Police Barricades Go Up in South-Central ‘War Zone’

Police began erecting barricades Thursday around a square-mile area of South-Central Los Angeles in the latest in a series of neighborhood blockades intended to discourage drug dealing and drive-by shootings.

Residents called the area a “war zone” controlled by drug dealers, and most said they welcomed the extra attention.

“They park their cars in your driveway, they play their music and they do their selling--even if you’re looking at them,” said a 57-year-old woman who was afraid to give her name. “They dare you to say anything to them. They bring out the guns and they tell you you’re dead. They say they’re going to get someone in your family.”

The area encompasses about 30 blocks bounded by 32nd Street on the north, Vernon Avenue on the south, Central Avenue on the west and Compton Avenue on the east. It will be encircled by 60 sand-filled plastic barricades and traffic cones.

Police said the neighborhood was chosen because it has one of the highest crime rates in the city and because it has been the scene of 15 drive-by shootings in the past three months.

Residents say they have been agitating for months to get increased police protection.

Amid a heavy police presence, Mayor Tom Bradley and Police Chief Daryl F. Gates announced the crackdown at a press conference Thursday in a vacant lot at 41st Street and Central Avenue.

“We are determined to take back the streets of this community for the law-abiding people who live here, who work here and who play here,” Bradley said.

Residents and others will not be restricted from entering the neighborhood, the mayor said, promising that people will be stopped by police only if they display “suspicious or erratic behavior.” He said that of 560 residents interviewed recently, all but two wanted the barricades.

In addition to beefed-up police protection, the area will get help from other city departments to clean up graffiti and remove trash from alleys and vacant lots, Bradley said.

Police officials said the program, which will be re-evaluated after six months, will cost $35,000 a month to pay overtime for additional police officers.

“We’re not here to occupy the territory,” Gates said. “This isn’t Panama. It’s the city of Los Angeles and we’re going to be here in a lawful manner. . . .

“People’s constitutional rights will be protected in every way.”

Gates said a major aim of the blockade will be to “disrupt the relationship between drug buyers and sellers. If you can destroy that relationship, you can destroy the drug trade that exists here and has festered here and destroyed the area.”

Since October, the Police Department has erected similar barricades in the Pico-Union area, the Sepulveda district and a Mid-Wilshire neighborhood--all aimed at combatting street drug dealing and related crime.

The Rev. Robert Davis, pastor of St. Peter’s Rock Baptist Church at 54th Street and Hooper Avenue, said Thursday that he is delighted with the blockades because the neighborhood has been plagued by drive-by shootings, most by non-residents.

“People over here in this area have been crying for years about what’s happening and nobody has been listening,” he said. “The children--4 and 5 years old--when they hear the shots they hit the floor. The parents teach the children to hit the floor.

“It’s a war zone.”