Funny how the Black community, specifically ambulance chasing Attorney Johnny Cochran, Poverty Pimping Danny Bakewell, a barrage of Black elected leaders, etc., are in mass about the killing of a young underage Black male driver by the LAPD, yet in Black on Black criminal activity ambulance chasing Attorney Johnny Cochran, Poverty Pimping Danny Bakewell, the so-called Black elected leadership, the usual community activists are as silent as silent can get, more likely missing in inaction.
****************************************
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-locke19mar19,1,2658195.story?ctrack=1&cset=trueMan Held in Shooting at School
An alleged gang member is accused of wounding a 15-year-old girl in the head outside Locke High in South L.A. She is in a coma.
By Erika Hayasaki and Richard Winton
Times Staff Writers
March 19, 2005
As word spread through Locke High School on Friday that police had arrested a gang member for allegedly shooting a 15-year-old girl in the head outside the campus, some cried and others prayed that she would wake from a coma.
Police said Deliesh Allen remained close to death at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center after a gunman, apparently aiming at a member of a rival gang, shot her Thursday as she waited for her aunt to pick her up near the school gates in South Los Angeles.
After an outpouring of tips from residents, police arrested an 18-year-old former Locke student, Dejuan Hines, at 3 a.m. Friday and booked him on suspicion of attempted murder. LAPD Det. Sal LaBarbera said the gunman fired at least three shots.
"This was a senseless shooting of a 15-year-old girl trying to go home from school," said Assistant Los Angeles Police Chief James McDonnell. "There's no indication that she was the intended target."
Hines is a member of the so-called Front Street Crips, and was shooting at members of the rival Back Street Crips, police said. He was on probation for an unspecified crime and had a history of juvenile violations. Police are holding him in lieu of $1 million bail, Assistant Chief George Gascon said.
Police went to three homes linked to Hines' family, finding him at the third, Gascon said. Officers found two handguns during the raids, and forensic experts are investigating whether either was used in the shooting, he said.
By Friday morning, the last day before spring break, teachers and friends had built a small memorial on the bloodstained sidewalk at 110th Street and Avalon Boulevard.
"I have to walk down Avalon, and I'm scared," said Shaterra Thompson, 15.
Every day, Thompson had greeted Allen, who always wore a pink coat and her hair in a large bun. Thompson wondered whether she would see her again.
In a bungalow classroom, math teacher Amber Hardy wiped away tears as she remembered her last conversation with Allen on Thursday afternoon. Allen had said she was excited about receiving a good grade on a quiz.
Hours later, Hardy rushed outside and found Allen on the sidewalk, her boyfriend cradling her.
"It was right after the bell rang. There were kids all over," Hardy said. "The bullets were coming toward the school, so it could have been any of the kids. It makes me so angry."
Hardy, who teaches Allen math and tutors her after school, called the girl a fighter who worked hard to solve problems. She hopes Allen will conquer this one too.
In a class assignment, Allen once wrote that she dreamed of becoming a hairstylist, getting married and having two children with her boyfriend, Joseph Clarke.
At the hospital, Clarke, 15, waited for news on Allen's condition.
"I told her I wanted to marry her," he said.
Usually on Fridays, when the school plays hip hop music, Allen dances on a stage in the quad area, students said. On other days during lunch, she hangs out at an outdoor table with her cousins.
"Yesterday I sat at that table with her," said friend Tameeka Ford, 16. "I was hurt last night because I thought she was gone. But she is holding on."
The school district increased security around Locke on Friday, and Principal Frank Wells circled the school in a motorized cart to keep an eye on students.
School officials said 27 pupils sought support from high school and crisis intervention counselors.
"To be stricken with this tragedy ... a 15-year-old kid "” it's tough," Wells said. Locke students are "very resilient because this is not foreign to their community," he said.
Hardy, a second-year teacher, said she was surprised that many students seemed unaffected.
When she brought up the shooting in class, some said they didn't know Allen. Hardy told them that should not matter.
"They don't realize that is not normal," she said. "It is just not something that students should be accustomed to."
The shooting sparked outrage among community leaders and school officials, who called on gang members to put down their guns.
At a news conference, Mayor James K. Hahn said: "Deliesh's life is now hanging in the balance because of a senseless shooting, one that we all find intolerable."
Sylvia Rousseau, District 7 superintendent for the Los Angeles Unified School District, said that "when our children are in class, they look to the school for a place of comfort, nurturing and refuge." But, she said, the school can't control what happens outside.
Times staff writers Nicholas Shields and Susana Enriquez contributed to this report.
Copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times
************************************
It is very doubtful that the LAPD will tone down shooting at moving vehicles considering this reality!
http://www.latimes.com/services/site/premium/interceptlogin.register1 Suspect Is Killed, 1 Wounded in Fierce South L.A. Shootout
No one else is hit despite more than 120 shots by police and two men who fired from moving SUV.
By Richard Winton and Natasha Lee
Times Staff Writers
March 11, 2005
A slow-speed police pursuit escalated into a furious gun battle before dawn Thursday, rattling a South Los Angeles neighborhood as police fired more than 100 rounds, killing one suspect and wounding another who had fired first, authorities said.
In the shootout, 16 to 18 officers fired weapons in a 40-minute, 35-block-long chase that ended in a volley of gunfire after the fleeing vehicle plowed into a fence in a supermarket parking lot at the northwest corner of Vermont and Vernon avenues.
No one else was injured
"It was like a war zone," said Linda English, who was in a home 50 yards from where the chase ended. "The gunfire was so loud and you could smell the gunpowder in the air. This is why you have to keep an eye on your kids."
Dozens of businesses along Vermont were closed Thursday after police cordoned off several blocks of the busy street. Investigators pored over the massive crime scene, swarming with three dozen police cars. So many officers were involved in the incident that the department declared an alert and kept officers working night shifts on duty into the morning.
Police identified the dead man as Tony Diaz, 23.
A half-dozen people gathered at 41st Place and Vermont to protest the shooting. They identified themselves as friends of Diaz and described him as an associate of a street gang who always carried a gun for protection.
But a friend who said she spoke with Diaz twice during the chase by cellphone insisted that he would not have challenged police. Rebecca Gallegos, who said she was a close friend, said he did carry a gun. "He sounded nervous and scared," she said of the first call. "I knew they were going to do that to him."
The second time he called, he thought that police were going to put out tire spikes, and he was going to surrender, Gallegos said.
Then she said she heard the shots and ran out of her house and down Vermont trying to find Diaz. "I was screaming, 'Please give up,' " she said.
The surviving driver, Ryan Vargas, 20, was captured about 6 a.m. after a nearly three-hour standoff with an LAPD SWAT team. Diaz was found dead in the passenger seat.
LAPD Chief William J. Bratton said the suspects fired "numerous" rounds at pursuing officers. He said 500 rounds of ammunition were recovered from the suspects' vehicle, along with a rifle and 20 shell casings.
Vargas, who was on probation for possession of a controlled substance, underwent surgery and was in critical condition Thursday. Bratton said tests showed "high levels of cocaine and amphetamines in his system."
"It's a miracle that none of our officers or any civilians were struck," Bratton said at a news conference.
The pursuit began at 88th Street and Vermont, when officers tried to stop what they thought was a drunk driver. At least eight police cruisers were involved in the chase.
"The suspects began throwing out beer cans," said LAPD Police Lt. Paul Vernon. "Then officers thought they heard firecrackers. Then they realized they were being shot at from the vehicle. They saw the rifle being pointed out the passenger side window.
"The suspects would make U-turns, and each time they would fire at police cars."
Near 39th Street, a shot fired from the fleeing vehicle struck the windshield of the patrol car leading the pursuit, Bratton said.
Either because he had been hit or was trying to avoid police gunfire, Vargas drove the SUV through a fence, and it ground to halt at 3:15 a.m., police said.
After more heavy gunfire, the LAPD demanded surrender. Then a SWAT team blocked the suspects' car with armored vehicles.
After waiting nearly three hours, officers pulled the driver from the vehicle and took him into custody.
Television news footage showed police taking cover with assault rifles pointed toward the SUV, and then a hail of gunfire. All of the windows in the suspects' car were blown out, and the vehicle's body was pock-marked with bullet holes.
Vernon said the motive for the incident was unknown. An investigation will determine whether the shooting was within LAPD guidelines, Vernon said. But he said the gunfire from the .22-caliber rifle did represent an immediate threat to life.
In the neighborhood Thursday, people struggled to resume their daily routines. Many residents awoke about 3 a.m. to the clatter of gunfire.
"It sounded like rapid shooting, just like when you turn on the TV and see one of those cowboy movies," said Annie Bogar, 62, who has lived near 45th Street and Vermont for 37 years. "Why would you want to have a shootout with the LAPD?"
Owners of about two dozen businesses within the cordoned-off area grumbled about the lack of commerce.
"It's slow," said George Chavez of George's Custom Upholstery and Foam Enterprises.
"It just totally messed up my day," said Patrice Lewis, who could not pay her pawn ticket because the broker was in the supermarket plaza.
It appeared to be the first time that officers have fired at a moving vehicle since the Police Commission approved a policy that forbids officers from firing at moving vehicles unless there is a threat other than the vehicle itself. That change followed the fatal shooting of 13-year-old Devin Brown after he backed a stolen car toward a police cruiser in South Los Angeles.
"Today, our officers were lucky," said Bob Baker, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League. "Tomorrow the outcome might be different."
Baker said the shooting was a reminder that there were circumstances under which officers must fire at moving vehicles.
In protest of the shooting, friends of the dead man, including Gallegos, used markers to dot their bodies to symbolize gunshots.
Diaz would have shot at police only if they fired first, said Anthony Gonsalez, 18, another friend.
"Tony wouldn't do that," said Reina Fujino, Diaz's girlfriend. "He would not shoot at a cop. He knew you couldn't win."
Copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times
************************************
....just throw in the many instances of incompetence on the part of Black nurses and doctors at "Killer"/"Butcher" King, which is in the Los Angeles County Second Supervisoral District of carpet bagging "Brentwood Burke". The lives of the many individuals killed by incompetence must be meaningless considering the degree that Black people in high positions of leadership have allowed this foolishness to continue since the 70's.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-kingdrew21mar21,1,2469760.story?coll=la-headlines-californiaA Mounting Tab to Fix King/Drew
The consulting firm hired to manage the hospital asks the county for more money, saying conditions are worse than originally thought.
By Charles Ornstein And Tracy Weber
Times Staff Writers
March 21, 2005
The tab for fixing decades of mismanagement and neglect at the troubled Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center is mounting by the millions "” and officials say it will be months before they know if the money is being well spent.
The consulting firm hired to run the Los Angeles County-owned hospital has asked for a $3.4-million increase beyond the $13.2 million it is being given to do the job this year. The new request includes five nurse managers at $36,000 each per month.
Kae Robertson, a director of the firm, Navigant Consulting Inc., said the 25% increase mostly reflects additional costs that had been anticipated when the contract was signed last fall. But it also stems from conditions at the hospital that are worse than the firm had originally thought.
"Even though we had done our homework, and we knew that things were very broken here, what we found was that even simple, basic operational systems were broken," she said.
From November, when Navigant took over, through February, the firm referred 91 of the hospital's nearly 2,500 employees to the county human resources office for discipline. So far, 15 of those have resigned or been fired, including five doctors, county officials said.
The latest request by Navigant includes $52,200 per month for a physician manager to provide extensive "mentoring" to King/Drew doctors and to address "significant" performance issues among hospital department heads, according to Navigant's written request for funds.
Several county supervisors are balking at the cost, saying they are reluctant to pour millions more into a management team that is scheduled to be gone by year's end.
"We agreed to hire them at a set price," Supervisor Gloria Molina said. "Now, I can't say they're nickel-and-diming us because it's multimillions of dollars.... That bothers me."
Under pressure from the federal government, the county hired Navigant last fall after the firm submitted the lowest bid to overhaul the hospital. At the time, supervisors pointedly asked if the firm would seek more money later. Navigant officials assured them at a public meeting that the bid was based on a thorough assessment.
The increase Navigant is now seeking is less than the firm wanted. Last month, Navigant asked the county's Department of Health Services for about $5 million. At the department's urging, the firm scaled back its request to $3.4 million.
A breakdown of contract costs shows how much the county is paying Navigant for its expertise: $52,200 per month each for the temporary chief executive officer, chief operating officer and chief nursing officer, and $45,000 per month for each of several advisors to hospital departments. Those figures do not include expenses.
By contrast, a hospital administrator within the county system earns a maximum $195,500 a year, including cash paid in lieu of benefits.
Dr. Thomas Garthwaite, director of the county Department of Health Services, said he supports Navigant's request for additional funds.
"It's not a long-term solution," he said. "What it does is gets you quick leadership, quick assessment, quick knowledge. I feel like they're doing the hard work, and they're making progress."
Since late 2003, King/Drew, which serves mostly poor black and Latino neighborhoods, has been cited repeatedly by regulators and accreditors for serious lapses in patient care. A five-part Times series in December detailed how errors and neglect by King/Drew's staff have repeatedly injured or killed patients over more than a decade, a pattern that went largely unscrutinized and unchecked.
In February, a national accrediting group took the rare step of pulling its seal of approval from the hospital because of problems identified in 2004.
Since Navigant took over, its consultants have scrambled to right the 33-year-old hospital in Willowbrook, just south of Watts.
In January, the firm compiled a list of more than 1,000 steps needed to fix King/Drew.
But the next month, medical mistakes injured two patients in a week. On Feb. 15, a patient undergoing a tracheotomy suffered neck burns when a cauterizing tool ignited oxygen in the operating room. Two days later, a surgical sponge was left in the abdomen of a shooting victim and wasn't discovered until several days later on an X-ray. (Last year, the hospital pledged to better track items used in surgery after a metal clamp was left in a patient.)
That same week, the hospital came within days of losing $200 million in federal funds because staff members were relying on county police to subdue aggressive psychiatric patients with Taser stun guns.
King/Drew had failed two inspections. After intensive staff retraining, the hospital won over regulators on a third inspection "” and Navigant threw a party with cake and ice cream to celebrate.
Earlier this month, the hospital's trauma center closed after intense public debate. The Board of Supervisors approved the closure late last year, saying it was necessary to save the rest of the hospital. Community leaders have maintained that severely injured patients would die if they had to travel to hospitals farther away.
Navigant officials say that, despite upheavals at the hospital, they are proceeding on schedule.
An official with the labor union representing King/Drew's workers said Navigant has indeed improved morale. But she said she's concerned the firm isn't moving fast enough to implement its recommendations because, she said she believes, it is angling for a contract extension that would net it millions more.
"Where is the incentive for them to quickly, expeditiously, efficiently implement their recommendations?" asked Kathy Ochoa, health policy analyst for Service Employees International Union Local 660. "I really think it's time to start seeing some results from the ideas that have been proposed."
Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, whose district includes King/Drew, said the real test of Navigant's effectiveness will come later this year, when the hospital reapplies for national accreditation from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. The commission's seal of approval has both symbolic and practical significance: Many insurance companies require it in their contracts.
"I think it's still a little early to measure total performance," Burke said. "I was skeptical as to whether you could really do that in nine months or a year."
One of Navigant's key proposals was to create a hospital advisory board, including some healthcare experts, to provide guidance to the Board of Supervisors about King/Drew. Supervisors approved the makeup of the advisory board this month, but the group has yet to meet.
Several supervisors said they believe Navigant ultimately will succeed or fail based on the quality of managers it recruits to lead the hospital permanently. The consultants have just begun searching for a chief executive and other top-level managers.
As they do, two key members of their King/Drew team are leaving their positions. Interim Chief Executive Elliot Cohen is stepping aside and will focus on improving ambulatory care at the hospital. Chief nursing officer Peg Price is leaving because her commute from North Carolina prevented her from working a full week.
County supervisors say their experience with a previous consulting group has made them wary of consultants' claims of success. Last year, the Camden Group touted improvements in the nursing department at King/Drew, yet Navigant found widespread problems when it arrived.
"I don't think we got our money's worth out of Camden," Supervisor Don Knabe said. "It's obvious Camden didn't do their job."
Camden officials have strongly disputed criticism of their work, saying they made great strides under extremely difficult circumstances. Camden was paid about $1 million for its work, which was far more limited in scope than Navigant's.
The county Department of Health Services plans to send its auditors to assess Navigant's work in coming months.
For now, at least one supervisor said he worries that change is not coming quick enough to King/Drew.
"Racing at a snail's pace will not achieve the immediate action required to get the hospital on its feet in providing safe, needed medical care," Supervisor Mike Antonovich said.
"Entering the King/Drew Medical Center," he said, "needs to be a healing experience and not a trial lawyer's or mortuary's meal ticket."
Copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times
************************************
......Well it must be all the fault of racist Caucasians. Some Black people refuse to take responsibility for the sins of Black people perpetrated by Blacks against other Blacks.
But then again, he was not Black nor in Los Angeles, was he? 
