4 Officers Hurt, 2 Men Held in Fray

Four officers received minor injuries and two Inglewood men were arrested during a confrontation between police and about 150 patrons who had been ordered out of an overcrowded Crenshaw district rap music club, investigators said Friday.

Los Angeles Police Department vice officers closed the Kaos Network in the 4300 block of Leimert Boulevard about 11:30 p.m. Thursday for operating without permits and being “grossly overcrowded,” said Officer Lorie Taylor, a department spokeswoman.

About 60 officers in riot gear dispersed the crowd after about half an hour.

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Kaos is in Leimert Park Village, an area nationally known for its concentration of shops and galleries featuring African and African American arts and crafts, the Vision Theater Complex, a coffeehouse and a jazz workshop.

One group of merchants argues that the rappers damage the carefully crafted image of the arts community, but others say chasing them away will solve nothing.

Fire officials cited the club operator for overcrowding Thursday, and all of the occupants were ordered to leave, Taylor said. Police and some witnesses disagreed over what happened next.

Police said the crowd congregated on the street and sidewalk outside the club, blocking traffic. Officers gave several orders to disperse, Taylor said, but the crowd only grew more hostile. When a squad of officers attempted to disperse the crowd, several people began throwing bottles and chairs, she said.

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The four injured officers were taken to Orthopaedic Hospital, where they were treated for minor injuries and released, Taylor said.

Kulonji Delon Dae, 22, and Cory Calvert Sneed, 21, were booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer, Taylor said. They were being held in lieu of $50,000 bail.

Richard Fulton, who owns 5th Street Dick’s, a coffeehouse a few doors from Kaos, said police formed a line and “started pushing the kids and swinging their batons. Some of the kids ran, some threw chairs. There were about five or six bottles thrown.”

Fulton said vice officers constantly drive past Kaos on Thursday evenings, when the free-style rap workshop Project Blowed operates. He said rumors surfaced Monday that police would close the club Thursday. “These kids have never been a problem,” Fulton said.

Some of his fellow merchants disagree.

“We have worked too hard to build up the area’s image to see it brought down like this,” said Denise E. Loulendo, who owns a photocopying business next door to Kaos.

Young people “need a place to go, but not here,” she said.

Another merchant, who asked not to be identified, complained that crowds at the rap workshop are too large. “They stand outside and smoke weed,” the merchant said.

But Avril Harris, director of the Crossroads National Education and Arts Center, said, “The reality is that you have a project that has apparently become very popular and needs to expand. The question is, where do they go?”