SHERMAN OAKS : Meeting to Focus on Gangs and Graffiti

Increased gang and tagger activity in the San Fernando Valley will be the focus of a community meeting Monday at 8 p.m. at Union Federal Savings, 13300 Ventura Blvd., in Sherman Oaks.

“People are scared,” said Richard Close, president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. Close said many Sherman Oaks residents are not only frustrated by the increasing graffiti in their neighborhoods, but also scared because they cannot discern between the scrawls of taggers and those of gang members.

“We want to find out what the Police Department is doing, and what the public should be doing,” Close said.

Officers from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Jeopardy anti-gang program will attempt to allay fears by answering questions at the meeting.

“What we’ll do is help people tell the difference between the taggers and the gangbangers,” Officer Fernando Ochoa said.

Ochoa said he planned to discuss community-based policing and graffiti patrols as possible solutions.

He said there has been a rise in gang and tagger crew activity in the Valley and that it is partially attributable to tagger turf wars between Valley teen-agers and those bused to Valley schools from the inner city.