LA gangs now in a race war (Los Angeles, Laguna: credit, houses)

[ibarrio]

They need to be housed in tents like that Sheriff out in AZ is doing. If a Soldier can sleep in a tent, a convict sure can.

Doing in California what they do in Arizona would not work and would put the LA county guards at risk. Gangs in California are on a different level then Arizona and there would be daily riots...

And the whole point of Tent City is the 117 degree summers...In Los Angeles it might actually be more enjoyable to be outside then inside...

[UrbanQuest]

Racial Hate and Violence is a thing that has been swept under the rug of social consciousness for a while now. Nobody wants to admit, whether it's the Bay Area or Southern California that the ethnicities do not get along. There is no racial majority and it seems a world away from the East Coast and South where the civil rights movement mostly occured. The New York Metropolitan area is way more diverse than LA when it comes to nationalities and there aren't gangs killing each other for racial reasons here. If that happened it would be tended to promptly and by the whole community. In California it's almost a wild west mentality truthfully. The whites there, who are just another minority could care less if the blacks and latinos and asians hate each other, actually maybe they like it because a community divided is better for them. Maybe that is why a white minority is not feared by the wealthy so much because they know that the other groups will never be united and they will keep control by divide and conquer, much like the British where able to control their empire for 100's of years. I had to give a macro point of view here because all I am seeing is ignorant and misplaced attempts at humor over this tragic reality. Massive immigration is not good for America, for now anyway.

[Milliano]

Personally I think it's a combination of stupidity, and a decline in American culture and sense of community. Being in a gang is really stupid, even if you make a lot of money - but a lot of people see it as the right choice to make. You have to ask why they see it this way. Obviously something is missing in their lives... somehow I think it also explains the tendency for people cutting each other off on the freeways there. What other goals or lifestyle choices could they have? The current American ideal is to make money. So they're making money. American culture is about ME FIRST - do what you can to get ahead - get money - that is what gangs are about. It's a capitalist society and we're told we should be unsatisfied if we have a low wage job - so why work at McDonalds when we can sell drugs, even if it means getting shot at? It could give a person a sense of belonging and power too. Gangs plague communities, and they simply wouldn't form if the people in said communities had the culture and social capital in themselves to keep it from happening (like in 99% of the world).

For 99.99999% of human history, we didn't live in these kinds of multicultural, capitalist, individualistic, urban societies. We lived in small groups. "Gangs", if you will. Humans are not robots - we were never programmed to be totally rational. In particular circumstances, we might shoot at each other...

[Vicman]

Originally Posted by fastfilm

Most folks on this forum are not aware that caning as done in Singapore leaves permanent scars and is designed to be that torturous (explained to me by in-law who lived and worked there for years. I'll spare the forum the horrific details.) This is the last thing we need, the diversity industry demanding international cruel and unusual punishments take hold here. Plus all gang members are such sociopaths to begin with, they'd probably welcome sadism.

Regardless of how awful gang members personally have made my life here in Los Angeles, I do persist in being not in favor of capital punishment, with one exception: arsonists. They like fiery deaths so much, they should have one of their own.

I'm not sure if they would "welcome sadism" once they feel the effects of the rattan. Rather they might use the marks to enhance "credibility" once they recover and leave prison.

Also the "retaliation" bit is easily solved - have the caner wear a mask. The prison officials and guards have their faces seen anyway.

Caning could be a big disadvantage in prison as the caned may be incapacitated for days or weeks, allowing for other prisoners to take advantage of the caned.

[2-Live-n-Die-n-LA]

This is all nothing new, it's been going on for decades.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by fastfilm

18Montclair, if I have your itinerary posted above correctly, you:

1- landed at Van Nuys airport in a chartered or private plane. Van Nuys does not permit commercial passenger airlines;
2- proceeded to a vastly cleaned up part of the white collar business district;
3- proceeded to a nice restaurant near Wilshire Blvd. near the Miracle Mile;
4- went to a toney West Hollywood address;
5- went to Westwood Village, one of the priciest areas in all L.A.;
6- proceeded to an upscale West Los Angeles home address;
5- went to a meeting in the Century City, West L.A., hub of the law profession for all L.A.;
5- went to visit the campus of the single most expensive private prep school in the entire Los Angeles basin;
6- then proceeded to one of the few really upscale parts of the Valley, Sherman Oaks, for an expensive specialty item, then proceeded to your private jet.

No wonder you had such fun! Your itinerary neatly managed to skirt, dare I say, the real L.A. of the non-rich, and our widely interspersed gangs.

This is as if I were to visit Mountain View, Woodside, etc. and claimed I saw the grittiest parts of the Bay Area. I'm also assuming that you're not as wary of real gangbangers as we locals are forced to be. Do you exactly which sports caps signify which gangs? I'm afraid we do.

If said person went from Van Nuys to downtown and then Koreatown they saw the "real LA of the non rich" and were certainly in areas with gangs (Van Nuys and Koreatown specifically)

BTW, fastfilm, the Bay Area, including SF, is hardly free of the problems you think are unique to LA. The very nice neighborhoods of Castro and Noe Valley are but blocks away from some nasty parts of the Mission District, and the compact size of SF itself makes some very bad parts of town closer to the nicest areas than for example Inglewood is to Mar Vista. SF now has more violent crime than LA, despite having a much higher percentage of non-Latino whites (who are still the largest group - Asians are #2 and Latinos are #3). As for the East Bay - Oakland is worse than ever, and crime is up even in the "nice" mixed middle class areas of Oakland including gang crime, not just the places where one would expect it. Places like Hayward and even places deep in the Contra Costa Co. burbs have gang activity. The Bay Area seems to be going through NOW what we went through in the late 80s/early 90s. Don't think it's just an LA problem.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by fastfilm

Most folks on this forum are not aware that caning as done in Singapore leaves permanent scars and is designed to be that torturous (explained to me by in-law who lived and worked there for years. I'll spare the forum the horrific details.) This is the last thing we need, the diversity industry demanding international cruel and unusual punishments take hold here.

Yes, funny how some people romanticize Sharia law!

[majoun]

Originally Posted by Sorcerer68

I live here and I don't usually see them either and I live next to Hollywood.

In my own neighborhood? Usually don't see them. West of the 405 I do see them, although they do seem to be getting fewer in number as is the case in most of the west side.

After spending some time checking out places in the Bay Area preparing for moving, I have to chuckle at people who think LA is so unique when it comes to a lot of this stuff. There's even an equivalent of gangbangers moving to the Antelope Valley/Inland Empire: gangbangers from SF's Mission and Western Addition are moving in large numbers to Fairfield and (NorCal) Brentwood as they get more for their money there. We really are little different.

[Vicman]

Originally Posted by majoun

Yes, funny how some people romanticize Sharia law!

Caning was introduced by the British... in the colonial era.

[Criss1956]

Originally Posted by ibarrio

Doing in California what they do in Arizona would not work and would put the LA county guards at risk. Gangs in California are on a different level then Arizona and there would be daily riots...

And the whole point of Tent City is the 117 degree summers...In Los Angeles it might actually be more enjoyable to be outside then inside...

On a different level? How so? People are people. Some are tougher than others and require different ways to control them but they can be controlled.
If people are so uncivilized and act like animals, they must be controlled.
For every act of violence, there should be an equal and opposite reaction to counter their lawlessness and bring order to our cities.
I know how brutal canning is - but it works. Prison only hardens a person. Knowing that they would be canned, would make a person think twice before they broke the law.
If the gangs are terrorizing people to the point where you say "Oh, we can't do this because the gangs will hunt us down and retaliate". The gangs are controlling the government and the government must regain control by any means necessary.
Sound like you already have a war of sorts there.
Maybe it's time to stand up and fight back.
During the Rodney King riots, the Korean store owners sure fought back. They were on their rooftops with shotguns shooting at the rioters.
If it is as bad in California with the gangs and crime, as some of you are saying it is, why hasn't something been done to stop it?
With freedom, comes responsibility. If you are not responsible enough to act like a civilized human being, you should be punished and you freedoms should be taken away until you can act like a civilized person again.

I've never been to California and have no reason to ever go there. If you are happy with the status quo, more power to you. If you are tired of living in fear, stand up and fight back.
Maybe you should create something like a Civil Defense Corps or a tough vigilante neighborhood watch program.