22 FBI Agents Will Focus on Gangs : Crime: Bureau members will meet with Orange County officials and those from other areas to map courses of action for reassigned personnel.

As part of its new emphasis on fighting violent crime, the FBI has reassigned 22 agents in Southern California to focus exclusively on anti-gang investigations, the chief agent in the region said this week.

To determine how to best use the newly assigned agents, the FBI is meeting with other federal and local law enforcement agencies and community groups, said Special Agent in Charge Charlie J. Parsons.

Jim Donckels, FBI spokesman in Orange County, said local law enforcement officials and the FBI will hold an organizational meeting Monday in Santa Ana to discuss anti-gang investigations.

“We are still in the process of organizing. But we will be devoting some resources to joining a regional gang force down here,” Donckels said.

One such meeting occurred last week in Compton but was initiated by the Compton branch of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, not the FBI, Parsons said.

Branch President Royce Esters, a longtime member of the Compton Crime Commission, said he sought the meeting with Parsons and representatives of such agencies as the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the state Department of Justice out of frustration over continued gang violence in his city.

The meeting, which was held at the Compton courthouse, “reminded me of the ‘Untouchables’ or something,” Esters said, referring to the FBI’s Prohibition-era squad whose story has been portrayed on television and in film. “It was like they were getting together to get rid of the Mafia.”

Parsons said the FBI has met with other community groups to “get some input from them and a feel for how they perceive the problem.” The new role of the FBI in attacking street gangs was announced last month in Washington by U.S. Atty. Gen. William P. Barr, who told reporters that hundreds of agents would be reassigned from counterespionage work to violent crime units around the country.

The shift, he said, was a part of the agency’s changing priorities in the wake of improved relations between the United States and Eastern European countries.

The Los Angeles area, with its high concentration of street gangs, was mentioned at the time, but the exact number of reassignments slated for the region was not disclosed.

Local FBI spokeswoman Karen Gardner said 300 FBI agents have been reassigned nationwide. The 22 agents making up the local anti-gang unit are among 566 assigned to the region, she said.

Thirteen agents in the FBI’s Los Angeles region have concentrated for years on drug investigations involving gangs, Parsons said, adding that their work will continue.

The FBI’s seven-county Los Angeles region includes all of Southern California except San Diego and Imperial counties. Parsons said it has not been decided where the 22 reassigned agents will work. Their assignment will depend upon where they are most needed and where they will be most effective.

The agents will be divided into two squads that will work with task forces made up of representatives from other local and federal agents, he said.

“We are not coming in telling people what to do or going off on our own,” Parsons said. “We’re going to rely on the intelligence base developed by local law enforcement.”

Because of that, he said, he did not foresee any jurisdictional disputes.

Los Angeles Police Department Cmdr. Robert Gil, speaking for Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, said Gates and Parsons have discussed the matter.

“Any assistance we can get from any other agencies in gang enforcement and deterrence, we are happy to accept,” Gil said.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block could not be reached for comment.

In Compton, Police Cmdr. Hourie Taylor said his department has “no problem at all” working with the FBI, noting that Compton Police Chief Terry Ebert attended the meeting in Compton last week.

At that meeting, the discussion centered on the roles of various agencies in the anti-gang war and the possible role ordinary people can play, participants said.

Jay Wachtel, chief of the Long Beach office of BATF was also at the gathering. Wachtel said community organizations are invaluable in mobilizing residents to fight gangs.

The Compton NAACP members suggested such things as creating citizen groups to monitor court cases and to provide support to victims and witnesses to gang crimes, Wachtel said.