500 Youths Go on Rampage in Westwood

In the second major disturbance to hit Westwood this year, more than 500 youths rampaged through the trendy shopping village early Sunday, tossing bricks through windows and looting stores, authorities said.

Ten people were arrested in the melee that erupted at 12:45 a.m. after UCLA’s 50th annual Mardi Gras celebration closed for the night.

Unlike a Westwood disturbance in March, in which youths went on a window-smashing spree after being denied entrance to a movie, the spark for Sunday’s disturbance appears to have come from within the crowd.

“I don’t think there was one thing that sparked any of this,” said Sgt. Michael Shain of the UCLA campus police. “When you have several thousand people pumped up to begin with and . . . they’re all in one spot, you’re bound to have problems.”

The latest disturbance to hit the shopping and entertainment district surrounding UCLA again raised concerns about how to control the throngs that have become Westwood’s lifeblood--and bane.

In the past, community leaders and police have tried to control weekend traffic and rowdy crowds by erecting barricades and increasing patrols of police and off-campus security officers.

These efforts have had an unintended side effect, merchants and residents say: They have fostered a perception of violence in the community and curtailed business.

“Westwood is going through a menopause right now--it’s undergoing a change that is reflected in the barricades,” said Robert Lowy, 36, manager of a Westwood Fox Photo store that was a sponsor of Mardi Gras. “It ain’t the old Westwood it used to be.”

Authorities said Sunday’s disturbance apparently began with a series of fistfights that broke out among the youths, many of whom had left the carnival and congregated near the intersection of Broxton Avenue, Kinross Avenue and Westwood Boulevard in the heart of the village.

When the youths refused to disperse, police on horseback and on foot--whom some witnesses described as being “overly polite”--began moving the crowd out of the village and onto Wilshire Boulevard, where most of the damage occurred.

“There were some fistfights in the village and then it took off,” Lt. John Weaver said. “It was just a bunch of people breaking windows with rocks, trash can covers and bricks.”

Weaver said it took nearly 200 police and off-campus security officers 90 minutes to quell the disturbance. Six businesses were burglarized and 17 others vandalized, with damages estimated by police in the tens of thousands of dollars.

The firms, including jewelry stores and corporate offices, were either on Wilshire or side streets. More than 50 windows were smashed at one building.

Five adults were arrested on suspicion of burglary, and one on suspicion of vandalism. In addition, two juveniles were arrested for curfew violations and two for burglary.

One police officer suffered a knee injury from a fall.

“A lot of people got away,” Weaver said.

Ron Richards, an off-campus security coordinator for UCLA, was among those who tried in vain to restore order.

“It was a strangely festive atmosphere in the streets,” Richards said. “They were breaking windows and laughing about it, which is very sad.”

Before Sunday’s incident, many shopkeepers were taking an upbeat attitude about the future of the area, encouraged in large part by a new plan for the village.

Backers of the plan--including merchants, homeowners, property owners, UCLA and Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who represents the area--were pinning their hopes on a proposal dubbed Streetscape.

Under the plan, developed in a $100,000 design study paid for by the city and UCLA, Westwood Village would get a makeover, with convenient--and, more important, validated--parking, alfresco dining, jacaranda trees and lavender street furniture to match the trees’ flowers.

In earlier interviews, merchants acknowledged that there are problems in Westwood. But they viewed them as random occurrences and said they were prepared to deal with them.

On Sunday, the mood of many merchants was one of frustration and resignation.

“There is nothing we can do except sit back and watch,” said Joel Weiner, manager of a small market near where Sunday’s trouble started.

“What happened last night is getting to be routine for Westwood, which is getting to be just like Hollywood,” Weiner complained. “Last night, I looked up the street, saw the crowd and said, ‘Here we go again.’ ”

David Lowenstein, manager of the Mardi Gras, a three-day carnival that is expected to raise $250,000 for the university’s charity for inner-city youths, said the disturbance will be reviewed by a high-level campus committee appointed earlier by the chancellor.

“If the committee recommends any changes,” Lowenstein said, “I’m sure they will be made.”

Some business owners believe they already know the answer, suggesting that the weekend’s festivities should close earlier in the evening.

“The fireworks display goes off at 9:30 p.m., and maybe we ought to start wrapping it up after that,” said Lowy, the Fox Photo manager. “The problem is bored kids who don’t live here and for whom Westwood has become a place to be spotlighted.”

Some locals were discouraged by what they called the passivity of police called out to control the youths.

“The police just stood there while windows were being broken and alarms were going off,” Weiner said. “But can you blame them? There were 500 people out there to deal with.”

Police disagreed with the shop owner’s assessment.

“We did not just stand around--it was like fighting brush fires breaking out all over the place,” said Los Angeles police Sgt. Dave Rossi. “We had 500 people running away from us and it was hard to tell who broke which window.”

Meanwhile, many people who turned out for the final day of festivities Sunday said they were worried about the potential for more violence, although no problems were reported as of Sunday evening.

“We decided to come during the day instead of the night because of the violence last night and over the past few months,” said Milton Krisiloff, 46, a Los Angeles physician who came with his wife and two small children.

Sunday’s disturbance was only the latest of a series of violent incidents in Westwood in recent years.

On March 8, 21 businesses were damaged when hundreds of youths looted stores, threw beer cans and vandalized cars after being turned away from a movie theater that ran out of tickets for “New Jack City.”

In August, nine people were arrested and at least three injured in a series of fights that broke out among crowds of youths who had flocked to Westwood to see the opening of director Spike Lee’s “Mo’ Better Blues.”

In February, 1988, Karen Toshima, 27, of Long Beach was fatally shot in the head in gang cross-fire as she walked along a crowded street after having dinner with friends.

“What is it about Westwood?” asked Anita Maya, 23, who works at Alice’s Restaurant. “Berkeley doesn’t get this kind of thing and they have lots of bars and street people.”

“I tend to feel the problems we’ve experienced in Westwood over the past six months were caused by gangs,” Lowy said. “If Berkeley were closer to Los Angeles they’d have the same problem.”

Times staff writer Nancy Hill-Holtzman contributed to this story.