Scardenzan’s Idea of Banning Gangs From Parks Catches On

When Anthony Scardenzan first proposed banning gang members from Inglewood city parks several years ago, critics of the Italian-born councilman jeered him. This is America, not Fascist Italy, they said, calling the idea one that Mussolini might have invented.

Scardenzan, hurt by the criticism, persuaded himself that his idea did go too far.

But just last month, Scardenzan’s colleagues revived the idea after the city of San Fernando--with the backing of the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office--passed a law doing exactly what Scardenzan had proposed.

The idea of banning gang members from certain public facilities is still dismissed by some as overly simplistic, constitutionally questionable and not a real solution to gang violence.

“It’s a quick-fix solution,” said Ramona Ripston, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, which is weighing a legal challenge to the San Fernando law. “It’s a cruel hoax to the public.”

But, as gangs tighten their grip on communities across Los Angeles County, the idea is catching on among city officials and residents from the Latino barrios of San Fernando to the streets of Long Beach to beachfront properties in Redondo Beach. Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner will capitalize on that interest this week by holding a workshop for city officials seeking to implement a San Fernando-like ban, which carries a $250 fine, in their own parks.

Soon after the San Fernando City Council implemented its ordinance to quell a longstanding turf war that had scared residents away from Las Palmas Park, calls started coming into City Hall and police headquarters.

The Cudahy city manager’s office wanted information on the ban, which authorities call the first in the nation. So did the Pico Rivera Police Department, as well as officials in Inglewood, Arcadia, Monrovia, Oxnard, North Hills and a dozen other municipalities.

Reiner’s office, which drew up the ban for San Fernando, is giving the ordinance impetus, too.

“A park is a place for children to play and adults to relax. It is not a killing field for gangs,” Reiner said in a letter mailed to local officials throughout the county. He attached the San Fernando ordinance and opinion pieces supporting the ban from The Times and the Daily News and invited them to a meeting at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the County Board of Supervisors Hearing Room, 500 W. Temple St.

“I believe this ordinance has the potential to reclaim parks for the general public,” he wrote. “I hope you will find it useful.”

The hearing room will not be empty.

Inglewood Mayor Edward Vincent, who made fighting the city’s street gangs one of his prime campaign promises while running for reelection earlier this year, says he plans to attend. At Vincent’s direction, the council last month asked City Atty. Howard Rosten to draw up a similar ordinance.

“I’m going to let the gangs know that they don’t exhibit acceptable behavior,” said Vincent, who is a county probation officer. “They won’t be welcome in our parks, our stadiums and our schools. . . . We’re going to let them know that if you come to Inglewood and get caught with a red rag on your head, shooting at people” there will be a penalty.

Scardenzan said he was surprised but pleased when Vincent revived the idea that he had suggested years before. “By not doing anything against the gangbangers we are depriving (residents) of what is their right,” he said.

After receiving Reiner’s letter, Redondo Beach Mayor Brad Parton and his council colleagues last week called on the city attorney to report on implementing a gang ban for their city, which has gang problems near the pier and on the north side.

“I think that San Fernando’s approach is worth a try in Redondo Beach, before the gang problem here becomes uncontrollable,” Parton said in a letter to the council. “I don’t believe that such an ordinance’s provisions are motivated by a desire to discriminate; and I am confident that such an ordinance would be upheld by courts as constitutional.”

“Everyone is angry and upset about the extent of criminal street-gang activity in the county,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Genelin, who heads the office’s hard-core gang division. “When you are confronted with a crisis or emergency situation in the parks there are a limited number of alternatives. . . . If you close the park, no one can enjoy it and you’ve failed and let the thugs win.”

Genelin said the situation in San Fernando was clearly urgent: Two street gangs had launched a violent turf battle in the park, injuring a mother and her three children caught in a cross-fire and scaring neighborhood residents.

In other cities, ordinances will have to be drawn up with the assistance of the district attorney’s office based on the city’s individual situations, Genelin said.

In San Fernando’s case, both gangs involved in the shootings had been classified under state law as criminal street gangs, a designation that applies to about 120 of the county’s estimated 800 gangs.

Only those gang members designated as “active” according to the state’s Street Terrorism and Enforcement and Prevention (STEP) Act will be served with notices banning them from the San Fernando park. City officials say their law only applies to STEP gang members and not every teen-ager entering the park.

In Inglewood, one gang has been classified under the STEP criteria, and police are gathering the criminal histories on several other gangs for presentation to the district attorney’s office. Two Redondo Beach gangs are classified as criminal street gangs. For a gang to be listed, members must have been involved in violent felonies, and police officials must have compiled a history of the gang documenting its violent activities.

Still, some gang experts said city officials are wasting effort on a solution that does not address the reason for gangs--a lack of social support from anyone other than fellow homeboys.

“We need to create some opportunities for gang members,” said Dr. Armando T. Morales, a professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine who treats violent gang members. “They need some recreational outlets. If we close off parks we are going to spill the problem more into the streets.”