LAPD Vows to Keep Up Gang Sweeps in the Valley

Los Angeles police said Monday they hope the weekend arrests of 136 gang members in the San Fernando Valley have put pressure on Valley gangs and will turn back gang migration from other areas of the city.

The 150-officer task force made 301 felony and misdemeanor arrests Friday night through Sunday morning. Police said 136 of the suspects were identified as gang members. The first-time Valley operation came in unison with gang sweeps in other portions of the city.

Gang problems are not as serious in the Valley as in other areas of the city, particularly South-Central Los Angeles, police said. But there are still an estimated 6,000 gang members in the Valley, which is becoming increasingly attractive to gangs looking to escape police pressure and drug-trade competition in their traditional strongholds, police said.

“We are trying to show the gangs that nobody is protected,” said Detective Cliff Ruff, head of the Foothill Division’s anti-gang unit. “This task force shows we are not going to create a situation in the city where there is a safe haven for gangsters to move to or operate in.”

Constant Crackdown

Commander Frank Piersol, who directed the task force, said large-scale gang arrests in the Valley will continue.

“We do feel there is an ongoing gang problem in the Valley, and we wanted to make it clear to the community that something is being done about it,” Piersol said. “The word will get out, and what we hope to have happen is to have gang violence discontinue. If we have a discernable decrease--however we achieve it--we will consider our efforts successful.”

Police said arrests by the task force were made in each of five Valley police divisions, but most--about 70%--came in the Foothill Division. Most gang activity in the Valley is in Pacoima and Sun Valley, which are in that division, police said.

Task force officers were deployed across the Valley while members of police anti-gang Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums units acted as roving scouts, identifying suspected members. Most of the arrests came in public housing developments and in parks where gang members are known to loiter, police said.

Hangouts Targeted

“We basically went to areas where gang members are known to hang out,” said Officer Angel Lopez of the Van Nuys CRASH unit. “It was a matter of stopping and questioning people. In most cases, that usually led to arrests.”

Police on Monday provided a partial breakdown of the weekend arrests. Of the 136 suspects identified as gang members, at least 26 are juveniles, police said.

Twenty-two gang members were arrested on suspicion of felonies ranging from narcotics to weapons possession to felony warrant violations. The other arrests were for suspicion of misdemeanors ranging from curfew violations to trespassing to drug possession. Several people were arrested for probation violations, police said.

Police said they confiscated several weapons, including four guns, and impounded 120 cars during the task force operation.

Ruff said the gang members were identified through CRASH unit intelligence. Unit members also identified gang members by the types of clothing they were wearing, by hand signals they were using and by the company they were keeping, police said.

“You have to establish a reason to stop and detain anybody,” Ruff said. “One tool is the recognition of gang members. If, through our own expertise, we identify gang members, we have a right to determine” what they are doing.

Ruff added that many gang members are on probation, which prohibits them from associating with other gang members or from taking part in activities such as drinking alcohol. During the weekend sweeps, the task force frequently was able to question groups of suspected gang members after spotting one who was known to be on probation.

On Monday, many of the gang suspects arrested during the weekend were arraigned in Valley courts, resulting in minor problems for court officials. At the San Fernando Courthouse, the Los Angeles public defender’s office doubled the number of attorneys handling arraignments to four to handle the flow of defendants.

“It’s not way out of control at all,” said Bitner Winckler, chief deputy public defender of the San Fernando branch.

Times staff writer Tracey Kaplan contributed to this story.