This week a third member of the Los Angeles Police Department’s top 10 most wanted gang list – author Kody “Monster” Scott – was arrested. The Los Angeles Times reports that some skeptics say the list masks the inability of police to find and arrest thousands of other fugitives and gang members. There are 27,664 pending fugitive warrants; the unit tasked with finding these suspects captured 1,762 last year. That’s a success rate much lower than the LAPD is recording with the top 10 list.
“These high-profile arrests are for the public, to make the public feel that at least somebody is doing something. But it does not have anything to do with a long-range solution,” said Larry Aubry of Community Call to Action and Accountability. Police Chief William Bratton said the gang initiative was more than three high-profile arrests and was saving lives, noting a drop in homicides during the first two months of this year.
Link: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-topten9mar09,1,2630679.story?coll=la-headlines-california