LOS ANGELES (AP) - A 14-year-old girl was killed by Hispanic gang members who police say were targeting blacks. A 9-year-old girl died after being hit by a stray bullet as gang members exchanged shots near her home. A cop was wounded in a gunbattle with a suspected gangster.

The soaring violence is prompting police and politicians to promise one of the toughest crackdowns against gangs in city history.

"This is the monster, this is what drives people's fears," said Deputy Chief Charles Beck, who oversees a South Los Angeles district where gang-related crime jumped 24 percent during the year ending in November.

However, the effort has met skepticism in the city that has an estimated 700 gangs with 40,000 members - about four for every police officer - and that gave birth to some of the nation's most notorious gangs, including the Crips, Bloods and Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070121/D8MPTFEO0.html

I believe it when I see it. In the big cities, half the cops are on the take and the other half are tired of arresting the bad guys just to have them out on the street 24 hours later.

Everybody knows who the trouble makers are. No one has the balls to arrest them and lock them up forever.

The inner cities in this country are worse than Baghdad. In the 4 years we've been in Iraq, 3000 US soldiers died. You know how many murders Chicago had in the same time period? About 2400. Of course, in Iraq, the soldiers are allowed to have guns and shoot back. Here in the states, we're sitting ducks. The big city mayors won't let citizens carry weapons to protect themselves. Some places you can't even carry Mace...while the criminals and gang-bangers run free shooting each other and innocent bystanders.

What a shame this is. What a shame it is that politicians are using this little girl's unfortunate death to grandstand. 6 months from now, no one will remember the promises that were made today. Shame on those politicians...shame...

Please keep those bastards mexican gang bangers in LA. Everytime they reach Arkansas somebody gets killed.