Pacoima Residents Protest Neighborhood Drugs

About 30 Pacoima residents, fed up with heavy drug trafficking in their neighborhood, Saturday staged a noisy demonstration on a street they said was one of the “hottest” in the area for illegal drug deals.

In a variation of a scene from the civil rights protests of the 1960s, the small band of neighbors sang “We Shall Overcome” and carried signs that read “Save Our Children” as they marched up and down a two-block area of Vaughn Street between Glenoaks Boulevard and Herrick Avenue.

“In the last two years, it’s gotten so dangerous you can’t walk the street or come out at night,” said Linda Barber, a mother of three teen-agers whose family has lived in the same house on Vaughn Street for 32 years. “I hope this will slow it down, if not stop it altogether.”

The demonstration was organized by the San Fernando Valley chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People and the Pacoima Community Youth Cultural Center.

Jake Flukers, chairman of the NAACP’s anti-drug committee, said the rally was the first of many being planned in various communities to draw attention to drug problems.

Flukers said demonstrators were marching on Vaughn Street because it was “one of the hottest,” most active areas for drug sales. Police said all of Pacoima is plagued by heavy drug trafficking.

“We’re trying to get the community involved,” Flukers said.

Jane McGlory, a 29-year resident of Pacoima who founded the youth center after her son died of a drug overdose 10 years ago, said only active involvement by residents can put a stop to drug activity.

“The entire country will be destroyed unless all the communities join hands and fight,” McGlory said. “I’ll walk, I’ll crawl if I have to. If I can save one life, then it’s worth it.”