Police Block Street to Drive Out Drugs, but No More Arrests Made

Los Angeles police blockaded block-long sections of Milwood Avenue for eight hours Friday as part of an ongoing effort to drive drug dealers and gang members out of a Canoga Park neighborhood.

Officers stopped motorists and spoke with them briefly as they entered the 7200 block of Milwood Avenue just north of Sherman Way, but they planned to make no arrests as they had done earlier in the week, said Officer George Alcazar, who coordinated the operation.

“The purpose of this operation is not to make arrests. It’s to get out some information,” Aguilar said. “We want to deter dope dealers and let residents know we want to make this area more livable.”

The neighborhood, which consists mainly of apartment buildings, recently has experienced a surge in drug dealing by small-time crack cocaine and heroin peddlers, Aguilar said.

Earlier this week, police arrested 50 people during an anti-drug campaign in the area, he said. Officers made 27 arrests Tuesday and 23 on Thursday, Aguilar said.

On Friday, six officers barricaded one-block sections of Milwood Avenue for about two hours at a time. They then would leave for 20 minutes before returning for several more hours.

“We jump around and try to keep them off balance. We want to make it hard for them to do business here,” Aguilar said. “Dope dealers will see us, slam on their brakes, make a U-turn and get out of there.”

During a one-hour period Friday afternoon, reporters saw more than 10 cars make U-turns on Milwood Avenue, apparently to avoid the police barricade.

Aguilar admitted that the barricades will not solve the drug problem but instead will drive the dealers elsewhere. Many of the drug peddlers moved to Milwood Avenue after police chased them out of Lanark Park, located about a mile north at Topanga Canyon Boulevard and Strathern Street, police said.

“They’re harder to get rid of than cockroaches,” Aguilar said.

Several self-described gang members in the area said they resented the increased police activity in the area.

“They’re scaring people for no reason. They’re making a big deal out of nothing,” said Jose Alcazar, 17, as he stood outside the apartment building where he lives. “I’m always standing here, and I don’t see any crime.”

Alcazar and his friends accused the police of picking on them.

“We don’t do nothing; we just like to hang around,” Alcazar said. “But they say we’re doing something bad. So we just disappear for a few minutes and then come back.”

But all of the other residents interviewed said they want the police permanently stationed in the neighborhood to discourage crime.

“I want the police here every day,” said Jose Montalvo, who manages an apartment building in the 7200 block of Milwood Avenue.

“The people around here don’t like all the drugs,” he said. “People are scared to leave their homes at night. The ladies don’t like to walk to the store because of all those guys hanging around the street.”

His comments were echoed by a tenant, Rafael Alvarez Landeros, 30, who said he was attacked outside his home in an unsuccessful robbery attempt Nov. 15.

“I was thinking of moving away until the police came here,” Landeros said in Spanish. “I want the police to always stay here and get rid of those bad guys in the street.”