CALIFORNIA ALBUM : Gangs End Santa Barbara’s Isolation : Some residents in the genteel resort say recent stabbings are isolated incidents. Others urge the tourist town to deal with the violence before it escalates.

It’s not the sort of thing that is supposed to happen amid the coastal toniness of Santa Barbara--and certainly not downtown during the Old Spanish Days Fiesta.

Late on Aug. 5, the first day of the city’s annual five-day celebration of its Latino heritage, 16-year-old Robert Mitchum was stabbed to death at a busy downtown intersection in view of dozens of tourists. According to police, Mitchum had been walking with friends when he was attacked by members of a street gang from Ventura.

On the same day, police reported several arrests in an assault on Joel Brown, 21, who had been stabbed a week earlier on a footpath on the Westside of Santa Barbara. Brown, who was stabbed seven times with a screwdriver, was allegedly attacked by a group of youths known as the Westside lokitos (crazies).

The two incidents have sparked a debate about whether genteel, placid Santa Barbara is being infected by the gang-related violence that seems epidemic in Southern California.

Some downplay the significance of the stabbings. “My feeling is they’re just isolated incidents,” said Darryl Perlin, the deputy district attorney handling the Brown case.

But others say the city may have gotten a dose of much-needed reality. “We’ve been isolated in some respects by virtue of what Santa Barbara is,” said Jim Hopper, a juvenile probation officer. “It’s a tourist town. But you can’t stop change. . . . I don’t see Santa Barbara as being any different from any other place.”

Certainly, no one would confuse the Westside lokitos or other local gangs with the Crips or Bloods. They have no identifying colors or rituals. With no rigidly defined barrios and the only known rivalry between Westside and Eastside, gangbanging Santa Barbara-style has generally meant nothing more violent than drinking beer and painting graffiti.

“These are youths seeking identity and peer approval,” Perlin said. “So they turn to a loose group of male friends whom they call a gang.”

It is that relatively benign background that explains the shocked reaction to the recent stabbings and anguished local newspaper headlines such as “What’s to Become of Our Children?”

“I get confused about whether the gang problem is serious,” said Lynette Rodriguez, manager of an apartment complex near the footpath where Brown was attacked. “Now I think maybe it’s getting a little worse.”

Brown, who is white, was attacked about 10 p.m. by a group of up to 10 Latino youths on a footpath that is known as a haunt of wanna-be gang members. Brown told police that when he asked why they were attacking him, one youth replied: “Because you’re a white boy.”

Despite wounds that include a punctured lung, he managed to flee to safety in a nearby apartment complex.

A week later, police arrested six juveniles and two adults in connection with the attack. Andrew Balderaz, 18, who is known by the street name “Sober,” is alleged to have stabbed Brown. In addition to assault with a deadly weapon, he is being charged under a new state law that makes it illegal to take part in a street gang that is engaged in criminal activity, a charge that can add three years to a prison sentence.

In an unexpected twist to the case, a 15-year-old suspect was arrested at the home of a woman who police say had daubed gang symbols on her two small children and taught them how to make gang hand signs. Jeanine Marie Flores, 24, was charged with harboring the teen-ager and illegally having sex with him.

Mitchum’s slaying appears to have been similarly wanton. According to police, the youth was not a gang member but may have associated with some gang members while living on Santa Barbara’s Eastside. In March, he moved north to Lompoc, partly to escape destructive influences, police said.

On Aug. 5, he returned to Santa Barbara to enjoy Fiesta with his brother and some friends. According to police, the violence was triggered after Mitchum’s group encountered the youths from Ventura. “They were yelling gang slogans,” Lt. John Thayer said. “Mitchum was supposedly one of the local people who came out in the street yelling.”

In the melee, Mitchum was stabbed three times before police were able to intervene. Benjamin Huerta, 18, was arrested at the scene with blood splattered over his shirt, and four other suspects, including two juveniles, were arrested the next day in Ventura. All have been charged with murder and with belonging to a criminal street gang.

Even after these incidents, few expect Santa Barbara to become a drive-by shooting battlefield. But the violence has given an added urgency to efforts to combat gangs.

In one initiative, police are planning to identify 30 to 40 youthful “serious habitual offenders.”

“We’ve found that the most serious offenders account for 80% of the problem,” Lt. Jim Nalls said.

Groups such as the Youth Task Force, appointed by the City Council, are vigorously promoting youth recreation programs. “I don’t want us ever to get used to kids being stabbed,” said Racquel Lopez, chairwoman of the task force.

Residents also say they intend to clear up the overgrown area where Brown was stabbed to make it less suitable as a gang haunt.

“I’m kind of optimistic because I think we’re taking a look at it (the gang problem) ahead of time,” said Officer Tony Ballestrin, beat coordinator on the Westside.

But a more recent incident, on the night of Aug. 17, may only bolster pessimism. Fights broke out as about 100 youths gathered outside a downtown nightspot. Witnesses heard gang slogans being shouted and one gunshot.

Police later arrested three teen-agers on suspicion of possessing loaded firearms.