Williams Endorses Anti-Gang Program : Crime prevention: The chief’s support for the Hope in Youth proposal comes after incidents of racial violence at schools and lobbying by top religious leaders.

Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams on Wednesday endorsed a proposed youth anti-gang program backed by leading religious figures and community activists, declaring that the fight against crime depends upon such efforts.

The chief’s endorsement came after scattered incidents of racially motivated violence in Los Angeles schools that required police intervention, and after lobbying by many of the city’s most prominent religious figures and community organizers.

“We can’t afford to keep going to schools every day to separate our children,” Williams told a press conference at St. Vibiana’s Roman Catholic Cathedral in downtown Los Angeles.

Williams called the Hope in Youth proposal a “well thought-out, comprehensive program.”

His endorsement came as a surprise to Mayor Tom Bradley’s office. The mayor has repeatedly insisted that the city is strapped for funds and does not have the $2.5 million sought by Hope in Youth backers to help underwrite the program’s $22-million annual costs.

Last August, Bradley and Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Los Angeles, exchanged heated accusations over the issue. Bradley accused Mahony of ignoring the city’s budget problems. Mahony, in turn, said Bradley had a “lack of interest, of heart and will.”

Since then, the two sides have called a truce and Bradley, while not endorsing the program, has ordered city departments to comb their budgets for possible surplus funds. But the mayor’s office indicated there is little hope the money will be found. The city is already facing a $71-million shortfall in the current budget.

Williams said Wednesday that he would not lobby the mayor for the money. “It’s not my role to intercede with the mayor on decisions of funding,” he told reporters. Nonetheless, half a dozen religious leaders and community organizers who joined Williams at the news conference Wednesday called the chief’s endorsement a victory in their uphill battle to win funding commitments.

“We’re delighted and most grateful,” Mahony said Wednesday of Williams’ endorsement.

The Rev. William Dittler, assistant director of the California and Hawaii synod of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), called Williams’ endorsement “crucial.” He added, “I think what he has to say will be very instrumental” in winning funding.

Williams, in turn, won an immediate political dividend: The religious leaders endorsed Propositions M and N on the November city ballot, two measures sought by the chief to beef up the Police Department.

Proposition M would raise property taxes to improve the city’s overloaded 911 emergency communications system. Proposition N would add 1,000 police officers to the 7,900 budgeted for the department. The additional officers would be a key component of Williams’ plans for community-based policing.

“Our two approaches harmonize so wonderfully,” Mahony said. “If the city of Los Angles wants to make our city safe . . . and a wonderful place to raise our families, we need to support both.”

In community-based policing, neighborhoods have a hand in shaping how the Police Department serves a given area.

Under the Hope in Youth program, 160 family outreach teams would provide parent training for 10,000 families a year and help youths with school, jobs and recreational opportunities. Another component, dependent upon passage of a bond issue, would establish at least 80 primary education centers in the Los Angeles Unified School District to work with children from kindergarten through second grade and promote parental and community involvement.

Mahony and Dittler were joined by representatives of American Baptist Churches, the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, and the California and Hawaii synod of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Also present were representatives of United Neighborhoods Organization, the Southern California Organizing Committee, the East Valleys Organization and Valley Organized in Community Efforts.

The program has previously been endorsed by Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block and Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn. Several members of the Los Angeles City Council are also backing the program.

Earlier, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors pledged up to $2.9 million toward the program, but only if backers can raise funds from other government agencies.