200 March in Wilmington to Denounce Gangs, Drugs

About 200 people chanting “Follow me! We’re gang and drug free!” marched through Wilmington Saturday in what supporters hailed as their largest showing yet in support of grass-roots efforts to combat drugs and gangs.

More than half the marchers were children toting yellow balloons that lent a festive appearance to the rally. But the jovial atmosphere belied how serious they and their parents were about their mission.

Angie Torres, a fifth-grader at Wilmington Park Elementary school, said one of her cousins--a gang member--died of a drug overdose two years ago. “I saw what happened,” she said, “and I don’t want that to happen anymore.”

The march was organized by the Community Reclamation Project, a federally funded pilot program launched in February, 1989, to encourage cooperation among neighborhood agencies that focus on gangs and drugs.

Although the group has organized six other rallies--in Carson, Lomita, Harbor City and Wilmington--since October, Saturday’s march in Wilmington was the first time that organizers brought an entire community together to make a stand, said Natalie Salazar, the project’s executive director.

A few Wilmington neighborhoods have been so besieged by gangs and violence that some residents have been unable even to get newspapers to make deliveries to their homes, she said.

In an attempt to turn the tide, groups of schoolchildren for the past several months have been walking through their neighborhoods asking local businesses to help distribute pamphlets about the dangers of gangs and drugs.

“For a lot of businesses in hard-hit areas, it was a first step” toward eradicating the problem, Salazar said.

Saturday’s rally was smaller than organizers had expected, but they said any showing at all was a victory for the area because “a lot of people are scared to do anything that has to do with gangs,” Salazar said. “They think that by coming out, that’s going to mark them for retaliation. But we have to lower that fear factor, and the only way we can do it is to get more people out.”

To symbolize a sense of unity, two groups of demonstrators--most wearing gang-neutral yellow T-shirts and toting signs and balloons saying “Rise up against gangs and drugs!”--started marching at opposite sides of the community. They met about 1 1/2 hours later at Wilmington Town Square on Avalon Boulevard and I Street for an hourlong rally that included speeches by residents and community leaders.

Among the marchers was Salvador Almanza, 9, who said he frequently sees gang members near his home “go into people’s houses, stay about 20 minutes and then get in their car to leave.”

When asked what he thought they were doing, he replied: “Probably doing drugs.”

Dee Wiggington, 40, who organized a local chapter of Mothers Against Gangs two months ago, said many parents deny that their children are involved in gangs, even after the children show obvious signs of involvement.

“If the parents in the community started taking control and responsibility for their own kids, you wouldn’t have this problem,” she said.

The Community Reclamation Project opened shop with a $1-million federal grant and was slated to last 18 months. A $70,000 grant from the Los Angeles County Probation Department two weeks ago allowed the group to continue its efforts through the end of September, Salazar said.

Although the pilot project has focused on Lomita, Harbor City, Wilmington and Carson, project officials are hoping their work with local agencies will serve as a model for gang-infested communities nationwide, Salazar said.

Ralph Chadwick, president of the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce, which helped sponsor Saturday’s event, said community marches may not have an impact on hard-core gang members. But he added, “If just one person changes his mind, if just one person decides not to join a gang or not to use drugs, you’re doing something worthwhile.”