Some Areas ‘Taken Over’ by Gang, Official Says

A top Los Angeles police official said Tuesday that the 18th Street gang has “literally taken over some parts of the city” creating “an atmosphere of lawlessness,” and acknowledged that the department could do a better job fighting it and other gangs.

Deputy Chief John D. White, briefing the city Police Commission, painted a grim picture of the reach and activities of the city’s largest street gang, which he said now sprawls into the majority of the LAPD’s 18 divisions.

Calling 18th Street “probably the most violent Hispanic gang in the city,” White said “residents living in those areas are very much intimidated. . . . We have a very difficult time in trying to get them to come forward and report crime, and also testify in court.”

White, who was called before the civilian oversight panel in response to a Times series on the gang, said the LAPD has been taking steps to improve its communication and coordination--within the department as well as with other agencies--in combating 18th Street and other gangs.

With a Southern California membership estimated as high as 20,000, 18th Street has spread across state and international borders. The Times found that law enforcement agencies have not always shared information or pooled resources to combat the challenges posed by the gang’s increasing spread and growing sophistication.

Also on Tuesday, Assembly Majority Leader Antonio Villaraigosa said that in response to the newspaper series he will introduce legislation designed to stem the flow of young recruits into gangs like 18th Street.

Among other things, the legislation would create a new statewide anti-gang agency charged with pursuing grants, coordinating prevention programs and more systematically tracking young gang members who pass through juvenile halls, probation camps and California Youth Authority facilities.

To help fund the proposals, Villaraigosa said he is exploring new sources of revenue, including placing a sales tax on gun ammunition, with proceeds going to gang prevention programs.

“Any solution is going to have to focus on prevention and some kind of state effort to coordinate it,” said Villaraigosa, whose central Los Angeles district includes areas hard-hit by 18th Street.

At the meeting at LAPD headquarters, police commissioners and White also stressed that steering juveniles away from gangs is crucial to controlling the violence.

“Many of the most active and dangerous 18th Street gang members are repeat offenders who have long criminal records spanning back to their juvenile years,” White told the commission. Their continuing acts of violence now are intended to “gain and maintain strongholds in a neighborhood.”

The gang is most active in the LAPD’s Rampart Division, which regularly leads the city in reported homicides. Nearly half of the division’s 42 gang-related homicides this year have involved the gang, White said. Other hot spots include the Wilshire, Hollywood and North Hollywood divisions.

The gang is heavily involved in renting out street corners--sometimes by the hour--to non-gang dope peddlers operating on its turf. Some of the gang’s members, White said, collect from $400 to $1,000 daily in drug-dealing “rent.”

White detailed a series of measures either underway or proposed against 18th Street and other gangs. He told commissioners that LAPD units are working with the FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to target the most violent gang leaders. He declined in the public session to elaborate on these task forces, although The Times reported that one is targeting 18th Street.

The LAPD, White said, also is using a $160,000 grant to upgrade its computer systems to link with a countywide gang-tracking database.

Those efforts were underscored by Chief Willie L. Williams, who sought to reassure commissioners and the public that much already is being done.

“We thought it was important to point out that here in Los Angeles County, Southern California, there is a very aggressive, coordinated approach to law enforcement” and gang fighting, the chief said. “The taxpayers are getting some benefit for their dollar.”

Commission President Raymond C. Fisher promised that the panel would continue to track the gang issue and allocate new resources where needed.