Gangs of Hollenbeck, five years later

Program Note: Don't miss an AC360° special investigation, "Gangs of Hollenbeck," this Friday at 11 p.m. ET and Saturday and Sunday at 8 p.m. ET.

Anderson Cooper | BIO
AC360° Anchor

Five years ago we spent months talking to police and gang members while reporting in the Hollenbeck division of Los Angeles. It’s a place where thousands of young men and women were – and still are – members of gangs.

There is a long history of gangs in Hollenbeck, some current gang members have grandfathers who were once gangsters themselves. Since then, gang killings have dropped in Los Angeles, and we wanted to return to Hollenbeck to see what’s happening there now.

We tracked down some of the gang members we talked to five years ago, and re-connected with cops and social workers who are trying to reduce the strength of gangs in the neighborhood.

But even though killings are down, we found that the code of silence is still strong in Hollenbeck, and it’s letting people get away with murder.

Police can only do so much to solve crimes, they need citizens to come forward and report what they’ve seen and what they’ve heard. Too often that doesn’t happen in Hollenbeck.

In any number of gang-ravaged neighborhoods right here in America, there is gunfire, intimidation, murder and fear.

In “Gangs of Hollenbeck,” we’ll take you inside a neighborhood where stray bullets claim innocent lives, where witnesses are afraid to talk to police and where standing on the wrong sidewalk can get you killed.

Five years ago, we reported on one of the most notorious gang infested neighborhoods in Los Angeles, a city known in the law enforcement community as the nation’s gang capital. Five years later, we returned to see how life has changed.