FBI: The Fight Against Gangs In Los Angeles, The Gang Capital Of The World

The FBI web site offers a two-part series on combating the gangs of Los Angeles.

At 5 a.m., the command post in our Los Angeles Division was buzzing with activity. It would be a day of reckoning for nearly two dozen members of MS-13, the violent street gang that over the years has brought drugs, murder, and misery to countless Los Angeles neighborhoods.

Before the sun came up, teams of FBI agents and their partners from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) began making arrests. In short order, the large video monitors in the command post started to show the words “in custody” next to the images of the subjects—many of whom were wanted on federal drug charges and were the gang’s leaders, or “shot callers,” in the parlance of the street.

Los Angeles — often referred to as the gang capital of the world—it was just another day for the men and women of the FBI who work to protect the community from hundreds of area gangs. But locking up these criminals is only part of the story. Together with our law enforcement and community partners, the Los Angeles Division is taking a leadership role in the fight against gangs with innovative programs designed to bring healing as well as justice to neighborhoods ravaged by violence and intimidation.

“You can’t arrest your way out of the gang problem,” explained Robert Clark, an assistant special agent in charge in our Los Angeles Division. “Looking at the statistics prior to 2007 and in the seven years since I’ve been here,” he said, “there’s been upwards of a 300 percent increase in arrests, but the gang problem still exists.”

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/february/the-gangs-of-los-angeles-part-1

And you can read part two of the series via the below link:

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/february/the-gangs-of-los-angeles-part-2-operation-save-our-streets/the-gangs-of-los-angeles-part-2-operation-save-our-streets?utm_campaign=email-Daily&utm_medium=email&utm_source=fbi-top-stories&utm_content=299211 

Note: The above photo was released by the FBI.