Blog - Gangs - February 2008

Soon the prison race war spilled into the streets. The first battles were in the Santa Monica and Venice areas at apartment complexes like the Oakwood and Mar Vista Apartments.

Gang members have found inventive ways of bringing drugs into the courts. Perhaps the most offensive method of delivery was to enlist the help of court officers.

I don't mean to sound like Los Angeles or I personally have all the answers to the world's gang problems, but during my more than three decades fighting gangs, I have seen many programs in Los Angeles that have failed. I have learned what does and what doesn't work.

We were waiting for a violent paranoid tweeker we knew was armed with a Glock pistol and running on parole. He told all of his associates that he would not be taken alive. He was also a member of the Nazi Low Rider (NLR) prison gang.