Mayoral Rivals Know Firsthand About Crime

Those in the running to become Los Angeles’ next mayor do not need to read the opinion polls to know that crime and gangs are among the city’s most pressing problems.

Ernani Bernardi’s Van Nuys home was burglarized by a drug addict. Stan Sanders’ house in the Mid-City area got hit three times in five months. A panhandler at a Los Angeles intersection whacked Tom Houston’s windshield with a stick after he refused to let him clean the glass.

Gang members wielding baseball bats confronted Nick Patsaouras’ teen-age son outside a Tarzana restaurant. And just last week, thieves in Sherman Oaks stole Richard Katz’s 1987 Jeep Cherokee, which was used the next day in a Northern California jewel robbery.

“I used to go to the Broadway in the evening, or stop at Lucky’s on the way home for groceries, but I don’t do that anymore,” said Linda Griego, whose Baldwin Hills home was burglarized several years ago while she slept. “I’m afraid to walk to my parking lot at night by myself.”

In the diverse and crowded field of candidates for mayor of the nation’s gang capital, not everyone has a detailed plan for curbing lawlessness. But as victims themselves, they agree on at least this much: Whatever the city has been doing to fight crime, it has not worked.

After a decade of politically popular law-and-order rhetoric, it is striking that most of the 11 major contenders are focusing on social and economic problems underlying crime.

Although all want to see more police on the streets--and some have made that their primary goal--there is a strong consensus that Los Angeles also must address substandard schools, scarce recreational opportunities and inner-city unemployment.

“Unfortunately, politicians think short term, so they don’t see a child being wasted,” said candidate Richard Riordan, whose campaign has generally stressed tough-on-crime themes. “It’s like: ‘Don’t immunize him, we’ll treat him after he gets tuberculosis.’ ”

Among the issues dividing the candidates is a proposed tax that would add 1,000 officers to the Los Angeles Police Department. However, the candidates’ positions on the ballot measure have less to do with their support for more police than their opposition to raising taxes.

The measure is favored by Houston, Sanders, Griego, Nate Holden, Julian Nava, Joel Wachs and Michael Woo. It is opposed by Riordan, Katz, Bernardi and Patsaouras, who all believe that the force can be beefed up through other funding sources or more efficient deployment.

Despite those differences, the messages from the candidates have tended to be so cautious that some members of the public have been left hungry for something bolder and more specific. Jerry Daniel, a community activist who serves as chairman emeritus of one of Los Angeles’ most prominent homeowner federations, heard them all at a forum in Tarzana last week.

“They may have very noble objectives,” Daniel said. “But to tell you the truth, I just don’t think anybody said anything so outstandingly brilliant.”

Malcolm Klein, a USC sociologist who has been studying Los Angeles gangs for three decades, said: “The problems are absolutely massive and not terribly under the control of local politicians. I don’t think we have the wherewithal, the leverage or the understanding to bring about much change.”

Houston, an environmental attorney and former deputy mayor, has put forth probably the most aggressive--and controversial--proposals. Anyone arrested and found to be carrying an unlicensed firearm, he said, should get a mandatory six-month prison sentence. Anyone living in a city-run housing project who is convicted of a gang-related crime, he believes, should be deemed ineligible for public housing.

Finally, Houston has called for the deportation of any illegal immigrant involved in gang activity. Although criticized by some council members and immigrant rights activists for pandering to xenophobic sentiments, Houston insists that his sole interest is protecting the many hard-working, law-abiding immigrants targeted by the gangs.

“Frankly, I was flabbergasted that this would be rejected by people who represent the communities where so much of the killing is going on,” said Houston, who lives in the hills near the Hollywood Reservoir. “We just have to go after the bad apples.”

Nava, on the other hand, recently sat down with several bad apples and was moved by their plight.

At the urging of a campaign worker who is an ex-convict, the former U.S. ambassador to Mexico traveled from his Northridge home to a Venice community center, where he nervously introduced himself to a couple of teen-age gang members sporting tattoos and scowls.

After a long conversation about their hopes and frustrations, Nava proposed creating an economic development fund that would loan money to gangs for legitimate business ventures--such as carwashes, coffee shops and dry cleaners.

“When you hear a 15-year-old kid say: ‘What I really want is to have a chance to grow up and live long enough to get married and have children and some kind of steady job,’ it’s literally enough to make your eyes start to water,” Nava said. He also wants to create unarmed neighborhood patrols made up of residents serving in the U.S. military.

Wachs, a city councilman whose Studio City home has been burglarized three times, falls somewhere in the middle of the spectrum.

Social programs and police muscle are important, he said, but answers for the community’s problems lie in the talents and energies of residents. As mayor, he would urge thousands of professionals, artists, scientists and business leaders to offer apprenticeships to at-risk youngsters.

“It may sound kind of moralistic, . . . but I really believe we haven’t begun to touch our human capacity for making things better,” Wachs said. “It can’t be all government.”

Holden, a city councilman who lives in southwest Los Angeles, has tried to play a role in the lives of several troubled youths.

Using money from his office budget a few years ago, he said, he hired a young, single mother, a gang member and a drug dealer to clean streets, paint over graffiti and help with clerical work. The unwed mother is now a bus driver, the ex-gangbanger has a good restaurant job and the former dealer has become one of Holden’s field deputies.

“If we say we’re going to give up on them, we’re talking about giving up on people who are going to be the future of America,” said Holden, who also supports an urban corps for at-risk youths modeled after President Clinton’s proposed national service program.

Woo, a city councilman from Silver Lake who once was mugged at gunpoint in Hollywood, has emphasized economic solutions.

To make more money available for inner-city businesses, he wants the city to establish a fund that would help minority entrepreneurs secure bank loans. As a start, Woo has convened a committee of Asian-American and African-American bankers--the first time in the country, he said, that financial leaders from those communities have embarked on a cooperative venture.

“It’s not just the money that makes gangs attractive; it’s a sense that there are few alternatives beyond a dead-end job in a fast-food restaurant,” said Woo, who has met with current and former gang members in Watts. “Many young people involved in gangs would be willing to take a job that paid less as long as it was a job that offered some kind of a future.”

Katz, a state assemblyman from Sylmar, has been an architect of anti-gang programs aimed at steering youngsters away from the streets. But he also believes that public safety must be addressed before underlying social and economic problems can be resolved.

To that end, Katz has proposed forming an anti-gang strike force combining police, prosecutors and federal officials, as well as sellin the city-owned Ontario Airport to fund about $500,000 in overtime hours for police. More than anything, though, Katz wants to ensure students’ safety by equipping every public school with metal detectors and other security measures.

“If nothing else gets done in the next four years, we need to have a safe haven where every child can go . . . without worrying about being shot,” he said. “If we don’t do that, nothing else means anything.”

Bernardi, a veteran San Fernando Valley city councilman, pins all the blame on drugs.

Instead of targeting just dope-dealing youngsters, Bernardi wants the city to launch an anti-drug campaign aimed at middle- and upper-class addicts whose money, he believes, is fueling the profitability of the narcotics trade.

Patsaouras, a transportation commissioner, recalls a police ride-along several years ago through some of South-Central Los Angeles’ roughest neighborhoods.

At one corner, he encountered a teen-ager seriously wounded in a drive-by shooting who was conscious despite several gunshots to the chest. Patsaouras was struck most by the youth’s calm demeanor and his refusal to accept help getting into the ambulance.

“These kids have no real sense of value of their own life, much less yours or mine,” said Patsaouras, who supports job training, community-based policing and neighborhood coalitions combining parents, churches and schools. “They live in an environment that is isolated--with no opportunity to get out or improve their lives.”

Griego, a restaurant owner and former deputy mayor, knows firsthand how poverty can steer youngsters down the wrong path.

Growing up in a small New Mexico town, she saw her older sister fall in with the wrong crowd, join a gang and, once, get arrested for auto theft. A sympathetic judge drove her home and said he did not want to send the teen-age girl to reform school, fearing that she would just turn out worse.

The way Griego recalls it, her sister’s main problems were lack of supervision and opportunity. Their father, a railroad laborer, was gone five days a week; their mother, a baker, started her 12-hour workdays at 3 a.m., and because neither of them had much schooling, education was not a priority.

“You’re not going to solve these problems by building more jails and higher walls and putting up barbed wire,” said Griego, who wants to see more recreational programs, job training courses and gang-free zones around schools. “You’ve got to get to the root of the problem and help these kids before they turn into that kind of life.”

Sanders, an Oxford-educated lawyer who grew up in Watts, also knows how rough the streets can be. A year after the 1965 riots, he helped form a group called the Sons of Watts, which was devoted to improving the community’s desperate conditions.

A few weeks ago, while campaigning in the Jordan Downs housing project, he met with a group called Big Brothers of Watts--struggling with the same problems a generation later.

“Twenty-five years later, they’re trying to send the same goddamned message--basically, that we’ll work with you if you work with us. Give us some tangible evidence that you care,” said Sanders.

His proposals: Host a national anti-drug summit in Los Angeles, force juvenile offenders to enter a job training program, put more security officers on high school campuses and guarantee a college education to all.

Riordan, a wealthy businessman from Brentwood, has a get-tough stance. He wants to deploy an additional 3,000 police officers, which he plans to fund by leasing Los Angeles International Airport to a private operator, as well as create a civilian patrol.

But Riordan has also spent two decades developing computer labs across the country to improve the literacy of grade school youngsters. At UCLA, he directs a mentoring program for inner-city children.

“We are not giving the underclass the tools to compete in society,” he said. “But just because you have failed somebody doesn’t mean we can tolerate them falling back on gangs and crime. . . . I think we’ve done poorly on both ends.”

The L.A. Mayoral Race: Where They Stand

The major candidates for mayor of Los Angeles have staked out varying approaches to solving the city’s crime, gang and police staffing problems. Most support a ballot measure to raise taxes to add 1,000 police officers. Here is a look at their views: THE CANDIDATE: ERNANI BERNARDI THE POSITION: Does not support ballot measure; would pay overtime to get more police on the streets; would launch an anti-drug campaign aimed at middle- and upper-class addicts whose money, he believes, is fueling the profitability of the narcotics trade. *THE CANDIDATE: LINDA GRIEGO THE POSITION: Supports ballot measure; would also shift existing city employees to the Police Department to free uniformed officers for street duty; would create gang-free zones around schools and recreation facilities by toughening penalties for gang activity, and impose tougher automatic penalties on anyone carrying a gun on school grounds. *THE CANDIDATE: NATE HOLDEN THE POSITION: Supports ballot measure; would also rehire retired police officers; would deploy foot-patrol officers throughout high crime areas, and establish a gang diversion program in the mayor’s office to assist “at-risk” youths in furthering their education and acquiring jobs. *THE CANDIDATE: TOM HOUSTON THE POSITION: Supports ballot measure; would push for adoption of state law requiring mandatory six-month prison sentence for anyone arrested with unlicensed firearm; supports cooperation between LAPD and INS in targeting known gang members who are also illegal aliens for deportation hearings, and would make any individual convicted of two or more crimes relating to drug use and/or violence ineligible for public housing. *THE CANDIDATE: RICHARD KATZ THE POSITION: Does not support ballot measure; would sell Ontario Airport to fund police overtime; would use parking meter fund to put more police on the streets; would organize an anti-gang strike force with LAPD and federal law enforcement officials, and would institute an aggressive community policing program by reassigning staff in the mayor’s office to work closely with police chief and community leaders. *THE CANDIDATE: JULIAN NAVA THE POSITION: Supports ballot measure; would create an Urban Civil Patrol Corps, with about 8,000 residents reassigned from active military duty to temporary civic duty; would establish mandatory boot camp programs for convicted gang members instead of prison terms; would create an economic development fund that would loan money to gangs for legitimate business ventures. *THE CANDIDATE: NICK PATSAOURAS THE POSITION: Does not support ballot measure; would provide economic opportunities through job training; supports community-based policing and neighborhood coalitions combining parents, churches and schools, and would promote after-school activities. *THE CANDIDATE: RICHARD RIORDAN THE POSITION: Does not support ballot measure; would deploy an additional 3,000 police officers, funded by leasing Los Angeles International Airport to a private operator, as well as create a civilian patrol equipped with cellular phones and video cameras. *THE CANDIDATE: STAN SANDERS THE POSITION: Supports ballot measure; would host a national anti-drug summit in Los Angeles; would force juvenile offenders to enter a job training program; would put more security officers on high school campuses and guarantee a college education to all. *THE CANDIDATE: JOEL WACHS THE POSITION: Supports ballot measure; would implement community-based policing, neighborhood watch programs and train members of the community in dispute mediation; would provide more resources for community efforts to deal with gangs, to support and extend gang truces; would create apprenticeship program for at-risk youths. *THE CANDIDATE: MICHAEL WOO THE POSITION: Supports ballot measure; would change state law to allow the use of CRA funds to pay for police services in CRA project areas; would ban inexpensive handguns called Saturday Night Specials; would send studets who take guns to school to county-run boot camps; would change state law to make it a felony to possess a handgun or to sell one to a minor, and would implement a student/parent education program about the dangers and penalties of taking guns to campus. Compiled by Times Researcher Cecilia Ramussen