Residents in Pacoima March on Drug Dealers

More than 300 chanting Pacoima residents, most of them housing project tenants, took to the streets Friday to protest drug dealing, marching past what police say are two of the worst trafficking spots in the community.

Led by Mayor Tom Bradley and other politicians, the group stepped out from Pacoima Park and marched past the San Fernando Gardens and Van Nuys Pierce Park projects, both notorious drug dealing centers, shouting: “We love Pacoima. Say no to drugs.”

Throughout the late-morning, 1 1/2-mile walk, the crowd held high signs and banners stating “Save Our Children” and “Drugs Fry Your Brain.” One apartment complex manager, Armando Medina, raised a poster above his head reading “Our Residents Say No to Drugs” as he walked past the San Fernando Gardens.

The rally grew out of mounting frustration among managers and tenants of seven northeast San Fernando Valley public-housing projects, who said they formed an anti-drug coalition because they were fed up with bold drug dealers who peddle narcotics in alley ways, courtyards and sidewalks.

Last June, a Los Angeles police officer was fatally shot outside a Sylmar apartment complex while attempting to apprehend a suspected drug dealer. Two weeks ago, a Pacoima man, angered by the drug dealing in his neighborhood, took out a handgun and shot and injured a woman who he believed was dealing in front of his house.

“It’s time we show the drug dealers that we are stronger than they are,” said Mary Cooley, a 49-year-old grandmother who organized the rally. “We can’t lose any more of our children to drugs.”

Cooley, who leads a crime watch group at the Lake View Terrace Apartment projects where she lives, said she hopes that the rally will prompt residents to form more vigilant Neighborhood Watch groups and give citizens the confidence to speak out to police when they spot drug dealers.

“The drug problem in Pacoima has grown far bigger than the Police Department can deal with on its own,” Capt. Arthur Sjoquist of the Foothill Division station told the crowd. “But as a team we can win the battle.”

Sjoquist said that the drug dealing in the housing projects has become “particularly acute,” with arrests this year almost triple of what they were last year. “The problem has gotten so bad that people are beyond being worried, they feel that must get involved to stop it.”

One marcher, 10-year-old Keoni Willis, said she was participating because “maybe it will make some of those drug dealers change their minds so I can go outside and play again.”

Members from a Sun Valley evangelical group, which seeks to convert drug addicts and gang members, sang out, “Once I was a rock head, but Jesus set me free” as they marched down Van Nuys Boulevard.

Vicente Fajardo, an 18-year Pacoima resident, said the corner of Haddon Avenue and Mercer Street where he lives sounds like a “24-hour auction” because of so many drug dealers.

Fajardo said he was marching “to let the dealers know we are watching them and won’t be afraid anymore.”