Police to Walk Beat to Curb Gang Extortion

Los Angeles police said Monday that high-profile foot patrols will begin next weekend in a Pico-Union neighborhood where gang members have been extorting money from street vendors.

Officials said the patrols were planned last week after a legitimate merchant on 6th Street filed a complaint with the Police Department claiming he was being subjected to extortion by 18th Street gang members.

“This (complaint) is the very first one we’ve gotten,” said Terry Wessel, a gang unit detective in the Los Angeles Police Department’s Rampart Division.

The street vendors have been reluctant to report the extortion because sidewalk vending is illegal in Los Angeles and many of the sellers are illegal immigrants, police said.

Beginning Saturday and Sunday, two uniformed officers will patrol the 6th Street neighborhood on a weekly basis. Police hope the patrols will establish trust with street vendors victimized by gangs.

“The foot beat can establish a rapport with these people and let them know that they can come forward,” Wessel said. “Right now, we’re not getting the information firsthand from the people who are actually being extorted.”

The Times reported Sunday that dozens of street vendors in the neighborhood paid as much as $10 a weekend in protection money to the 18th Street gang, whose practice of extortion was spreading to conventional businesses as well.

The sellers ply their trade at an informal flea market on 6th Street, peddling everything from music cassettes to Christmas decorations. Sets of orange slashes spray-painted on a sidewalk designate vending stalls allotted to the vendors by gang members. The gang members have also assigned a number to each of the vending spots to keep track of their victims.

The success of the foot beat in curbing such extortion will be evaluated weekly, police said.

“We need to see how good it does and how it’s received by the people there,” Wessel said.

News of the foot patrols, however, was cautiously welcomed by the Street Vendors Assn., a 500-member group of peddlers.

“I hope it helps,” said Angelica Garza, coordinator of the Street Vendors Assn. “I’m assuming the police are not going to be hassling the vendors. My basic concern is that, instead of protecting the vendors from gang members, they will be (ticketing) the vendors.”

But Wessel said officers on the foot beat will not be enforcing the vending ban. He said vending enforcement is a low priority at Rampart, the busiest police division in Los Angeles.

In January, the City Council approved a plan to legalize and regulate sidewalk sales in designated areas. However, a draft ordinance has yet to come back to the council for final approval and vending is still prohibited.