Pacoima Leaders Protest Police Use of Motorized Ram

San Fernando Valley community leaders Friday night demanded an official investigation of police use of a new weapon--an armored military vehicle with a 14-foot battering ram--to smash into a suspected drug “rock house” in Pacoima.

An angry crowd, gathered in a Pacoima church, cheered as the Rev. Jeffrey Joseph Sr. described the battering ram as a “brand-new toy, christened on blacks.

“We don’t need new weapons to be tried out on us. Of all the methods that there are to arrest a person, they used a brand-new toy,” Joseph told about 50 area residents at the meeting, which was organized by local ministers and the San Fernando Valley Chapter of the NAACP. Joseph, pastor of the New Heaven Missionary Baptist Church, and other speakers vowed to oppose future use of the police vehicle, which was unveiled during the raid Wednesday evening.

Los Angeles police said earlier Friday that they were unaware that three small children were inside the house when the armored military vehicle knocked through a wall of a front room.

Child in Yard

A child was observed playing in the home’s front yard at one point during the surveillance that preceded the drug raid, said Capt. Noel Cunningham, head of the Field Services Narcotics Division. “But we didn’t know children were there” during the raid.

Occupants of the house said the children had been playing in the front room only moments before the battering ram was used.

Police officials said the armored vehicle will be used again to break into suspected “rock houses,” fortified dwellings from which drugs are sold.

The only occupants of the Pacoima house were two women and three small children, two of whom were eating ice cream. No one was hurt, but the ramming left a gaping hole in the wall.

A search of the house turned up no guns and only a small amount of marijuana, police said. They arrested Antonio Johnson, 25, who was not home at the time of the raid, on suspicion of sale of cocaine based upon what officers said was an earlier undercover purchase from the home. Johnson’s wife, Linda, 24, was arrested on suspicion of child endangering, and her 5-year-old son was taken into protective custody, police said.

The raid continued to evoke strong criticism Friday, but there was also support.

City Councilman David Cunningham, a frequent critic of police actions, Friday sent a letter to Police Chief Daryl F. Gates praising the use of the battering ram.

“These insidious fortresses for drug dealings have plagued our neighborhoods far too long,” the councilman, who represents South Los Angeles, wrote. “Often drug dealers have time to destroy drugs and other valuable evidence that would assist prosecutors in putting these criminals where they belong behind bars. . . . Through the use of the battering ram, our Police Department can gain access to a rock house in seconds, gaining precious time needed to confiscate drugs, weapons and other paraphernalia.”

But American Civil Liberties Union attorney Joan Howarth said: “These weapons may be appropriate for a battlefield, but not to serve an arrest warrant.”

Jose DeSosa, president of the San Fernando Valley Chapter of the NAACP, said: “We support the concept of removing harmful drugs but don’t support actions that indiscriminately endanger the lives of children.”

Police officials argued that use of the battering ram vehicle is safer for officers and citizens than other techniques for staging drug raids.

Capt. Cunningham cited a December drug raid in which a woman was killed when a police diversionary explosive device, commonly known as a “flash bang,” was hurled into a rock house. Other officers, however, said a “flash bang” device was also used in Wednesday’s raid.

Capt. Cunningham said the battering ram “absolutely” will be used again. “We can’t retreat,” he said. “We have a lot of concern, but we do what we have to do. We can’t sit and hope and pray that these guys be nice guys and come out.”

City Councilman Howard Finn, whose district includes Pacoima, said he intends to introduce a motion next week that would establish guidelines for future raids with the armored vehicle.

“I very definitely feel we need some kind of weapon,” Finn said. “My concern is to make sure there is enough advance surveillance (to) ensure that no innocent people will be hurt.”

Police officials said the presence of children would not stop use of the battering ram.

“We strongly believe that if dope dealers get the impression that you can make a rock house into a sanctuary by having children inside, you can then be assured that children will be inside every one of them,” Gates, who rode aboard the armored vehicle as it slammed into the house, said Thursday.

Cmdr. William Booth, a Police Department spokesman, said police “try everything we can to make a determination to know who is in the house, but knowing that children are in the house will not necessarily preclude us from making a safe entry.”

Also contributing to this story was Staff Writer Andy Furillo