EddieDoyers
formerly eddiengambino
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The photographs went online earlier this month after a 27-year-old man was gunned down in South Los Angeles. One showed a man flashing a chrome handgun from his jacket pocket. In another, a young man held a pistol in each hand.
“Better wake up,” one person wrote on Instagram. “It's a war goin' on.”
“This area ain't safe right now,” someone else posted with a map showing a portion of South L.A.
The warnings of increased gang violence intensified across social media platforms this weekend after more than half a dozen shootings in South L.A. left one man dead and 12 people wounded.
The postings created an echo chamber in which it was difficult to determine what was a real threat and what was rumor. One of the most incendiary claims was that a gang had vowed 100 days of violence after the 27-year-old man was killed on July 17, sparking alarming hashtags such as #100days100nights and #PrayforLA on Twitter and other sites.
Police said they were monitoring the traffic as they try to quell the violence. LAPD Deputy Chief Bill Scott met with gang intervention workers Monday night, telling them there was no evidence to corroborate the threats and asking for help in calming fears.
“You've got everyday folks who have nothing to do with the gang lifestyle and culture scared,” he said.
The events underscore how social media platforms in recent years have played a significant role in the investigation of gang crimes as well as the effort to reduce violence. Investigators and gang intervention workers said gang members don't rely only on spray-painting the sides of buildings to send their threats. Now, they said, social media allow gangs to directly challenge adversaries and quickly spread fear within neighborhoods.
“Gang rivalries are now fought by insults and threats on social media,” said Robert Rubin, a community intervention worker in South Los Angeles.
Aqeela Sherrills, who also works in gang intervention, agreed.
“Now the message gets across the city faster,” he said. “In the neighborhood, everything travels by word of mouth. Social media added a quantum effect to it.”
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/...al-media-draw-fear-20150727-story.html#page=1
Stay safe to those that live in South LA