L.A. Gangs Are Back

WITH POLICE IN RETREAT AND GANGSTERS WINNING PAROLE, MAYHEM RETURNS TO THE STREETS

On a Sunday afternoon in July, 13-year-old Elizabeth Tomas was sitting at her bedroom window in the Boyle Heights section of Los Angeles. She was putting on her makeup when a bullet came through the window and hit her just above the left eye. Tomas, who had just started high school, was the innocent victim of a random gang shooting. After visiting her in the hospital, L.A.'s new mayor, James Hahn, put up a $25,000 reward for information on the crime. "If a young girl can't stay in her bedroom safely," he says, "we are in terrible shape."

Los Angeles is...

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