Residents Ask How They Can Join the Fight

Dozens of Reseda residents Monday night asked Los Angeles police what private citizens can do about gangs creeping into their community.

About 200 residents attended a public meeting at the Reseda High School auditorium. Many expressed concern, frustration, anger and fear as they told officers from the West Valley Division about the impact of drug dealers, graffiti and burglary on their lives.

“I was burglarized in December,” said Milena Miller. “I was burglarized in February.”

Norma Willis, her voice rising with anger, said: “I do not want to be pushed out of my neighborhood because of these crumbs.”

The audience burst into applause.

Willis, a 20-year Reseda resident, said she attended the meeting out of concern--and fear. She loves her neighborhood, she said. “I’m scared it’s going to go down the tubes.”

The meeting, sponsored by the Reseda Community Assn., came in response to growing concern about gang activity in the area, said association member Linda Buckley. “We’re looking for solutions,” she said.

Capt. John L. Higgins encouraged the audience to help police fight gangs through Neighborhood Watch groups. He also urged residents not to become complacent about graffiti. “Paint it out” or ask the building’s owner to do so, he said.

Not all graffiti in the area is gang-related, Higgins said. But ignoring graffiti is a sign of submission to gangs, he said. In a few weeks, the West Valley Division will assign two officers to coordinate a graffiti cleanup campaign, he added.

“We do have gangs in West Valley,” said Higgins, adding that police have identified about 500 gang members in the area. “We have gang-related crime in West Valley.”

But, Higgins said, the presence of gang members should be a cause for concern, not fear.

“We do not have a great deal of street violence,” he said. There was a gang-related shooting at a Reseda roller-skating rink Thursday, but it was a rare incident, he said.

Residents used Higgins’ remark as a springboard to complain about the roller rink and vent frustration about the Police Department. Radu Vulpe complained that it took police 20 minutes to respond when he called to report a knife fight.

But others praised the force. “All of us are concerned because there are not enough of you,” a man told Higgins. When the man suggested that residents lobby city officials to increase the number of police officers, the audience again burst into applause.

Higgins and three other officers said they were encouraged by the citizens’ response.

Capt. Alan Deal, noting that the Oscar telecast was in progress Monday night, said: “Obviously, to you, your community is more important than the Academy Awards.”