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- About the Story
- During the 1980s and 1990s, crime was soaring in MacArthur Park. Jim Hill looks at how MacArthur Park went from crime-ridden to crime-free. (TRT: 7:31)
- Buzznet’s “Block Party on Bonnie Brae” Blog
- Center for Problem-Oriented Policing
- FranklinAvenue.net’s “MacArthur Park: Not Just for Dealers and Fake I.D. Peddlers Anymore” Blog
- Governing.com’s “Gangbuster” Article
- Lacity.org’s “Reyes, LAPD Help Residents Reclaim MacArthur Park” Press Release
- LAPD Blog’s “Letter to the Editor, Los Angeles Times”
- Metroblogging Los Angeles’ “Police Officers Vs. Protesters in MacArthur Park” Blog
- PBS.org’s CRASH Culture Website
- Wilshire Gazette’s “MacArthur Park Takes in Glow from the Stars” Article
From Crime-Ridden to Crime-Free
Last updated: January 6, 2009
Reporter's NOTES
Jim Hill
I believe that public parks are barometers of the health or ills in the communities around them. Over the last ten years, I’ve seen MacArthur Park and its surrounding neighborhood at, perhaps, their worst and their best.
Now, it’s being called a victory for enlightened policing, and black and whites still drive the park roadways every few minutes. But where they once saw gangs and blight, they now see children, joggers and strolling couples.
Insider Viewpoints
…It seems that at least there was a bit of a scuffle between protesters and police in MacArthur Park last night [May 1, 2006]. He [Buzznet’s Marc Brown] posted three videos…
He writes: "LAPD swarm and beat/kick an unarmed protestor…The police storm the protestors again for the second time…
You'll see one Hispanic male start to run and then you'll see the LAPD pick one guy and begin to hail him with clubs and kicks. He falls to the ground, assumes the fetal position and continues to get beat/kicked for another 10 to 15 seconds…
The LAPD and the sheriffs throw people out of the way who try to come to this guy's aid. He was bleeding…from his head, but I couldn't get close enough to film that.
One of the sheriffs had a billy club pointed at me. The worst part of this video is when the group who are helping the wounded man out of the way…you can see an LAPD officer run in and hit an innocent good Samaritan with his/her club. Disgusting.”
--Excerpt taken from Metroblogging Los Angeles’ “Police Officers Vs. Protesters in MacArthur Park” Blog
In the July 13th [2006] Los Angeles Times, “A Complex Portrait of Rampart’s Redemption,” reporter Jill Leovy got it absolutely correct in writing that many factors contributed to the remarkable turnaround in the Rampart area and, more specifically, in MacArthur Park…The impetus for change in Rampart came through leadership, dedication and focus within the police department…
While Rampart got its redemption, MacArthur Park saw its renaissance. In those two years, this Los Angeles landmark went from being a magnet for crime to an inviting oasis in an urban center.
The renaissance is best illustrated through the arrest profile around MacArthur Park. What the article missed was how monthly triple-digit arrests in the 1990s have dropped to a mere trickle in the last two years, with crime rates remaining low…
The police can be a catalyst for change in society, but society must be willing to jump in and work with the police. And when the renaissance occurs, society must be willing to sustain the effort.
--Excerpt taken from LAPD Blog's "Letter to the Editor, Los Angeles Times"
COMMUNITY VIEWPOINTS
The report was superficial. Things are better, but as the tail end of the piece admitted, we have a ways to go before it can be called “an inviting oasis in an urban center.”
No long-term stakeholders (like Al Nodelk, past head of Cultural Affairs and who has been intimately involved with the park, especially the artwork in it). My involvement with the Hot Tamales crowd when I was on the park advisory board makes me question how much they have helped the area.
Dana Gabbard - Los Angeles, California