When the recent riots erupted in London like millions of others I sat transfixed in front of the television as events unfolded, writes our regular contributor Una Riley.
We have had riots in London for centuries but from the pictures being beamed to us from TV crews on the streets and helicopters flitting from one borough to another to try and keep up with the rioters, it was clear this was a whole new ball-game. The fire brigade was struggling to cope with fires that were being ignited at the rate of one every five minutes but far too often their efforts were futile and the sight of buildings being razed to the ground filled our screens. However it was the sight of our police backing off in the face of the hostile hordes and virtually reduced to the role of spectators that was really frightening. In the days after, the politicians, police and commentators rushed to apportion blame for the debacle and argue over how to negate the threat of further riots.
Bill Bratton
The possibility was aired of appointing former American police chief William ‘Bill’ Bratton CBE as the new Met Police commissioner. Given the recent spate of resignations and suspensions of some of the country’s senior police officers the suggestion enjoyed some support. However the Home Office maintained that they had faith in the calibre of our own candidates. For example, the legal position is that the Metropolitan Police Commissioner must be a British national with experience of English law. Prime Minister David Cameron looked to appoint Bill Bratton as an adviser. Bratton accepted in August 2011. Bratton first established an international reputation for re-engineering police departments and fighting crime in the 1990s as chief of the New York City Transit Police, when the then New York mayor Rudi Giuliani’s ‘zero-tolerance’ of crime was part of an interlocking set of wider reforms resulting in lower crime trends.
Broken windows
Bratton is a proponent of ‘broken windows’; a criminological theory dating from the 1980s, signalling effects of urban disorder and vandalism on additional crime and anti-social behaviour. Bratton continued to be wed to the theory and had its co-creator social scientist George L Kelling act as a consultant when he went on to become Boston Police Commissioner. The relationship continued when Bratton became New York City Police Commissioner, then Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) in October 2002. Bill Bratton left the LAPD in 2009 to lead a private international security firm in New York, and later became chairman of Kroll Associates, the New York-based security company that advises police forces around the world.
Meanwhile in England …
PM David Cameron signalled a new drive against gang culture after reports that a nucleus of the rioters were organised by inner-city gang leaders. The Prime Minister told MPs “gangs were at the heart of the protests and have been behind the co-ordinated attacks”. On the face of it at least, the appointment of Bratton with his experience of gang culture in the USA appears a shrewd move. However I wanted to find out first hand more about this relatively new crime culture on our streets from the people who have experience of dealing with it, and I knew just the person to help me out. Sharon Papa, Assistant Commanding Officer at the Valley Bureau (LAPD) works in one of the toughest areas of Los Angeles. (Una interviewed her in our February 2010 issue.) When I asked if she could arrange for me to meet with an LAPD Commander dealing with gang issues at the sharp-end she did not hesitate in putting me in touch with Captain William ‘Bill’ Scott, who is responsible for running ‘Operation Cease-fire’ in the Mission area of the LAPD. Sharon explained that Captain Scott was just the person to talk to. He is the commanding officer of Mission Patrol Division and also has a broad experience in front line policing having worked assignments in many areas such as patrol, detectives, gangs, Operations West Bureau, Internal Affairs, Professional Standards Bureau-Special Operations … the list goes on. When I called Captain Scott to arrange an interview he told me he would be glad to oblige. But he was initially taken aback by my next request. I also wanted to meet a seasoned gang leader face to face and ask him some questions. After checking that I was ‘really sure about doing that’ he said it would not be easy but he would do his best to make it happen.
Into the Valley
As I drove along the sun-kissed streets of the San Fernando Valley I found it hard to believe that it is the centre of so much crime. Los Angeles has been labelled the ‘gang capital’ of America, with some 400 gangs and 41,000 members in the city and 1200 gangs with 80,000 members in the county overall. But although ‘The Valley’ has a reputation as being one of the worst areas of all there are no high-rise sink estates here, just an expanse of low-level buildings including a smart, modern building that houses LAPD Mission HQ. When I arrived for my meeting I was greeted by Captain John J Romero and taken to an immaculate meeting room. We were joined by Captain Scott who said he was hoping to have a gang leader join us later but could give no guarantee the guy would turn up. I explained that while that would be great I was just as interested in the views of him and Captain Romero about the whole gang culture. We moved through to an operations room and as we stood over a map of their police area Captain Scott said the San Fernando Valley is home to well over 100 gangs who are involved in street crime and violence. Although the older gang members, known as Original Gang members or OGs, run things it is generally the youths between 15 and 17 who are responsible for most of the shootings and killings. As we returned to our meeting room a message was relayed to us that made my planned face to face interview with a gang leader a whole lot less likely to take place. During the short time since he had agreed to attend one of his gang had been ‘jumped’ by a rival gang and there was a very real possibility that there would be instant retaliation and the potential for serious violence. While everyone waited to hear if there was going to be an immediate fallout from the attack Captain Romero explained the background and origin of Operation Cease-fire, a strategy that was originally developed under a grant from the (United States) National Institute of Justice.
Reducing gun violence
The thrust of the strategy is that a co-ordinated effort will reduce gun violence in the community. Captain Romero went on to say: “We have dubbed our new approach Operation Cease-fire. It is a collaborative effort between the Los Angeles Police Department, other entities of the criminal justice system, interventionists and the community to reduce gang-related gun violence in the area.” Captain Scott said: “We the police, along with prosecutors and community activists sat down with 18 members from nine gangs in and around LAPD’s Mission Division during an intervention as part of our new initiative. We wanted the gang members to know that we meant business and gang members in the central San Fernando Valley were put on notice to ‘Stop the Violence’, or they would feel the full weight of law enforcement. We informed them that we would come down hard on not just the gang member responsible for the crime but on their entire gang.”
Leaders called in
This initial call-in of gang leaders to be given the stark warning to stop shooting or have the cops adopt a zero-tolerance approach to your specific gang was just the first of many that are planned and Captain Scott has others already in the pipeline. I remarked that it appeared the ‘enforcement of law was still very much on the agenda. Captain Scott nodded. “It has to be,” he said. “People have to be protected. For years, Los Angeles police have tried to suppress gang shootings and other violence through arrests and lock-ups and at the time we thought it worked and to some degree in the short term it did. But we realised it was not the solution. You can’t just arrest your way out of this problem. It’s far too big and complex.” Our conversation was interrupted by an officer who entered to inform Captain Scott that his other guests had just arrived. Moments later I stood up to shake hands with William ‘Blinky’ Rodriguez a former world-champion kick-boxer turned gang-intervention specialist, and Nelson ‘Spanky’ Ramirez a heavily tattooed OG who was sporting a large prison parole tag that was fixed firmly around his ankle. ‘Spanky’ (his street name) regards the police as his enemy and at the age of 38 has spent most of his adult life incarcerated in penitentiaries. My question was simple … why?
