LA is just a racial hotbed. Anything happens, be it white on black, black on white, whit eon latino, latino on white, black on latino, latino on black, and it's called "racially motivated" and the entire community gets blamed for a couple asswipes.

Yep...can't argue with that...which is a huge reason I want to leave the County (it's there throughout, and there's racially-charged action everywhere, but Los Angeles County IS Gangland USA, hands down, the whole culture here suffers for it) and it's a shame because, that poisoned culture aside, there IS a lot of nice stuff out here--I hate the team, but Dodger Stadium is BEAUTIFUL, one of the most beautiful parks in the league, especially at sunset with the sun setting behind Chavez Ravine, and the Theatre District has some great theatres, the Dorothy Chandler and the Ahmanson, nearby Glendale has a nice Galleria and a really nice little blackbox theatre and theatre company I see a couple times a year (A Noise Within, if you're ever in Glendale, CA, look them up, great company, in all the eyars seeing them, only one bad performance...granted it was an atrocious version of "Hamlet," but they also did "Much Ado Ablout Nothing" and "Waiting For Godo" brilliantly, so there we are) and some great restaurants and sites, a fun place to walk around in the summer...

If you can be sure you won't be shot. :/

Downtown LA seemed decent enough if you stuck to the "tourist safe" areas (like 4th + Fig, now called Bonaventure Shopping Gallery). We stayed at the Omni Los Angeles at California Plaza and their limos took us to the shopping areas around downtown and we took the rental car for farther distances, like to Pasadena, Rodeo Drive, Hollywood Boulevard, Santa Monica Pier, Universal Studios, Disneyland, and to see a few shows be filmed. We did head out to an In and Out Burger, but went to the one recommended by the hotel staff. Safety first...

Crime in LA is at an all time low.

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=7204706

Also, Obi. How do you manage to be a 49er fan in LA? I guess they don't care about football very much? I had thought they were all Raider fans, and maybe a few Charger fans sprinkled in there.

"Crime in LA is at an all time low."

No, crime *reports* are at a low (and not an all time low, but a 44 year low). Refusing to take reports or making it difficult for crime victims to make them are becoming popular tactics for police departments around the country in the war on crime statistics. It makes the cops look good to all the voters in upscale neighborhoods who don't really need to worry about crime. Whether crime itself is low(er) is an open question we'll probably never get an answer for. This story is about the NYPD, but I've seen some similar practices firsthand here in suburban SoCal:

http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-05-04/news/the-nypd-tapes-inside-bed-stuy-s-81st-precinct/

Also, I would be very hesitant to believe anything at all in this ABC story since they get a very basic and easily checked fact completely wrong (there are over 10,000 sworn officers in LAPD, not 1,000). That's a number a good LA city reporter ought to know by heart. Heck, I know it, and I don't even live there. Typical TV news trash.

@Putin:

Well, I live about a couple hours--the amount varies based on that notorious So.Cal. traffic, but definitely in range of a commute and a night out--away from LA itself, so that helped...

Though my dad is a RAIDERS fan! And my mom a CHARGERS fan! XD

But I became a 49ers fan just because, when I was six or seven, my annoying aunt--Bronco fan, everyone in the family has a team, sister, Panthers, Grandfather, Giants, etc.--called and wouldn't get off the damn phone unless I told her who MY favorite team was...I think she might have wanted me to say "Broncos!" to please her and piss off my dad, but then I saw on TV this dude in red complete a TD pass to this other dude in red...

"Who are those guys, dad?"
"The 49ers."
"I'm a 49ERS FAN!"

And a few more Steve Young-to-Jerry Rice passes later, and in a year or so the infamous "The Catch II" game where Young passes to TO and the latter catches it between three Green Bay defenders AND taking a shot to the body to jsut pull victory from defeat...I was a fan for life.

LA adn the Raiders be damned! ;) (But yeah, a lesson learned going to my middle school, two actually--1. NEVER wear 49ers jersey or T-shirt or whatever unless the Niners were REALLY good, otherwise you're an easy target and 2. As a general rule, avoid the Raiders-shirt-wearing kids, because those were actually BANNED at my middle and high schools--silver and black being associated with gangs...or gangs with The Silver and Black?...and Los Angeles Kings stuff was banned for the same reason...so if a kid was wearing THAT in middle school, it generally meant he didn't care about any sort of consequences, since people wore the shirts anyway, but the folks who actually gave a damn about if they got busted for anything or not were smart enough to hide them when adults were around...but by HS it was pretty much a non-issue, either because the high school teachers didn't care or the Raiders sucked so badly by then if you wore it you'd BETTER BE a 6'4 strongman, or you were getting called a pussy!)

;)

But yeah, it's about 70& Raiders, 25% Chargers, 5% everone else where I live...

When the Raiders and 49ers were good it was more like 85% Raiders, 10% 49ers, maybe 4% Chargers, and then 1% for everyone else.

For baseball-almsot EXCLUSIVELY DODGERS OR NOTHING, even people who couldn't name a single palyer wear the hat--hate those phonies, those who say they wear it to represent for LA, alright, but those who say "Oh, I just liked the hat!" GAH! HATE THAT!--wear LA Dodgers hats...you'll get an occaisional Angels or Yankees hat on the bus, and they don't killed, the former because I guess they're the "Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim" and the latter because Yankees hats fly everywhere except Boston or Mets territory, I guess...

Around here, there is always a fear of violence when a Pittsburg or Cleveland fan displays his pride near a Bengals fanatic. :-)

I had forgotten about the Rothbardian paranoia about crime.

http://www.intersectionssouthla.org/index.php/story/los_angeles_boasts_lowest_homicide_rate_in_40_years
http://www.lbpost.com/news/ryan/10903

"Around here, there is always a fear of violence when a Pittsburg or Cleveland fan displays his pride near a Bengals fanatic. :-)"

There are plenty of Steeler fans throughout Ohio. No one cares. This was rather surprising to me.

I'm confused. I thought being a Giants fan was sign of brain damage in and of itself...

to get back to the 49ers fans in LA, im sure it has to do with the 9ers being an NFC team and the Raiders an AFC team and they rarely play each other and are not division rivals, thus there's not a high degree of animosity between the two. Chargers and Raiders, however, is going to be pretty big.

But I thought it was the color above anything else. 49ers wear red. Red in LA is verboten, or so I've heard. I've wondered how USC fans get away with wearing red in LA.