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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.
Are they Gangmembers?
"It's probably the same gang," Lt. Steven Delores at the press conference yesterday. "Normally we don't have a rash of crimes like this." And if gangs are responsible, "these are different gang territory areas," clarified Councilman Eric Garcetti.
"The descriptions [of the suspects] are not very good," Delores said. What police know is that all the crimes were committed by two to four hispanic males. In two of the robberies, handguns were used and in the other ones it was knives.
And although Delores suspects gangs, he also described them as "opportunists cruising the area looking for victims."
Communication to the Residents
A couple of themes have come out this. The obvious is for the community to be more vigilant in their day to day lives and in community policing. But the bigger issue for many is that you can't be vigilant if the police are not telling you what to look out for in the neighborhood.
"In an era when your councilman can Twitter you about what he's eating for dessert, the LAPD still seems slow about getting the word out when it comes to neighborhood crime," noted Jesus Sanchez at The Eastsider LA.
For Garcetti and Councilman Tom Labonge, they first heard about it on Monday, after the four Silver Lake robberies, which the community connected together with the Echo Park incidents.
"All I know is what comes to my attention and we act on it," Labonge explained. "We got a call yesterday, I called Captain Smith, he investigated it, put the analysis together and here we are today."
Community Meeting & Addressing Misinformation
Labonge has set up a community meeting for Thursday evening at Ivanhoe Elementary School (2828 Herkimer St.) from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
To promote it, Labonge and Northeast Division's Captain Lance Smith hit the streets of Silver Lake for two hours last night going from storefront to storefront handing out flyers and talking to people walking on the sidewalks. Everyone seemed to know about the crimes already--thanks to the internet and community flyers--but had a lot of misinformation. Rumors spread that these were hate crimes, which police have found no evidence of.
The victim described in neighborhood flyers and in internet chatter still had his personal belongings with him when he woke up in the hospital, leading people to think it was purely hate related. But it is believed by police that something happened prompting the suspects to flee the scene--say barking dogs or ambulance sirens in the distance--before taking his stuff.
"There's a lot of misinformation out there," Garcetti said in the parking lot of the police station. "We grilled [the police] about. We know how to identify that stuff. This doesn't bare any resemblance to that, not to say it couldn't be, though."
Back in Silver Lake... "Hi, I'm Tom Labonge, we have a little problem with some crime in the area," he told the bartenders and waiters at Blaire's Restaurant. He handed out flyers for the community meeting and explained to them how to best keep themselves safe. And then he did it over and over and over again throughout the night with every person he bumped into.
Previously: 9 Street Robberies in Silver Lake-Echo Park Concerns Community
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This is the exactly reason I carry a gun at night. Seriously. And - would it be a hate crime to attack lone gang members in retribution?
There was a commenter on another post about this theorizing that if we were allowed to legally have Concealed Weapon Permits, LA would be much safer.
The theory is flawed - it would more than likely cause more accidents, deaths, and more guns on the street - in the wrong hands.
People who are intent of robbing you are going to rob you no matter what - if they think you have a gun, they're more likely to hurt/kill you quicker to not risk their lives. Then you're walking down the street and you simply get shot, then mugged. How did the concealed weapon help? Then they'll just take your legally concelled weapon and use that for other crimes.
Then you have the people who will accidently shoot themselves or discharge it in public,and the nervous ones who will fire at a group of minorities *thinking* they are gang members when they're really just someone trying to get a hamburger (like the kid who was killed the other day by police who thought he was apart of the robbery).
Anyone can fire a gun - it's easy - the difficult part is being able to determine the correct situation where it is required. As we can see, a lot of police officers cannot even do this properly, even after training. How will the normal citizen be able to do this? It's not likely.
Adolph: "hating" aside, yes it would it would be a crime to attack lone gang members in retribution.
#1 - Um putting aside the perhaps unreasonable question of, Who is a gang member and who is just hanging out on the street - no, it would not be a hate crime.
On the other hand, it would be a crime, period, and would be perpetuating the crime wave that's already happening in the area. So, by all means, protect us please.
Things like this can only mean one thing.
Gentrification: Unsuccessful.
Love it.
Gee isn't it swell! I love it when people (of all races, by the way) are terrorized in their own communities!
Hey Alex, do you still live with mommy and daddy in Pacific Palisades?
Why do you keep saying I live in the Palisades? You sound really envious of those who do. I think people keep forgetting that this IS Los Angeles and crimes like these have occurred in Echo Park for years. The Police won't do a damn thing unless your community is funneling higher residential tax revenue to the city. Why do people feel so victimized for living in this neighborhood? Wake the fuck up, resistance will continue to occur. Earn a black-belt, take a self-defense course, carry some fucking mase if you're gonna roam the streets of this neighborhood this late. I recommend watching Danny Hoch's play on Gentrification: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHP0tQRSqzU , maybe you'll understand my point of view.
I'm not so sure about that. Crimes can easily follow where the resistance isn't, that is when a community becomes compliant and stops being aware of their surroundings. Now that the word is out and everyone is once again on guard, neighborhood resistance will follow and the smarter criminals will sniff that out and move on.
Guns make gentrification easier.
I'm increasingly frustrated that the police make no efforts in connecting the dots and proactively notifying the public.
I don't believe the solution to this is more police, but the police don't appear to be arming the public with the knowledge of an increase in crime. In fact, Mayor V and Chief Bratton irresponsibly and ridiculously announced a prediction that we'd have LESS crime.
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.
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.