Bennett Has a Hug for Neighborhood Plagued by Drugs

Saul J. Hill, who has spent 50 of his 91 years in the crowded blue-collar neighborhood near Jefferson High School in Los Angeles, did a spry little dance there Wednesday on 40th Place, a street plagued by drug sales and gang gunfire.

Wearing a ball cap and tennis shoes, Hill was looking excited and optimistic on a block that had been, to some extent, under siege.

A few weeks ago, responding to repeated drive-by shootings, Los Angeles police began six months of stepped-up, 24-hour patrols of the neighborhood. Residential streets were barricaded with warning signs: “Narcotics Enforcement Area: Open to Residents Only.”

Now, in an atmosphere of calm, Hill had stepped out to welcome a newcomer to the block--federal drug czar William J. Bennett, making one of his first stops on a three-day visit to Southern California.

“It’s going to do some good,” Hill said happily. “This is what we need. You can never stop trying.”

Bennett, who met with teachers, parents and students at Jefferson High before touring the racially mixed neighborhood, was on his first trip to Los Angeles since the Bush Administration designated the Los Angeles-Orange County region a “high-intensity” drug trafficking center in January.

Under the new anti-drug strategy, Los Angeles and four other targeted areas--Houston, Miami, New York and the U.S.-Mexican border--qualify to share $25 million this year in special federal funds to combat the drug problem, and twice that much in 1991.

Bennett, a graying, tousle-haired administrator nearing the end of his first year as federal drug czar, spent much of Wednesday meeting with state, city and county officials to hear their ideas about anti-drug tactics and to brief them on the federal program.

But, playing a favorite role as cheerleader and first-hand observer, he also took time to look at the problems of a particular neighborhood. In choosing the area surrounding Jefferson High, the nation’s top drug official sought a place that has been hard hit by drugs and related crime--and a place that is doing something about it, according to Bennett’s aides.

“This is another foray for me into the heart of America,” Bennett told a crowd of several dozen residents from a lectern placed in the middle of 40th Place. Traffic was blocked off by police cars while mounted LAPD officers rode past homes like figures out of the Old West.

The street is home to a Latino gang--Crazy Street Kids--which reportedly has been feuding with a gang to the south known as the 33rd Street Gang, said Sang Brown, a block captain of the local Neighborhood Watch program.

There have been eight attempted drive-by shootings reported on 40th Place in the last 18 months, according to Brown. Around the high school, located down the block, there were 37 drive-by shootings and 112 assaults last year, police said.

Bennett described 40th Place as a tough neighborhood in a tough region--noting that 47 gangs inhabit 10 square miles of South-Central Los Angeles.

“And yet progress is being made (here),” Bennett said. “This community is starting to turn itself around. Everybody I’ve talked to said it’s better. You can walk the streets now.”

The LAPD barricade program, nicknamed “Operation Cul-De-Sac,” is given much of the credit--along with community Neighborhood Watch groups--for discouraging drug dealing and drive-by attacks.

The six-month program is designed to make it more difficult for dealers and gang members to drive through residential areas. In its first two weeks, police said, the program has contributed to a decrease in crime and, at the same time, an increase in daily attendance at 2,590-student Jefferson High.

“One of the most striking things I’ve ever heard, I heard today,” Bennett told residents after a closed-door meeting with school Principal Philip Saldivar. “And that’s that 150 to 200 more students are back in school” during the day.

Some residents are concerned, however, over what might happen once the program ends. Asked whether drug dealers and gang shooters will renew their attacks, Bennett optimistically called for homeowners to take over a part of the burden of patrolling their street and reporting crime.

“You never entirely remove the police,” Bennett said. “But the responsibility may pass on to other people.”

Rather than rely on several policemen, he said, patrols may be taken over by “three or four civilians, with a policeman down the block. That’s one way to do it.”

“Drug dealers . . . run from a policeman,” he added. “They also run from a flashlight. They run from a neighbor with a bullhorn. Someone told me drug dealers behave like roaches--you put the light on them and they run.”

One resident, however, described that outlook as overly optimistic. Calvin Wills, who has watched the neighborhood deteriorate over 20 years, said the stepped-up patrols have come too late. And once they end, he said, crime will creep in again.

“With a show of force like this, naturally things are going to slow down,” Wills said. “(But) the people committing the crime, they’ll know the exact second the police leave. Then they’ll start all over again.” Pausing, he added: “Maybe it won’t be as much as in the past.”

Bennett, however, seemed to win points from residents with his enthusiasm and good humor. Lumbering around the block with an entourage of police and county gang specialists, Bennett and Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates stopped to hug the children of one resident who rushed out to see them. Later, Bennett took a long-handled roller to help a painting crew cover gang slogans scrawled on a block wall.

Bennett, who was scheduled to continue his West Coast tour with a stop today in San Diego, is mindful of Los Angeles’ importance to the anti-drug effort, said David Robb, a spokesman in Washington.

The region is considered a leading port of entry and trading center for not only cocaine but also PCP and Mexican and Asian heroin, Robb said. A recent study also disclosed that the average selling price for cocaine is lower in Los Angeles than any other place in the nation--$11,000 to $16,000 a kilogram, he said.

“It’s a bit worrisome,” Robb said. “That’s one of the reasons we designated L.A.” as a drug trafficking center.