Young, Old Say ‘No’ to Gangs in Lawndale

More than 125 residents of Lawndale, worried about increasing gang activity in their neighborhoods, took to the streets Saturday to say “No” to gangs.

Young and old alike took part in a mile-long march designed to demonstrate the community’s resolve to fight the gang problem before it grows worse.

Although sheriff’s deputies say Lawndale has experienced few incidents of gang violence, community leaders said they fear that a recent increase in graffiti is a sign that rival gangs are staking out territory in their community.

Mayor Sarann Kruse said there has been a marked increase in graffiti, especially around parks, and two students have been attacked by gang members in the past week.

Balloons and Banners

“We are not going to tolerate gang activity in our community,” Kruse said.

As marchers carrying balloons and banners wound their way through a quiet residential area and along busy Inglewood and Rosecrans avenues and Hawthorne Boulevard, surprised residents and businessmen stood watching, sometimes shouting or waving their support. The drivers of heavy trucks honked their horns as they drove by.

Boy Scout coordinator Frank C. Drees said Lawndale residents are not going to stand still and allow gang activity to become rooted in their community. “Everybody should fight back,” he said. “We have a slight-to-medium gang problem. We don’t want it to get any worse.”

Drees said he wants young people to be involved in activities like scouting. “I believe in my gang, not their gangs,” he said. “We don’t like the gangs. We don’t want to have anything to do with them. The gangs have been pushing harder, so we’re going to push back.”

Pointing to graffiti on buildings, Drees, a 35-year resident of Lawndale, asked, “What right do they have to deface our property?”

Alex Vandenkolk, president of the Lawndale Jaycees, said the community is united in opposition to gangs. “Lawndale is too nice a town to let it happen,” he said.

But he said there have been increasing problems around Leuzinger High School at lunchtime and after school, when students gather at fast-food outlets in the area.

Lawndale’s Neighborhood Watch coordinator Nancy McKee said the march was organized because the city started to see signs of increasing gang activity. “These people are saying they don’t want that kind of element in our city.”

Joining McKee at the head of the block-long line of marchers were Ajer Edmundson, Steven Wann and Donald Teager, all 7, and Dave Rudolph, 6.

When Mckee asked them, “What do you say to gangs?,” they shouted, “No!”

Gardena Mayor Donald L. Dear and Hawthorne Mayor Betty Ainsworth were on hand to lend their support to Lawndale’s anti-gang efforts. “We are here to show solidarity with our neighbor. The problem is not unique to our community. It’s becoming a problem for the whole South Bay.”

Dear said Gardena has problems with black gangs in the northern part of the city and Latino gangs in the south.

A team of Los Angeles County young gang services workers has been assigned to the Lawndale and Lennox areas in the last three months to combat “an upswing in gang activity,” according to Marianne Diaz Parton, the team’s supervisor.

“This is everybody’s problem,” she said. “This is not just a Hispanic and black problem.”

Parton, an ex-gang member from Hawthorne, said it is important to launch anti-gang efforts early. “Like cancer, if you catch it in the early stages, you can get ahold of it,” she said. “We’re trying to make the community aware that this is something that won’t go away.”