Order Sought to Control Gang in Harbor City : Crime: An eight-block area of the community has been blighted by illegal activity. The civil abatement process allows the prohibition of certain activities, including the possession of portable phones.

City officials hope a tough gang abatement program in Harbor City will return calm to an eight-block area that has been rocked by gang activity and illegal drug sales.

In a 10-0 vote Tuesday, the City Council directed city prosecutors to seek a court order to bar the activities of a Harbor City street gang. The measure is similar to one taken against the Blythe Street gang in Panorama City.

“There is nothing more important than the right to feel safe in your home, business or school,” said Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, who represents the Harbor City area. “The civil abatement process that is being used against the Blythe Street gang is the very same procedure that was begun here in Harbor City over four years ago and never finalized.”

Maureen Siegel, chief of criminal operations for the city attorney’s office, said the problem in Harbor City does not appear to be as severe as that in Panorama City.

“It is not to say this isn’t serious, but it doesn’t seem to have reached the level of Blythe Street,” Siegel said.

Two weeks ago a Van Nuys Superior Court judge issued a 22-point injunction against the Blythe Street gang, forbidding gang members from engaging in many otherwise legal acts, such as standing on rooftops or possessing portable telephones. The injunction took effect April 8.

While the council unanimously passed the Flores request, Councilman Mike Hernandez expressed some reservations.

“We just can’t come in with suppression. It is not going to solve the problem,” Hernandez said.

During Tuesday’s meeting, the council heard from Maureen Kaneko, principal of Normont Elementary School, who said her students were endangered by criminal activity in the area.

Kaneko described a drill in which a bell sounds and the students drop to the ground “because they are afraid of a stray bullet or something equally dangerous will come unto the campus.”

She called it “a critical incident drill because of violence and drug activities in the community surrounding the school.” Kaneko said she started the drill about two months ago at the school, which serves 730 students from kindergarten through the sixth grade.

A Los Angeles police detective, Kim Wierman, told the council there had been 695 gang and narcotics-related crimes and 14 murders in the eight-block area since January, 1992.

The eight-block area is bordered by Lomita Boulevard on the north, Frampton Avenue on the west, Vermont Avenue on the east and Pacific Coast Highway on the south.