Boyle Heights: A Neighborhood Assessment
A Neighborhood Assessment
Boyle Heights
Boyle Heights- Introduction
Boyle Heights is infamous as being one of the major hubs of violence, most notably perpetrated by juvenile gangs. The neighborhood has even gained wide exposure in academia as made evident by our Professor’s study (Tita, 2002, Tita et al 2003). Although crime is a salient feature associated with the Boyle Heights community, crime prevention establishments such as Father Greg’s Homeboy Industries have belied the perception that Boyle Heights is a futile cause. There are numerous agents of social control (private, parochial and public) that pervade the community, yet there remains constant debate over the efficacy of such programs. Recently, …show more content…
the media has disseminated to the public that crime rates are at its lowest in years. Nevertheless, it is our assessment that crime in Boyle Heights remains at an unacceptable rate.
History & Crime
Boyle Heights was established in 1875, and named after Andrew Boyle. It history involves mass migration and exodus of various ethnic groups. In the late 1800’s, railroad construction can be primarily attributed to mass migration. Contrastingly, the 1940’s witnessed an exodus of Jewish and Mexican Americans (middleclass), most likely wanting to escape an area with high population turnover (Arefi, 2002, 88).
Crime is notorious for dictating the lives of Boyle Heights inhabitants. In a 2007 report by Choi and Kiesner they established the following: “Within its 16 square miles, 60 different gangs claimed 10,000 members--among an official population of 90,000. (1)” That means over 10% of Boyle Heights citizens have gang affiliations. According to the Los Angeles Times homicide database, there have been 53 homicides within Boyle Heights from 2007 to present day. However, this does not do justice to the violence that permeated the local community years earlier. The Los Angeles Police Department reported that there were 63 gang related homicides in the first two months of 2002 (Sheils, 1). Since 2002, statistics reveal that violent crime has steadily declined in Boyle Heights.
It is self evident that there is not a unilateral explanation for crime within Boyle Heights. By analyzing the demographic statistics, one can compare Boyle Heights to La Barriada in Mercer L. Sullivan’s book “Getting Paid: Youth Crime and Work in the Inner City” (1989). The statistics generated by the Los Angeles Times (calculations from Census 2000) communicates the following: Boyle Heights is an impoverished area comprising of mostly Latinos without much formal education. More specifically, $33,250 is the median annual household income- this is low in comparison to other areas of LA. Approximately 15% of households are headed by single mothers- also low in comparison to other areas in LA. Lastly, 33,630 residents had less than a high school degree; this is considerably low remembering the population is roughly 90,000 (LA Times Mapping). Although we can not make definitive conclusions, academia has generally noted that broken homes, lack of education, and poverty are correlated with concentrated areas of crime. It is possible that the aforementioned features may have a facilitating role in the social isolation and a lack of cohesiveness at the community level, which in turn, results in individuals lacking the conventional means for success. Our data from interviews will be analyzed from a social disorganization and routine activities approach.
Geographic Layout of Boyle Heights in the context of its History
Before the 1850s and before the Compromise of 1850 that allowed California into the Union as a free state, Boyle Heights was primarily an agricultural region that grew food for the rest of the town of Los Angeles. The land by the eastern river banks of the Los Angeles River was desirable due to the rich soil suitable for cultivating vineyards. In 1858 a wealthy man named Andrew Boyle moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Astonished by how beautiful the land was, Boyle decided to make a large investment and purchased a sizeable portion including land that was on the hills not taken by vineyards. Having had most of the land deemed undesirable because Americans (whites) preferred to live on flat lands, such as downtown Los Angeles, Boyle was able to acquire most of it for 25 cents an acre. Andrew Boyle was the first white man to live east of the Los Angles River. Having died in 1871, Boyle Heights and Boyle Avenue was named in his memory by his friend William H. Workman who was mayor of Los Angeles of the time. The population of Los Angles grew about 1.2 million from 1854 to 1935. The mass migration can be attributed to many factors. First, the Southern Pacific Railway and the Santa Fe Railroad opened migration from the east and south. Even though most of these people were moving into areas west of the Los Angles River, many moved directly into Boyle Heights. In 1870 to help facilitate the migration, the first bridge was built into the city of Los Angeles. In the years to follow six more bridges would be built. Furthermore, since most of the residents at the time had vineyards on their property, massive irrigation ditches, zanjas and aqueducts were provided by the city to reach the Boyle Heights area. In the 1940’s Boyle Heights was called “one of the largest and earliest showcases for multicultural harmony in Los Angeles”. The three groups that flourished in Boyle heights thru the first half of the 20th century were Jews, Mexicans and the Japanese. Today Boyle Heights is predominately filled with Latinos of Mexican decent as most of these three groups have gone their separate ways. The reason for the Japanese migration out of Boyle heights is two fold. When World War Two started, many of the Japanese residents of Boyle Heights and the west coast were thrown into interment camps and feared as spies. After the war they returned to find their houses and businesses gone. This, along with their move up the socio-economic ladder decimated the Japanese population of Boyle Heights. Similar to the Japanese move up the economic ladder post World War II, many Jews chose to also leave Boyle Heights. They relocated to Westside Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. Boyle Heights throughout its history had been a melting pot of ethnic, religious and racial diversity. Along with its diversity it has always offered inexpensive housing and land as well as beautiful scenery. These factors make Boyle Heights an ideal location for families starting off their lives in the city of Los Angeles. This land of Boyle Heights is mapped out from the Los Angeles River in the west to what is now Indiana Street to the east and from Valley Boulevard in the north to Washington Street in the south
Boyle Heights has many historical landmarks. The Breed Street Shul was one of the oldest synagogues on the West Coast of the United States. It opened in 1923 and closed in 1996, only to be renovated and preserved due to the history of Jewish people in Boyle Heights. Another landmark of significance is the Hollenbeck Home for the Aged. John E. Hollenbeck was a very wealthy man who had lived in Nicaragua and moved to Boyle Heights due to his adoration for all the beautiful land east of the Los Angeles River. His mansion still stands today. Mayor William Workman built the land across from the Hollenbeck Home into Hollenbeck Park (the size of the park was reduced in half when the Santa Monica Freeway was built). Other landmarks and amenities in Boyle Heights include the Variety Boys and Girls Club, Evergreen Cemetery, Mariachi Plaza (a congregation of local Mariachi music players), Hollenbeck Police Station, and St. Mary’s Catholic Church and three public libraries.
Crime Prevention- Homeboy Industries
It has almost become commonplace for Boyle Heights residents to lament the crimes that have ravaged their community.
Yet there is hope: Homeboy Industries is a crime prevention organization that offers current and former gang members a second chance. More specifically, through its myriad of small businesses (bakery, silkscreen, Café, Maintenance, etc) Homeboy employs and inculcates “at risk” individuals with valuable work experience and job training. The byproduct of such an experience is that young adults adopt the social decorum associated with conventional means of success. (Choi and Kiesner, 2007)
Homeboy Industries embodies the general framework of Offender-Based Neighborhood Programs. Job training, placement assistance, and counseling are the means of community control of individuals. According to Bursik and Grasmick (1993) they state that Offender-Based Neighborhood Programs place “emphasis on the modification of the likelihood that people would participate in illegal activities” (157). In terms of organizational dynamics, Homeboy is an indigenous establishment that not only employs local residents, but works alongside local agencies and institutions. It is a non profit organization that is comprised of community based board of directors (Choi and Kiesner, 2007). In many respects, Homeboy Industries parallels the framework of the Chicago Area Project employed by Shaw and McKay: it is an autonomous crime prevention source that utilizes at risk …show more content…
individuals.
The sentiment is that Homeboy Industries helps motivated individuals who are willing to change. Officer Ramirez informed us that Homeboy helps, but LAPD still arrests individuals who are Homeboy affiliates. It is our conclusion that Homeboy is rather successful in crime prevention.
Officer Ramirez and Driving Down Chavez
Social Disorganization
Officer Ramirez is a 15 year veteran of the LAPD. We were fortunate that he was willing to do an interview with us at the Hollenbeck police station (it is situated within Boyle). Officer Ramirez established that gang violence is at the core of community problems. He explained that he believed that such crime is attributed to housing projects and renters. Ramirez elaborated that there are a lot of renters who go in and out of the neighborhood. Furthermore, there is a lack of investment in the housing projects and the area surrounding it. This was underscored by Ramirez describing how there is a lack of monetary funds for community programs. As a group, we were able to discern that Boyle Heights reflects some principal characteristics of social disorganization. Ramirez’s account of the neighborhood invokes that population turnover has led Boyle Heights to become a disenfranchised area; specifically lacking cohesiveness and social capital. Although the population is homogeneous, Boyle Heights embodies an interstitial area that possesses the following: lack of investment, mixed industries, neglected municipal services, and high population turnover.
Routine Activity
Our group took the opportunity to drive around Boyle Heights. It was an eye opening experience that exposed us to a world that farm from resembles Irvine. Driving down Chavez Avenue there is an eclectic set of shops and services. More specifically, pawn shops, liquor stores, a key shop, and automobile shops. We identified that the threat of crime is a daily feature as made evident by security precautions taken by the aforementioned. Security cameras, barbed wire, and steel gates were the most common precautions. Furthermore, gangs could be identified by their respective graffiti/tagging made out on walls. In terms of a routine activities approach, crime occurs in space in time when the following converge: motivated offender, suitable target, and absence of a capable guardian. Boyle Heights comprises of motivated offenders and suitable targets. It is our assessment that precautions taken up by store owners do not reflect a capable guardian. This is because they do not possess much influence preventing burglary, gang violence, drug dealings, or graffiti. There is an absence of police in the area. The result is that not only a plethora of crimes can occur, but more importantly individuals can be suitable targets by simply walking down Chavez Avenue.
Hazard at Ramona Gardens
Systematic Model of Crime
During our interview with Officer Ramirez, he alluded to the fact that one of the main reasons for the general social disorganization and crime in the area was the high turnover rate due to high percentages of renters and public housing projects. We asked him where these public housing projects were and if it would be ok to visit them. He started listing them off and telling us their locations. He said all of them were safe except for “Hazard”. He said we might not want to go there but if we did to take his phone number with us in case anything happened. The “Hazard” he was referring to is the Ramona Gardens Public Housing Projects, located across from Hazard Park and home to the Big Hazard gang. Ramona Gardens is completely cut off from the rest of Boyle Heights with the San Bernardino Freeway to the south, railroad tracks to the east, factories to the north, and Soto Ave. to the west. There was no public transportation that passes through the immediate community and the nearest large store or strip mall is nearly a mile away on Soto Ave. These people are the poorest of the poor and conditions are the worst. As we drove in, we noticed a liquor store at the entrance with some young men outside drinking. Further in, graffiti became prevalent on every empty wall. There was a car stopped in the middle of the street with 3 more young men leaning on the car, talking to the driver. After this there was a group of 8 to 10 young boys playing with a ball on the sidewalk with no adult supervision. It was noon on a Tuesday. We passed an empty lot with a fence around it and an empty lot with weeds growing in abundance. Homes were mixed with dilapidated, empty stores and more liquor stores. The actual projects are outdated military style looking barracks with low to zero income families living stacked close together. There are toys littered in the front lawns along with rows of clotheslines. There are bars on almost every window and door. While we were there was a police helicopter patrolling overhead.
This place has a long history of confrontation with the police. According to the Los Angeles Times, in August 1991 an unarmed gang member was shot and killed by a Sherrif’s Dept. deputy after a verbal altercation. The shooting took place in a public gathering spot in Ramona Gardens in front of other gang members and their girlfriends, who testified that the deputy opened fire for no reason. The official Sherriff’s Dept. stance was that the shooting was in self defense after the gang member grabbed another deputy’s flashlight and began charging at them. In the wake of the Rodney King beating and a series of shootings of unarmed gang members, this event caused uproar from the Ramona Gardens community. The community members began throwing rocks and soda bottles at the officers, after which a whole squadron of deputies and LAPD officers flooded into Ramona Gardens and shut it down. They stood at the boundaries holding shotguns and riot gear, keeping people inside (Braun). To this day there have been countless other instances of officer involved shootings and violent run-ins with the police, which have put even more of a strain on the relationship between the community and the police department. As recently as December 2009, police shot and killed a 21 year old gang member in Ramona Gardens after he pulled a gun on them while failing to stop his bicycle on police orders.
When we take into account these living conditions and the relationship with the police and apply them to Bursick and Grasmick’s systemic model of crime, it is easy to understand why crime is such a prevalent problem in this community. According to the systemic model of crime, there must be a variety of social controls working in a community in order to prevent crime from happening. These social controls can be categorized into private, parochial, and public controls (Bursik and Grasmick, 1993).
The private social controls in a neighborhood apply to the immediate and primary social groups such as families and friends. The idea is that the fear of ostracism, shame, and criticism from these primary groups will deter an individual from committing crime (Bursik and Grasmick, 1993). In Ramona Gardens, the typical family consists of one working mother or both parents working and their children. They often work two jobs and are not at home enough to execute this type of social control. These children’s friends are in the same boat as them and cannot act as a social control if they themselves are not being controlled.
The parochial social controls are described as “…the broader local interpersonal networks and the interlocking of local institutions, such as stores, schools, churches, and voluntary organizations” (Bursik and Grasmick, 1993). According to the Los Angeles Times, the two high schools that take in students from Ramona Gardens are Roosevelt High School and Woodrow Wilson High School. Both are in the top five in dropout rates among schools in the LAUSD, with just over one in four students dropping out. These two schools are also in the top five in enrollment with over 5,000 students (Rutten). Even if these young people did go to school it is likely that they would not be supervised to the extent that they should be because of the sheer volume of people. The closest church is St. Lucy’s Catholic Church. We spoke with Mrs. Martinez, St. Lucy’s Rectory assistant who has worked there for many years and also lives a block away from the church. She said crime and gangs were a definite problem. She said that although there were no reported crimes or graffiti on church grounds, she had talked to parishioners who had cars stolen and who had been robbed. She said graffiti was everywhere and that there was a shooting just across the street not too long ago. We asked her if there were gang members that attended mass. She said, “I’m sure there are some. But mostly those guys aren’t concerned with religion.” She also said St. Lucy’s does not offer any specific crime prevention or gang intervention programs. And as previously stated, there were not any stores besides liquor stores for more than a mile.
Finally, the public level of social control prescribes for the community to take part in neighborhood watch style anti crime programs or to have a healthy relationship with the local police department. We previously established that there was tremendous tension between the residents of Ramona Gardens and the police department, which has led many law abiding citizens to side with the Big Hazard gang. In fact, there have been community fundraising functions, such as car washes, to pay for the funerals of Big Hazard gang members.
Crime Specifics
There is no doubt that gang violence has galvanized the Boyle Heights community in terms of policy solutions.
Residents are most concerned with the prevalence of violent crime; such crime is often attributed to gang members utilizing guns. In terms of statistics, Boyle Heights falls within the Hollenbeck area. The early 1990s saw a peak in homicide rates across the nation. Subsequently, homicide rates have steadily decreased to the present day rate. However, according to Tita’s study (2003, 3-6), the downward trend experienced across the nation belies the fact that Hollenbeck’s homicide rate has remained significantly higher in comparison to Los Angeles and the nation. The aforementioned underscores that although crime rates have decreased, Boyle Heights remains a violent area in terms of comparable policing districts: one of the two or three most violent areas in Los Angeles. (Tita et al,
2003)
The dynamics of violent crime typically involves gangs. As no surprise, guns are the weapon of choice. Gun violence within Boyle Heights involves the process of gangs campaigning for respect as well as vying for turf. Tita (2003) and colleagues debunk the myth that gangs perpetrate violence as a means to control drug markets. The statistics reveal that violent crime is predatory turf based. Operation Ceasefire in Boyle Heights was relatively successful in curbing gun violence primarily due to “Pulling Levers”: increased patrol/attention of specific areas and groups. The community identified specific “shot callers” and active gang members. The efficacy of the operation was then contingent on warning such individuals that sustaining criminal involvement would result in lengthy incarceration. Success is underscored by the fact that in 1999 there was 36 homicides, while in 2002 there were only 24. (Tita et al, 2002)
Conclusion
The future of Boyle Heights
We maintain that over the next five years Boyle Heights will see a decrease in crime. Residents and local organizations have begun to establish a strong infrastructure in terms of social networks and social capital. According to recent studies, the dropout rate in Roosevelt and Wilson High Schools, as well as all of LAUSD seem to be going down. Roosevelt has even seen a 32% reduction in the dropout rate in the last two years alone (Blume and Song). In addition, neighborhood and organizational dynamics reflected numerous strategies implemented by Operation Ceasefire as well as the “Boston Miracle” project. Although relations between residents of Boyle Heights and the police remain strained, the police hold periodic community meetings at the Hollenbeck Police Station as well as a host of other community outreach programs. As long as prevention programs can reframe from corruption and excluding important stakeholders, it is our conclusion that there will be a decrease in crime.
References
Arefi, Mahyar. “Jump Starting Main Street: A Case Study of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Initiative (LANI)” The Town Planning Review. Vol 73 No 1 January 2002. p83-110.
Bursik, Robert J., Jr. and Harold G. Grasmick. 1993. Neighborhoods and Crime: The Dimensions of Effective Community Control. New York: Lexington Books.
Choi, David Y and Kiesner, Fred. “Homeboy Industries: an incubator of hope and businesses” Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice September, 2007.
George Tita, J. K. Riley and Peter Greenwood. 2002. "From Boston to Boyle Heights: The Process and Prospects of a Pulling Levers Strategy in a Los Angeles Barrio in Gangs”, Youth Violence and Community Policing. Editor Scott Decker. Wadsworth Press: Belmont, MA.
George Tita, K. Jack Riley, Greg Ridgeway, Clifford Grammich, Allan F. Abrahamse, Peter W. Greenwood, Reducing Gun Violence: Results from an Intervention in East Los Angeles, RAND/MR-1764-NIJ, 2003, 75 pp., ISBN 0-8330-3475-8.
Los Angeles Times Homicide Database. March 2010.
< http://projects.latimes.com/homicide/neighborhood/boyle-heights/>
Los Angeles Times Mapping LA. March 2010. < http://projects.latimes.com/mapping-la/neighborhoods/neighborhood/boyle-heights/>
Shiels, Maggie. “LA Faces Surge in Gang Killings” BBC NEWS April, 2002.
Sullivan, Mercer L. Getting Paid: Youth Crime and Work in the Inner City New York:
Cornell University Press, 1989.
Watanabe, Teresa. “Boyle Heights Celebrates its Ethnic Diversity” Los Angeles Times. 22 February 2010. < http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/22/local/la-me-boyle-heights22-2010feb22?pg=2>
Workman, Boyle. The City That Grew. Los Angeles: Southland Publishing Co., 1935.
Blume, Howard and Song, Jason. “Dropout Rates Improve in L.A. Unified” Los Angeles Times 03 August 2009. < http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/08/the-dropout-rate-in-the-los-angelesunified-school-district-declined-almost-17-according-to-figures-the-district-released-to.html>
Braun, Stephen. “Deputies’ Credibility Took a Beating at Latino Project” Los Angeles Times 20 December 1991. < http://articles.latimes.com/1991-12-20/news/mn-512_1_ramona-gardens>
Rutten, Tim. “By All Accounts, A Failure”. The Los Angeles Times. 19 July 2008. < http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jul/19/opinion/oe-rutten19>
Boyle Heights
Boyle Heights- Introduction
Boyle Heights is infamous as being one of the major hubs of violence, most notably perpetrated by juvenile gangs. The neighborhood has even gained wide exposure in academia as made evident by our Professor’s study (Tita, 2002, Tita et al 2003). Although crime is a salient feature associated with the Boyle Heights community, crime prevention establishments such as Father Greg’s Homeboy Industries have belied the perception that Boyle Heights is a futile cause. There are numerous agents of social control (private, parochial and public) that pervade the community, yet there remains constant debate over the efficacy of such programs. Recently, …show more content…
the media has disseminated to the public that crime rates are at its lowest in years. Nevertheless, it is our assessment that crime in Boyle Heights remains at an unacceptable rate.
History & Crime
Boyle Heights was established in 1875, and named after Andrew Boyle. It history involves mass migration and exodus of various ethnic groups. In the late 1800’s, railroad construction can be primarily attributed to mass migration. Contrastingly, the 1940’s witnessed an exodus of Jewish and Mexican Americans (middleclass), most likely wanting to escape an area with high population turnover (Arefi, 2002, 88).
Crime is notorious for dictating the lives of Boyle Heights inhabitants. In a 2007 report by Choi and Kiesner they established the following: “Within its 16 square miles, 60 different gangs claimed 10,000 members--among an official population of 90,000. (1)” That means over 10% of Boyle Heights citizens have gang affiliations. According to the Los Angeles Times homicide database, there have been 53 homicides within Boyle Heights from 2007 to present day. However, this does not do justice to the violence that permeated the local community years earlier. The Los Angeles Police Department reported that there were 63 gang related homicides in the first two months of 2002 (Sheils, 1). Since 2002, statistics reveal that violent crime has steadily declined in Boyle Heights.
It is self evident that there is not a unilateral explanation for crime within Boyle Heights. By analyzing the demographic statistics, one can compare Boyle Heights to La Barriada in Mercer L. Sullivan’s book “Getting Paid: Youth Crime and Work in the Inner City” (1989). The statistics generated by the Los Angeles Times (calculations from Census 2000) communicates the following: Boyle Heights is an impoverished area comprising of mostly Latinos without much formal education. More specifically, $33,250 is the median annual household income- this is low in comparison to other areas of LA. Approximately 15% of households are headed by single mothers- also low in comparison to other areas in LA. Lastly, 33,630 residents had less than a high school degree; this is considerably low remembering the population is roughly 90,000 (LA Times Mapping). Although we can not make definitive conclusions, academia has generally noted that broken homes, lack of education, and poverty are correlated with concentrated areas of crime. It is possible that the aforementioned features may have a facilitating role in the social isolation and a lack of cohesiveness at the community level, which in turn, results in individuals lacking the conventional means for success. Our data from interviews will be analyzed from a social disorganization and routine activities approach.
Geographic Layout of Boyle Heights in the context of its History
Before the 1850s and before the Compromise of 1850 that allowed California into the Union as a free state, Boyle Heights was primarily an agricultural region that grew food for the rest of the town of Los Angeles. The land by the eastern river banks of the Los Angeles River was desirable due to the rich soil suitable for cultivating vineyards. In 1858 a wealthy man named Andrew Boyle moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Astonished by how beautiful the land was, Boyle decided to make a large investment and purchased a sizeable portion including land that was on the hills not taken by vineyards. Having had most of the land deemed undesirable because Americans (whites) preferred to live on flat lands, such as downtown Los Angeles, Boyle was able to acquire most of it for 25 cents an acre. Andrew Boyle was the first white man to live east of the Los Angles River. Having died in 1871, Boyle Heights and Boyle Avenue was named in his memory by his friend William H. Workman who was mayor of Los Angeles of the time. The population of Los Angles grew about 1.2 million from 1854 to 1935. The mass migration can be attributed to many factors. First, the Southern Pacific Railway and the Santa Fe Railroad opened migration from the east and south. Even though most of these people were moving into areas west of the Los Angles River, many moved directly into Boyle Heights. In 1870 to help facilitate the migration, the first bridge was built into the city of Los Angeles. In the years to follow six more bridges would be built. Furthermore, since most of the residents at the time had vineyards on their property, massive irrigation ditches, zanjas and aqueducts were provided by the city to reach the Boyle Heights area. In the 1940’s Boyle Heights was called “one of the largest and earliest showcases for multicultural harmony in Los Angeles”. The three groups that flourished in Boyle heights thru the first half of the 20th century were Jews, Mexicans and the Japanese. Today Boyle Heights is predominately filled with Latinos of Mexican decent as most of these three groups have gone their separate ways. The reason for the Japanese migration out of Boyle heights is two fold. When World War Two started, many of the Japanese residents of Boyle Heights and the west coast were thrown into interment camps and feared as spies. After the war they returned to find their houses and businesses gone. This, along with their move up the socio-economic ladder decimated the Japanese population of Boyle Heights. Similar to the Japanese move up the economic ladder post World War II, many Jews chose to also leave Boyle Heights. They relocated to Westside Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. Boyle Heights throughout its history had been a melting pot of ethnic, religious and racial diversity. Along with its diversity it has always offered inexpensive housing and land as well as beautiful scenery. These factors make Boyle Heights an ideal location for families starting off their lives in the city of Los Angeles. This land of Boyle Heights is mapped out from the Los Angeles River in the west to what is now Indiana Street to the east and from Valley Boulevard in the north to Washington Street in the south
Boyle Heights has many historical landmarks. The Breed Street Shul was one of the oldest synagogues on the West Coast of the United States. It opened in 1923 and closed in 1996, only to be renovated and preserved due to the history of Jewish people in Boyle Heights. Another landmark of significance is the Hollenbeck Home for the Aged. John E. Hollenbeck was a very wealthy man who had lived in Nicaragua and moved to Boyle Heights due to his adoration for all the beautiful land east of the Los Angeles River. His mansion still stands today. Mayor William Workman built the land across from the Hollenbeck Home into Hollenbeck Park (the size of the park was reduced in half when the Santa Monica Freeway was built). Other landmarks and amenities in Boyle Heights include the Variety Boys and Girls Club, Evergreen Cemetery, Mariachi Plaza (a congregation of local Mariachi music players), Hollenbeck Police Station, and St. Mary’s Catholic Church and three public libraries.
Crime Prevention- Homeboy Industries
It has almost become commonplace for Boyle Heights residents to lament the crimes that have ravaged their community.
Yet there is hope: Homeboy Industries is a crime prevention organization that offers current and former gang members a second chance. More specifically, through its myriad of small businesses (bakery, silkscreen, Café, Maintenance, etc) Homeboy employs and inculcates “at risk” individuals with valuable work experience and job training. The byproduct of such an experience is that young adults adopt the social decorum associated with conventional means of success. (Choi and Kiesner, 2007)
Homeboy Industries embodies the general framework of Offender-Based Neighborhood Programs. Job training, placement assistance, and counseling are the means of community control of individuals. According to Bursik and Grasmick (1993) they state that Offender-Based Neighborhood Programs place “emphasis on the modification of the likelihood that people would participate in illegal activities” (157). In terms of organizational dynamics, Homeboy is an indigenous establishment that not only employs local residents, but works alongside local agencies and institutions. It is a non profit organization that is comprised of community based board of directors (Choi and Kiesner, 2007). In many respects, Homeboy Industries parallels the framework of the Chicago Area Project employed by Shaw and McKay: it is an autonomous crime prevention source that utilizes at risk …show more content…
individuals.
The sentiment is that Homeboy Industries helps motivated individuals who are willing to change. Officer Ramirez informed us that Homeboy helps, but LAPD still arrests individuals who are Homeboy affiliates. It is our conclusion that Homeboy is rather successful in crime prevention.
Officer Ramirez and Driving Down Chavez
Social Disorganization
Officer Ramirez is a 15 year veteran of the LAPD. We were fortunate that he was willing to do an interview with us at the Hollenbeck police station (it is situated within Boyle). Officer Ramirez established that gang violence is at the core of community problems. He explained that he believed that such crime is attributed to housing projects and renters. Ramirez elaborated that there are a lot of renters who go in and out of the neighborhood. Furthermore, there is a lack of investment in the housing projects and the area surrounding it. This was underscored by Ramirez describing how there is a lack of monetary funds for community programs. As a group, we were able to discern that Boyle Heights reflects some principal characteristics of social disorganization. Ramirez’s account of the neighborhood invokes that population turnover has led Boyle Heights to become a disenfranchised area; specifically lacking cohesiveness and social capital. Although the population is homogeneous, Boyle Heights embodies an interstitial area that possesses the following: lack of investment, mixed industries, neglected municipal services, and high population turnover.
Routine Activity
Our group took the opportunity to drive around Boyle Heights. It was an eye opening experience that exposed us to a world that farm from resembles Irvine. Driving down Chavez Avenue there is an eclectic set of shops and services. More specifically, pawn shops, liquor stores, a key shop, and automobile shops. We identified that the threat of crime is a daily feature as made evident by security precautions taken by the aforementioned. Security cameras, barbed wire, and steel gates were the most common precautions. Furthermore, gangs could be identified by their respective graffiti/tagging made out on walls. In terms of a routine activities approach, crime occurs in space in time when the following converge: motivated offender, suitable target, and absence of a capable guardian. Boyle Heights comprises of motivated offenders and suitable targets. It is our assessment that precautions taken up by store owners do not reflect a capable guardian. This is because they do not possess much influence preventing burglary, gang violence, drug dealings, or graffiti. There is an absence of police in the area. The result is that not only a plethora of crimes can occur, but more importantly individuals can be suitable targets by simply walking down Chavez Avenue.
Hazard at Ramona Gardens
Systematic Model of Crime
During our interview with Officer Ramirez, he alluded to the fact that one of the main reasons for the general social disorganization and crime in the area was the high turnover rate due to high percentages of renters and public housing projects. We asked him where these public housing projects were and if it would be ok to visit them. He started listing them off and telling us their locations. He said all of them were safe except for “Hazard”. He said we might not want to go there but if we did to take his phone number with us in case anything happened. The “Hazard” he was referring to is the Ramona Gardens Public Housing Projects, located across from Hazard Park and home to the Big Hazard gang. Ramona Gardens is completely cut off from the rest of Boyle Heights with the San Bernardino Freeway to the south, railroad tracks to the east, factories to the north, and Soto Ave. to the west. There was no public transportation that passes through the immediate community and the nearest large store or strip mall is nearly a mile away on Soto Ave. These people are the poorest of the poor and conditions are the worst. As we drove in, we noticed a liquor store at the entrance with some young men outside drinking. Further in, graffiti became prevalent on every empty wall. There was a car stopped in the middle of the street with 3 more young men leaning on the car, talking to the driver. After this there was a group of 8 to 10 young boys playing with a ball on the sidewalk with no adult supervision. It was noon on a Tuesday. We passed an empty lot with a fence around it and an empty lot with weeds growing in abundance. Homes were mixed with dilapidated, empty stores and more liquor stores. The actual projects are outdated military style looking barracks with low to zero income families living stacked close together. There are toys littered in the front lawns along with rows of clotheslines. There are bars on almost every window and door. While we were there was a police helicopter patrolling overhead.
This place has a long history of confrontation with the police. According to the Los Angeles Times, in August 1991 an unarmed gang member was shot and killed by a Sherrif’s Dept. deputy after a verbal altercation. The shooting took place in a public gathering spot in Ramona Gardens in front of other gang members and their girlfriends, who testified that the deputy opened fire for no reason. The official Sherriff’s Dept. stance was that the shooting was in self defense after the gang member grabbed another deputy’s flashlight and began charging at them. In the wake of the Rodney King beating and a series of shootings of unarmed gang members, this event caused uproar from the Ramona Gardens community. The community members began throwing rocks and soda bottles at the officers, after which a whole squadron of deputies and LAPD officers flooded into Ramona Gardens and shut it down. They stood at the boundaries holding shotguns and riot gear, keeping people inside (Braun). To this day there have been countless other instances of officer involved shootings and violent run-ins with the police, which have put even more of a strain on the relationship between the community and the police department. As recently as December 2009, police shot and killed a 21 year old gang member in Ramona Gardens after he pulled a gun on them while failing to stop his bicycle on police orders.
When we take into account these living conditions and the relationship with the police and apply them to Bursick and Grasmick’s systemic model of crime, it is easy to understand why crime is such a prevalent problem in this community. According to the systemic model of crime, there must be a variety of social controls working in a community in order to prevent crime from happening. These social controls can be categorized into private, parochial, and public controls (Bursik and Grasmick, 1993).
The private social controls in a neighborhood apply to the immediate and primary social groups such as families and friends. The idea is that the fear of ostracism, shame, and criticism from these primary groups will deter an individual from committing crime (Bursik and Grasmick, 1993). In Ramona Gardens, the typical family consists of one working mother or both parents working and their children. They often work two jobs and are not at home enough to execute this type of social control. These children’s friends are in the same boat as them and cannot act as a social control if they themselves are not being controlled.
The parochial social controls are described as “…the broader local interpersonal networks and the interlocking of local institutions, such as stores, schools, churches, and voluntary organizations” (Bursik and Grasmick, 1993). According to the Los Angeles Times, the two high schools that take in students from Ramona Gardens are Roosevelt High School and Woodrow Wilson High School. Both are in the top five in dropout rates among schools in the LAUSD, with just over one in four students dropping out. These two schools are also in the top five in enrollment with over 5,000 students (Rutten). Even if these young people did go to school it is likely that they would not be supervised to the extent that they should be because of the sheer volume of people. The closest church is St. Lucy’s Catholic Church. We spoke with Mrs. Martinez, St. Lucy’s Rectory assistant who has worked there for many years and also lives a block away from the church. She said crime and gangs were a definite problem. She said that although there were no reported crimes or graffiti on church grounds, she had talked to parishioners who had cars stolen and who had been robbed. She said graffiti was everywhere and that there was a shooting just across the street not too long ago. We asked her if there were gang members that attended mass. She said, “I’m sure there are some. But mostly those guys aren’t concerned with religion.” She also said St. Lucy’s does not offer any specific crime prevention or gang intervention programs. And as previously stated, there were not any stores besides liquor stores for more than a mile.
Finally, the public level of social control prescribes for the community to take part in neighborhood watch style anti crime programs or to have a healthy relationship with the local police department. We previously established that there was tremendous tension between the residents of Ramona Gardens and the police department, which has led many law abiding citizens to side with the Big Hazard gang. In fact, there have been community fundraising functions, such as car washes, to pay for the funerals of Big Hazard gang members.
Crime Specifics
There is no doubt that gang violence has galvanized the Boyle Heights community in terms of policy solutions.
Residents are most concerned with the prevalence of violent crime; such crime is often attributed to gang members utilizing guns. In terms of statistics, Boyle Heights falls within the Hollenbeck area. The early 1990s saw a peak in homicide rates across the nation. Subsequently, homicide rates have steadily decreased to the present day rate. However, according to Tita’s study (2003, 3-6), the downward trend experienced across the nation belies the fact that Hollenbeck’s homicide rate has remained significantly higher in comparison to Los Angeles and the nation. The aforementioned underscores that although crime rates have decreased, Boyle Heights remains a violent area in terms of comparable policing districts: one of the two or three most violent areas in Los Angeles. (Tita et al,
2003)
The dynamics of violent crime typically involves gangs. As no surprise, guns are the weapon of choice. Gun violence within Boyle Heights involves the process of gangs campaigning for respect as well as vying for turf. Tita (2003) and colleagues debunk the myth that gangs perpetrate violence as a means to control drug markets. The statistics reveal that violent crime is predatory turf based. Operation Ceasefire in Boyle Heights was relatively successful in curbing gun violence primarily due to “Pulling Levers”: increased patrol/attention of specific areas and groups. The community identified specific “shot callers” and active gang members. The efficacy of the operation was then contingent on warning such individuals that sustaining criminal involvement would result in lengthy incarceration. Success is underscored by the fact that in 1999 there was 36 homicides, while in 2002 there were only 24. (Tita et al, 2002)
Conclusion
The future of Boyle Heights
We maintain that over the next five years Boyle Heights will see a decrease in crime. Residents and local organizations have begun to establish a strong infrastructure in terms of social networks and social capital. According to recent studies, the dropout rate in Roosevelt and Wilson High Schools, as well as all of LAUSD seem to be going down. Roosevelt has even seen a 32% reduction in the dropout rate in the last two years alone (Blume and Song). In addition, neighborhood and organizational dynamics reflected numerous strategies implemented by Operation Ceasefire as well as the “Boston Miracle” project. Although relations between residents of Boyle Heights and the police remain strained, the police hold periodic community meetings at the Hollenbeck Police Station as well as a host of other community outreach programs. As long as prevention programs can reframe from corruption and excluding important stakeholders, it is our conclusion that there will be a decrease in crime.
References
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