Results tagged “violence”

The weekend left five dead in separate shootings, but one in particular caught the attention of civil rights leaders in the Hyde Park neighborhood of South LA. 17 year-old Brandon Jamal Perry was shot in the face after an occupant stepped out of a vehicle with a rifle and began shooting at him and others standing in front of a house late Saturday night. Three others were injured, but Perry died at the hospital.

Students in LAUSD schools in Highland Park are already under a lot of pressure to do well, from test scores to less-than-ideal classroom environments. But the neighborhood is experiencing an increase in gang-related violence, mostly via gunfire, and that is making getting an education even harder, explains the LA Times' Steve Lopez.

LAist recently met Elliot Darvick, the 'technical guru' behind the FreeConnie.com campaign launched by Adam Reich, a 25-year-old, second year law-student at USC. As the name implies, the fight is to free Connie Keel, a woman who has been imprisoned for 30 years for a crime she did not commit.

It's a reasonable assumption that a film chronicling the inner workings of an actual mob syndicate would be interesting, engaging even. You would assume, as you saunter in with your too-large Coke and your caution-orange butter popcorn that, "hey, some of this is probably going to end up on the floor, because I'm going to get startled or have to turn myself away quickly from the bloodshed and gunplay".

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UHDR), adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations. The 30 articles of this declaration were written after the Second World War and represent the first global expression of human rights worldwide. The UHDR is the most translated document in the world and has inspired many international treaties and laws.

Father Greg Boyle is the director and founder of Homeboy Industries, a well respected Los Angeles organization that works to educate and provide job training for at-risk youth and former gang members. Connie Rice is the director of the Advancement Project Los Angeles and is a prominent civil rights activist and lawyer. They are featured speaking out against Proposition 6, a measure that could bring lengthier sentences for youth, try 14 year olds as adults for "gang-related" crimes, and increase our prison overcrowding problem in California (link to LAist profile of Prop 6)

The murder of 17-year-old high schooler and football player Jamiel Shaw made headlines and had reverberations not only in his community, but city-wide. Now rapper Ice Cube has voiced his heartbreak over the death of a young man with a promising future--a death caused by senseless violence. His video for "Why Me?" uses the Shaw case a reference point for this kind of tragedy. The Daily News explains that "Cube says the Shaws are a powerful illustration of the pain that remains after a murder." The video "also features photographs of dozens of other crime victims blowing from a tree then across the sand in the desert north of Los Angeles. The video also depicts a young man in a football jersey being gunned down on a street. As he lays dying, he asks, 'Why me homie, why me?'"

Everyday that goes by means it's getting closer to election day and for the first time, a Proposition A e-mail came into our e-mail inbox. Prop A is a City of Los Angeles measure that if voted on by two-thirds of the people, the city will add a $36/year special tax on each real property parcel for programs that address gang violence (to read through the language, Smart Voter has it). Tomorrow afternoon, LAPD Chief William Bratton, Sheriff Lee Baca and LAFD Chief Douglas Barry are all scheduled to publicly endorse the measure at City Hall.

              

On Saturday morning, hundreds of Northeast LA residents marched for Peace in the Northeast. Crime, drugs and gangs have all been spotlighted in the community this past year and it was time to take back the streets. "It was amazing to see the people who came out and to have hundreds of folks standing for peace in their own community," explained Councilman Eric Garcetti, who represents part of the region, over the phone on Monday.

Immediately after the Supreme Court's Thursday ruling allowing citizens to own handguns, gun advocates began to talk lawsuits against cities that have restrictions.

Saturday night's officer involved shooting that led to the death of Roketi Mosesue, 46, has led to much controversy. Both sides tell their story. First, the Long Beach Police via the Mercury News:

A man was shot and wounded last night after 2:00 a.m. behind the popular Ritual nightclub on Cahuenga just north of Hollywood Boulevard.

The Pacific Beach Cities Stadium 16 movie theatre in El Segundo was the real-life scene of a police-involved shootout last night.

To mark the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Los Angeles author and political commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson thought up the idea of having a 40-hour "murder moratorium" from 6:01 p.m., Friday, to 10:01 p.m. Sunday. Those 40 hours this past weekend saw three murders across Los Angeles county, two of which were in South LA, reported KNBC.

Looks like some folks in the San Fernando Valley didn't get the memo about the city's 40 hour moratorium on violence.

• In part to honor the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr and in part to "increase the peace" a 40-hour moratorium on violence goes into effect for the City of Los Angeles starting at 6:01 p.m. tonight. Do your part!
• Because "You can't fire me...I QUIT!" lacks that certain je-ne-sais-quoi, perhaps? An employee in the midst of getting the boot today in Industry stabbed his boss with a pocket knife.
• 31-year-old Keven Lee Graff was sentenced to two life terms in prison today for two murders he committed in June 2004. Graff, a former Marine who is homeless, beheaded a 91-year-old screenwriter then murdered his 69-year-old neighbor.
• The mother of the dead baby found earlier this week near a home in Santa Ana has been arrested by US Marshals after a short stand-off in Henderson, NV. 20-year-old Michelle Pedroza used to reside in one of the houses near where the infant's corpse was discovered by a resident.
• A crowd of about 4,500 gathered today to honor firefighter Brent Lovrien, who died on the job last week in an explosion. His services were held downtown at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, and he was remembered as a man with "a true sense of loyalty."
• Actor Chris Rock took the stand for about 15 minutes this morning to testify in the trial of pro-snoop Anthony Pellicano, who allegedly used some shady methods to do is generally shady job. Rock hired the private dick to dig up dirt on a model who claimed the comedian knocked her up.
• Ever wonder if renting a garage is legit in the city? CurbedLA reminds us about housing and tenancy laws in their Ask Curbed column.
• In the days before WeHo, there was grub The Gay Way... EatingLA gives us a culinary chuckle and throwback with a photo of a 1940s era downtown eatery.

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If you take the above headline literally, then apparently murder is allowed all other times except for 40 hours this weekend if a Los Angeles city council motion is passed today. And some might say murder feels legal these days with the rise in violence in 2008. Four people were shot dead within minutes and miles of each other in East LA yesterday, police in two separate incidents shot and hit suspects within the last 24 hours (one in Glendale last night where the suspect was killed and one on the 105 freeway this morning) and the list could go on.

The city seems to have gone completely mad. From a 16 year-old shot in Northridge to a 70 year-old stabbed to death in Hollywood, Sunday was just another day in what is starting to feel like an out-of-control crime wave.

In the wake of last week's shooting death of 17-year-old Los Angeles High football star Jamiel Shaw, his community--and the community of LA at large--are mourning the loss and trying to make sense of how a kid who was on the right path in life was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Reporter Leo Stallworth and Chief Bratton have a difference of opinion and at yesterday's press conference about violence in South LA, the no-nonsense East Coast sensibilites of LAPD's top cop came out in front of everyone... and ABC aired it.

Pledging to introduce new laws to stop illegal gun dealing and prevent violent crime, City Councilman Jack Weiss today released statistics on gun violence in Los Angeles. “It’s time to act aggressively and creatively with new laws to stop the killing," Weiss said in a statement.

Photo by kpe II via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr

Police responded to a domestic abuse call at 2 a.m. this morning in the 4700 block of Myrtle Street and found one woman dead and one seriously injured with stab wounds in her upper torso.

One mile of walking in plastic high heels and here come the blisters (however, the height advantages are quite nice). To our female friends, we will walk as slow as you need when you are wearing high heels. In fact, high heels are not comfortable one bit, we do not recommend it anymore. Sandals are sexy (no uggs please). Today was the 6th annual Walk a Mile in Her Shoes Men's March in Sherman...

L.A.’s youth have all the fun these days. Set aside sex, drugs, and violence, there are several organizations that allow them to have a blast. The Boys and Girls Club may be nice and all, but one program stands aside as one of the most unique. The local organization Justice by Uniting In Creative Energy (J.U.I.C.E.) formed in 2001, with a mission to help fight juvenile crime through the hip hop culture – word,...