ANAHEIM : Residents Beg Police for Gang Crackdown

Residents of Lomita Street in Anaheim, tired of watching their neighborhood being victimized by local gangs, are lobbying the city for more police protection.

Police, however, are busy tracking the city’s 10 targeted neighborhoods, which have become notorious hubs of gangs and criminal activity, and say the residents on Lomita Street should use their neighborhood watch-style resources to help curb the perceived problem.

But residents say they want more. Their concern peaked when guns were fired at a holiday party and a boy was beaten in the street.

“That was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said Phalba Henderson, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1983.

But the police have a different view.

“There is one house that had one hell-raising party,” Chief Joseph T. Molloy said. “That doesn’t make it a gang-ridden area.”

Molloy said it is up to the residents to keep police aware of activity in their neighborhood and important for the residents to form neighborhood watch groups to work with the police.

Though residents plan to continue lobbying the City Council for more police protection, a gang counselor and quicker response time, they also plan to hold their first neighborhood watch meeting next week.

The gangs can paint graffiti “everyday, and we’ll come out and paint it everyday, too,” Henderson said.

The city is considering imposing a tax for more police, fire and paramedic services, which residents would vote on in the spring special election. But the residents say extra police officers are needed long before then.

“I think the best thing we can do is help (the police) by calling and keeping them informed,” Henderson said. “We have to form a neighborhood team.”