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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Associated Press 12/19/94
SWAT teams will patrol Fresno streets
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By Joe Bigham (copied without permission)

Fresno- Special Weapons and Tactics officers carrying
assault weapons will start patrolling Fresno streets 
immediately to stop rapidly rising violence, including
several attacks on children and police, Chief Ed Winchester
announced yesterday.

Thirty SWAT officers, gang suppression and K-9 units will
form a new violent crime suppression unit that will begin
operations this weekend in 10-member teams.

"There has been one violent incident-- one shootout--
in the City of Fresno every three days," Winchester
told reporters.

Three young children have been wounded in the past three weeks, 
including an 8-year old boy doing homework at his kitchen 
table and an 11-year old girl shot five times outside a home
Thursday night.

Thirteen people have been killed and 63 wounded since May in
violence blamed on gangs or drug dealers, Winchester added.
Shots have been fired at officers 11 times during that
period.

"The people oare outraged," the chief said of the mood in this
Central California farming community of 400,000 residents. "This
is out of control; this has to stop."

Winchester added that citizens "are tired of bullet holes shot into
their homes, into cars.  Not only are they tearing up home and
cars, but human bodies."

The violence suppression unit will patrol high-crime areas in cars 
and on foot, wearing SWAT camouflage fatigues and bullet-resistant
vests and armed with HK 53-caliber assault rifles and police revolvers.
The unit will operate at least until April, when Winchester hopes 
to make it permanent.

Asked if some citizens might not fear having such heavily armed
officers on the streets, Winchester responded:
"Would they prefer criminals carrying these kinds of weapons
of rather highly trained officers carrying these kinds of weapons?"

The chief said officers have been instructed to stay within the
law as they try to improve the safety of neighborhoods by
removing violent criminals and weapons.

"I made it clear to all members of the team that they must operate
within the Constitution and within department policy and
state law governing arrests and detention," Winchester said.




 
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