that's pretty easy to say from hancock park. not to mention, why would you assume this is the reason for the attacks? because one of the men is described as latino?
"I find it more unacceptable to have an idealistic view of your "white-picket fence" neighborhood."
i'm not sure that even means anything, and yeah, silver lake is clearly a 1950s Pleasantville-style suburb.
wait a minute, why am i even responding to this tool?