Gang Crackdown or Police Overkill

Delgadillo spun a Venice raid as a success. Suck and excess might be closer, residents say

A A A Comments (5) By Tibby Rothman Wednesday, Mar 5 2008

A 50-YEAR-OLD WOMAN was made to lie in dog feces with a gun to her head, a caretaker was forced to abandon a man stricken with cerebral palsy who wears diapers, a 10-year-old girl was forced into the predawn cold of a winter morning wearing only a T-shirt.

Tibby Rothman

Last Chance: The city hopes to seize this Venice property, home to two older women who could not stop their relatives' activities.

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Last Chance: The city hopes to seize this Venice property, home to two older women who could not stop their relatives' activities.

Those stories are being told by Venice, Inglewood and Santa Monica residents who found themselves at the wrong end of a sweeping series of law-enforcement raids designed to shut down gang activity on February 19. They were not, however, the stories trumpeted by law enforcement at a press conference immediately following the action.

The military-like operation targeted alleged members of the Venice Shoreline Crips believed to be living at or using roughly 24 homes, casting a wide net for the gang in several Southern California neighborhoods simultaneously. It was executed with some 300 law-enforcement officers, a convoy of unmarked cars and an armored vehicle with turretlike openings for heavy weaponry. A coalition of local and federal law-enforcement agencies, including the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), joined the raids, which were spun afterward by City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo as the successful culmination of six months of planning, resulting in 19 arrests and eviction notices against 13 people.

How successful was the operation?

Police and other law-enforcement personnel came away empty-handed in their search for gang members or illegal weapons in seven households the L.A. Weekly initially interviewed - a finding corroborated by an LAPD spokesman. According to residents, drugs were found in only one of those seven houses - in the room of a resident of a sober-living home who is not believed to be a gang member. No charges were filed against the woman, who has since been expelled from the home. Residents of three additional homes targeted in the raid told the Weekly that officers found nothing, and that the searches produced no evidence.

Despite a multijurisdictional press conference that generated a lot of news coverage, LAPD detective Roger Gilbert says drugs were confiscated at just two of 24 homes. That is probably a lower incidence than if police had raided a suburban area at random. Sergeant Lee Sands, an LAPD spokesman, says, "I can tell you that warrants were a success [in] that numerous locations were found not to be involved."

The raids were aimed at the gang-riddled Oakwood area of Venice and beyond. Inglewood homeowner Gwen Webster says police showed up at her house looking for her 32-year-old son. According to Webster, when she explained that he didn't live with her, they insisted that they had seen him driving there every night. Says Webster, "They were undercover [police] who looked like crackheads - police officers who looked like gang members."

Webster denies that her son still drops by, saying she isn't on speaking terms with him due to a dispute with his wife. The day after the raid, she says, she went to the LAPD Pacific Division and pointed out to officers a report in their own files which lists her son's actual address - different from hers. "To me, their job as detectives is to investigate," says Webster.

Mae Phillips, a 74-year-old Oakwood widow, says a team broke down her front door in search of her grandson - evidently unaware, she claims, that he hadn't lived there for two years. "I put him out," Phillips says. "He wouldn't go to school and he wouldn't work. So he can't be around me." She insists that she last saw her grandson at her home more than three months ago.

Some residents of raided homes say they were punished because, without their permission or knowledge, sons, nephews or grandsons had used their mailing addresses since as far back as 2003. But, locals say, police have much more recent information indicating that some suspected gang members had vacated the homes: One family had filed a restraining order against a relative, and in another case, residents say, the suspect was already sitting in jail the night of the raid.

Venice residents have gathered for three community meetings, many of them complaining that this behavior by law enforcement would never fly in more upscale communities, like Beverly Hills.

Gilbert, a member of the LAPD's Narcotics Abatement Unit and the supervisor who oversaw the investigative phase of the operation, says that drugs or weapons purchases have been tied to many of the homes. He argues that family members sometimes forgive relatives - after seeking restraining orders or kicking them out.

Sands offers: "In some of the residences searched, there was no evidence of gang affiliation," so further action "will not be sought."

That's cold comfort to one Santa Monica grandmother. She says a raid team found nothing at her residence, which she shares with several young grandchildren. She says she has not previously had problems with her landlord, but that she now faces eviction. At one community meeting she was palpably afraid that she and her children could end up homeless.?

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Finally 09/01/2008 4:24:00 PM

This is now and will always be about the land. All you homeowners should of took the money in 1998 and the Section 8 residents should of took the transfer vouchers. This has been a plan to regain the land since the late 90s. Venice has had gangs and drugs for years almost 50 to be exact. Generations of residents and police at pacific division had superior knowledge of the activities and goings on. They choose to ignore it because the residents were poor and needed the free to low income housing and the police didn't care because all the niggers and wetbacks were centrally located within a tight 5 block radius. They knew where to get you if they needed you. This action to reclaim Venice is not for the protection of anyone in the oakwood area, it is solely for the monetary gain of the property values the city will capitalize on from the taxes and fees the builders will pay for licensing and permits. The gang members should have been more aware, I mean when you see pacific bell or verizon working on the phone lines a 3 in the morning doesn't that strike you as odd. Or when coverings are put over the street lights that only stand right in front of the spot on 5th ave and no where else. Or the little black tubes in the electric lines that point right at the parking area on 6th by the apartments and the church. They gave you fair warning, I believe they called it a Gang Injuction, You all know it named you in it and for those that could not read it even had pictures, yours and everything you were doing. I believe that was what 11 years ago. Heres the thing, the people who had their doors kicked in should of had them kicked in. When you contend to be complacent in the destruction of your own family without regard for the lives of it's own members and knowingly except the monies and assets from these dealings, you also get to bear the consequences of those actions. Your not innocent, If anything you are more guilty then your sons and grandsons. You allowed collectively your offspring to mutilate a community with out any regard, and now you want to call foul. Visit Ingelwood cemetary and count the headstones of your disregard and inaction. How dare you blame the police who are doing nothing but playing the pawn between you, the lazy inept parents and residents that always have a poor me story and the politicians who see your weaknesses and have capitalized on it. You can cry a river because the day is gone. They have won and in the communities to come they will win solely because every effort and resource available to stop them you have removed by your ignorance, laziness, and aluff attitude to your own family, let alone your community. If you ask me they should have arrested you as well. What right do you have to set a standard for the officers, when you clearly never set one for yourselves or your children. It does take a village to raise a child, the problem is what do you do when the village is ran by fools. Might I suggest, if having your door broken in and having your face aligned with feces bothers you so much, why don't you turn the terrorist in when you know they have done wrong, instead you aide and abed felons, murderers, drug dealers, pimps and rapist without any remorse or consious. Now you have complaints? Educate me please, I could not find the foundation to your complaints or the reason to sympathise with criminals.
Audrey McClenaghan 04/30/2008 1:04:00 AM

How long has Rocky Delgadillo been in office? Why his sudden interest in Oakwood! He's probably in the pocket of other big developers interested in this area so he is "vested" in cleaning it up! Yeah right.....something's fishy here!
MDLA 03/10/2008 8:15:00 AM

I think Martin is flogging the wrong horse in his long, vitriolic comment. In the case of the Oakwood drug raid, officials trumpet only success. Clearly, some good was done. Rothman doesn't soft-peddle the terrible effects of gangs or the horrors of the "drug war." She simply reports the collateral damage this kind of "solution" leaves in its wake. No Brentwood or Bel Aire grandmother, whose grandson was suspected of selling pot or acid, has to fear losing her home because of his crime. Taking a good, hard look at the fact that money and social status determine how much care and respect will be taken to protect innocent citizens in a tough situation can only help, not hurt. This was a good and necessary article.
Martin 03/08/2008 7:38:00 PM

Your coverage of the Police crackdown in Venice is extremely skewed and really disappointing. It is interesting that you choose to sensationalize and highlight the failings of the Police and the inconveniences suffered by a few families due to the one-day raid. What about the months and years of inconveniences suffered by law-abiding citizens due to crime, drug abuse, and gang activities in Oakwood. You hold the Police accountable because �a 10-year-old girl was forced into the predawn cold of a winter morning wearing only a T-shirt.� What about the child who stays inside but whose father comes back from his drug deal doped up, or worst, is shot for being involved a gang. The cold 10-year old goes home after the police raid to a safer home. What appends to other child. I live in Oakwood. I see the impact of rampant drug dealing in broad daylight. What does that say to the child who lives in this � day in and day out? What does this teach them about their career options and how to make a living? I don�t doubt that nothing was found or no one was arrested several houses that were raided. It is common sense to assume that in some cases the gang members and drug dealers were not at home at 5 o�clock in the morning. They may have been at �work.� However, the LA Weekly and Tibby Rothman fail to highlight the fact that out of 25 houses raided, 19 arrests where made. It fails to point out that that hundreds of Oakwood residents are thankful and feel safer already. What is even more disappointing is that in the Venice Paper and LAWeekly, you continually fail to give any coverage to the actual issue � persistent drug abuse, drug dealing, loitering, fighting, and shootings that occur in Oakwood because of drug activity. Felonies occurring in plain sight. The corners of 6th and Brooks and 6th and Broadway being essentially �lock down.� Each time you slow down in approach a stop sign, you are uninvitingly approached by drug pushers. Your opening sentence talks about three incidents that occurred. I don�t downplay the inconvenience suffered by these individuals. But why didn�t your story cover the improved lives of those who are less threatened by gang violence or drug dealers because of the crack down � those stories far outnumber the stories of families inconvenience? The bottom line is that most of Oakwood � old residents and new residents, black and white, minorities and majorities � have been inconvenienced, threatened, harassed and in some cases, attacked due to drug and gang activity occurring in the area. Even people that live with or house these criminals don�t really want them around, to perpetuate another generation of crime onto their families and children. They often simply have to �put up� with drug dealers and gang members because of fear and having no other options. The Police should be supported, praised, and championed for the work they did in Oakwood. I understand that there are specific incidents that the Police may have had poor information � but on the other had, what would motivate the Venice Police to simply want to break into an older woman�s house for the hell of it? I think The LAWeekly and Tibby Rothman should seriously consider spending the time to research and write of the hard-working, considerate, and compassionate people that put themselves in harms way to help protect the thousands of us that don�t do drugs and are threatened by gang activity. Folks like Officer Teresa Skinner who is incredibly respectful of all races and faces, and commits herself daily to improving Oakwood.
Richard J. 03/07/2008 5:47:00 PM

Bill Rosendahl calls himself a representative of this district? Mr. Rosendahl sounds more like a puppet for law enforcement to try and wrestle long time community residents out of their homes so upscale people can come in and take over with their ornate homes. What about all the other people Mr. Rosendahl whose homes were used a a training excercis for the LAPD? Will you make sure restitution comes to them as well? What about sending the LAPD a message that tactics like described in this article should not go unnoticed. Mr. Delgadillo also should be held responsible for touting his tough gang stance against families of gang members.The Venice Canals are a prime example of locals being moved for the sake of upscale, rich, and let's not forget snobby people who have ruined the canals in my opinion. Where once you had modest homes, now you have 10k sq.ft. homes that have no business being built on a 3k sq. ft. lot. It's just the LA ctiy council's method to rid those who have been there for years of their property so LA can have a Beverly Hills by the beach while justifying their purchases & use of tanks and bombs on the innocent. Way to Mr. Rosendahl and way to Mayor Villaraigosa supporting the way "your people" are treated by not coming out and expressing any comment about this tragedy. Hurry up Mr. Villaraigosa, Hillary is calling...