[PEN-L:32433] Law & Order in the Golden State

["Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

Title: Law & Order in the Golden State

Welcome to L.A., Chief Bratton...

ORDER:
130 Arrested in Sweep of Skid Row
Many are parole violators, say police, who add that homeless were not the target. The operation involves more than 250 officers.

By Andrew Blankstein and Richard Winton
Times Staff Writers
November 21 2002

More than 250 officers moved through downtown Los Angeles' skid row in raids that began before dawn Wednesday, arresting more than 130 people, including many ex-convicts who had violated parole, Los Angeles police said.

Some homeless people sleeping outdoors were rousted in the operation. Police said the move had been planned for two months, but it came just 48 hours after business organizations complained about the number of homeless people in the area, saying the concentration threatened efforts to improve the downtown economy. The number of arrests quickly overwhelmed the jail facilities at Parker Center, the LAPD's headquarters, and forced police to use buses as temporary detention housing.

Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell said Wednesday's operation was a move by Chief William J. Bratton and Mayor James K. Hahn, along with other agencies, to deal with the soaring number of parole violators downtown.

The message, said McDonnell, is that violators cannot avoid prison by living on skid row. "People either behave or go elsewhere," he said.

Police searched the blocks bounded by 1st, Spring and 7th streets and the Los Angeles River. Many of those detained were arrested on the streets and in low-cost hotels around 5th Street, an area known as "the Nickel."

As McDonnell spoke, parolees in handcuffs could be seen being led into a tented area behind Parker Center, where buses waited to take them to County Jail facilities for hearings.

LAPD officials said police did not approach people at random. Instead, accompanied by parole officers and working with information about parolees gleaned from several days of surveillance in the area, they questioned several hundred people Wednesday to determine their identities and whether they were in violation of their parole terms.

Of those taken into custody, about half were found inside buildings, while the others were on the streets....
For more see: <http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-sweep21nov21.story>

LAW:
Legal Aid to the Poor Falls Short
The state has made improvements, but the unmet need for help in civil matters remains large, state bar finds.
By Henry Weinstein
Times Staff Writer
November 21 2002

Nearly 1.5 million poor families in California do not have access to lawyers when they confront disputes involving education, employment, health care or other needs, according to a report issued Wednesday by a special state bar commission.

The state has increased its spending on legal services for the poor in recent years. But it still spends considerably less than several other major industrial states and has many fewer lawyers available to serve the poor.

California has one lawyer available for every 10,000 poor residents, and spends $13 per eligible person for civil legal services.

By contrast, Minnesota and New Jersey provide $39 per person. Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Washington, Ohio and Pennsylvania are among the states that also outspend California.

Total public and private expenditures for civil legal services for California's poor come to $149 million, a significant hike from the 1996 level of $101 million. But completely meeting the need for legal representation among poor people would require $533 million, said San Francisco attorney Jack Londen, past chair of the California Commission on Access to Justice, which issued the report.

"As a practical matter, there can be no access to justice without access to legal assistance," Londen said.

The commission was created in 1997 after a State Bar task force issued a study that said the quality of justice in the state was being seriously undermined by inadequate efforts to address the legal needs of the poor.

"The statistics may seem cold, but it's impossible to remain complacent about this situation after meeting a family made homeless by an illegal eviction, a senior who lost his home to foreclosure from a crooked loan transaction or a domestic violence victim unable to navigate the courts to get a restraining order," said Karen A. Lash, associate dean at USC Law School who co-chairs the commission. ...

for more, see <http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-nolaw21nov21.story>

[these stories appear next to each other in the print edition of the L.A. TIMES today.]

Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine