Anti-Gang Panel Acts to Mobilize Vietnamese Residents : Law: In wake of two violent incidents, activists and city officials seek to increase awareness and involvement of the community in fighting crime.

After two violent, gang-related crimes that occurred back to back last week, community leaders met Wednesday to try to mobilize Vietnamese residents.

The 2-week-old Vietnamese Gang Prevention Committee is urging residents to give police any information they have about gang members and gang-related activities, and is advising parents who suspect their children of gang involvement to bring them into counseling.

“Asian gangs are beginning to terrorize the Vietnamese community more and more,” said community activist Henry Le, citing the fatal shooting of two gang members at an Anaheim cemetery last Thursday and a home invasion by six youths in Garden Grove the day before.

“The police work very hard to impact the community, but I don’t see the same reaction from the community,” Le said. “The police can not handle this alone.”

Westminster Police Chief James Cook addressed about 50 local business people and community leaders who attended a buffet dinner Wednesday night and told them that the department is expanding its gang prevention program. The city has hired two new officers to teach business owners how to protect themselves from thieves, Lt. Andrew Hall said.

Le also urged community leaders to distribute flyers that list phone numbers residents may use to report information on gangs and to receive counseling for their children. The flyer also warns people to store their valuables in bank safety deposit boxes and not in their homes.

“This a good signal to gang members that people have more awareness about gang activity,” Le said. “Please use the phone numbers.”

Le delivered the same message to Vietnamese television viewers Wednesday and and will again today, and the information was also printed in Vietnamese-language newspapers.

“Asians have a problem with the police because of the language barrier, and they tend to not trust the police,” Le said. “We want to build a bridge to narrow the gap between the citizen and the police.”

Residents “are afraid of retaliation, but if you mobilize every citizen into a mass of people, retaliation becomes very difficult,” Le said.

Investigator Al Butler of Garden Grove’s Gang Intelligence Unit said: “I think it’s good that the residents are getting involved. There’s been a lot of lip service about trying to generate interest, but this is the first affirmative step.”

Dissuading youths from joining gangs is another objective.

“Usually there’s conflict between parents and children,” said Linh Tran, a counselor with the Vietnamese Community of Orange County, a nonprofit social services agency which parents are being urged to contact. “The young people quickly get involved in American society, but the parents keep to the old culture.”

Another reason youths join gangs is failure at school, Tran said.

“Most of them have stayed in refugee camps for a long time, maybe two, three or five years,” Tran said. “A 15-year-old boy may have completed only the first or second grade in Vietnam, but he must enter the grade according his age.”

The problem is compounded by the fact that some of the children don’t have parents, and others have parents who can’t help them with schoolwork, Tran said.

But Butler said that many gang members he encountered were not illiterate.

“There is an influx of Amerasians who are uneducated, unemployable and drift into gangs,” he said. “But a good percentage have a reasonably good education and continue into gangs through peer pressure, boredom, just to have something to do.”