U.S. PLEDGES HELP IN FIGHT AGAINST GANGS

Hahn And Bratton Are Promised Stepped-Up Prosecutions And Special Anti-Drug
Enforcement Units To Combat Rising Violence In Los Angeles.

LOS ANGELES - Federal authorities Monday pledged more resources to the Los
Angeles Police Department's fight against gang violence, including special
drug enforcement units with a track record of reducing crime in targeted
neighborhoods.

The announcement came two weeks after Mayor James K. Hahn and Police Chief
William J. Bratton appeared with family members of a slain teenager in
South Los Angeles, calling the city's street gangs a national threat that
deserved intense federal attention.

Hahn and Bratton met Monday with U.S. Atty. Debra W. Yang and top local
agents for the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol
Tobacco and Firearms.

At a news conference after the meeting, Yang -- who prosecuted Los Angeles
gang members after the 1992 riots -- called gang violence "the worst it has
been for some time."

She said that killings in Los Angeles, which Bratton said Monday now number
more than 650 for the year, had "threatened the very way many citizens live
their lives and have taken away their ability to feel safe and secure in
their own homes." Law enforcement officers estimate that about half of all
homicides are gang-related.

"We can bring narcotics charges, which have a mandatory minimum of 10 years
in prison. We can bring firearm charges that have a mandatory minimum of
five years," Yang said. "We can bring racketeering charges, also known as
RICO, which can be used to attack organizers of structured criminal gangs."

Yang said that although such cases take much longer to build than those
using other approaches, they are more likely to significantly damage the
infrastructure of the most organized gangs.

Additionally, the DEA pledged a 20-member Mobile Enforcement Team to South
Los Angeles early next year. The use of such a team earlier this year in
the Hollenbeck Division is credited by law enforcement officials with
stemming skyrocketing crime in that area -- at a time when the homicide
rate in the city looked to be far worse than the current 11% jump over last
year's totals.

ATF officials also said they plan to assign 20 to 25 additional agents to
pursue illegal gun trafficking in targeted city neighborhoods by spring
2003, although those positions have yet to be funded. Don Kincaid, head of
the ATF local office, said resources have been stretched on antiterrorism
and his agency's capacity to contribute to the anti-gang effort depends on
additional funding.

Yang called prior cooperation between federal and local authorities a
patchwork approach. Together with Hahn and Bratton, she expressed
confidence that better coordination would get results, even without
additional U.S. money.

Federal authorities will cross-train LAPD officers in federal statutes to
improve the chances of success in federal felony filings.

Yang said federal prosecutors already are reviewing firearms cases from the
LAPD's 77th Division -- where there have been 116 homicides to date this
year -- and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Lennox Station to
determine if federal prosecution would be appropriate -- and if it would
mean longer sentences than state law.

"We target those gang members who are among the most dangerous," Yang said.
In the last decade, federal prosecutors in Los Angeles County have
convicted more than 275 gang members.

In 2002, U.S. prosecutors brought racketeering indictments against alleged
members of three gangs: the Aryan Brotherhood, the Nazi Low Riders and the
Wah Ching.

Hahn said Monday that the federal government could and should do even more.

"California needs its fair share of resources to fight this problem," Hahn
said. He said he would make that point when he and Bratton visit Washington
next month.

"We are not going to surrender one inch of turf to the gangs. The streets
of Los Angeles belong to the law-abiding citizens," Hahn said. "The federal
government has some important tools, some powerful tools, some heavy
hammers to use in this fight," he added.

Bratton said that cooperation between police and residents in South Los
Angeles -- particularly the 77th Division -- seemed to be helping.

Since the news conference two weeks ago, Bratton said, anonymous tips from
residents there have produced leads in nine unsolved homicides. And the
addition of 70 officers to the South Bureau has also produced results, he said.

"We've had one homicide in the 77th so far in the month of December. This
is a division that had over 100 homicides rolling into the month of
December, leading the city," Bratton said. "This is focused policing, smart
policing, and it is going to be policing in partnership with counterparts
in the federal and state bureaucracies."