Weed and Seed to Be Tested in Thicket of L.A.’s Ills : Aid: Officials welcome funds, but critics fear an emphasis on tough law enforcement, not social programs.
At the corner of 51st and Main, mention the phrase “weed and seed” to passersby and they will point you in the direction of nearby South Park with instructions to ask for the groundskeeper.
The words hold little resonance for residents who live in the neighborhood’s mostly decaying tracts, where gunfire, drug dealing and abrupt violence encroach on everyday life.
But this community and several others in the city are about to be weeded and seeded in a big way, as they become testing grounds for the latest innovation in urban aid.
President Bush has made the Weed and Seed program a centerpiece of his effort to revitalize America’s urban core, whose maladies were spotlighted in Los Angeles during days of civil unrest that shocked the nation.
After surveying the fire-gutted buildings, looted stores and shattered lives, Bush declared the Weed and Seed program a key to the city’s recovery.
The program is being tested in 20 cities, including Atlanta, Kansas City, Mo., Denver, Ft. Worth, Philadelphia, Washington and Santa Ana. Earlier this month, the House approved an urban aid package that would allocate $500 million in the fiscal year starting Oct. 1 to expand the plan. Up to $400 million would go to neighborhoods designated as “enterprise zones”--depressed areas to which businesses would be lured with tax incentives.
Initially passed over for the program, Los Angeles is getting more money--$19 million--than any other city that has tried Weed and Seed. The money will be used to fund youth programs, drug treatment centers and nutrition programs and to establish community-based policing in neighborhoods where police and residents have long been distrustful of one another.
But the city also is getting a controversial project that has been denounced by some for using law enforcement tactics--the “weed” part of the program--which abuse civil liberties.
Despite insistence by city officials that residents have nothing to fear, critics of the program say it will increase tensions in the mostly minority communities where it will be tested. Moreover, they say the program is merely cosmetic--an election-year catch phrase that fails to address the most fundamental need of inner-city residents: jobs.
And while experts applaud efforts to link the social needs of inner-city residents with a campaign to enhance the safety of their communities, both critics and many supporters of Weed and Seed believe it does not have enough funding to make a substantial dent in urban ills.
“It is a misguided effort that ignores the fact that there’s a real fundamental crack in the fabric of urban America,” said Gloria Romero, a community activist who monitors local law enforcement agencies.
City officials sensitive to anything that might intensify friction that still lingers after the riots are attempting to portray the program in the best light.
It is not being viewed as a panacea for troubled South Los Angeles neighborhoods, they say. And unlike other cities, efforts here will focus on “seeding” rather than “weeding”--with $18 million destined for social services and $1 million for law enforcement.
“I think everyone recognized coming in that this would be a different type of program, that the intense police presence would not work in L.A.,” said Wendy Greuel, an aide to Mayor Tom Bradley who is coordinating the federal program for the city.
But critics argue that in its eagerness to solicit new funds for social programs, the city may be opening a Pandora’s box that will not be easily closed.
City and federal officials concede that few details of how the “weed” and “seed” components of the program will operate have been agreed on.
What is certain is that federal officials--by way of the local U.S. attorney’s office--will have ultimate authority over most aspects of the program. Other federal agencies that are funneling money into the program, including the Department of Health and Human Services, will decide how their funds are spent.
In its “weed” dimension, the program will bring together federal, state and local law enforcement agencies in an unprecedented, coordinated effort to attack criminals, gangs and drug dealers in test areas.
In some cities, that has meant surveillance of gang members, sting operations aimed at snaring drug dealers, targeted prosecutions of repeat violent offenders and sophisticated evidence-gathering using cameras and bugs. In Los Angeles, some of these tactics predate Weed and Seed.
For example, one Justice Department strategy already being used locally--known as “Operation Triggerlock”--is likely to be expanded under Weed and Seed. Triggerlock targets violent offenders for prosecution in federal courts to take advantage of tougher firearms laws.
Under another “weed” strategy being considered by local officials, some drug and firearms cases would be transferred to federal jurisdiction through the U.S. attorney’s office. Such transfers would increase the likelihood that accused criminals remain in custody after their arrest. In addition, they would be likely to receive expedited trials and, if convicted, be subject to stricter federal sentencing guidelines.
Santa Ana is using its $1-million grant to try to rid a 10-block area of drugs and gangs. The city may also adopt a controversial tactic used in other cities that removes from public housing rolls residents identified as being involved in criminal activity.
Without such attacks on lawbreakers, Weed and Seed backers say, social programs alone cannot turn around neighborhoods riddled with crime, drugs, poverty, joblessness and hopelessness.
“The most significant part of (Weed and Seed) is that, for the first time in 12 years, a President has acknowledged a clear relationship between the social and economic infrastructures of a community and the magnitude of its drug problem and related violence,” said Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) at a May hearing of the House Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control, which he chairs.
But concern that “weed” operations will result in crackdowns on minority youth has raised fierce opposition to the program.
In Seattle, a coalition of community groups has stalled implementation of Weed and Seed because of concern that the city’s $1.1-million grant would be used to fund street sweeps and other paramilitary tactics in minority neighborhoods.
“Three-quarters of the money was going to law enforcement,” said Seattle community activist Harriett Walden. “And when we looked at who was in charge, there was no local control. This money should be coming to the cities--but not through a law enforcement program like Weed and Seed. (Police) are not social workers.”
Los Angeles activists say the city, under former Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, had used many “weed” tactics for years without effective results. They believe new forms of police scrutiny will only heighten tensions between police and minority residents.
“This is why the riots happened,” said Gil Aviles, a researcher with the Labor Strategy Center. “Given the situation where a lot of people in the inner city here are going to be on probation or have a record, how is Weed and Seed going to affect them? What about addicts who are genuinely trying to get treatment, will they be penalized?”
Other experts say the program’s focus on a limited number of neighborhoods within a city--Koreatown, Pico-Union and parts of South Los Angeles will be the targets in Los Angeles--will force drug problems to other areas.
“The problem is that because of the profits available in drug trade, I doubt that even a well-funded ‘seed’ program could compete,” said Kevin B. Zeese, vice president of the Washington-based Drug Policy Foundation. “I don’t think we can rebuild the inner city as long as we have prohibition. We have to begin to move away from zero tolerance.”
Zeese also questioned whether community-based policing can be effective if other law enforcement attitudes are not changed. Such policing--an integral part of the Weed and Seed approach--utilizes tactics including foot patrols, mobile units, drop-in centers, neighborhood task forces and crime victim assistance.
“If you’re going to have community policing, then the police must become part of a solution that is broader than law enforcement,” he said. “A solution would be to provide information about treatment services or about how to keep syringes clean. But if someone is caught with a syringe under Weed and Seed, they would be arrested.”
Spurred by the recommendations of the Christopher Commission, Los Angeles officials--including new Police Chief Willie L. Williams--have embraced the concept of more positive interaction between police and residents.
Terree Bowers, assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, said no firm plan for community-based policing in the target areas has been developed. But he discounted notions that the Weed and Seed program would foster some kind of super-police agency.
“I think the representatives from the law-enforcement community are committed to a sensitive but aggressive approach that takes into account the need to preserve people’s rights, while prosecuting those that commit crimes,” he said.
If the Los Angeles program proves successful it could be used as a model for other urban centers, Bowers said.
“It is a much more challenging project than exists anywhere else,” he said. “If it works well, it could certainly serve as an alternative in larger cities.”
Target Areas
Several Los Angeles areas hard-hit in the spring rioting--Koreatown, Pico-Union and a portion of South Los Angeles--will be test sites for Operation Weed and Seed, the Bush Administration urban initiative that combines anti-crime and anti-poverty programs. The neighborhoods selected for the effort are shaded.
