Race an increasing factor in gang slayings in Los Angeles County

Even as gang-related homicides have been dropping in the last several years, the proportion of such killings in which race was a factor has increased, according to Los Angeles County sheriff's officials. Sheriff's homicide investigators reported that race "played a role" in 16% of the 207 gang-related killings in 2005, rising to 19% of 133 gang slayings last year, said sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore. In the first six months of 2008, 25% of the 56 gang-related slayings involved either blacks killing Latinos or vice versa. That compares with 13% for the same period last year. Whitmore said officials examined all gang-related homicides over the last three years, in jurisdictions where the department investigates those crimes, to determine what role, if any, racial hatred played. Whitmore said it is as much an element in the slayings as such other factors as gang clashes, drugs and turf. Whitmore said the numbers appeared to back Sheriff Lee Baca's argument for a broader discussion about the role race plays in gang killings. "Critics have said race is a major factor in the violence in county and state prisons, and is a problem on school campuses. But they say, 'Baca was wrong to say those factors are at play with gangs on the streets,' " Whitmore said. "The numbers lend credibility to the argument that the racial component be examined along with other factors, including drugs, territory and money, in these crimes."