Pair Cause Furor by Opening Home to Youth Gangs

When Dorothy and Dale Davis discovered a few months ago that their 15-year-old son, Jeff, had joined a gang, they regarded the news as a golden opportunity.

Both are fundamentalist Christians--Dale Davis is an ordained minister--who believed that their son had handed them a rare chance to turn troublemakers into good kids.

“We were seeing our own son involved in gangs and having problems in school,” said Dale Davis, 62, a retired truck driver. “We felt the only way to combat it was to deal with the whole. We wanted to try to change their lives and habits.”

So, since late December, the Davises have made their three-bedroom Burbank home a haven for members of a gang known as the North Hollywood Boyz.

Until last week, as many as 35 youths, most of them 13 to 17 years old, congregated at the Davis home, some shooting basketballs in a back-yard court, others playing television video games or just hanging around with friends in the front yard.

Some Read Bible

If the teen-agers were around at mealtime, they were invited to eat, Dorothy Davis said. And, over the months, several have been persuaded to attend Bible readings and sing-alongs, she said.

“Our sole purpose is to help these kids, give them an understanding of the spiritual side of things, teach them about the Lord and change their ways,” said Dorothy Davis.

But most of Dorothy and Dale Davis’ neighbors maintain that their quiet, modest neighborhood on Brighton Street has been transformed into a gang battleground. They claim that they are plagued by street fights, cars racing up and down the block, and graffiti scrawled on their yard walls, garage doors and cars. Some residents have reported vandalism such as shattered windows and broken yard furniture.

Neighbors claim they also have been harassed and intimidated by the teen-agers. Those with young children say they are too frightened to let them play outside. Elderly people say they no longer walk to nearby stores or take evening strolls in the neighborhood.

“This was a relatively secure neighborhood,” said a neighbor who asked that her name not be used as she feared retaliation from gang members. “I used to go to bed without locking my door. We were never afraid. There was no reason.

“It’s become fear city,” she continued. “All of a sudden we woke up and we had graffiti.”

Some sympathize with Dorothy Davis and her cause but doubt that it will put a dent in gang violence.

“My heart goes out to her, I know she’s well-intentioned,” said another neighbor, who also asked that her name not be revealed. “However, when the neighborhood suffers, then you have to look at it from another point of view. . . . The kids could just take over the neighborhood.”

Because of a Neighborhood Watch meeting held last month and residents’ repeated calls to the police, Burbank Superior Court Commissioner H. George Taylor last week issued a temporary restraining order against Dorothy and Dale Davis, prohibiting more than two youths affiliated with the gang from going to the Davis house at any one time.

The complaint filed by the city attorney said the youths’ presence caused “great and irreparable injury to the residents of the neighborhood in that their peace and tranquility are being and have been disturbed, their safety is in jeopardy and great emotional distress is being inflicted upon them by the defendants.” It further stated that neighborhood residents are “virtual prisoners in their own homes.”

The complaint named about 70 suspected gang members--with nicknames like Poison, Psycho, Bandit, Spooky and Sneezy--who were forbidden from spending time at the Davises. A hearing to issue a preliminary injunction on the matter was held Thursday, but postponed until April 14. The restraining order will remain in effect until then.

If the Davises or the youths violate the restraining order, they could be subject to arrest or a contempt-of-court citation.

Police maintained that the youths carried concealed weapons, got in fights with rival gang members, threw loud parties, drank and vandalized the neighborhood. Police also received a report of a death threat on a neighbor, said Detective Ed Skvarna, gang investigator for the Burbank Police Department. Some of the youths recently were found carrying loaded shotguns at a nearby movie theater, he said.

Skvarna said that, from Jan. 8 to Feb. 8, the gang was involved in 17 incidents that prompted residents to complain, including parking cars on lawns, throwing objects at passing cars, playing loud music, spray-painting walls and cars and shooting at a window with a BB gun.

Some of the youths who frequent the Davis home contend that they are not gang members and are being harassed by police and discriminated against by neighbors because they are Latino or Asian.

“The police are just drooling to get something against us because of the way we dress, the way we look, the color of our skin,” said Augie Valdez, 16, who appeared in court wearing his hair in a modified punk style and dressed in a fashionable gray and black sweat shirt and gray trousers.

“These days you can’t hang out with a big group of friends--they’ll assume you’re in a gang,” said Tok Son, 15, who wore a light denim shirt with baggy black pants and dark sneakers.

Several of the youths named in the complaint said they are often stopped and frisked for no reason while walking down the street.

They said they go to the Davis house to play video games and to get a ride to church.

“But the police think we go there for other reasons, like drugs and all that,” Valdez said. “And the neighbors think we’re going to break into their houses.”

“There’s nothing we can do to fight this except speak out,” Son said. “If we don’t do that, it’s going to get worse.”

Neighbors and police officers disagree that the youths’ activities are as innocent as they claim.

“Based upon my past experience with this type of activity, it will only be a matter of time before an innocent neighbor gets caught in cross fire during a gang battle or is in some other way seriously injured or killed,” Skvarna said in the complaint.

Several residents said they fear their neighborhood will be overrun by rival gang members and complained that the youths congregating at the Davis house are not even Burbank residents.

“I don’t know where these kids are from,” said Frank LeVay, who lives next door to Dorothy and Dale Davis.

“I don’t trust them,” he said from behind his screen door, speaking hesitantly. “I don’t want to leave my home.”

The Davises’ attorney, Ronald E. Gue, said most of the youths are indeed from Burbank.

Dorothy Davis said she can understand some of her neighbors’ concerns, but feels her mission is an important one.

“I think they’re worth it,” she said. “Somebody’s got to do it. If we don’t, these kids are going to end up hard-core. We’d like to get the community to work with us.

“When people think of gangs, they think of them as like a cancer,” she said. “Well, there’s a lot of cancers that can be healed. Kids are very pliable.”

Since the temporary restraining order, she and her husband have enlisted the aid of James Lewis, the pastor of a local Christian church, the New Life Ministries, where about 30 of the teen-agers met last Monday for services.

“I personally believe very strongly in what the Davises are trying to do,” Lewis said. “They are very gentle and passive people, with a heart as big as Burbank.

“The Davises are guilty only of caring enough to open their home . . . and of saying they’re here to help.”

Lewis said he considers the restraining order a “simplistic solution” to the problem and that Burbank residents need to “recognize that Burbank is a changing city,” which now must face many of the social problems of neighboring cities.

City officials and police acknowledge that the problem of gangs and youth violence is a growing one that is not easily solved.

Burbank City Atty. Juli C. Scott, who requested the temporary restraining order, said such an order “obviously isn’t the answer and doesn’t get to the root of the problem.” But, she said, something must be done to stem gang violence.

Lewis said he hopes to direct the youths’ energies into positive activities. He is trying to get local businesses to sponsor a baseball team and has asked his parishioners to give the boys odd jobs.

“Some of these kids are not even close to a gang,” Lewis said. “Some just hang around with them.”

Fifteen-year-old Gabriel Sandoval, who lives six houses away from the Davises and spent much of his time at their house, said he plans to take full advantage of the church’s offers. He said he and others hope to “try to clean up the community” by removing graffiti, cleaning up alleyways and doing gardening for senior citizens.

“As long as my friends do it too, I’m more than willing to do it to prove to the community that basically how we dress and how we look doesn’t mean we’re bad,” he said. “If we show we’re capable of doing good things, then things will improve.”