THE TIMES ORANGE COUNTY POLL : Anaheim’s Poor, Affluent Share Fear of Gang Crime : Nine of 10 residents say lawlessness is a problem in their city. The concern isn’t confined to urban areas.

For 16 years, Leslie Koon enjoyed the peaceful serenity of her yard as she tended her rosemary and tulips. But in the past couple of years, the jagged edges of crime have begun to jut into her garden.

First came the booming car stereos. Then came the little packs of young men with their lewd gestures and menacing glances, hurling catcalls as they strolled the sidewalk. Then Koon and her husband discovered gang graffiti scrawled across their garage in north Anaheim. She started plucking hypodermic needles out of her lawn along with the weeds.

And then there were two shootings nearby. That’s when the for-sale sign went up in front of their house.

“Something has changed,” said William Koon, 53, an English professor at Cal State Fullerton. “It makes you angry. You want to take back your neighborhood.”

Koon’s sentiments are hardly rare in Orange County’s second-largest city. As in many urban areas, most kinds of major crime are rising here, and gangs are an ever-growing force. Citizens of all races, ages and income levels share stories of fear and vulnerability.

A new Times Orange County Poll of 600 Anaheim residents found that nine of 10 residents consider gangs and violent crime to be a problem in Anaheim, with four of 10 of those classifying it a “big problem.” Gang activity has been noticed in a cross-section of the city, in affluent neighborhoods as well as in poorer areas, according to the poll.

Asked to name the biggest problem facing Anaheim today, the largest group of residents--29%--said it was crime and gangs, far outdistancing the next most commonly mentioned complaints (13% named traffic, 12% said it was growth, 11% mentioned city services). The poll, conducted by Mark Baldassare & Associates on Feb. 1 through 4, has a 4% margin of error.

And city statistics bear out residents’ worries. A city committee recently reported that there are seven times more gang members roaming the streets than there were in the early 1980s.

Concern over crime and gangs consistently was higher in the city’s urban central area, according to The Times Orange County Poll. Half of the residents in that area said crime was a big problem; an additional 45% said it was “some problem.” Only 3% there said it was no problem. Just as consistently, residents in the eastern, more affluent side of the city were less worried about crime, with 32% calling it a big problem.

The poll results are no surprise to Anaheim Police Chief Joseph T. Molloy, who earlier this month concluded a series of community meetings in which residents expressed frustration with the growing presence of drugs, violent crime and gangs in the city.

Based on residents’ concerns, the chief said a citizen task force under his guidance has been formulating a new strategy to combat crime in the city’s neighborhoods and is expected to present its plan to the City Council by mid-April.

Molloy attributes much of the residents’ concern to diminishing municipal services even as the city continues to expand.

“There has been no substantial growth in the Police Department since 1980,” Molloy said. “There has been a lot of growth in the city since then.”

Mayor Fred Hunter describes the city’s police situation in dire terms, calling the need for additional police officers an “emergency” issue.

Hunter said the City Council could consider a proposal as soon as Tuesday to divert about $1.5 million in Anaheim hotel tax revenue to hire 10 more officers.

“At least we can put 10 on the street now until we figure out what in the hell we’re going to do,” the mayor said.

While city officials discuss the economics of beefing up city security from their offices, a majority of residents responding to the poll see the need for increased patrols on the streets.

Marie Muir, 61, who rents an apartment near the old downtown, said that her car was stolen a couple of years ago and that several tenants in her building have been burglarized. Two young men were shot dead in their car while they were driving down her street, said Muir, a poll participant.

“I just never know what’s going to happen next around here,” said Muir, who has lived in the neighborhood for 20 years. “Oh, how it’s changed.”

The poll found that 43% of the city’s residents had gang graffiti in their neighborhoods. Four in 10 said fear of crime is a problem in their neighborhoods, with that fear running highest in the central district (58%) and lowest in the east (30%).

But the fear of crime often exceeds the crime rate. James Q. Wilson, a UCLA professor of management and public policy who has written extensively on police and crime, said nationwide studies show that people who live in safer neighborhoods do not necessarily fear crime any less than those in violence-plagued areas.

“People don’t distinguish between real crimes and signs of crime,” Wilson said. “They often talk about loitering teen-agers, abandoned cars, graffiti as threatening signposts. These things are just as frightening to them as violent crime itself.”

Indeed, the graffiti on the Koons’ garage marked a turning point in the couple’s decision to move. Their new neighborhood, only eight blocks to the southwest near Lincoln Avenue and Harbor Boulevard, is safer, said Koon, who participated in the poll. But he echoes a widely held uncertainty when he adds: “But then again, you can never tell. The gang turf is never really secure.”

Anaheim Police Sgt. Craig Hunter knows about gang turf. As head of the department’s 11-month-old gang unit, he symbolizes the city’s desire to get a grip on the problem. It’s no small task; dismantling gangs requires breaking strong bonds.

One threesome of teen-age brothers belonged to a downtown gang, but their family moved to Weir Canyon. Now they get their relatives to drive them downtown each weekend to meet up with their former homeboys, Sgt. Hunter said.

And the bonds can span generations. The handful of Anaheim’s fastest-growing gangs began in the 1950s with the children of Mexican farm workers in barrios like Atwood and La Colonia, Hunter said. Now police are seeing the grandsons of original members joining, with the vetranos-- old-time members--returning from stints in prison to give advice to newer members.

The city has not kept statistics tracking the contribution that gangs make to the overall crime picture. But Hunter knows that gang membership in Anaheim is on the rise and that their outings are more and more violent.

“This isn’t ‘West Side Story’ anymore, where gangs rumble with knives and chains,” he said. “Now they’re very sophisticated, with assault rifles, drive-by shootings.”

The gang scene in Anaheim has burgeoned so much that a glance at the problem in 1984 makes it look like a quaint yesteryear. Then, about 100 members of “youth clubs” roamed the streets, committing knife assaults and stealing cars, Hunter said.

Today, 700 compete over the turf, flashing signs from 51 gangs. Guns and, increasingly, drugs, wrench the gangs’ conflicts into a higher, more violent gear, he said.

And gang members quite literally wear their attitudes. A popular tattoo, accompanied by a tiny theatrical mask showing joy and another sorrow, proclaims: “Smile Now, Cry Later.” The youths have interpreted the marking for police: “Play hard today,” they say. “Death might be around the corner.”

Attitude shows up in their clothing too. A black Raiders jacket, increasingly a favored item of gang attire, has taken on a new meaning in some quarters, police say. Some gang members like to think the letters stand for the assurance of retribution for a homeboy’s death: Right After I Die Everyone Runs Scared.

It is this grim outlook, as well as the crimes themselves, that have so unnerved Anaheim’s citizens. And Hunter said that although much of the gangs’ activity is concentrated in the city’s central area, no community is immune. Even in affluent east Anaheim, the poll finds that one in three says there are gang graffiti in their neighborhood.

Charles Dievendorf, 45, says he sees white gangs clomping through the streets of his upscale Anaheim Hills neighborhood in their combat boots, as well as youths who appear to belong to “ethnic gangs.”

“It’s not like we’re living in an armed camp,” said Dievendorf, who participated in the poll. “We don’t have drive-by shootings here. But you’re naive if you think it’s not a factor in our lives.”

Gangs are a factor in Curtis Coombs’ life too. An engineering student at Cal State Fullerton, Coombs, 23, who responded to the poll, lives with his parents in the north-central Anaheim home where he grew up. But the area has changed since he was a boy; gang members flash their hand signs at the strip mall nearby. In the past six months, the brick wall across the street has been sprayed with graffiti, and cars parked there have been broken into.

When Curtis was a child, he and his friends would play unattended at Edison Park, half a block away. Now his parents won’t permit their grandchildren to go without an adult because there are too many “hoodlums” hanging around, Coombs said.

Loretta Barrios’ life, too, has been touched by gangs. The 39-year-old saleswoman at Mervyn’s, who participated in the poll, describes her west Anaheim neighborhood as “a middle-class, family-type” area where kids roller-skate on the sidewalks. But at nearby Loara High School, gang trouble has drawn the police and restricted the dress code. Two years ago, her teen-age son exchanged words with a couple of gang members at school; the beating they gave him later put him in the hospital.

No one knows which city in the county suffers the worst per-capita gang problem; not all cities have counted their gang populations. But Douglas Woodsmall, head of the Orange County district attorney’s anti-gang unit, said the only city that refers more gang-crime cases to him than Anaheim is Santa Ana, which has a slightly larger population.

Woodsmall’s unit does not break down its gang cases based on city of origin. But the countywide figures reflect a sharp upturn both in gang crime and its prosecution. In just two years, the number of gang defendants charged with crimes more than doubled: from 1,268 in 1989 to 3,050 in 1991, Woodsmall said.

Regardless of who is committing the crimes, it appears that most kinds of serious offenses in Anaheim have been rising--with occasional, brief drops--from 1983 to 1990, the most recent year for which state officials have compiled statistics.

In 1983, there were 6,929 instances of willful homicide, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft in Anaheim. By 1990, that figure rose to 9,335, according to the California Department of Justice. Only one city in Orange County--Santa Ana--recorded more of those crimes than Anaheim did.

But although Anaheim had the second-highest crime rate in the county in 1990 in terms of sheer numbers, it ranked eighth when crime was calculated on a per-capita basis, taking the size of its population into account.

The tale that numbers tell, however, has a different texture than the crime stories neighbors tell each other. On the individual level, it’s intensely personal. Ask Toney Rivas, 18, who recently found himself face to face with a nine-millimeter pistol when he insisted to a group of gang members that he had no gang affiliation.

Ask Tim Birkmann, a 31-year-old software consultant who lives in a mixed-income neighborhood near Lakeview Avenue and the Riverside Freeway. All four of his car’s tires were punctured recently in his driveway. He has caught men peeping into his rear windows. His neighbor’s brand-new Thunderbird was stolen. He found out about it when he saw her at Target, buying a steering-wheel lock.

Ask Bob Hoyt, 57, a retired grocery store clerk who lives with his mother near Anaheim Stadium. While he has a cigarette on his porch, he watches drugs exchanged for money. Down the street, a stray bullet fired from a moving car pierced a wall, killing a man as he slept in his bedroom. Hoyt’s own car has been burglarized twice.

But when Hoyt describes whether he and his mother feel safe, his answer is sadly simple, perhaps reflective of the choices more and more people must make: “We feel safe” in the apartment, Hoyt said. “We just don’t go out much anymore.”

Times staff writer Kevin Johnson contributed to this story.

SERIES AT A GLANCE

Taking a look at Anaheim--inside the city Mickey Mouse made famous.

* Sunday: While eight of 10 residents like living in Anaheim, the quality of life is not what it used to be.

* Today: Residents say gangs, violence and fear of crime have invaded their once-tranquil neighborhoods.

* Tuesday: There is a sense of political powerlessness among Anaheim residents, who overwhelmingly support City Council reform measures.

* Wednesday: Who can beat Mickey Mouse for a neighbor?

How the Poll Was Conducted

The Times Orange County Poll was conducted by Mark Baldassare & Associates. The telephone survey of 600 adult residents of Anaheim was conducted Feb. 1 through 4 on weekend days and weekday nights, using a computer-generated random sample of listed and unlisted telephone numbers. The interviews were conducted in English and Spanish. The margin of error is plus or minus 4%. For subgroups, such as residents of a specific geographic area, the margin would be larger. For this analysis, Anaheim was divided into three areas based on ZIP codes--west (92801, 92803 and 92804), central (92802 and 92805) and east (92806, 92807 and 92808).

OPINION AND REALITY

Violent Crime and Gangs

Crime is a major concern of Anaheim residents, particularly those in the central part of the city.

How much of a problem are gangs and violent crimes?

Big problem: 39%

Some problem: 50%

No problem: 9%

Don’t know: 2%

Is fear of crime a problem in your neighborhood?

Neighborhood Yes No West Anaheim 39% 61% Central Anaheim 59% 42% East Anaheim 30% 70%

Is there gang graffiti in your neighborhood?

Neighborhood Yes No West Anaheim 42% 58% Central Anaheim 58% 42% East Anaheim 33% 67%

Source: Times Orange County poll

Anaheim Ranks Eighth in Crime Among Orange County cities, Anaheim is in eighth place for crimes committed per thousand residents.

Crimes Total per 1,000 1990 Rank City population Population crimes 1 Stanton 105.0 30,491 3,201 2 Costa Mesa 90.9 96,357 8,757 3 Santa Ana 77.1 293,742 22,655 4 Westminster 75.4 78,118 5,893 5 Garden Grove 73.1 143,050 10,461 6 Tustin 72.8 50,689 3,691 7 Fullerton 72.6 114,144 8,286 8 Anaheim 72.0 266,406 19,182 9 Newport Beach 68.3 66,643 4,554 10 Orange 66.7 110,658 7,385

NOTE: Crimes included are homicide, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, auto theft, larceny and arson. 1991 figures have not been compiled yet. Source: state attorney general’s office