Several Cities Study Law to Ban Gangs From Using Parks

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.

Now, several cities in the Southeast and in other parts of Southern California are looking to follow suit.

San Fernando authorities say their law is the first of its kind in the nation. They hope the action will quell a longstanding turf war that had scared residents away from Las Palmas Park.

Scardenzan and his City Council colleagues have now asked city staff to draw up a similar ordinance to help Inglewood reclaim its parks.

The idea of legally trying to ban 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 considering making 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 in several communities.

Cudahy’s city manager wanted more information on the ban. So did Pico Rivera and Compton administrators, as well as officials in Arcadia, Monrovia, Oxnard, North Hills and a dozen other municipalities.

Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner capitalized on that interest recently by holding a workshop for city officials seeking to implement a San Fernando-like ban, which carries a $250 fine, in their own parks.

“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.

Such an ordinance might be useful for keeping Cudahy’s parks safe, even if it infringes on the rights of gang members to use parks, Assistant City Manager Nicholas Mull said.

“Families who have those same rights are afraid to come into the park,” Mull said. “They’ve seen what happens down the street when there’s a drive-by shooting and they don’t want to expose their families to that same danger when they see gang members loitering in the park. When a family goes to a park and they don’t feel safe, whose rights have been violated then?”

Mull said that Cudahy’s three city parks are particularly important to the life of the city, one of the most densely populated in the country. About 23,000 people live in the 1.07-square-mile town. The parks are the only place “that a lot of kids in the community have a chance to play on grass,” he said.

Long Beach Mayor Ernie Kell was intrigued enough by the San Fernando ban to ask his city manager’s office to look into the matter. But Kell said this week that Reiner’s briefing led the city staff to conclude that a park ban probably is not appropriate for Long Beach. Such an ordinance would have to be tailored to gang battles in a particular park, and while Long Beach has had its share of gang violence in recent years, the problems are not centered in parks.

While Pico Rivera is interested in the ordinance, City Manager Dennis Courtemarche said he is concerned over the constitutionality of the measure.

“The goal is certainly noble, but our council would not pass any ordinance that the city attorney felt was ultimately going to be declared unconstitutional,” he said. “I’m not sure this is the best way.”

Courtemarche said that Pico Rivera already is trying other strategies to keep its parks safe. During the summer, the city arranged with the Sheriff’s Department to create a park patrol. Two one-man cars would patrol city parks four days a week, at varying times, to be on the lookout for gang activity.

The patrol was an effective deterrent against the city’s 13 gangs and 2,500 gang members, Sheriff’s Deputy Joe Chavez said. “These guys knew we were out there, so they backed off.”

Pico Rivera and the Sheriff’s Department recently began discussions about an adopt-a-park plan, in which an officer or team of officers would watch over a particular park, get to know its gang problems and work daily to solve them.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Genelin, who heads the office’s hard-core gang division, said any city ordinances should be drawn up with the assistance of the district attorney’s office based on a city’s individual situations.

He 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 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. 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.

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.

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.”

Deputy Chavez agreed that a park ban would not defuse the dangers posed by gangs. “Gang members hang out all over the place,” he said. “If we chase them out of the parks, they go someplace else. At least it gives the citizens a safer feeling about being there and allows them to enjoy the parks.”

Times staff writer Bettina Boxall contributed to this story.