Up for the Count : San Fernando Youths Organize for Self-Improvement

Rudy Campa, 52, dances lightly side to side in the shadows, dressed in sweat shirt, dark pants and white sneakers. His partner is Ernie Rodriguez, 16, a former member of theSanfers, a San Fernando-based gang.

Campa--once a drug addict, convict and gang member himself--weaves and bobs, then comes at Ernie. Campa keeps his guard up, his fists enveloped by worn leather mitts. Ernie, in a pair of boxing gloves, does not back off. He connects with a combination of swift punches to Campa’s mitts.

Their figures--that of an older, wiry man and a younger, lithe pupil--cast weird shadows beneath the light bulb on the wall behind the headquarters of the youth organization Salud on Celis Street.

The two boxers are connecting. And that is the point of it all.

In September, the city of San Fernando banned Campa’s group of about 50 youth boxers, both male and female, from a corner of the tennis court in Las Palmas Park, where the group had trained, saying it was stirring up trouble and causing fights there.

It was after their exile, the youths say, that the police began harassing them. Some of the teen-agers, who are mostly Latino, thought about quitting the program--which provided them access to a positive, active peer group. Many considered going back to whatever it was they did before--hanging out at the mall, cruising, trying to find beer, avoiding homework, avoiding home.

But two months later, the group is still together, better organized, larger and, its leaders say, wiser after its struggle with the city and its police. And the group has a new name: the Las Palmas Youth Group--chosen to remind members of their struggle.

Boxing continues on a reduced level, with teen-agers training on their own and sparring with Campa in the back of the building on Celis Street.

And supervised by Augie Maldonado, an anti-alcohol activist who received a $72,000 grant from the San Fernando Valley Partnership in January to run youth programs for high-risk teen-agers, the group convenes weekly meetings, using parliamentary procedure. There they plan parties, boxing exhibitions and community service activities. The next activity is a yard cleanup day for senior citizens in San Fernando.

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It is the organization of the events--and the struggle, the give-and-take with the city and the police force--that provides the most valuable lessons for the teen-agers, Maldonado says, and the kids agree.

“We had a good thing going in the park,” said Laura Urib, 14, one of Campa’s boxers. “But it’s even better now. We thought we’d all separate. But this is something unique. With the problems we had with the police, it’s different. We stayed together. We tried to do something about the problem, and we’re more determined to prove we can make something good happen.”

The youths’ enthusiasm and drive to succeed has earned them a reputation that extends beyond the boundaries of San Fernando. Youth organizations like the Blythe Street Youth Leadership group from Panorama City and students from the Phoenix Academy, a residential drug treatment center and school in Lake View Terrace, have dropped in for lessons in boxing, leadership and practical civics.

Some of the teen-agers, like Ernie, quit gangs to join the group. Others said they joined because it’s clean, safe and fun. Whatever the reasons, members agree that their exile from the park--which occurred after several fights broke out there and questions arose about the group’s nonprofit status--has brought them closer.

Campa, who said that starting the youth boxing program was a dream he held onto during his 32 years in a California state prison, agrees: “They thought they were closing the door on us, but we just opened up a whole new one.”

The troubles in Las Palmas Park began Aug. 13, when two teen-agers began fighting during a Salud banquet there. Campa intervened, telling the boys to put on boxing gloves if they wanted to pound out their differences. The boys obliged, boxed for about three minutes and then shook hands.

But city officials objected to Campa’s way of handling the problem and protested the lack of headgear or mouthpieces in the boxing program.

After another fight in the park during a baseball game, the City Council decided Sept. 12 to ban the group from the park.

That’s when several alleged incidents of police harassment began, the youths said. Police Chief Dominick Rivetti confirmed that the department is investigating the allegations, but declined to comment further.

About 10 of the youths who had attended the meeting said they were roughed up afterward by several members of the San Fernando Police Department.

“We were walking down San Fernando Road toward the mall,” said Ronnie Campa, 20, who was with the group that evening. “A police car pulled up behind us and a cop started yelling at us: ‘What are you guys--stupid?’ He was mad because we crossed when the light was red.”

Two more squad cars then arrived, said Campa, who is Rudy Campa’s son.

Campa said one of the officers asked Robert Vasquez, 14, if the light had been green when the group walked through the intersection. The police officer did not like Robert’s response and slapped him a few times, Campa said.

Ernie said one of the officers pushed him several times, trying to goad him into a confrontation.

Ernie and Ronnie Campa said they were angry about the way they were treated and asked Maldonado what they could do about it. Maldonado suggested a meeting with the police. That meeting, during which the teen-agers told an officer about that incident and several others, resulted in Rivetti’s decision to investigate.

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“There were issues raised during that meeting that are being checked out,” Rivetti said. “I don’t release the conclusions of department investigations. But I can tell you the allegations had nothing to do with racial discrimination.”

The teen-agers say that there have been fewer problems since their meeting with police, and the group views that as a victory: “They expected us to say something back to them, to like, do something bad because of the way they treated us. But Rudy and Augie, they say, ‘Just be polite and show them respect,’ ” Ernie said. “It’s not easy, but that’s what we did.”

Maldonado said it’s the first lesson many of the teen-agers have learned about how to exercise restraint and pressure for change “in a positive way.”

“They found out that if they don’t give up, it works, and they’re proud of themselves,” Maldonado said. “They should be.”