Laura Ingraham in L.A.: Special LAPD unit making impact on gang violence, crime

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Angle investigates: Tackling crime in Los Angeles

Laura Ingraham meets up with the Los Angeles Police Department on 'The Ingraham Angle'

Laura Ingraham, host of Fox News’ "The Ingraham Angle," continued her close-up look at California on Wednesday night, this time examining a special unit of the Los Angeles Police Department that focuses on gang violence.

She interviewed LAPD Sgt. Ronald Kingi, a 27-year veteran of the force, who shared how the special unit was able to help transform a Los Angeles park.

"A couple of years ago, this park was overrun by Black and Hispanic gangs," Kingi said. "Since we’ve been here, in 2019, it has changed significantly."

A safety partnership created between residents and police helped make the change happen, Ingraham reported.

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"In one year, we reduced crime, just in this park, 68%," Kingi said. "That’s a huge amount."

Absence of positive adult role models in the lives of the area’s youths is a significant problem that contributes to crime, Kingi told Ingraham.

A chance to make a difference helped inspire Kingi to become a police officer, he said.

"I grew up where there’s a lot of poverty, a lot of gang crime, and I wanted to be a symbol of structure for the children because that’s where I see where it’s messed up from the beginning."

Children at home with nothing to do often leads them to join gangs, he said.

"I wanted to stop that," he added.

An area of the city called the Grand Corridor is a hotspot for violent crime, where community policing hasn’t been helping much, Ingraham reported. And the May 2020 death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis only seemed to worsen relations between community members and police.

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A woman named Marilyn Green told Ingraham she didn’t trust police at first when they started paying more attention to the area, but she came to rely on them to look out for her grandchild and other neighborhood children.

"They came here, it took a while, but it’s like we’re family," she said. "[Now,] I don’t look at them as being the police. … They made me understand their job. Their job is just as hard as my job."

Nowadays, she added, her grandson respects the police and gets along with officers in the neighborhood.

"He’s not going to disrespect them at all," she said.