Monster of a Treat

The children of some of Los Angeles’ most violent communities will put on their costumes tonight and venture out with complete safety. They will go to just one house, created for them by police and community volunteers.

Without the ghoulish Rampart Division retreat, trick-or-treating would be unimaginable in these neighborhoods west of downtown, laced with drug dealing and gang warfare.

“When I first came here, I used to never see kids wearing costumes and getting candy on Halloween,” said crime prevention Officer Webster Wong, who developed the annual event six years ago. “It just wasn’t safe. We’re just trying to restore the holiday for them.”

Several other police divisions operate similar Halloween events.

The Rampart house, a maze filled with volunteer “monsters,” artificial fog and strobe lights, is set up inside a large tent in the police station parking lot on West Temple Street and has been operating for the past two nights.

On Tuesday, about 600 children from Westlake, Pico-Union and the MacArthur Park area shrieked, howled and clung onto their parents as they navigated the house, whose decorations and volunteers are provided by community organizations.

Parents such as Naomi Ortiz, who brought her four children ages 4 to 9, say they are relieved to have an alternative.

Standing in a line that wound around the block, Ortiz said she wouldn’t want her kids to trick or treat except “maybe during the day. But it’s dangerous at night. This is better.”

Each of the tent’s 14 rooms has been adopted by a community group. About 300 volunteers are involved.

In the room adopted by Casa de Amigos, a community outreach program sponsored by St. Vincent Medical Center, volunteer Berner Leon , 17, stood in a vat of red-hued water with rubber body parts floating in it.

“They’re coming!” a fellow volunteer yelled as the sound of footsteps approached. Leon donned a snorkel and submerged himself into the barrel of “blood.” A well-timed leap and splash elicited yelps from the visitors, some of whom tried to hide behind their parents.

A dungeon full of roaring “monsters” and a coffin with a live “body” left Mara Morales clinging to her friend Edwin Lossi.

“I don’t want to go. I’m scared. Don’t make me go,” pleaded 11-year-old Mara, but who shrieked with delight as another band of monsters greeted them.

Another room was designed and staffed by People in Progress, a drug and alcohol recovery program that emphasizes community service. One of its volunteers, Michael Kopriva, 32, was as grateful to be there as the children.’

“In my addiction, I’ve done so much I’m not proud of,” he said. “This . . . sort of helps make up for it--doing something that’s good for the children.”

Sporting a red cape and directing traffic at the exit door, Kopriva bellowed playfully ominous statements at the laughing children who scurried out the door to collect packets of candy.

Colby Friday, 11, who was calmly munching jellybeans at the exit, said he didn’t find the house too frightening. “My brother was scared though. He pushed me down and a monster grabbed my leg,” he said.