Combat at Hollywood and Vine

By Jane O'Reilly

Los Angeles gangs take a low ride on the wild side

Midnight, Saturday, at Hollywood and Vine. The bizarre cast is pure Fellini, the volatile and menacing atmosphere is classic Clint Eastwood. The trouble is, the scene is real.

A police helicopter churns overhead, searchlight sweeping over the melee below. For a mile east and a mile west, six lanes of traffic move in caravan, a rolling cacophony of full-blast stereos rising above a cross-lane exchange of insults, come-ons and general greetings. Along the sidewalk--the famous chocolate terrazzo sidewalk embedded with bronze-edged stars framing the names of superstars--gang members defiantly stake out their turf. There are police on horseback, on motorcycles, on foot, in plainclothes. Knots of bewildered tourists, looking for Tinseltown, realize they have wandered into a weekend war zone.

It has been a long time since Hollywood Boulevard glittered with the perfervid glamour of the '20s. The Boulevard of Broken Dreams tarnished slowly for decades, declining by the late '60s and early '70s to the same sleazy fate as its East Coast counterpart, Times Square. Cleanup efforts partly succeeded, and now, on weekdays, some stretches feel like the downtown of a small city. But, says Police Sergeant Bob Rebhan, "I wouldn't go up Hollywood Boulevard on a weekend night without being armed."

The warfare on Hollywood Boulevard began about nine months ago when the cruisers arrived. Trolling around in cars is the all-American pastime, but California cruisers have transformed it into an elaborate ritual. Not just any car will do. The idea is to attract attention. Stereos, painted names and modified engines are routine. A compact pickup with giant wheels is better. A truly "clean ride" is a lowrider: a 1950s vintage General Motors car, lavishly decorated and fitted with a system of hydraulic lifts that allows it to be impressively raised or lowered.

Cruisers prefer to travel in groups, and to proceed very, very slowly. Whittier Boulevard in East Los Angeles was the city's prime caravan route until the police began shutting the street on weekends. The cruisers moved to Van Nuys, in the San Fernando Valley. It was closed. They moved on, to Hollywood Boulevard.

Cruisers are predominantly Hispanic, and they follow, on wheels, the tradition of the paseo. In a motorized version of that mating dance, boys and girls now drive who would once have walked in opposing circles around a village square eyeing each other, flirting and showing off. All innocent fun, except that gangs have followed the cruisers. Nearly 350 gangs plague Los Angeles. They have 20,000 to 30,000 members between the ages of twelve and 22. Sixty percent of the violent street crime in Los Angeles County is youth crime. The incidence is rising fast near Hollywood Boulevard, where there have been at least five gang killings--and 45 other murders--so far this year.

"Violence has become an accepted way of life," says Sergeant J.J. Garcia. The slightest insult, real or imagined, provokes a mid-traffic surge for revenge. The protection of turf and machismo honor are the pretexts; baseball bats, screw drivers, knives, cheap guns and especially tire irons are the weapons. Sadly, passers-by are often the innocent victims of this remorseless violence.

This month the Los Angeles city council authorized the police department to shut down traffic on the street if needed. "The situation has almost gotten out of hand," says Hollywood Chief of Detectives James Morgan. "We're applying all the pressure we can to discourage people from coming here."

Discouragement includes a blizzard of traffic violation tickets and closing lanes. Police stop suspicious cars and "roust" the occupants, who are frisked and have their cars searched. Gang members, true to their code, remain impassive, displaying their version of dignity.

We think it's starting to pay off; street activity has dropped some," says Night Watch Commander Lieutenant Randy Mancini. But Captain Morgan, less optimistic, predicts: "The cruisers will simply travel elsewhere." After all, as a dark-haired teen-age girl flirting rambunctiously from the back of a pickup truck said: "It's a way to get out of the house." --By Jane O'Reilly. Reported by Benjamin W. Cate/Los Angeles

With reporting by Benjamin W. Cate

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