Police Driving Out Hawthorne Blvd. Cruisers

When Hawthorne Police Sgt. Robert Cooper first heard that cruisers were once again gathering along Hawthorne Boulevard, he was decidedly reluctant to crack down on their fun.

As a teen-ager, he used to cruise with the best of them along the same street made famous by the Beach Boys to see the hot rods, to race cars and to pick up girls. Remembering the old A & W Root Beer stand, where cruisers once gathered, and the Wichstand, a drive-in restaurant where his friends later would meet, the veteran police officer felt nostalgic.

But after a gang-related shooting in Lawndale during cruising hours last month, he decided the innocent amusement of his youth had become too dangerous to go unchecked. Cooper, a supervisor in the traffic division, now sends extra patrol officers to Hawthorne Boulevard on cruising nights in an attempt to drive the cruisers out of town.

“The people coming around, probably 90% of them are just regular ol’ kids not really out to do much of anything,” Cooper said. “But the city just can’t let it go on and let all those folks who like to shoot up the town come in and have target practice. We’re kind of in the situation that if we don’t go out and discourage them, violence will escalate.”

Hawthorne’s cruising revival began about two months ago when several hundred cruisers from as far away as Whittier and the San Fernando Valley suddenly rediscovered Hawthorne Boulevard. Many of them came in response to a crackdown in Redondo Beach, where police had been vigorously enforcing noise ordinances against loud music.

Troy Staehler, 18, of Torrance said he and other members of the Rollerz Only car and truck club deserve credit for the revival. Two months ago, Rollerz Only members handed out almost 10,000 flyers that named Hawthorne Boulevard as the new cruising hot spot on Tuesday nights, Staehler said.

“We got the idea from our parents because they said they used to cruise Hawthorne back in the ‘60s when they had their little race cars,” Staehler said.

The cruisers usually meet about 8 p.m. at the Burger King on Hawthorne Boulevard at Rosecrans Avenue before driving to Carl’s Jr. or 7-Eleven. They rarely race, but almost always blare rap music from their cars, Staehler said.

At first, police said, the cruising appeared harmless. Although the extra cars caused some gridlock problems, “We thought, ‘What the heck. The kids have to have something to do and some place to go so we’re not going to lose sleep over it,’ ” Cooper said.

Some fast-food restaurant owners complained to police about cruisers blocking their driveways, but for the most part, businesses in the area welcomed the boost in sales.

“The kids usually buy a small drink and a small order of fries to have an excuse to stay on the parking lot,” Burger King Manager Rudy Madrid said.

But within a few weeks the complaints became more serious, and it became clear that gang members were also showing up for the festivities.

One cruiser’s car was stolen at gunpoint. A few cars were pelted with beer bottles. And rival gang members were spotted flashing hand signals and pointing guns.

The tensions finally erupted last month when a suspected gang member was shot in the stomach during a brawl in the parking lot of a restaurant on Hawthorne Boulevard. The victim is recovering from his wounds. Prosecutors have decided his attacker was acting in self-defense and will not press charges, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Michael Kwan said.

The Community Youth Gang Services, a gang intervention program, has been sending counselors to the cruising area every Tuesday night. Marianne Diaz-Parton, an area manager, said counselors have broken up several fights between gang members. She said seven gangs have been regularly squaring off on Tuesday nights and estimated that one-fourth of the youths on the street are affiliated with gangs.

Unlike the cruisers who are drawn to the area for fun, gang members come to establish territorial boundaries and to find rivals, she said. They often “caravan,” taking up three lanes of traffic and flashing hand signs to see what kind of reaction they’ll get, she said.

Although gangs members usually don’t target outsiders, she said cruisers could easily get caught up in the violence by giving a wrong answer to the question, “Where are you from?”

To prevent clashes between gang members and cruisers, and to ensure that no innocent bystanders are caught in the cross-fire, police and gang counselors have started to discourage cruisers from coming into the city.

In the last few weeks, police have been diligently enforcing traffic laws and issuing citations to cruisers whose cars are too low to the ground. Cars cited more than once for unsafe driving conditions have been towed away, Cooper said.

The pressure apparently has worked.

Last Tuesday, at the peak of the cruising hour, only about 50 cars showed up in the Burger King parking lot, compared to hundreds on other occasions. First-timers Alina Iban, 20, of Los Angeles and Marlowe Whatley, 20, of Van Nuys were disappointed at the low turnout. But they said they still had a good time.

“It was crazy, a lot of people were getting pulled over, but no one was having any real problems,” said Whatley, who brought her 9-month-old daughter along for the ride.

Although both women said they came to see the brightly painted cars, Whatley, who is single, admitted she also was hoping to meet guys.

Despite the potential dangers, Staehler said members of his club are determined to keep cruising, and they plan to distribute more flyers. Law-enforcement officials said they hate to put a damper on the cruisers’ fun but the hazards of gang activity leave them with no choice.

“It’s just not good, clean fun anymore,” Cooper said. “While most of the people view it that way, we have enough of the undesirable element that thinks, ‘Hey, let’s go shoot ‘em up.’ Unfortunately, everyone is going to have to suffer because we don’t need a bunch of dead kids in our city.”