Countywide Assault on Gangs Launched : Crime: Fatal ambush prompts elected officials, agencies to form group. A wide-ranging approach, including appointment of ‘czar,’ is proposed.

A host of the area’s top political and criminal justice leaders, emerging from a hastily called meeting at Los Angeles City Hall, pledged Thursday to work together in a concentrated effort to quell gang violence.

“We have too many criminals and too many victims in all parts of our cities,” Mayor Richard Riordan said in announcing formation of a countywide Street Gang Working Group. Promising that the group would not be just “another task force,” Riordan added: “You cannot fight crime with words. We need action.”

Some of the proposals that grew out of the two-hour meeting in the mayor’s office were appointment of a countywide “gang czar” to coordinate efforts and pursuit of another chunk of federal anti-crime legislation funds--an effort that Riordan offered to lead. The mayor promised to raise the subject with President Clinton during their meeting this morning in Santa Monica.

Other measures included borrowing ideas from some of the successful anti-gang programs already in place in several neighborhoods; finding ways to get residents involved in crime-fighting efforts; helping police, prosecutors and the courts throughout the county to share information more easily, and finding room in tight municipal budgets for diversion and intervention programs to reach youngsters before they turn to gangs.

The mayor pulled the group together in the wake of the attack on a family that stumbled into gang territory in Cypress Park over the weekend. News of the killing of 3-year-old Stephanie Kuhen and the wounding of her 2-year-old brother reverberated around the nation and stepped up pressure on police and political leaders to stop the mayhem that has often caught innocent bystanders in its cross-fire.

“Unfortunately, there are too many ‘Stephanies’ . . . It’s not just this child; it’s not just her family,” Riordan said.

The group is taking on a widespread, seemingly intractable problem. Law enforcement officials estimate that there are as many as 150,000 gang members operating in distressed neighborhoods throughout the county; their offenses range from graffiti to drive-by shootings to drug dealing. Police said recently that gangs were responsible for 80% of violent crimes in a 30-block area of South-Central Los Angeles.

Among the two dozen participants in Thursday’s meeting were county Supervisor Gloria Molina, Police Chief Willie L. Williams, Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, City Atty. James K. Hahn, two judges, three city council members and representatives of the FBI, state criminal justice agencies, the Sheriff’s Department, an anti-gang organization, school district police and city park rangers.

Yet there were signs, beneath the unified front, that political tensions and philosophical disagreements will be hard to put aside. Chief Williams, at odds with the mayor and suing the city in fallout over a reprimand in connection with his accepting free hotel rooms in Las Vegas, ignored Riordan’s invitation to return to the microphones to help answer a reporter’s question.

And Councilman Mike Hernandez, in whose district the Kuhen shooting occurred, complained after the news conference that he had been snubbed by Riordan. Although he participated in the press gathering, Hernandez said he had been omitted from the meeting itself, despite his longtime efforts to combat gang violence, and he bristled when Riordan told reporters he had been consulting with the councilman.

“I didn’t appreciate his using my name and stating that he’s been listening to my advice,” Hernandez said. “He seems to think that minority communities don’t have answers.”

“I’ve been dealing with it for four years. I think I understand the problem a lot better than some folks,” continued Hernandez, adding his “fear is that this is just another Band-Aid and just another press conference.”

Riordan’s office said the mayor would have no comment on Hernandez’s complaints.

Councilman Mike Feuer, who earlier this week proposed setting up a citywide program to combat street violence, said Thursday he would support expanding such a program countywide.

Riordan said the group has not chosen an anti-gang “czar” to oversee efforts but added that a selection could be made at the group’s next meeting, as yet unscheduled.

“We want someone with access to leaders [and someone] who can spend 100% of their time on this,” Riordan said.

At a community meeting at Aragon Avenue School in Cypress Park, about 50 area residents met Thursday night to organize a carwash to benefit the slain girl’s family and to vent anger at Hernandez and other politicians whom they blamed for not trying harder to solve area gang problems.

Said Cypress Park artist Dolores Guerra Cruz: “We need to hold Mike Hernandez and all these other politicians accountable because they do nothing for us.”

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Times staff writers Efrain Hernandez and George Ramos contributed to this story.