New Task Force Looks at Growth in Gang Violence

Following a year of increased gang-related beatings and drive-by shootings, a task force of concerned residents and law enforcement officials got a primer on gang activity in and around the city.

The 16 members of Simi Valley’s new Gang Task Force heard the history of the city’s two local gangs Tuesday afternoon and learned how a typical gang member gets sucked into a life of crime.

Listening intently to presentations by the Simi Valley Police Department and the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, task force members heard that despite a decrease in overall crime in the area, gang-related vandalism and violent crime had increased in eastern Ventura County during the last two years.

In Simi Valley the number of gang-related crimes went up from 411 in 1994 to 746 in 1995, said Lt. Dick Thomas, who heads the gang enforcement detail for the Simi Valley Police Department.

While gang crime still makes up a very small percentage of the total number of 3,800 police calls in the city, the serious nature of the crimes is still a concern, Thomas said.

“It’s still pretty minimal compared to overall crime, but obviously it’s a concern,” he said. “That’s why we’re here.”

Last April, the city saw its first drive-by slaying, when 19-year-old Armando Rodriguez was shot in the chest by another 19-year-old. The shooter, Victor Ramirez, has been convicted and is serving a 19-year sentence in state prison, but Thomas said the judgment didn’t end the repercussions.

In the last several months, police have responded to two drive-by shootings thought to be in retaliation for the killing, and one incident in which a Molotov cocktail was thrown through a window.

The increase in gang-related activity--including the slaying and its repercussions--are part of the reason the task force was formed. Many of the members said they had watched the rise in gang-related crime and felt they needed to do something about it.

“I have three school-aged children and I’m concerned,” said Sharon Lambersto, a secretary-bookkeeper for her own painting company, who also serves as the safety chairwoman for the Simi Valley PTA.

This was the first meeting for the task force, and members of the group--which includes two City Council members, local law enforcement officials, an LAPD narcotics officer and an interpreter for the deaf--took the opportunity to ask basic questions.

“I would like to know the psychological profile of these gang members,” said Barbara Zaslow, a quality-assurance manager for a Chatsworth company and an interpreter for the deaf. “I’d like to know where they come from. . . . I don’t just want to go by a fantasy impression of what I’ve heard.”

The questions also gave some indication of the direction that the task force might take when it makes its recommendation to the City Council in April.

City Councilwoman Barbara Williamson asked about enforcement of the city’s curfew and wanted to know what authority the city might have to beef up loitering laws.

“I want solutions with teeth in them,” Williamson said. “It doesn’t do any good if nothing comes of what we recommend.”

Simi Valley had a similar gang task force that disbanded after making a series of recommendations in 1992, and Williamson and City Councilman Paul Miller said it was important to look back at “what worked and what didn’t work.” Miller asked the task force members to review the previous report.

David Alo, a former gang member who is now a maker of patio covers, said the current task force should also remember that some gang members want out but don’t know how to escape the gang lifestyle.

“Some want to change and get out, and we have to find a way to help them,” he said after the meeting. “But some don’t want to change and they don’t want our help.”