Ventura County Fair : Police Keep a Close Watch on the Fun

With slow, deliberate footsteps, Sgt. Carl Handy patrols the seedy scene playing out under the flashing colored lights of the midway.

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A concert has just let out at the Ventura County Fair and hundreds of teen-agers are cruising between long lanes of carnival booths. Some are looking for a fast ride. Others are jockeying for a fight.

“There’s a lot of hot blood out here tonight,” Handy tells a carnival boss, eyeing the late-night crowd. Law enforcement officials had been expecting it.

Anonymous phone calls had trickled in all day warning police that gang violence would erupt that night. Ventura police responded by beefing up patrols and calling in gang units from around the county.

“We want to make sure if there is trouble, we’ll be on top of it,” said Handy, head of the Ventura Police Department’s gang detail.

In the past decade, police have taken Draconian steps to ensure that the fair, which draws the largest crowds of any event in the county, does not turn into a war zone.

Suspicious-looking individuals are frisked for weapons at the front gate on weekends and concert nights. A strict policy forbids gang attire, such as clothing with gang symbols. Glassware that could be broken and used as a weapon has been banned from the midway.

Juveniles on probation have been restricted from attending the 12-day event. And to increase law enforcement’s presence, county probation, parole, district attorney and sheriff’s officials routinely stroll the 62-acre fairgrounds in uniforms or other official-looking clothing.

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That comforts fair-goers, police and fair security officials say, and warns would-be troublemakers to lay low.

“What they see is a show of force,” Handy said. “That’s a comfort zone for people. They know there’s not going to be a problem.”

Indeed, problems have been minimal. So far this year, there have been only five arrests at the fair, police said. Two were Wednesday night: one for public drunkenness and another for attempting to fight.

Handy said that track record is indicative of the actions police and fair officials have taken to curb confrontations at the carnival: “We haven’t had a demonstrative problem at the fair in five years.”

But some problems have surfaced at this year’s fair, although so far no one has been injured and few arrests have been necessary.

On Tuesday night, for example, trouble came in the form of rival gangs sparring on the midway after a rap music concert let out.

Schools of teen-agers dressed in baggy pants moved in groups through the carnival. Like the class president at a high school reunion, Handy pointed out the known gangbangers milling through the crowd. Some waved back at him.

Suddenly, the slow cadence of the patrol was broken by a group of known Oxnard gang members who darted down the midway, chased by Ventura Avenue gang members. They streaked past Handy and into the waiting grasp of Oxnard’s gang unit.

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Immediately, the police scanner started chattering. “Fight.” “Guns sighted.” “Stabbing.” Then quiet. There was an anonymous report of a stabbing victim, but no one found. Police, and the teen cliques, went back to strolling the midway.

“There’s kind of a circuit they make,” Handy said. It starts by the game booths and rides, circles through the food concessions, concert area and back again. “They stay out of the Agriculture Building. It’s all about being seen.”

Handy’s gang unit, and those from police departments in Oxnard and Thousand Oaks, know all their hard-core gang members. And they “profile” others who they suspect to be gang-affiliated, often by dress, although that can be problematic.

“It used to be if it walked like a duck and looked like a duck, chances were . . . ,” Handy said. “But nowadays, everybody wants to look like a duck.”

Recognizing well-known troublemakers is one reason that Ventura police have called on outside agencies to help patrol the fair.

On Tuesday, it was a regular Who’s Who in Ventura County law enforcement as extra agencies rolled in to help monitor a potentially rowdy crowd drawn to the evening’s concert.

The list included 28 Ventura police officers, five Oxnard gang officers, three county parole officers, 12 probation officers, two district attorney’s investigators, 25 armed fair security officers, six mounted officers and five east county sheriff’s deputies.

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Deputy Probation Officer Michele Konkle banned about 50 juveniles under her supervision from the fair--a step she has taken for five years now and credits for keeping problems to a minimum.

“There is justification for them not being here,” she said. “It’s not just that they are Avenue gang [members]. . . . I do not allow these kids to come here, and I think that has had an impact on the behavior here.”

Konkle added: “A lot of them have told me they wouldn’t come anyway because they would get killed or hurt.”

The law enforcement presence was most noticeable that night at the front gate where a dozen officers checked for weapons and gang paraphernalia before letting people into the fair.

They removed a single pocketknife and handfuls of metal belt buckles bearing gang letters, which were placed in a cardboard box for their owners to collect at the end of the evening.

“It’s legal to have pocketknives,” Handy said. “You just can’t have them down at the fair.”

Ventura residents David Gasper and Ivan Badilla, both 18, said they were surprised to be frisked. But if the cops were checking them, they said, then they were checking other teen-agers too. And hopefully that meant that no one would enter with a gun or knife.

“It’s better, you know?” Badilla said. “No trouble for us.”

The police presence was noticed and, for the most part, seemed to be appreciated.

“I think security has been beefed up quite a bit,” said Deanna Green, who sells beer at the fair. “It’s comforting to know they are out there doing their jobs.”

But one fair worker said police were not curbing fights and accused them of harassing teen-agers.

“I’m not sticking up for or promoting gangbangers,” Ventura resident Susan Abril said. “[But] they are over here harassing someone about a belt buckle.”

Abril said police chased would-be customers away from her Ring-A-Bottle game booth Tuesday night. She even hollered in Handy’s face about it.

“The fact is,” she said the next day, “we are both trying to do our jobs.”

* FAIR SCHEDULE: B2