Compton’s comeback

COMPTON, Calif.

Violence has long been part of life in this city on the gritty south side of Los Angeles. In the birthplace of “gangsta rap,” nightfall once brought gunfire, and wearing the wrong color could get you killed.

Gang activity is still a fixture in Compton’s 10.5 square miles, but the gunfire is no longer as frequent, the drug dealers are not as prevalent and some residents even boast of a comeback.

“I remember a time when you could buy dope on the next corner all day long. At 5 p.m., the shootings would start,” said community activist Royce Ester. “It’s nothing like it used to be back then.”

The notoriously high homicide rate once propelled Compton to No. 1 on a list of the nation’s 20 most dangerous cities. But that rate has now been slashed by more than half - from 65 killings in 2005 to 28 in 2008, the lowest since 1985.

Millions of dollars have been spent on town-home developments and new shopping centers with national chain stores, and residents are reclaiming neighborhoods from gangs.

To be sure, Compton is still beset with urban ills.

About 28 percent of the 100,000 residents are poor. Robberies and burglaries are rising. Prostitutes brazenly strut along a thoroughfare, and streets are still menaced by no fewer than 65 gangs that have an estimated 10,000 members.

“We’re making a lot of progress, but we’ve got a long way to go,” said Capt. William Ryan, who heads the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department station in Compton.

The plummeting homicide rate shows that the strategy of combining a gang crackdown with community outreach is paying off, Capt. Ryan said. But he acknowledged that violent crime is down nationally, and Compton is still, in police parlance, an “active” assignment.

Two decades ago, progress wasn’t even in sight. The Bloods, the Crips and Hispanic gangs warred over a galloping crack-cocaine trade.

Homegrown rappers started glorifying Compton’s underworld. One group was called Compton’s Most Wanted. Another scored a hit with “Straight Outta Compton.” Rapper Eazy-E sang “It’s a Compton Thang.” The music caught on as “gangsta rap,” and the city was popularized as gang central.

Through the 1990s, the city struggled with other problems. The state took over the school district, citing lousy academics and a $20 million budget hole. Flamboyant Mayor Omar Bradley, who was fond of gangster glamour, was convicted of corruption. The City Council disbanded the police force, blaming high crime on ineffective policing.

The new decade has seen schools returned to local control, the election of a prosecutor as mayor and public safety provided by the sheriff’s department.

A hard line on crime has been key to the improvements. A sheriff’s task force targets the four toughest gangs. That strategy goes hand-in-hand with neighborhood crime watches, patrols to protect children walking to and from school, and a weapon-exchange program that has encouraged residents to turn in some 1,200 firearms for $100 supermarket cards.

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