“You’ve got everyday folks who have nothing to do with the gang lifestyle and culture scared,” LAPD Deputy Chief Bill Scott said.
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.
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