United Gangs Council Leaders Announce Plans to Curb Violence at Public Schools

Hoping to repair the damage their image suffered when one council member was arrested in a drug crackdown, the other leaders of the United Gangs Council announced plans Thursday to curtail the violence that has swept public school grounds this year by declaring them neutral territory and off limits to gangs.

They also proposed that their council, if it obtains the approval of police and school officials, enforce the school-ground truce and put an end to drive-by shootings in surrounding neighborhoods by conducting patrols much like those done in some urban areas by the Guardian Angels.

The Santa Ana-based council--made up of former gang leaders who organized this year to help curb gang violence--specifically mentioned Santa Ana High School, Anaheim High School and Fullerton High School as schools where they hope to begin conducting patrols.

“When we are around, (gang members) act right,” said Bobby Martinez, one of the council leaders.

Since the start of the school year, five gang-related attacks have occurred near public schools, including two near Fullerton and Santa Ana high schools.

Flanked by Alfredo Amezcua, a Santa Ana lawyer who advises them, the council members held a press conference on the steps of Santa Ana’s City Hall to announce their plans.

The plan to curb school violence states: “There shall be no violence, attacks or trading of insults in these (school) areas. School grounds and surrounding neighborhoods must be respected and not be claimed as gang territory.”

In addition to patrols, the council recommends that parents visit the school grounds before and after classes to help create a “safe and drug-free environment”; that council members attend school assemblies to preach nonviolence, and that school districts develop “meaningful” after-school recreational and jobs programs.

Santa Ana police officials had been invited and attended the press conference, but said they wanted time to review the plan before commenting. Officials in Fullerton and Anaheim offered similar statements.

“Any positive move in the effort against gangs and gang violence is something that we would embrace,” Anaheim Police Lt. John Haradon said. He added, however, that the school district would have to agree to let the council members on campus since Anaheim’s campuses are closed. “It sounds like some of the key individuals need to meet and discuss it.”

Stephanie Gut, a staffer with the Orange County Congregation of Community Organizations, said the neighborhood group already has called for after-school programs.

“It would be important that (the gangs council) coordinate whatever they are doing with the police departments. If they are working in partnership with different public agencies, it would be wonderful.”

The gangs council also announced a replacement on its leadership team for Arthur Romo, who was arrested last month by the Drug Enforcement Agency in the agency’s crackdown on an international money laundering operation. A grand jury indictment accuses Romo of delivering nearly $60,000 in cash to an undercover Drug Enforcement Agency agent in Garden Grove in early March.

“It hurt us,” council President Pete Ojeda said of Romo’s arrest, “but it does not have anything to do with our organization. It’s still going on. We are going on regardless of (whether) I disappear or anyone else disappears.”

Romo had authored the peace treaty signed in August by rival Orange County gangs and was highly regarded by gang members as a leader in the peace movement, his partners said.

Amezcua, who has acted as the council’s legal and political adviser, said the council had “conducted an internal investigation as to whether or not anyone, including Mr. Romo, misused or misdirected the efforts of this organization. The answer to that came back to us loud and clear that it wasn’t.”

Ojeda said the council wasn’t taking sides in the Santa Ana mayoral election, but he took issue with Mayor Daniel H. Young’s contention that Councilman John Acosta showed poor judgment when he wrote a letter on city stationery praising Romo’s peacemaking efforts. Acosta claims he was unaware that the letter would be used by Romo’s attorney in a sentencing hearing for a 1988 drug conviction.

“Cardinal (Roger M.) Mahony has also given letters of recommendation to us,” Ojeda said, referring to a letter Mahony sent to the council after meeting with Romo and other leaders to discuss anti-gang strategies in Orange and Los Angeles counties.