RALLY: Gangs Told to Leave : Neighbors Pull Together to Send Message to Gangs: ‘Get Out of Here’

You’re in your back yard, and two armed teen-agers run by. Later that month, you learn that two other youths were gunned down in the graffiti-lined alley behind some nearby apartments. And those are just the latest signs that gangsters have invaded your neighborhood.

Do you put your house up for sale or look for another apartment? Decide to rename your community to disassociate it from the rest of Van Nuys? Cower indoors and hope the gangbangers go away?

Not if you live near Victory Boulevard and Fulton Avenue.

About 100 residents from that area joined police and city officials Saturday morning in an outdoor rally to encourage the community to drive gangs out by constantly reporting their activities to police.

The rally was staged half a block from the site of a Sept. 23 shooting in the alley behind the 13100 block of Victory Boulevard in which one man died and another was wounded. A 17-year-old North Hollywood gang member is in jail charged with murder and attempted murder.

“We’re all afraid,” said Wylie Gustafson, the resident who was standing in his yard recently when armed youths ran by. “But we’re not going to let fear rule our decisions. We’re going to let gang members know that they’re not welcome in this neighborhood.”

The gathering in the front yard of a single-family house on Mary Ellen Avenue was unusual because it drew Latino and white neighbors, apartment dwellers as well as homeowners, alike.

Candace Campbell, president of the Tract 15105 Neighborhood Assn., which organized the event, said the group distributed flyers in Spanish for the first time since it was formed 10 years ago.

“They’re just as fearful as us, and we can’t do it without them,” Campbell said.

Officer Angel Lopez, a member of the Los Angeles Police Department’s anti-gang unit, translated into Spanish as police and a representative of Councilman Joel Wachs’ office encouraged residents to report all crimes--even gatherings of youths that violate the city’s anti-loitering laws.

But Martha Rojas, who manages six apartment buildings in the 13000 block of Victory Boulevard nearby, said she has called police about large gatherings, and they have failed to show up.

Police Capt. Sidney Mills, head of the Van Nuys Division, said he would pay personal attention to the area.

“I’m paid $90,000 a year to sit in a little office, and I’ve got all kinds of time, so call me personally at 989-8332 to report a crime,” Mills said. “If you’ll be our eyes and ears, even if it’s anonymously, I promise you we can maintain a high quality of life in this area.”

Lopez said heightened scrutiny by residents would drive gang members away rather than incite them.

“Something like this shows them that they’re going to get a lot of attention, and they don’t like that,” Lopez said, adding that gang members have drifted into the area recently because their home turfs nearby are heavily policed. “It’s become hot at home for them, so they have some friends in the apartments and start hanging out in the alleys out here.”

Some Latino residents complained after the rally that Lopez did not speak Spanish well enough to translate adequately. The language barrier somehow must be overcome if the neighborhood is to successfully unite, they said. But the rally was a significant first step.

“A lot of people don’t want to get involved, because they’re afraid, but if the gangs see we’re mad like this, they’ll slack off,” said resident Ruben Rodriguez, 34.