Word: ganged
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...their place set up Special Enforcement Units, which operate under severely limited rules of engagement. Morale fell to an all-time low, and many cops left for police departments in other cities. It was only a matter of time before the L.A.P.D. began to lose its grip on gangs. "Immediately after the dissolution of CRASH, there was a lull," says detective Chuck Zeglin, a gang specialist who has 18 years' experience in the L.A.P.D.'s detective-support division. "Then a lot of the more hard-core gangsters came to believe we were not going to be as proactive as before...
Chino is as hard-core as it gets. In jail he learned how to make a tattooing needle, and a recent afternoon found him sitting in a small apartment in Highland Park inscribing a bunny design on the shoulder of Guapa, a 19-year-old female gang member. As Chino worked, he talked about the thrill he got from shooting at people when he was younger. "After a while I really wanted to see myself hit someone," he said. "That is how intense it became in my relationship with my gun. So I walked up to some guys and shot...
Like many veterans who have put in jail time, Chino thinks the younger gang members don't know how to behave on the streets. "The neighborhood is more dangerous now because the young homeboys are not looking out for each other," he said. He mentioned Lucky, one of the dead Playboys, who was shot and killed on a street corner last summer while talking on a pay phone. "Nobody was there to watch his back, so this guy could just walk up to him from behind and shoot him," Chino said. The two gang members in the room nodded silently...
...parole barred him from returning to the Playboys' territory, around the intersection of Pico Boulevard and Fedora Street in L.A.'s Rampart district, but he quickly reappeared at his old haunts anyway. He set about goading some of the younger homeboys to "put some work in" for the gang. That usually meant getting stoned, then driving a car through a rival gang's neighborhood while shooting out the window. Word got back to the parole officer that Chino was out causing trouble, and the police did a parole search of his house and found a gun. In May, Chino...
...younger gangsters, the shootings are like a game. And with the cops pulling back, the game has only one rule: Kill or be killed. On a Saturday night in the Playboys' neighborhood, three young gang members are hanging out--Rowdy, Spotter and Mad Dog. Spotter has taken a sniper's position with a rifle on top of a building overlooking Pico. Rowdy is down at the corner with a Beretta handgun in a pocket of his baggy pants, and Mad Dog is standing in the street, flashing gang signs at passing cars and looking to draw fire from any rival...