Monday, September 5, 1988/The Battalion/Page 11
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Gang violence rages
on in the City of Angels and street thugs are ex
panding their drug trade to other U.S. cities de
spite police sweeps, a new FBI task force said Fri
day.
More than 200 people have died in gang-re
lated slayings so far this year; 1 1 people were
slain last weekend, and an undercover police of
ficer was shot to death Saturday while tailing sus
pects in a drive-by shooting.
Los Angeles County had a record 357 gang-re
lated slayings in 1987, and authorities are expect
ing more than 420 in 1988, said Deputy District
Attorney Michael Genelin, head of the district at
torney’s Hardcore Gang Unit.
Drive-by gang killings now average more than
one a day and often claim innocent bystanders in
their plights.
| Community outcry prompted Los Angeles po-
[lice to launch a full-scale assault in March. Twice
since then, they have marched 1,000 officers into
the most gang-infested areas on weekends to stop
the gang wars.
The result has been a decline in the overall
crime rate, although the gang murder rate con
tinues to climb.
“We’re in a holding action,” Robert Philibo-
sian, former district attorney and head of a state
task force on gangs and drugs, said. “We’re keep
ing the flames from spreading but we’re not put
ting them out.”
Los Angeles gangs are expanding their co
caine-trafficking networks as far as Seattle, Kan
sas City, Mo., and Philadelphia, law enforcement
authorities said.
“We have people coming from L.A. to sell co
caine, not to start gangs,” Seattle police Officer
Dan Fordice said. “It’s a business deal here, it’s
not gangs.”
A Los Angeles gang member was recently sen
tenced to 25 years in prison in Seattle for selling
drugs near a school, he said.
Kansas City has had eight successful prosecu
tions of Los Angeles gang members for narcotics
offenses, Sgt. Kathleen Pierce said.
Authorities said it will take much more than
cops on corners to make a dent in the 70,000
members of the 600 gangs in the county.
“It’s going to take years,” Lawrence Lawler,
the new FBI chief for Los Angeles, said. “The
FBI has worked at stopping the drug problem
for 30 years and still hasn’t stopped it. It’s a form
of life to some people. It may be an entire gener
ation before this goes away.”
When Lawler arrived here from Minneapolis
two months ago, his first big action was to estab
lish an FBI gang unit here because he had begun
to see Los Angeles’ Bloods and Crips gangs sell
cocaine in St. Paul, Minn.
U.S. Attorney Robert Bonner also created an
anti-gang unit of federal and local law enforce
ment.
Official: Response
to flight emergency
has been
WASHINGTON (AP) — Im
provements in emergency proce
dures since the Delta Flight 191 tra
gedy three years ago contributed to
an “excellent” response after last
week’s crash, a member of a federal
investigating team said Sunday.
See related story, page 1
“This emergency response ap
pears to be one of the most effective
that I’ve ever seen,” said Lawrence
D. Roman, a representative of the
American Association of Airport Ex
ecutives and a member of the “survi
val factors” group of the National
Transportation Safety Board team
investigating Wednesday’s crash.
improved
Delta Flight 1141 crashed and
burned on takeoff, killing 13.
Ninety-five people, including the
three members of the flight crew,
survived as the Boeing 727 skidded
to rest at the end of a runway.
“It would appear that on first im
pression that this response was ex
cellent,” Roman said.
He stressed that he was not speak
ing on behalf of the investigation,
but as a representative of the airport
executives association.
Roman said changes made in
emergency response procedures at
the airport since the 1985 crash of
Delta Flight 191, including installa
tion of cellular telephones in ambu
lances, helped in evacuating survi
vors.
Forest fires blaze across more
of Yellowstone National Park
SILVER GATE, Mont. (AP) —
^Residents outside the northeastern
K ntrance to Yellowstone National
ark were told to evacuate Sunday as
hundreds of firefighters mounted a
last-ditch effort to save this town,
ind a spokesman said the situation
within the huge park was deteriorat
ing.
’It’s going to be a siege for the
next 48 hours,” Pat Kaunert, a fire
information officer, said.
More than 50 fire engines stood
by to protect homes in Silver Gate
and nearby Cooke City as the
57,000-acre fire approached from
the west. Park County disaster coor
dinator Bob Fry said about 150 peo-
le were being evacuated from their
omes.
“We were threatened with evacua
tion two weeks ago, so I packed
then,” Ellen Gesensway said in the
doorway of her rentetl cabin. “I’ve
been packed ever since.”
Bulldozers carved a 65-foot-wide
fire line through forest just west of
here, and nearly 500 firefighters
helped dig the line by hand. Crews
planned to set a “backfire” to cut off
the main fire’s fuel source.
“We’re creating a massive buffer
in a last-ditch effort to save this
town,” Kaunert said. “We need two
miles of buffer in front of the fire to
hold it. Two miles of black.”
The blazes now cover some
910,000 acres of the greater
Yellowstone area, including 611,000
acres within the park itself, or more
than one-fourth of Yellow'stone’s 2.2
million total acreage.
Within Yellowstone itself, fire
fighters Sunday tried to save
wooden foot bridges and protect a
campground.
“This situation is growing increas
ingly more serious day by day,”
Yellowstone National Park spokes
man Joan Anzelmo said. “It is a mag
nitude that no one in their wildest
imagination or scientific predictions
could have suggested.”
Anzelmo added that without help
from the weather, no amount of
money spent by the National Park
Service or the U.S. Forest Service
will help douse the blazes.
“Mother Nature is making the de
cisions here,” Anzelmo said.
Elsewhere Sunday, Washington
state’s most serious forest fires bal
looned to more than 10,000 acres,
sending smoke and ash over the
town of Republic but posing no im
mediate threat to the town.
In Silver Gate, Mont., a sheriffs
department vehicle drove down the
street at 8 a.m., its siren blaring. Au
thorities knocked on doors and
phoned people, asking them to
leave. Under Montana law, officials
cannot force anyone to evacuate a
home.
Wayne Johnson watched the fire
fighters march by and said he was
staying. “There’s no real reason to
leave,” he said. “I don’t think the
town’s going to burn.”
The lightning-sparked fire threat
ening Silver Gate has been burning
June 14. Under Forest Service policy
for naturally occurring fires, the
blaze was allowed to burn as long as
it remained within certain bounda
ries.
But in mid-August, wind gusting
to 70 mph blew the fire across seve
ral miles in a matter of hours, and a
human-caused fire to the west also
gained ground.
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Statue of Liberty remains
woman linked to politics
WASHINGTON (AP) — While
politicians normally don’t want to be
linked with women other than their
wives, there’s one gal that candidates
have been fawning over for more
than 100 years.
She’s 151 feet tall and stands de
murely in New York Harbor.
Candidates and their image mak
ers say there’s no better company to
be seen in — especially on coast-to-
coast television — than that of the
Statue of Liberty.
So coveted is she as political com
pany that the campaigns of Michael
Dukakis, the Democratic presi
dential nominee, and Republican
vice presidential contender Sen. Dan
Quayle clashed over which of them
would hold the lady’s hand this La
bor Day.
Quayle prevailed, but only be
cause he asked first, according to the
National Park Service.
As the statue’s custodian, the Park
Service takes great pains to assure
the statue does not show favorites.
Still, she has been always been a
willing companion since her dedica
tion by President Grover Cleveland
in 1886.
“There's more emotion
packed in the Statue of
Liberty than almost any
thing else in America. ”
— Greg Stevens,
media consultant
Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D.
Roosevelt and Richard Nixon have
all paid calls on the statue during re-
election bids.
“The Statue of Liberty is some
thing special,” says Greg Stevens of
Ailes Communications, media con
sultant for George Bush.
For tugging at voters’ emotions,
the grandiose statue and her dra
matic surroundings are a better
backdrop than any Hollywood set.
The statue took its prime place in
the World War I war bond drives of
1917, replacing the female Colum
bia as the personification of Amer
ica, says Park Service archivist Barry
Marino.
“There’s more emotion packed in
the Statue of Liberty than almost
anything else in America,” Stevens
says.
President Reagan chose Liberty
State Park in Jersey City, N.J., to
kickoff the 1980 campaign that put
him in the White House.
The Hudson River-front park of
fers a dramatic view of the statue
against the skyscrapers of lower
Manhattan.
Both Dukakis and Quayle wanted
to appear Monday at the two-island
Statue of Liberty-complex: Liberty
Island, where the statue stands, and
Ellis Island, where millions of immi
grants entered the United States in
the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.
Since Quayle asked first, Dukakis
had to settle for a tour of Ellis Island
on Saturday.
He escorted his mother, Euterpe,
a Greek immigrant who arrived in
this country via the island.
To Succeed -
Not Just Survive
in the Business World...
Alpha Kappa Psi
Professional Business Fraternity
1988 Fall Rush Schedule
Open Functions:
Monday, Sept. 5 — Informational Meeting
7:00 p.m. Rudder 701
Sunday, Sept. 11— Picnic
3:00 p.m. Tanglewood Park
Invitational Functions:
Wednesday, Sept. 14 — Casual Gathering
7:00 p.m. Rudder 701
Friday, Sept. 16 — Social before Yell Practice
8:00 p.m. Timbercreek Party Room
Monday, Sept. 19 - - Formal (business attire)
7:00 p.m. Brazos Center, Assembly Rm. 1
“The first step to professionalism
is to be a professional.
The first step to becoming a professional
is Alpha Kappa Psi.”