New Los Angeles Police Chief William J Bratton faces re-emergence of gang warfare that is driving boom in homicides; homicide in city as whole is up nearly 19 percent from last year, while rate in gang-infested South Central neighborhood is on pace for 43 percent jump from 2001 and 240 percent rise since 1998; police officers blame steady rise in homicide rate on disbanding of all gang units after disclosure in late 1999 of misconduct by one renegade unit and federal consent decree that punishes overly aggressive officers; graph of percentage of gang-related murders; The afternoon that William J. Bratton was confirmed as police chief, a man was beaten to death in the South-Central section of this sprawling megalopolis abstract I for one am anxious to see if this guy can duplicate his success in LA. To bad Adolfo Guliani couldn't stand to share the spotlight w/ him. NY's loss is LA's gain.
NY never had even close to the gang problem LA has, this guy won't stop the gangs. He could not stop the gangs that were in NY. Crime lowered in NYC while he was here, and it stayed low and even went lower with other commisioners that came after him.