[7] American servicemen and white Angelenos attacked and stripped children, teenagers, and youths who wore zoot suits, ostensibly because they considered the outfits, which were made from large amounts of fabric, to be unpatriotic during World War II.
[8] The Zoot Suit Riots were related to fears and hostilities aroused by the coverage of the Sleepy Lagoon murder trial, following the killing of a young Latino man in what was then an unincorporated commercial area near Los Angeles.
After the death of Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, his chief lieutenant Mickey Cohen took over his remaining gambling and loan shark operations in Los Angeles.
The number of high-profile murders and gangsters moving into the West Coast, combined with the recall of Mayor Frank L. Shaw because of corruption charges related to organized crime, caused law enforcement to stop accommodating the Mafia.
In the late 1930s, California Attorney General Earl Warren took command of a tough assault on Dragna's empire, most notably shutting down the gambling ships run by Anthony Cornero.
The rap music genre, TV shows and movies portrayed that part of Los Angeles as a no-go zone and a highly violent area.
Widespread looting, assault, and arson occurred during the riots, which local police forces had difficulty controlling due to lack of personnel and resources.
LAPD Chief of Police Daryl Gates, who had already announced his resignation by the time of the riots, was attributed with much of the blame for failure to de-escalate the situation and overall mismanagement.
Phillips and Mătăsăreanu had previously robbed several banks prior to their attempt in North Hollywood and were notorious for their heavy armament, which included automatic rifles.
Each of the LAPD's 21 divisions had a CRASH unit assigned to it, whose primary goal was to suppress the influx of gang-related crimes in Los Angeles, which came about primarily from the increase in illegal drug trade.
Members of the Los Angeles Police Department in riot gear then used batons and rubber bullets in a manner later found by the LAPD's own investigation, as well as by the courts, to be excessive.
Those images of South Central; along with Long Beach, Compton, and even Watts; had been portrayed in West Coast Gangsta Rap and G-Funk songs, as well as in video games such as Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Grand Theft Auto V. After the FBI cracked down on black political organizations in the late 1960s, a social vacuum formed among black adolescents living in former South Central Los Angeles.
Speaking in a 2007 film documentary, a former Crip, named Pete, who survived to his middle years, said, The problem began with poverty and segregation, but had worsened with drugs, family separation and parental incarceration.
[40] A 2003 comparison of twin psychological studies by the Lancet and Rand corporations discovered that the average child in South Los Angeles exhibits greater levels of post-traumatic stress disorder than children of a similar age in war-torn Baghdad, Iraq.
[41][42] Although not as well documented as other regions of Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley minority community has been plagued by gang-related crime and violence.
At the turn of the century, gang-related crime that includes murder, robbery, rape, burglary, aggravated assault, larceny and theft, were a frequent occurrence in the San Fernando Valley.
In order to combat the increase in violent crimes, the Los Angeles Police Department's Foothill Division deployed a campaign of gang injunction across the Valley.
In April 1993, the department embarked on the Blythe Street gang injunction that encompassed sections of the Devonshire and Van Nuys police divisions.
[45] After the injunction of the Blythe Street Gang in April 1993, a 45-page report released by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California stating that even though the rate of violent crimes were reduced in the Blythe Street neighborhood, the injunction had contributed to the spread of gang-related crime in the surrounding neighborhoods of the San Fernando Valley.
[45] Los Angeles Police Lt. Fred Tuller further shut down the reports by expressing to the media that these methods had worked in the Valley and the crimes associated with the Blythe Street Gang had decreased in the area.
[48] Most of the vessels attempt to off load their cargo of drugs and/or illegal immigrants in San Diego County,[49] however destinations are as far north as the California Central Coast.