Injunction Urged for Orion Avenue

While children played in the courtyard of Langdon Elementary School, Councilman Richard Alarcon officially announced plans Tuesday to seek an injunction against gangs and thugs terrorizing residents in a drug-intense section of Orion Avenue in North Hills.

“Families are afraid to walk outside because gang members have taken over the streets in some parts of Los Angeles,” he said.

Last month a judge issued a similar injunction against members of the notorious 18th Street gang. On Tuesday, Alarcon called for $1.1 million in city funding to expand the city attorney’s Anti-Gang Unit to deal with prosecuting gang members and drug dealers in the neighborhood.

Alarcon said an injunction in North Hills would complement already established programs in the area that aim to rehabilitate dilapidated housing and reduce crime and violence. This year alone, City Atty. James Hahn said there have been more than 700 drug arrests, 87 robberies and a homicide in the North Hills neighborhood.

He said the injunction “gives the community a timeout. It’s a chance to rescue the area and give it back to law-abiding citizens.”

But residents in the area say other well-intended crime-reduction programs have given police a license to harass residents who may look like loiterers or gang members.

“Sometimes I’m just kicking back in front of my house because it’s too hot inside,” said 15-year-old Monroe High School student Ramon Rubalcava. “And then they come up telling me not to move. They cuss at you and just harass you. Just because you look a certain way they stop you. I have a bald head because I play football. Does that give them a right to harass me?”

“You can’t even go to the store without them messing with you,” said Evelio Franco, an outreach worker from nearby Sepulveda United Methodist Church. “They don’t even say sorry for doing it.”

But Alarcon defended his proposal. “It’s a more surgical approach to extrapolating the wrong type of people from the neighborhood,” he said.