Rowdyism by the Sea Enrages Neighbors : Frustrated South Mission Beach Residents Talk of Radical Solutions

A former East San Diego high school teacher walks down the quiet streets and sedate oceanfront courts of South Mission Beach.

“Great job on the meeting, Jeanne,” a neighbor calls out.

Jeanne Wright smiles. Finally, things are getting done.

“I really don’t want to wait until someone dies. It’s only a matter of time before an innocent bystander gets shot,” she tells a visitor.

“The people that are coming down here now, most are drunk or on drugs. It’s like they’re out of control. They’re breaking into cars, urinating in back yards. People are afraid to go outside. That’s sick. We don’t want that element.

“If the City Council doesn’t do something real soon, then something else will happen.”

The “something else” might not sound so ominous, were it not for grapevine talk of vigilante groups.

Vigilante Talk ‘Scary’

Wright calls such vigilante talk “scary,” and other residents, equally upset about what they consider an “invasion” of their neighborhood, say the talk comes from people who are either frustrated and blowing off steam or just acting stupidly.

All the same, it’s that kind of talk that’s making people listen more carefully to the complaints of traffic, noise and gang activity in South Mission Beach.

A week ago, at an outdoor meeting sponsored by Wright’s group, South Mission Beach Concerned Citizens, more than 400 residents crammed into Belmont Park’s amphitheater to hear city officials talk about parking, traffic, noise and gangs--problems Wright says are interrelated.

After a police official speaking at the meeting noted that no one could be arrested without evidence of a crime, an irate resident drew firm applause by shouting: “Then we’ll take charge!” When another speaker asked rhetorically what should be done about the invading troublemakers, a different man yelled: “Shoot them!”

City Councilman Bruce Henderson, whose district includes Mission Beach, was jeered and heckled when he said the beach is a “regional resource” that must be kept accessible to as many people as possible.

But the only sound that greeted Town Council President Helen Duffy when she said, “We aren’t arguing that you have to keep people out of the beach because they are black, Hispanic, Indochinese or anything else,” was a snicker from the lone black present, a television technician.

Grass-Roots Movement

The wealthy, white-collar section of Mission Beach is in the throes of its largest grass-roots movement in recent memory.

Garland Peed IV, a deputy district attorney in the gang investigations unit who spoke at the meeting, said that, although crowds and traffic--especially on weekends--are the root problem, the most dangerous symptom of the problem is gang violence.

Peed cited two examples from this summer: a Sunday afternoon taco-stand fight between Bloods and Crips that ended with a combatant firing several shots in the air and scattering dozens of bystanders, and the arrests on Mission Beach Boulevard of two suspects in earlier drive-by shootings.

The second incident, involving a SWAT team and detectives who trailed the suspects from one of the two South Mission Beach parking lots, “scared the heck out of a lot of residents,” said Peed, who lived in the area until recently.

“It is one of the attractive spots that attract gangs, like the Sports Arena and rock concerts. They like to go where other young people go, to cruise. Our concern is that, when they run into other gangs, they can get into a violent fight,” Peed said.

Hearing on Parking Issue

Wright’s group is making progress. If it hasn’t succeeded in getting increased police presence, one priority, it has won an Oct. 12 hearing before a City Council committee on the parking issue. Residents hope to see the parking lots at the south end of Mission Boulevard shut down earlier in the evening and make visitors pay for parking spaces. The lots now close at 11.

The lots and a nearby basketball court are favored hang-out spots for young men and women, and Wright says pay parking and an attendant would discourage visitors who aren’t bound for the beach but just want to cruise through, selling drugs and causing trouble.

If they don’t get the parking regulations they want--and Councilman Henderson, who sits on the council’s Parks and Recreation Committee, says he will support the move only if better public transportation to the beach is provided--residents are debating guerrilla tactics.

Among the home-grown measures under debate are filling up the lots with $100 used cars and leaving a rented truck parked lengthwise across Mission Boulevard to block it, Wright said.

Of graver concern to city officials is the possibility of racial harassment.

“Discrimination is a big, big danger,” Henderson said. “There is a certain identity of the gang problem with the Hispanic and black population. Unfortunately, there is a tremendous amount of law-abiding blacks, Hispanics and Orientals who use the beach like everyone else, and who could begin to suffer.”

Capt. Dave Crow, of the San Diego Police Department’s Northern Division, said a few people have mentioned armed civilian patrols to him, but he has discouraged the idea.

Relatively Quiet Summer?

“There’s no need for it. Things generally have been calm enough,” he said. He added that this summer was quieter than the year before, and better than he expected.

“We haven’t been able to document that much gang activity, although the potential is certainly there. You can’t restrict people from traveling through on the basis of sex, race or religion,” Crow said.

Wright said the talk of vigilante groups originated with reserve police officers living in the area, and she said that some full-time San Diego police officers have been supportive of that idea. Fully half of the people who have written letters to her group have suggested some form of civilian patrol, she said.

Although arguing that the Mission Beach problem is not a racial issue, Wright said there are racist residents--and only a handful of black residents.

“It’s like every black person they see is a bad person,” Wright said.

She says the emotions engendered by the issue are so strong because most residents have lived there more than 10 years, as Wright has. “This is maybe one of the last places around where there is a real community,” she said. “These are very conservative people.

“It’s like someone is taking over your house. The price of living at the beach is going up faster than the property values.”

Getting Impatient

Cathleen Scott, a 12-year resident, said most of her neighbors want to work with the police but are getting impatient. “We keep hearing how they don’t have enough force,” she said. “Are they going to wait until a resident gets killed? I think they ought to harass the hell out of the gang members. Abide by the law, but make it unpleasant for them.”

Several residents said the situation would improve dramatically if the police enforced existing ordinances, such as those prohibiting nighttime drinking on the beach and loud car radios.

“The basic problem is the failure of the proper authorities to enforce the ordinances,” said real estate developer Robert Morton. “We’ve talked about financing our own patrol, a dedicated officer, through the Police Department. That’s legal in some districts, but I don’t think it’s a good idea.

“The police are just not allowed to be tough and do things like they should. They’re scared to death of brutality lawsuits.

“When a person cannot protect his family and property, he becomes pretty desperate. We’re trying to make the police understand that we’re at that point.”

Town Council President Duffy says that traffic is a larger, if less traumatic, problem than gangs. Asked about the vigilante rumor, she said, “I’ve heard the same thing. I don’t think anyone is seriously considering it. That would be stupid, but it indicates the very high level of frustration in what is a seemingly fairly laid-back community.

“These are law-abiding citizens. For the most part, they don’t scream and yell and come unglued on issues. But now the situation is getting out of hand.”