Suit Over Park Ban on Gangs Causes Dismay

Neighbors of a San Fernando park said Tuesday they were dismayed to learn that the ACLU has filed suit to nullify a city ban on gang members using the park.

“These people who filed the lawsuit should try living here for a while--then they’ll get the picture,” said Ruben, who lives about a block from the park.

“It probably is denying gangbangers their rights and that’s a shame,” said Ruben, who like many park neighbors would not give his full name for fear of gang retribution. “But those guys were denying lots of innocent people their rights to use the park too.”

The San Fernando City Council banned gang members--identified on a list compiled by the city’s police force--from the park in September after a series of violent incidents, especially a gang shooting in July in which a woman and her three children walking in the park were wounded by stray shotgun fire.

Out of more than 20 people interviewed near the park Tuesday, the ordinance’s only critics were four gang members.

Several of the banned gang members noted that they had worked as unpaid volunteers to help construct a playground for small children in a corner of the park in May.

“We helped build the park and then they kicked us out,” said Josh Pagaduan, 15, proudly displaying gang tattoos on his stomach. “Wouldn’t you be mad too?”

The park has been the scene of a bloody turf war between the Shakin’ Cats and SanFers gangs, which are active in San Fernando and the northeast San Fernando Valley.

The ordinance slaps a maximum $250 fine on “any active member of a criminal street gang” who enters the park.

An American Civil Liberties Union report released with the lawsuit maintained that the Las Palmas Park ordinance accomplished little more than shifting violent gang crime from the park to nearby streets while infringing on constitutional rights.

“All that’s happened is gang activity has moved,” said Allan Parachini, the study’s chief author.

The study said two fatal gang shootings have recently occurred within 100 yards of the park.

It quoted an unnamed Los Angeles police detective as saying that crime has “gone nuts” in the areas of Los Angeles that surround San Fernando.

San Fernando Police Chief Dominick Rivetti defended the ordinance, saying its purpose was not to eliminate gang violence everywhere but to make the park safe--which he said it has done.

The two “murders would have happened in the park if we didn’t have the ordinance,” he said. “For law enforcement purposes . . . it’s easier to prevent gang violence if they’re not congregating in the park.”

Los Angeles police spokesman Dennis Zine accused the ACLU of drawing the wrong conclusion from crime statistics.

“Gang crime was up prior to that initiative taking place and gang crimes are still escalating,” Zine said. “But it’s totally illogical and absurd to pin any increase in gang crime to” the Las Palmas ordinance.

Residents of the streets surrounding the park said they have seen no increase in gang activity nearby since the ordinance took effect.

“You see them hanging around the street sometimes and they still cruise by here,” said Jesus Plazola, 42, as he stood at Huntington and Hollister streets. “But it’s so much better now. They used to fill up the park and have fights all the time. It was terrible.”

While police, public officials and the ACLU opined about the ordinance’s merits, small children played in one corner of the park while two young lovers kissed under a tree Tuesday afternoon. Police, neighbors and park employees said that represents the ordinance’s most dramatic benefits.

“Once we saw people shooting at each other and we ran all the way home we were so scared,” said Laraine Alaniz, 8, who described the July 3 shootings as she played in the park with her cousin, Christina Alaniz, also 8.

“We weren’t allowed to come back here after that. Our parents were afraid we would get shot like those other kids. But now the gangs are gone and it’s safe again,” she said.

Times Staff Writer Paul Lieberman contributed to this report.