Pier Pressure on Street Gangs : Redondo Police Redouble Efforts to Keep the Peace at Popular Attraction

Salvador (Stranger) Pineda, like other gang members, is used to the routine: cops detaining him for half an hour at a time, sometimes searching him, sometimes snapping pictures, always asking questions.

“We’re lucky if we don’t get stopped,” said Pineda, 18, standing near an unmarked Redondo Beach police car in a parking lot near the city pier. “They keep telling us to leave; they don’t want us here, but it’s a public place.

“People can come here to have fun--even gang bangers.”

More and more gang bangers--slang for members--have been traveling to the Redondo pier during the past few years, sometimes looking for fun and sometimes looking for trouble, which they often find.

Gang Unit Formed

To quell the fights, vandalism, graffiti and other problems, the Redondo Beach Police Department recently formed a Gang Suppression Unit, quadrupling the force it has on and around the pier.

Police will not disclose the number of officers assigned to the unit, but in the first five days of operation, the unit made 18 felony and 38 misdemeanor arrests, issued 237 citations and interviewed 80 other suspected gang members.

The arrests and citations by the unit, which has been operating full time since June 27, were for offenses such as armed robbery, speeding, marijuana possession, and littering.

“There are a lot of gangs coming down here,” said Sgt. Randy Martin, head of the unit. The gangs come primarily from Los Angeles, Compton, Inglewood, Carson, Long Beach and Torrance, he said.

Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach do not have any active gangs, Martin said.

Gang-related crime increased 200% in Los Angeles County since last year, Martin said, largely becausegangs were getting more involved in drug dealing.

The gangs coming to Redondo are black, Latino, Samoan or Asian, and rarely cross ethnic lines, he said.

The Vietnamese gangs are particularly violent and have been known to carry Uzi machine guns elsewhere, he said, but Redondo police have not confiscated any machine guns.

“We made it very clear that nobody’s going to claim this pier,” Martin said. “They come here because it’s an interesting place to go and it’s free.” Nevertheless, he said, with so many rivals in such a geographically small location, the potential for trouble is great.

The most serious gang-related problem at the pier in recent months was a shooting outside a restaurant on the boardwalk between two factions of the Crips, a predominantly black gang with an estimated 12,000 members in Los Angeles County.

Five shots were fired in the May 29 incident. Two 17-year-olds were hit in the legs and two men, ages 21 and 18, were arrested minutes later for attempted murder.

The Crips’ target is usually the Bloods gang. The Bloods, also known as the Pirus, is also a predominantly black gang with about 9,000 members countywide.

Police attribute the increase in gang activity in Redondo Beach to crackdowns in other coastal areas such as Venice Beach and Santa Monica.

“They don’t want to be in downtown L.A. They’ve got to go somewhere. They go where it’s cooler--to the beaches,” Martin said.

Gangs showed up in greater numbers during Easter break and have been frequenting the pier more often since school let out for the summer, which is at least somewhat encouraging since it suggests the gang members still attend school, Martin said.

Police and pier business representatives said visitors do not have to fear for their safety on the pier because the officers are always nearby.

Jenine Gonzales, assistant manager of a gift shop on the pier, said she has seen a couple of gang-related chases and fights, but is not concerned. “Hardly anything bothers me here because I trust the police officers that much,” she said.

Bother Pier Users

“And gangs generally mess with other gangs,” Martin said. “Gangs rarely mess with other people.” Even so, Martin said the police realize that fistfights and other gang-related problems bother pier users, “and we can’t allow that to happen.”

It did happen last week, however. Thirteen members of the Bloods, including two girls, were arrested for armed robbery after they mistook four boys for Crips--one of whom was able to run away.

The four boys were wearing British Knights athletic shoes, which have a “BK” emblem on them.

The Bloods interpreted the emblem as “Blood Killers” and forcibly removed the boys’ shoes, which they threw into the ocean, and then robbed them, Martin said.

Police arrested all 13 a short time later on another part of the pier and found a .45-caliber automatic pistol in one of the gang members’ car.

Some Bloods wear red “Crip Killer” hats--a “CK” with the C crossed out.

Police look for these and other gang members who are “flying their colors” via their clothing, usually shoelaces, bandannas or hats. Crips wear blue--and sometimes brown--and the Bloods wear red.

Police look for other clues, too, such as a style of dress--often baggy pants or a baseball cap worn backward, or several teen-age boys spread out and walking in cocky manner.

“We keep a close eye on them,” Martin said. “Most of them are coming down Friday and Saturday nights. . . . They’re starting to get the message that in order to go somewhere and have a good time and be treated like any other person, they have to dress like any other person.”

Redondo Beach police routinely stop suspected gang members for questioning, asking them what “hood” (gang) they run with; why they’re in the area and who they’re at odds with.

Police, who are regularly updated on Southern California gang activity at meetings of law enforcement agencies, often know when a gang member is lying. Some officers are particularly adept at communicating with gang members, speak the same slang and know which gangs are currently warring.

“That guy’s probably a gang banger,” Martin said, studying a young man and his girlfriend as he patrolled the pier in plain clothes last weekend, “but we’re not worried about . . . the guy who’s down here to have a good time with his girlfriend.”

Welcome as Individuals

Gang members are welcome to enjoy the pier like anyone else, Martin said, but not in groups.

Like other teen-agers, gang members often hang out at the Fun Factory arcade on the boardwalk, Martin said.

“Just their existence in the place makes it look like there could be trouble,” said arcade manager John Janis. When the employees see suspected gang members, they notify police, he said.

“I think it’s working. I’ve already noticed quite an improvement. There’s less problems,” he said, adding: “I don’t want it to look like it’s a dangerous place for kids to come down and play, because it’s not even close. . . . We want to put stop to any potential problems before it even gets close to getting out of hand.”

The police aren’t waiting until the gangs get onto the pier or beach. They stop them on nearby sidewalks, on streets and in parking lots.

Police sometimes search the gang members and their cars, where they often leave guns, Martin said. He took a gun from a 12-year-old boy this year, he added.

Officers in the gang unit wear plain clothes, uniforms or street clothes with a police jacket and gun belt. They patrol on foot, on motorcycles, in police vehicles and in unmarked cars.

If police suspect that a gang is looking for trouble or know that a rival gang is in the area, police tell the group to leave. At night, they remind those under 18 of the city’s 10 p.m. curfew.

Can’t Be Barred

Police have to let gang members stay on the pier if they are not causing trouble, Martin said, adding: “They will go to jail if they step out of line--we make it very clear.”

“They’re just doing their job--trying to keep people from fighting,” said Ronnie Ortiz, 19, after he was interviewed by two police officers and patiently waited as about 10 of his friends were questioned.

“We just come here to have fun, and they know that because we’ve been coming down here for six months,” he said. Ortiz, like his cousin, Pineda, is a member of the Tepas, a Lennox gang named for a city in central Mexico.

The gang has Latino, white and black members, Ortiz said, explaining: “We’re not prejudiced, not like some neighborhoods--all they want is Mexicans or just black people.” Members range in age from 9 to the 30s, he said.

Rival in Area

The Tepas, who were warned by police last Friday that members of a rival gang, were in the area, went to the pier, because they usually don’t get into fights there, Ortiz said.

They had planned to go to Santa Monica originally, he said, but changed their minds, figuring they would only end up in a fight with local gangs there. But if someone started a fight with the Tepas in Redondo, he said, his gang would “duke it out.” Either that, or go get guns and return, he said.

Ortiz was shot in the back on two separate occasions, but he said: “Everybody has to die, you know, sooner or later.”

“That’s the way gang banging goes,” agreed 17-year-old Reno (Juice) Maiava, who runs with the Scott Park Killers in Carson--a faction of the Bloods. “It’s the life to live under 18.”

Maiava, who was wearing a red belt and red shoelaces, proudly showed a five-inch scar from a stab wound on the shoulder saying, “I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.” He said he was on the beach in Redondo at the time and his mistake was wearing the Bloods’ color when Crips were around.

He said he does not care if he lives or dies. “What do you mean what do I do? I roam the streets,” said Maiava, who has been in the gang for 3 1/2 years.

“I just grew up in the wrong place,” he said, “the ghetto.” He said he was at the pier “looking for the freaks--girls. Playtime.” Maiava said he does not care that the police often stop him for questioning.

What he was concerned about last weekend was that his car was towed from a space on Harbor Drive, south of the pier. The parking strip was recently changed to a no-parking zone between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. in an effort to stop drug- and gang-related problems, Martin said.

Pineda, who wore a gold “TEPA” charm around his neck, said he and the Tepas don’t hang out at the Redondo Beach Pier to cause problems, but to look for girls and have fun.

They have to go somewhere besides home, he said. “If you’re at your (neighbor)hood, you’ll get shot. . . . That’s how it is if you’re in a gang, so I just tell everybody, ‘Let’s go someplace else.’ ”

He said he joined the Tepas five years ago, but left the gang for about 7 1/2 months a few years ago. He was constantly harassed by rival gang members, so he rejoined--”jumped back in”--for protection, he said.

“It’s not worth it. Your life’s in danger. It’s too hard to get out,” he said, adding that some other gangs beat or even shoot fellow members who try to get out.

Of his two younger brothers, ages 17 and 15, he said, “I’d probably beat them up if they wanted to be in a gang. . . . That’s cool that they don’t like it. You always have to watch your back.”