RAMPART : Community-Based Partying a Success

The Rampart Division of the Los Angeles Police Department is among the busiest and roughest in the city, but the station’s third annual open house offered a dose of congeniality and a dash of small-town fun for families.

The event, on a recent Saturday, began with a parade featuring marching bands, cheerleaders, drill teams, and Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts from local schools, including Belmont High, Berendo Middle School and Union Avenue Elementary schools.

Dressed in colorful uniforms and carrying vivid banners and anti-drug posters, hundreds of young people marched in the sweltering heat Oct. 2 as they made their way from the station, down Benton Way, up Lafayette Park Place and back to the station on Temple Street.

“Too often we think of kids in the inner city as just gang members-to-be, but these are good quality folks just looking for a chance to show their stuff,” said Rampart’s Capt. Gregory Berg.

Officer Webster Wong, the principal organizer of the event, reasoned that if he could get youths involved, their parents and relatives would follow. He was right--the event drew more than 1,000 people.

“The kids were terrific,” Wong said. “We wanted to open our doors as much for the police as for the community so we could all have a chance to get to know each other.”

In the ethnically diverse Rampart area, officers especially need to find ways to forge good working relationships with residents, Berg said.

Joan Gamberg, of the Upper Rampart Heights Neighborhood Assn., said: “If the police really can have an open-door policy and the doors swing both ways, then that lets people know that the police station is an OK place to go to if you have a problem, even if you’re a kid or an immigrant.”

Several Korean-American restaurants provided food for the event and more Korean-Americans participated this year.

“Sometimes Koreans and police have needless problems because they don’t understand our cultural background,” said Gene Kim of the Koreatown Assn. “That’s why we like to be involved in events like this. With all the Korean businesses in Rampart, we have a stake in working together to prevent crime.”

But it was entertainment, not crime, that was on the minds of most people at the Rampart open house. Music and dances from around the world filled a temporary stage while children clambered into a police helicopter, rescue trucks and fire engines displayed at the station.

For Halloween, Rampart will again create a haunted house with props and sets from movies.

Rampart community relations office: (213) 485-4080.