San Fernando Valley Gangs Maintain Precarious Peace : Crime: An activist scarred by tragedy is given credit for helping stem violence. The earthquake, the Mexican Mafia and an increased police presence also may have played roles.

As a native of the East San Fernando Valley who grew up among street gangs and whose son was killed in a drive-by shooting, William (Blinky) Rodriguez is no stranger to gang violence.

Indeed, he has devoted the last four years to bringing about its end.

But the peacemaker who has known grief mourns again--this time for the 20-year-old boyfriend of his niece, stabbed to death last week in what police describe as a gang-related brawl in Mission Hills.

The murder of Daniel (Droopy) Pineda near a popular San Fernando Valley cruising strip was the first of its kind in the 11 months since Rodriguez and a band of other lay ministers organized a Valley-wide Latino gang truce. Besides being a tragedy for Rodriguez and his family, the fatal stabbing is being followed closely by police, gangsters and neighborhood activists for any sign that the delicate truce struck last Halloween may now unravel.

So far, the deeply religious Rodriguez is optimistic, noting that a week after Pineda’s death, representatives from 18 gangs still attended a Sunday afternoon meeting in Pacoima Park, a weekly event held to mediate differences without resorting to violence.

“If we lose this, we’ve lost something that’s never happened before,” Rodriguez said Monday. “But the reality is, we still have a peace treaty going on.”

There seems to be no question that gang-related homicides in the San Fernando Valley have dropped dramatically since an estimated 75 local Latino gangs--prompted by orders from the powerful, prison-based Mexican Mafia, according to authorities--agreed last fall to set aside their weapons.

As of August, the Los Angeles Police Department had recorded nine such killings--compared to 35 for the same period last year--and Rodriguez maintains that none of the nine deaths involved innocent bystanders. Gang-related felony assaults--including attempted murder--have also decreased to 418 through August of this year, compared to 589 for the same period last year.

The unprecedented truce followed months of work by Rodriguez and other Christian-oriented youth leaders who spent nights and weekends dashing from one gang altercation to another, defusing emotions and urging rivals to talk. Rodriguez, the 40-year-old co-owner of a Van Nuys martial arts center, had worked for years with teen-agers and young adults as a boxing and kick-boxing coach, trying to steer them away from crime.

He redoubled his anti-violence campaign in 1990 after the death of his 16-year-old son, Sonny.

“I’m still trying to reconcile within myself whether he was a (gang) member or not,” Rodriguez said.

But while police praise Rodriguez’s achievements, and say they welcome any effort that stems gang bloodshed, authorities suggest that other factors have contributed to the decrease in homicides.

The Jan. 17 Northridge earthquake, for example, seemed to quell crimes of all kinds, in part because more uniformed police and other officials were on city streets. And additional funds for police overtime--the first in years under a new City Hall crime-fighting plan--also deserve credit for increasing the number of patrol cars and inhibiting criminal acts, said Los Angeles Police Lt. Fred Tuller.

“There are a lot of factors taking place this year that have affected gang crime and violent crime in general, and Blinky’s efforts are one of those factors,” said Tuller, who coordinates the LAPD’S anti-gang units in the Valley.

“I will give him credit; I think he has played a positive role,” Tuller said. “But to what degree, I’m not a scorekeeper, I don’t know.”

Whatever record the peace treaty had was marred Sept. 18 when Pineda, a house painter from Palmdale and the father of two young sons, was killed near the old San Fernando Mission in a showdown that LAPD Det. Frank Bishop called typical.

Drinking in his parked car with three friends, on his way to watch a boxing match on closed-circuit TV, Pineda was approached by a group of other youths who asked him where he was from, meaning his neighborhood or gang affiliation. When he replied he was a “Sanfer,” a member of a San Fernando-based gang, he was beaten and fatally stabbed, according to police. A male companion, similarly attacked, survived.

“That was the wrong thing to say,” said Bishop, who supervises homicide investigations for the Foothill Division. The Pineda case is unsolved, he added.

Bishop, without providing specifics, also said there were more gang-related attacks later that night and in the days that followed which he believes were meant as retaliation. “We’ve had a steady flow,” he said.

Pineda was buried Saturday in Newhall before an estimated 300 to 400 mourners, and Rodriguez is clinging to the hope that his death will remain an isolated incident as peace-keeping efforts go on.

“It’s really hard to define why Daniel was killed,” he said. “It just happened and a lot of people were just shocked about it. I mean, like, dang man, a lot of people were disappointed. . . . When you lose someone like that, the hate is going to get turned up,” Rodriguez acknowledged. “But the factions involved are working to get things resolved in a way that would be positive.”