These Doughnuts the Los Angeles Police Don’t Like

As of late, many residents of the Crenshaw-Leimert Park area have been able to sleep a little more soundly on Saturday nights. Their sleep aid: the increased presence of the Los Angeles Police Department and the California Highway Patrol.

Earlier this year, cruising and street racing on Crenshaw Boulevard not only awakened many residents with the sounds of screeching tires, racing engines and loud music, but it kept late-night commuters confined at various points on the thoroughfare.

In the Bay Area of Northern California, the phenomenon of young people engaging in this activity is known as “side shows” and

“yokin’ ”. Officials and residents in the Crenshaw-Leimert area have their own names for it: nuisance and illegal.

Resources to combat the problem were increased in July, according to Renee Bevel, a crime intelligence analyst with LAPD’s South Bureau. The plan included officers from the CHP, LAPD senior lead officers, motorcycle officers and regular patrol units.

Residents say they were able to set their clocks by when the nuisances would occur: usually late Saturday nights/early Sunday mornings, mostly between 2 and 4 a.m. Signs of the previous night’s activities would be visible by dawn: several fresh, black tire marks along the boulevard from where street racers would do “donuts” — spin their cars around in circles — or burn rubber from a stationary position, usually at an intersection.

Stuart H., a resident who lives about two blocks from Crenshaw Boulevard and 54th Street, says he remembers being awakened routinely between 1:30 and 3:30 a.m. on Sunday mornings to the sound of screeching tires.

“We could actually smell the rubber burning,” said Stuart, whose last name was withheld for safety reasons. “From where I live, I could hear the voices of people on the street yelling and screaming on Crenshaw. It was crazy.”

Additional resources were made available to the LAPD to free up officers for this issue prior to meetings with concerned residents, according to LAPD Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese.

Since the suppression detail went into effect, Stuart says that his “nights are very quiet. I think that just their (the LAPD’s) presence has stopped the (activity.) We’ve been able to sleep through the night.”

The LAPD’s strategy for addressing the issue has been focused mainly on visibility, enforcement and education.

At a meeting with residents at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza in August, Albanese stressed that the police department has to be very careful in its response to the cruisers and street racers.

Albanese admitted that, prior to the suppression plan, police officers had been “part of the problem by not engaging in simple traffic stops.”

While cruising is not illegal, there have been times when traffic has been impacted.

“We have to be mindful of the crime being committed,” Albanese said. “The Constitution gives people the right to gather, to assemble.”

Residents of the corridor say that the issue is not the gathering that is the problem but everything that comes along with it: loud noise, the holding up of traffic, cruising at dangerous speed levels, driving the wrong way on the thoroughfare, and the donuts in the middle of the street.

The enforcement aspect of the LAPD’s suppression plan has resulted in some significant crime numbers, according to the city attorney’s office.

Sharee L. Sanders is the deputy city attorney assigned to the Crenshaw Area Project, which encompasses the area where gatherings took place.

Sanders said that during the time period between March through Aug. 8, 823 vehicle citations have been issued and 96 cars were impounded; six stolen vehicles have been recovered and 47 arrests have been made for outstanding warrants.

There also were 28 DUI (Driving Under the Influence) arrests; six felony arrests have been made; one gun has been removed; and five juveniles under 18 have been arrested for being in violation of the 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew.

During the last two weekends of August, there were 232 citations issued; three felony and  32 misdemeanor arrests made; 17 people were arrested for DUI, and 20 cars were impounded, Sanders said.

The plan is also part of the crime abatement strategy of the Urban League’s Neighborhoods At Work initiative. The initiative is a five-year project to increase the quality of life in the 70-block perimeter that borders Vernon Avenue on the north; Arlington Avenue on the east; Slauson Avenue to the south; and Crenshaw Boulevard on the west, extending to Hillcrest Boulevard to an extent. As part of the crime abatement strategy, the Urban League requested resources for this area from the LAPD, the city attorney’s office and the CHP.

CHP, working in conjunction with LAPD, patrols the area from about 8 p.m. Saturday to 6 a.m. Sunday, said to Sgt. Lee Martin of CHP.

The city attorney’s office handles all of the misdemeanor vehicular charges that occur such as unsafe driving, speeding, hanging out of doors, on top of cars and racing.

Sanders, who says she grew up in the area and remembers the phenomenon of cruising from her younger days, says the foremost concern is for safety.

“A lot of students and young people are involved in the cruising,” she says. “Although a lot of what happens in the neighborhood is not done necessarily by … youth who live in this neighborhood, it is still young people.”

The suppression plan along Crenshaw Boulevard is scheduled to continue until at least Oct. 5, which is when an overall assessment of the plan’s success will be made.


Source