The State of the Police in L.A.

skhan — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:06:48 -0500

In Los Angeles on August 5, LAPD Chief, William J. Bratton, announced his resignation from duty. Since shortly before the beginning of Chief Bratton's tenure in 2002, the LAPD has been overseen by the federal government under the authority of a consent decree, which was put in place to stop police practices such as racial profiling. Mr Bratton is credited by many as having lowered crime rates and improved the image of the LAPD through the reforms he instituted under this decree. However, the federal oversight recently was lifted, causing some to wonder whether the reforms in the department are sustainable, especially in light of a recent ACLU report suggesting that racial profiling still exists in the LAPD. Youth Radio's Ana Beatriz interviews community members in Watts, in South L.A., to get a pulse of how people perceive the police in their neighborhood, which historically has been a site of racial tension and police violence.

I live in Watts, and you don't see the police as much as you used to, since most gangs have moved away. But a lack of police presence is not necessarily a good thing. To me, it's crazy that when we need the cops, they always turn up late or not at all. When I was smaller we had a party at my house. At around 11pm people started to fight, but it broke up after one of the men left. Afterwards, everyone went inside, but the man came back. His wife had called to warn us, so we closed the gate. However, he drove down the gate with his car and started trying to get in by banging on the windows, cursing the whole time. Out of the ten of us in the house, only three were adults. The rest were kids, and for us it was a scary experience -- I remember I was crying. We kept calling the cops, but no one came. My cousin next door even called. Still nobody came. The experience made me feel differently about the police. I felt like I couldn't count on them showing up when I really needed them, even though showing up is their job. They are supposed to keep the city safe. Ignoring our calls is not keeping the city safe. Something could have happened to one of us that day.

I asked people in South L.A. what they thought about cops in their area and most didn't like them. In particular, residents were unhappy at abuses of power such as passing through red lights and pulling people over for no reason.

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This reminded me of something that had happened to my sister recently. She was driving home from work and noticed that a police car was following her. Then he stopped her. She got scared thinking that she had done something wrong. The policeman asked her for her name and for ID. But then he asked her for her phone number. Stuff like this happens a lot, and it is hard to feel safe. The cops do as they please because they have power. Other examples of abuses of power are even more serious.

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I only found one person in my neighborhood who was cool with police abusing their power--he saw it as a privilege which comes with the job.

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It may be the end of federal monitoring of the LAPD, but it remains to be seen how that change, and Mr Bratton's resignation, will alter police practices in Los Angeles. Here's what some residents of South L.A. had to say to the police.

Previously:

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Previously:

Jerking: The L.A. Summer Dance Craze

skhan — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:03:34 -0500

In the past few years, hip-hop has moved from one dance craze to another. The new big thing on the streets in L.A. is “jerking” or "jerkin'". You may ask yourself, "What is jerkin'?" Well, this dance craze that's hitting the nation by storm all started in L.A. when two friends, Ben J and Legacy, made up a few funny dance moves. After the dance moves caught on, they decided to make a song to go with them, and the single “You’re a Jerk” by the New Boyz was born.

Their album will come out on August 16, on Asylum/Warner. Their official video on YouTube already has had 3,357,825 (and counting) views. Tons of young people have posted videos of themselves doing the dance. The youth around my neighborhood in L.A. have come up with variations on the "Jerk," including the "Sponge Bob," the "Reject," and the "Tippy Toe." I bet the New Boyz never thought their song-and-dance would be such a great hit.

Here is a video that shows you how to do regular jerking and some of the variations I listed above. (Note: Thanks to Rebel Kid for letting us use his song "Hazardous" instead of "You're a Jerk," which we can't use in its entirety because of copyright law).

When I was looking around in my neighborhood to shoot some video of people jerking, I asked one of my friends who I should approach, and he told me "You can't just ask anybody, You have to look at how people dress." Jerk style is skinny jeans and colorful clothes. It's true: I noticed that every time I asked a person wearing skinny jeans, they knew how to jerk. Legacy has said that their "style and music connect because they're both so different to the game [...] everything complements each other." Jerking is basically hip-hop and skater style rolled into one. The beats are hip-hop, but the fashion is skater. The beats are like hip-hop because of the bass line. The fact that the dance is just as important as (and maybe more popular than) the song is part of what hip-hop is all about. According to will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas, "Hip-hop became big business and had to be marketed and sold far beyond the nightclubs where it had begun. But even if hip-hop was no longer traditional dance music, dancing never really left."

I personally don't really like the music, so I thought I'd ask my neighbors what they thought. They didn't think the song "You're a Jerk" was all that great. They thought that the dance move was "stupid" even though they did it pretty well. Maybe the record label thought it was a great idea, and then it spread for some crazy reason throughout the music community. These days, it seems as if musicians write songs about anything. At this point in time, everyone thinks they know how to sing..

Maybe jerking is a trend for mainstream audiences, but if you ask me and my friends, I don't think that this trend is going to last long.

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Previously:

Youth Radio - Topic: south L.A.

The State of the Police in L.A.

Jerking: The L.A. Summer Dance Craze