Anti-Gang Program Cut Crime but May Be Losing Its Sting : Harbor City: Longer terms and police warnings slashed criminal activity 47%. A recent resurgence indicates stronger action may be needed.

Gang-related crime in Harbor City fell by almost half from 1988 to 1989, and police attribute the drop largely to an innovative program designed to curb gang activity.

But as crime inches back up, there are signs that the program--with its longer jail sentences for gang-related crime and warnings that gang members can do time for such things as wearing a beeper--is losing its punch.

Harbor Division police say the two-step program has reduced gang crime--including assault, murder and robbery--by 47% in the South Bay community since it began. Under the first step, based on a 1988 state law and implemented last July, police created extensive files on known violent street gangs, and had members sign forms acknowledging their affiliation. That law also provides for additional jail time for convicted gang criminals.

In the second step, which began last fall, gang members learned of a more drastic consequence. Police posted warnings telling gang members that the city attorney would seek a court order permitting police to arrest gang members for engaging in a number of otherwise legal activities, including such things as carrying a pager or flashing gang signs.

The effect of those moves was to scare gang members, but the impact may be wearing off. Without getting an injunction, police are unable to arrest gang members for otherwise innocent activities, Harbor Division Capt. Joseph De Ladurantey said. Officials are watching the recent small increase in gang crime and are discussing filing for the court order.

“We will seek to use the injunction if we think it is needed. The notice may be sufficient, and we might take other steps first,” De Ladurantey said. “But we will certainly look at (the court order) if gang crime is not kept at an acceptable level.

“It’s pretty dramatic,” he said. “It means for flashing a gang sign or wearing a beeper, you could get a year in jail.”

Such court orders are obtained under city ordinances that bar nuisance activities, such as prostitution at a massage parlor.

Some neighborhood activists say they would welcome the injunction, while civil liberties activists say the prospect is a nightmare for the Bill of Rights.

Kenneth Salsman, past president of the Palo Del Amo Woods Homeowner’s Assn., endorsed the idea. “Without the injunction step, it has really been just an exercise. I am very enthusiastic about the program and would like to see it carried to the next step,” he said.

However, Ramona Ripston, executive director of the Southern California American Civil Liberties Union affiliate, said: “It is clearly unconstitutional. It’s just another example of politicians pandering to the public trying to make them believe that they are coming up with solutions to gangs (and) drugs. But it is not going to solve the problem, and in the process, we may lose our civil liberties.”

Deputy City Atty. Bruce Coplen emphasized that not all of the prohibitions in the notice would necessarily be approved by a judge, but he said some circumstances justify a limit on civil rights.

The legal theory for such limits has already been sustained in other cases, he said. An injunction against a West Los Angeles gang in 1987--obtained under a city ordinance--contained many of the Harbor City prohibitions, Coplen said, and gang crime dropped off drastically after several cases were successfully prosecuted.

“People have a right to be safe and able to walk the street,” said Coplen, supervisor of the city’s gang prosecution program. “If someone is terrorizing you, you have the right to get a court order to demand to stop those activities.”

The state law’s provision for enhanced penalties, which allows an additional three years on a felony sentence and one year on a misdemeanor, means that a gang member could potentially serve significant jail time for breaking the court order, said Coplen.

To police, that is fine. “It is saying, ‘You no longer exist as a gang.’ It says if you are a gang member, you lose your civil rights,” Detective Mike Markulis said..

De Ladurantey is cautious, however, about rushing to get a court order now. It would be tantamount to admitting defeat of the program, he said, adding that he would “like to think the kids will realize what this would mean, and do a little self-enforcement.”

Some members of the Harbor City community worry that the most recent small rise in crime--which does not bring gang crime near the levels of 1988--may mean that gangs are starting to call the Police Department’s bluff.

EXCERPT FROM NOTICE TO GANG MEMBERS

The notice to gang members reads, in part:

The people of the state of California, by and through James K. Hahn, city attorney for the city of Los Angeles, hereby put you on notice that:

You are creating, maintaining and encouraging, and permitting others to create and maintain, a public nuisance in that you are engaging in and encouraging, and permitting others to engage in, continuing, repeated and ongoing acts of:

a. murder;

b. open and conspicuous narcotics trafficking;

c. open and conspicuous narcotics possession and use;

d. open and conspicuous consumption of alcoholic beverages in public by adults and minors;

e. assaults;

f. use and possession of dangerous weapons and ammunition;

e. vandalism to public and private property including, but not limited to, graffiti;

h. blocking the free flow of vehicular traffic and emergency vehicles by approaching passing vehicles and engaging passengers in conversation;

i. congregating at locations including, but not limited to, the intersections of 254th and Marigold, 252nd and Marigold, 256th and Marigold, and Normont Terrace parking lot located at 254th and Petroleum, in the city of Los Angeles, with the intent to attract persons who seek to purchase narcotics and other contraband, and attract persons from rival street gangs who intend to commit acts of violence;

j. wearing clothing and jewelry bearing clearly visible insignia which identifies the wearer as a member or associate of the above respondent unincorporated associations or street gangs so as to encourage and induce members of rival street gangs to commit acts of violence;

k. wearing clothing and jewelry bearing clearly visible insignia such as dollar ($) signs which identifies the wearer as a narcotics peddler;

l. possessing paging devices (beepers), portable and cellular telephones at or in the vicinity of narcotic sales locations described in paragraph i. (above) so as to facilitate the trafficking of narcotics by respondent street gangs;

m. yelling of words and phrases in public which identify the speaker as a member or associate of respondent street gangs so as to intimidate law abiding citizens and encourage and induce members of rival street gangs to commit acts of violence;

n. blocking and obstructing sidewalks and pedestrian thoroughfares so as to intimidate and annoy citizens;

o. causing and encouraging private and commercial vehicles and taxicabs to travel to and from narcotic sales locations described in paragraph i. (above) so as to facilitate the purchase, sale and transportation of narcotics.

The above described activities are a public nuisance, are offensive to the senses, are injurious to health, and are indecent, so as to interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life and property by an entire neighborhood and a considerable number of persons in the community.

Therefore , You are hereby commanded to halt, discontinue and abate the creation and maintenance of the public nuisance described above.