CITY HALL WATCH : And Whose Job Is It?

The mini-mall at Roscoe and Sepulveda in Van Nuys has been plagued by illicit drug trafficking, so much so that many merchants there have fled. Now, because of a court order obtained by the Los Angeles city attorney’s office, the mall’s owners must post signs warning drug dealers to stay away, erect high-powered lights and a perimeter fence.

One proprietor must close his 24-hour shop between midnight and 4 a.m. or hire a security guard. Failure to take these steps could result in a one-year shutdown of the mall.

City attorneys are using a state law that shifts part of the burden of ensuring public safety from police patrols to private property owners. That causes us to note that none of the merchants at this mall have been accused in court of participating in the drug trade there and that only one of the proprietors is alleged to have allowed drug dealers to enter his establishment.

This is a law that should be used sparingly at best, and only against those businesses that clearly aid or abet the drug trade or ignore its presence.

That is scarcely the case here: All but one of the remaining businesses is squarely behind the elimination of the drug trade in the mini-mall, particularly because it has frightened away many legitimate customers.

Moreover, City Hall must not forget that the fundamental task of ensuring law and order is the government’s. The ultimate task of law enforcement should not be handed off to private citizens. To issue an order to that effect seems to us quite absurd.