East Los Angeles

crimes such as homicide, drug trafficking and others rates are considerably more than other cities of California. Although the violent crimes have been decreasing since 2000. Most of the gangsters are very active in the poorest parts of central and East of Salinas because of limited resources. We have a different statistics about Salinas’s gangs. According to the Monterey County report, the Monterey County had more than 1600 registered gangster in 2003. However, the police and other security…

other, but apparently this has changed over time. Law enforcement recently reported that gang members from across the US have joined forces, especially on the east coast. It was also reported that direction has come from El Salvador and California, so leaders are now no longer local to the gang. MS-13 recently became known in the east coast gang culture. Instead of operating independently from each other MS-13 is beginning to come together as they recognize power in numbers and organization…

officer could keep a gang member in place by using words. I always thought any officer could just beat it out of them or use some type of threat that will eventually backfire onto the officer. My friend’s aunt, who is now a homicide detective for Los Angeles, has been a probation officer as well. For her experience, to get information or some sort she basically had to use physical force to hear what she wanted. Of course that didn 't end to well, but to hear using word’s meaning just talking to…

Fiction “It ought to stand...as a permanent testament to human courage and transcendence.” And what a great story it tells.” My book is Always Running and it is an autobiography by Luis Rodriguez. The book explains Luis’s past as a gang member in Los Angeles in the 1960’s. He was involved in crazy gang violence, such as rape, shootings, drugs, and got arrested multiple times. The school board needs to ban fiction from the curriculum because as readers read more fiction books which has made…

Gangs are nothing new. At the turn of the century (the early 1900s), many large police departments on the east coast had gang units to monitor the immigrant gangs who got together to protect their neighborhoods and to gather for social reasons. Gangs as most people think of them today were probably first recognized by the public with the inception of the Los Angeles gangs in the early seventies. Why do kids join gangs? The stereotype that comes to many people’s minds is that kids who join…

dangerous they can be and not just violent movies. Until this week I had never heard of MS 13. They are a growing virus in the U.S that the U.S unfortunately created. M.S 13 originated in Los Angeles, California. It started off with Central American immigrants that were mistreated in the streets of Los Angeles. They formed a gang that began committing crimes to survive. Eventually, the gang grew to the point where the FBI had to get involved. The original members were arrested and sent to jail.…

Published in 1993, “Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member,” is a memoir written by Sanyika Shakur. Set in East Los Angeles during the late 70s, 80’s and early 90s, Shakur’s book illustrates the overwhelming amount of violence that occurs due to conflicts between rivalry gangs. As mentioned in the book, the majority of the conflict is not between the Crips and the Bloods but instead between Crips and other Crips. The book offers a unique difference from most other books about gang…

In the memoir “Always Running”, the author Luis J. Rodriguez writes about his life growing up in East Los Angeles and confronts several difficult situations. I don’t blame Luis for making these decisions and Rodriguez shouldn’t be held responsible for the actions he made throughout his youth because he didn’t have a choice in what he did since he was in a gang, the environment he grew up and he wasn’t offered a good education. Personally, I don't blame Luis for making these difficult decisions…

Go up further on Normandie Ave until Florence and you’ll cross the epicenter of the LA riots. Just a couple blocks down is the home of N.W.A, the iconic group that raised awareness of the injustice in South Los Angeles with their music. It’s hard not to think about home without the violence. They are synonymous but living in south central gives people pride -- I saw it whenever someone tagged up a wall in the alley I many allies I lived behind. People take pride…

affect the use of public space by standardizing who, when and where protests, art and many other social activities can occur. Visiting Broadway and Whittier Blvd. in Los Angeles gave me a broader view of how this urban space has been used to illustrate important events of Chicano community members. On my commute to downtown Los Angeles I experienced different emotions and visuals that defined the entrance into this urban space. From the moment I entered I noticed the heavy traffic that had to…