Anti-Drug Push in Pico-Union Area Takes New Twist

The campaign to clean up the drug-plagued Pico-Union area took a new twist Saturday when residents armed with brooms marched into one neighborhood.

This time, drug dealers and users apparently fought back by attempting to sweep the volunteer crew off streets that were barricaded five weeks ago as part of a narcotics crackdown, Los Angeles police said.

Officers were called to the intersection of Lake and 11th streets after passers-by harassed volunteers who were removing litter from curbs and alleys two miles west of downtown Los Angeles.

Later, onlookers identified by residents as drug dealers watched sullenly from the distance as a handful of volunteers finished picking up trash in a four-block area closed to non-residents by the barricades.

Although similar cleanup efforts in nearby neighborhoods have attracted as many as 150 volunteers, Saturday’s effort drew only about 30 people. Some blamed the low turnout on intimidation by drug dealers.

City officials immediately announced that a special community meeting will be held Monday in hopes of boosting residents’ self-confidence.

“Residents are frightened,” said City Councilwoman Gloria Molina, who joined in Saturday’s trash-pickup effort and witnessed some of the harassment. “They’ve learned to live among the dealers. But they’re afraid of repercussions if they come out here.”

Molina said that other neighborhoods have formed “MASH” units--groups that call themselves More Advocates for Safe Homes--and successfully scared off dealers. She said members of the groups have never been harmed by narcotics traffickers.

“We’re intimidating the drug dealers, they aren’t intimidating us,” she declared.

However, most of Saturday’s volunteers at 11th and Lake were members of a year-old MASH group from a Magnolia Avenue neighborhood five blocks away. That organization has staged three successful cleanup campaigns since its first beautification effort seven months ago attracted 140 volunteers.

Moises Aquilar, leader of the Magnolia Avenue group, said his organization will help at Monday’s meeting.

“We’ll explain what we’ve done to clean up the neighborhood and how good it feels,” Aquilar said. “We’ll tell them they shouldn’t be afraid of drug dealers--the drug dealers are afraid of us.”

Although the barricades and heavy police patrols have ended most narcotics trafficking in the targeted Pico-Union neighborhoods, drug dealers still linger in the area, residents said.

“Two of them walked by here a few minutes ago when people were out sweeping,” said Sharie Helm, whose apartment is on the corner of Lake and 11th. “They don’t bother me. But if dealers know you’re afraid, they’ll harass you.”

Martin Castro, who manages an 11th street grocery, praised the cleanup effort but said he was not surprised by the light turnout. “I think some people are scared,” he said.

Although several cleanup volunteers said police took one suspect into custody, officers at the Rampart station had no details.

“They were giving the people doing the work out there a bad time, with the bad guys saying they didn’t want the area cleaned up,” Sgt. John Wickham said. “We sent people out there to break it up.”