# Are there really "feral" area of Los Angeles where the police fear to go? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 24, 2004, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-really-feral-area-of-los-angeles-where-the-police-fear-to-go/281440 "2004-12-24T04:50:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2004, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-really-feral-area-of-los-angeles-where-the-police-fear-to-go/281440/1 "2004-12-24T04:50:50Z")
Per the commentary article linked below, I have to admit I thought the “get super tough on crime” approach used in NY, and other cities in the mid 80’s and into the 90’s, pretty much beat back this kind of rampant, terrorist style criminality that was the bane of the 70’s and 80’s urban environment, but it seems (according to the article) to still be a real problem in LA. Is this article correct in that a there are “hot zone” areas of LA that are near “Mogadishu like” in their lawlessness? Why hasn’t LA cleaned these areas the way NY did theirs? [L.A.'s Budding Mogadishus](http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-rice23dec23,0,332575.story) > [@](#): > > L.A.'s hot zones are tiny, intensely dangerous areas where nothing works, where law has broken down and mainstream institutions simply fail. Places where mail carriers and meter readers balk when the bullets fly. Where paramedics and firefighters are hesitant to enter because of the crossfire. Where police officers go in only heavily reinforced or with helicopters; in the LAPD’s South Bureau there was an 80% increase in sniper fire on police in 2004, according to a report by LAPD Chief William Bratton. > > These zones are often found in and near public housing projects, although the worst privately owned slums — like the gang-ridden apartment complex at 69th and Main that was recently ordered evacuated by the city — mirror the conditions. > > In Jordan Downs, for instance, one of three gang-dominated housing projects in Watts, the predominantly African American Grape Street Crips routinely beat Latinos (among others), engage in regular home-invasion robberies and have been known to murder residents who dare report their activities. When the LAPD set up a police kiosk in Jordan to quell rising crime, the gangs blew it up; the LAPD left and did not return for more than a decade. In the Ramona Gardens housing project, the last three black families didn’t survive long enough to suffer the perpetual abuse that residents of Jordan have endured: Latino gangsters firebombed them out of their units. ---
**Author:** ![Qwerty\_not\_Dvorak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/bcef8e/32.png) [@Qwerty\_not\_Dvorak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwerty_not_Dvorak)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2004, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-really-feral-area-of-los-angeles-where-the-police-fear-to-go/281440/2 "2004-12-24T05:13:02Z")
Well in Detroit I’m not sure if part or all of the city but in shooting 911 calls an ambulance isn’t allowed to respond until the police have arrived for an escourt. And stopping devils night (10/30) was the worst thing…when crime’s this bad just let the place burn from end to end and rebuild later. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2004, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-really-feral-area-of-los-angeles-where-the-police-fear-to-go/281440/3 "2004-12-24T07:01:28Z")
> [@Qwerty\_not\_Dvorak](#): > > Well in Detroit I’m not sure if part or all of the city but in shooting 911 calls an ambulance isn’t allowed to respond until the police have arrived for an escourt. > > And stopping devils night (10/30) was the worst thing…when crime’s this bad just let the place burn from end to end and rebuild later. ☹ Hey, Devil’s Night is all but a thing of the past now. ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2004, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-really-feral-area-of-los-angeles-where-the-police-fear-to-go/281440/4 "2004-12-24T15:14:58Z")
> [@Qwerty\_not\_Dvorak](#): > > Well in Detroit I’m not sure if part or all of the city but in shooting 911 calls an ambulance isn’t allowed to respond until the police have arrived for an escourt. This is standard operating procedure for all of Iowa, and we’re not really a high crime zone. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2004, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-really-feral-area-of-los-angeles-where-the-police-fear-to-go/281440/5 "2004-12-24T15:38:32Z")
> [@fluiddruid](#): > > This is standard operating procedure for all of Iowa, and we’re not really a high crime zone. Do you have a cite for this assertion, cause it sounds highly improbable to me that an Iowa EMT is going to wait on a police escort before they go to pick up a farmer or suburbanite having a heart attack. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2004, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-really-feral-area-of-los-angeles-where-the-police-fear-to-go/281440/6 "2004-12-24T15:54:29Z")
Reread his quote. It says in a shooting, not in all medical emergencies. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2004, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-really-feral-area-of-los-angeles-where-the-police-fear-to-go/281440/7 "2004-12-24T17:00:30Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > Reread his quote. It says in a shooting, not in all medical emergencies. :o ---
**Author:** ![Trailer\_Park\_Casanova](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@Trailer\_Park\_Casanova](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trailer_Park_Casanova)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-really-feral-area-of-los-angeles-where-the-police-fear-to-go/281440/8 "2004-12-25T01:57:09Z")
The most dangerous spot in LA is Nickerson Gardens Housing Project. The cops raid the place all the time. Brutal area. The safest area is Downtown Civic Center. I suggest to anyone to Park at the Music Center and walk around for about 5 blocks North, West or South direction. Especially at evening this time of year. Beautiful. Bunco artists aren’t unusual, but rarely any crime beyond that. Anyone walking up to you that tells the tale of a problem and needs money is a Bunco artist, and a good one. My brother is a 36 year LAPD officer, mostly on this beat. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-really-feral-area-of-los-angeles-where-the-police-fear-to-go/281440/9 "2004-12-25T03:27:18Z")
> [@Happy Lendervedder](#): > > Hey, Devil’s Night is all but a thing of the past now. 😕 I’m afraid to google… ---
**Author:** ![AveDementia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@AveDementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AveDementia)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-really-feral-area-of-los-angeles-where-the-police-fear-to-go/281440/10 "2004-12-25T03:36:18Z")
> [@Kythereia](#): > > 😕 I’m afraid to google… Devil’s night is an arsonists free-for-all. (Or was. Guess it’s gone out of style now.) I’d have liked to have a googled page for you, but it’s all coming up as song lyrics. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-really-feral-area-of-los-angeles-where-the-police-fear-to-go/281440/11 "2004-12-25T03:47:50Z")
Devil’s Night in Detroit used to be nasty - the night before Halloween, punks would go out and set things on fire. At its worst, the firebugs would start the burning two or even three days before Halloween. I remember one newspaper headline on Halloween morning sometime in the mid-80s that was just a number, “238.” That was the number of fires set the night before. After that year, the mayor and city council decided to put an end to it; the next year there was a huge campaign for volunteers to walk the streets on Devil’s Night - redubbed Angel’s Night - enforced curfews, increased police presence, patrolling fire engines, a big community effort. They got the numbers of fires down all right. The next year, there were fewer. The next year, fewer still. Since then, with one exception, the weekend of Devil’s Night has no more fires than any other weekend of the year, i.e. those started accidentally. The one exception was in the early 90s, the first year Dennis Archer was mayor, and he slacked off on the Devil’s Night vigil. There was a resurgence that year, though nowhere near the peak levels of the 80s. He learned his lesson for the next year. The patrols are an automatic now; there are rarely ever public calls for volunteers on the news like there used to be, and the old fires are never mentioned in them anymore. It is becoming what you do on Devil’s Night. The original reason for walking the streets has become less important than the community effort itself.