Cover Story : Fearing the Worst : Recent High-Profile Cases Bring Violence Close to Home, but Despite Perceptions, the Crime Rate May Actually Be Declining

A masked gunman bursts into a meeting of police officers in Torrance and kills two of them before he is killed. The daughter of an El Segundo City Council member is murdered in her home and her young daughter’s throat slashed. A police officer in Manhattan Beach is shot dead while his young nephew looks on. Eleven people are gunned down in Inglewood in just two days, the worst outburst of violence in that city’s history. At an upscale mall restaurant in Redondo Beach, gunfire erupts during an argument among three men, two of them wearing bulletproof vests; one man is shot seven times and dies on the restaurant floor.

It has been a bloody few months in the South Bay.

There was a time not so long ago, many residents say, when the South Bay seemed almost immune to the violence that besets other parts of Los Angeles. Particularly in the upscale beach communities and the even more upscale “bridle path” towns of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, urban violence was something people watched on TV or read about in the newspapers. It seldom if ever hit close to home.

Not anymore.

During the past two months, two small-town police departments that had never lost an officer in the line of duty learned what it was like to bury three of their own. Small-town residents have seen stories of crime in their cities splashed across the front pages. “Wanted posters” showing a police sketch of a suspected cop killer--the gunman who killed Manhattan Beach Police Officer Martin Ganz--are now a fixture in countless South Bay stores, offices and public buildings.

In interviews with South Bay residents from El Segundo to the Palos Verdes Peninsula, people say they feel they’re facing a crime onslaught, with their backs against the sea.

It has affected them in myriad ways.

Faye Flatland, 60, who with her husband runs a Hawthorne bookkeeping business, often removes her diamond wedding band or turns the stone inside her finger when she goes out. “I never used to do that,” she says.

For Theresa Sanchez, 32, of Hermosa Beach, crime has prompted a career change and probably a change of address. She had wanted to be a cop, and was scheduled to take the Los Angeles Police Department qualification test last month. But after the Ganz killing in December, Sanchez decided to become a nurse instead.

“I like the idea of leaving the state,” Sanchez says. “I have a feeling it’s only going to get worse around here.”

Crime forced Virginia Benedict, 75, of Gardena to chain down the hood on her 1971 Chevy Nova to protect her car battery--and even that wasn’t protection enough.

“Four times they stole the battery,” she says. “I had a chain lock on it and they pulled that right off. . . . I’ve lived in Los Angeles all my life. We never even used to lock our doors. It’s really worse now than it has ever been. People just don’t seem to care.”

Bob Deurloo, 48, a retired firefighter in Torrance, always calls ahead to friends and gives them a “flight plan” describing the route he will take to meet them. “That way,” he says, “if I don’t show up, they’ll know something’s wrong.”

For Don Schima, 28, of Redondo Beach, crime has changed the nature of birthday and Christmas presents. Because his 1984 Toyota pickup has been broken into three times in the past few years, he gets auto anti-theft devices.

“When I grew up here, it was great area,” says Schima. “Crime wasn’t a problem.”

Like almost everybody else in the South Bay, Schima longs for “the good old days”--the good old low-crime days.

The irony is that, in terms of crime, the “good old days” weren’t always that good.

*

Consider, for example, Redondo Beach.

According to FBI statistics, compared to the good old days, murder last year was up only slightly (three cases in 1980 and four in 1993), reported rapes are down by more than half (46 to 18), robberies are more or less level (151 to 145), aggravated assault is up (177 to 222) and burglaries are way down (1,137 to 848).

Or how about El Segundo, where residents are understandably worried about crime after the murder of a city councilman’s daughter and the slashing of her child? Again, it’s a mixed bag: fewer murders in 1992 (the last year for which statistics were available) than in 1980, fewer reported rapes, more robberies, only half as many aggravated assaults, far fewer burglaries (see chart, Page 12).

Even Inglewood, the “All American City” that recently made headlines when 11 people were shot in two nights of gang carnage, actually has seen crime go down in most categories in the past dozen years. In 1980 there were 54 murders in Inglewood, compared to 44 in 1993.

Some other South Bay cities also have experienced declines in the crime rate over the past 13 years, while others have seen the crime rate remain more or less flat in most categories. Still others have seen increases, usually relatively slight, in many or most crime categories.

Although the numbers vary, the overall picture is clear: Bad as it is, crime in the South Bay has not increased by astonishing percentages, but fear and concern about crime has.

To police officers, for whom crime statistics are like job performance evaluations, the widespread perception that crime is worse is a little baffling.

“When I look at the statistics, it seems like (the crime rate) is pretty flat,” says El Segundo Police Sgt. Bill Fleming. “Some of the crime is just more dramatic, more sensational.”

“When you see a string of high-profile crimes like we’ve had recently, it hits home,” says Lt. Jim Oneal of the Lomita sheriff’s station, which provides police protection to Lomita and three Palos Verdes Peninsula cities. “But over the past five years we’ve actually maintained a very low level of crime. We get occasional little spikes, but overall, the trend is steady.”

Politicians, who also keep a close eye on crime statistics, note that crime perceptions do not necessarily reflect crime reality.

“Factually, crime has at worst stayed even, and at best has gone down,” says Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor Steve Kuykendall, a member of several law enforcement and public safety boards and commissions. “But the perception is that crime is increasing.”

Harbor area Councilman Rudy Svorinich, whose district stretches from San Pedro to Watts, is confident that soon the truth--crime in the harbor area is falling--will win out over the misconception that crime is on the rise.

“It is the responsibility of those of us in elected office--commanders in the field, officers in the field, community leaders, neighborhood watch groups--to inform the residents of our particular areas how crime is being successfully abated. . . . But I think perceptions die hard. That’s the problem.”

But at times, even Svorinich must remind himself that crime in his district is dropping rather than rising. Svorinich’s San Pedro City Hall office was burglarized twice in the past two weeks. Thieves stole two VCRs, a computer keyboard, a typewriter and Svorinich’s mail.

“We’ve had to really beef up our security,” he says with a sigh.

*

All this doesn’t mean that South Bay residents are paranoid about crime. In fact, South Bay residents are simply mirroring a national trend. A recent Los Angeles Times poll showed that the number of Americans who rate crime as the No. 1 problem in the nation more than doubled in the past six months--from 21% to 43%. This comes despite the fact that violent crime in the United States actually has been decreasing in the past few years.

And in human terms, perception may be more important than statistics. When your car is broken into, or the woman down the street is raped, or the cop who came over when you thought you heard a burglar is suddenly shot dead in the street during a routine traffic stop, statistics become meaningless.

If crime is the problem people believe it is, what can be done about it?

For most police officers in the South Bay, one answer to the crime problem is more cops.

“As we saw after the earthquake, visible policing in the streets is an absolute deterrent to crime,” says Hawthorne Police Chief Stephen Port. “The problem with it is that it’s very expensive. . . . More police is probably the prayer and wish of any police chief you talk to.”

But even some police agree that cops alone cannot stop all crime.

“Naturally, everyone looks to increased levels of police in the streets,” says Lt. Charles Schultz, Lawndale liaison at the Lennox sheriff’s station. “In the long run, we’ve been doing that and we’ve found out that you can never have enough. I think it’s important we start identifying the social causes of crime as a way to solve it. . . . One of the single biggest (factors) is the deterioration of the family unit.”

In keeping with national trends, South Bay politicians tend to favor harsher penalties for criminals.

“Three-strikes-and-you’re-out is not enough,” says Lawndale Mayor Harold E. Hofmann, referring to legislation that would put repeat felons behind bars for life. “And we’re going to have to start treating 14-, 15- and 16-year-olds like adults. We’re going to have to start saying, ‘This is wrong and you’re going to have to pay for it.’ ”

“When you have a court system that doesn’t do its job, that counteracts what the police do,” says Hawthorne Mayor Larry Guidi.

Other elected officials believe that citizens can stop crime by reporting criminals to the police.

“Things will get better if people themselves participate in the process,” says Mayor Edward Vincent of Inglewood, where officials recently instituted a curfew for teen-agers in an effort to combat crime. “People know everything. They know who’s stealing, who’s dealing dope, who’s committing crimes--people know it. We have to work collectively to solve these problems and it will be done.”

Still other elected officials opt for the “root cause” approach to crime.

“It’s a difficult task, but we have to involve the young people, the gang members, and try to get them to have some sense of pride in the community,” says Carson Councilwoman Sylvia L. Muise-Perez. “The important thing is getting to the young people before they go in a wrong direction. . . . I think we’re doing a little of that.

Ordinary South Bay residents have their own ideas about stemming crime--ranging from the violent to the merely strict to the compassionate.

“People should carry guns in their homes,” says John Keenan, 63, of Redondo Beach. “Citizens should be blowing a few (criminals’) heads off. That would help.”

“The way I feel, our judicial system is not punishing the criminals. This is problem No. 1,” says Art Cramer, 49, who is part owner of a liquor store in Torrance--a store that has been robbed twice. “We don’t want crime, but we don’t want to punish the criminals. People should be locked up for 20 years if they do a robbery . . . not five years.”

“I think they need more police,” says Guyla DeVilbiss, 37, a Lawndale preschool teacher. “In the schools, I think they need to have more after-school programs to keep latchkey kids out of trouble.”

“We need to get more jobs for people and more education from the parents on down,” says Jin Wong, 58, also of Lawndale. “We can get along. We don’t have to fight and kill each other. We’re all human beings.”

Maybe all of those proposed solutions would work; maybe none would, at least not alone.

But if statistics are any help, South Bay residents may take heart from the knowledge that crime, while admittedly terrible, may not be quite as rampant as it seems.

They may also take heart from the brave words of an El Segundo police officer.

“You always have to have an optimistic view,” says Sgt. Bill Fleming. “If you become worried that the world is going to hell, you’ve already got one foot in the losers’ bracket.”

South Bay Crime

AGGRAVATED CITY HOMICIDE RAPE ROBBERY ASSAULT Avalon (pop. 2,918) 1980 0 2 1 14 1992 0 2 0 33 Carson (83,995) 1980 14 33 284 539 1992 12 30 389 857 El Segundo (15,223) 1980 1 11 40 52 1992 0 6 53 25 Gardena (48,847) 1980 8 25 492 194 1992 13 26 655 372 Hawthorne (71,349) 1980 12 57 601 428 1992 18 49 777 745 Hermosa Beach (18,249) 1980 0 16 39 84 1992 0 7 35 60 Inglewood (109,602) 1980 54 132 1,495 461 1992 37 67 1,300 1,137 Lawndale (27,331) 1980 4 17 133 165 1992 5 7 205 354 Lomita (19,382) 1980 0 7 40 113 1992 1 6 50 229 Manhattan Beach (32,063) 1980 1 25 61 38 1992 0 7 72 70 Palos Verdes Estates (13,512) 1980 1 4 4 12 1992 1 1 3 16 Rancho Palos Verdes (41,659) 1980 0 11 7 45 1992 1 2 20 76 Redondo Beach (60,167) 1980 3 46 151 177 1992 0 15 173 220 Rolling Hills (1,871) 1980 0 0 0 4 1992 0 0 0 4 Rolling Hills Estates (7,789) 1980 1 0 7 26 1992 0 0 8 23 Torrance (133,107) 1980 6 65 333 302 1992 2 27 498 357

CITY BURGLARY Avalon (pop. 2,918) 1980 63 1992 27 Carson (83,995) 1980 1,693 1992 1,118 El Segundo (15,223) 1980 418 1992 251 Gardena (48,847) 1980 1,388 1992 853 Hawthorne (71,349) 1980 1,558 1992 1,295 Hermosa Beach (18,249) 1980 374 1992 275 Inglewood (109,602) 1980 3,072 1992 1,988 Lawndale (27,331) 1980 690 1992 393 Lomita (19,382) 1980 352 1992 215 Manhattan Beach (32,063) 1980 847 1992 532 Palos Verdes Estates (13,512) 1980 141 1992 84 Rancho Palos Verdes (41,659) 1980 439 1992 250 Redondo Beach (60,167) 1980 1,137 1992 875 Rolling Hills (1,871) 1980 18 1992 7 Rolling Hills Estates (7,789) 1980 161 1992 68 Torrance (133,107) 1980 2,091 1992 1,533

Source: California Department of Justice