Cities Consider Tax, Curfew to Curb Gangs : Crime: Artesia and Hawaiian Gardens officials hope the two proposals can lessen gang-related violence that left 16 people dead last year.

As rival gangs in Artesia and Hawaiian Gardens battle across their common municipal boundary, the cities are considering imposing a curfew and a new tax in an effort to curb a lethal situation one council member likened to the “bubonic plague.”

The Artesia City Council on Monday will consider a proposal by Councilman Jim Van Horn to place a utility-users tax proposal on the June ballot to hire more Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies for anti-gang and street-crime enforcement in the city.

“The people have to determine if they want additional police protection or if they don’t,” Van Horn said. “The only way to get additional police is to have more money to do it.”

Hawaiian Gardens Councilman Domenic Ruggeri plans Tuesday to propose reinstating a curfew ordinance to get people under the age of 18 off the streets after 10 p.m.

“The under-18 crowd does the drive-by shootings,” he said. “The older gang members give guns to the younger kids who can’t get arrested easily (because of laws pertaining to juveniles). It might save their lives by their not being on the street at the wrong time.”

Ruggeri said he will also propose that parents whose youngsters defy the curfew be fined up to $100 after the first offense. He said it would compel parents “to take better care of their 14- and 15-year-olds.”

Gang-related drive-by shootings in Artesia and Hawaiian Gardens left 16 people dead last year, according to Sgt. Tom Harris, team leader of a gang detail at the sheriff’s Lakewood station. The station provides law enforcement services to both cities.

Hawaiian Gardens Councilwoman Kathleen Navejas compared the situation to an epidemic of the plague. “It’s very unfair. People can stand on street corners and someone can drive by and decide they are going to shoot you. Then they drive away and don’t get caught,” she said.

Harris said murder convictions were won in two of last year’s gang killings, and charges have been filed in two others. But he said drive-by shootings are difficult to prosecute because many witnesses fear retaliation.

“We have a lot of problem prosecutions where people don’t want to testify, witnesses won’t come forward,” he said. “There are some where we know who’s involved, but we can’t get testimony, so we can’t prosecute them.”

At least two of last year’s killings occurred at 219th Street and Juan Avenue, a corner in Hawaiian Gardens where gang members often congregate. A Hawaiian Gardens woman, who asked that her name not be published, recalled the death of her 19-year-old brother there last year.

“They came down Juan Street, pulled over and started shooting,” she said. “He was hit twice and died 15 minutes later.”

She said gang members seem to be proud of the carnage. “They think they’re Mr. Big, but they don’t know what they do to the family. Like my mom. She took it hard. He was the baby of the family.”

Navejas said the escalating gang situation recently prompted Hawaiian Gardens to hire its fourth deputy for drug and gang enforcement. The city is also retaining a counselor to work with suspected gang members and their parents, offering help with self-esteem and family problems. “That is a source of need. A lot of mothers don’t know what to do with their children,” Navejas said.

Artesia City Manager Paul Philips said the city, which already has four sheriff’s deputies assigned to gang intervention and street crime, could use three or four more.

The city would also like a round-the-clock patrol unit to operate exclusively in Artesia, in addition to the regular patrols the city receives as part of a law enforcement region that takes in Hawaiian Gardens, Lakewood and Bellflower.

According to Philips, the annual cost for a 24-hour city patrol unit from the sheriff is $900,000. The cost for a special assignment officer is $90,000 a year, he said, fees that the city could not afford without a new tax.

Officials said the violence is not limited to clashes between gangs in Artesia and Hawaiian Gardens. Artesia gangs also battle gangs from Norwalk and Paramount in an urban maze of violence.

Philips said that in August one person was killed and 32 rounds of ammunition were pumped into a house near City Hall during a drive-by shooting that stemmed from the Hawaiian Gardens-Artesia feud. A week later, there was a drive-by at 166th Street and Pioneer Boulevard involving Artesia and Norwalk gangs.

“It happens in rashes,” he said. “You can go along, like right now, and there’s nothing. Then it blows up, with maybe three or four in a week. It’s retaliatory.”

Van Horn said that though some gang members have gone to jail, the situation is not improving. “We need more visibility of the police on the streets,” he said. “We’re dealing with gangsters. That’s what we used to call them in the ‘20s, the likes of John Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd.”