NCJ Number
149056
Journal
Security Digest Volume: 17 Dated: (September 29, 1986) Pages: 3-4
Date Published
1986
Length
2 pages
Annotation
This brief article reports that juvenile street gangs have seriously damaged the courthouse of Compton, California, by repeatedly shooting at its walls.
Abstract
In this judicial district, two-thirds of all homicides cases in Los Angeles County are filed. It is located 10 miles south of downtown Los Angeles and includes Watts, where numerous houses were torched during the 1965 riots. More than 30 windows on one side of the courthouse were shot out during a rampage that began New Year's Eve 1985 and ended in June 1986 when increased police patrols finally succeeded in scaring away the gangs. Although random gunfire incidents occasionally happen at courts, Compton is the only courthouse whose walls were used for target practice by juvenile street gangs night after night. Although no one was injured in the attacks, the parking lot was filled with shattered glass, and the judges began moving furniture in their chambers to keep way from windows. However, crime is so common in this area that the rash of shootings was not noted by the Los Angeles media until a court official requested nearly $300,000 to install bullet-proof glass in the courthouse. One Compton judge commented that the events are a general symptom of our time and of the general decay of authority.