ANTI-GANG INJUNCTION PROTESTED; NORTH HILLS NEIGHBORS MARCH TO SHOW OPPOSITION.

Byline: Peter Hartlaub Daily News Staff Writer

With drummers in an Aztec band providing the beat for the community and police supplying traffic control, more than 100 marchers protested a proposed gang injunction Saturday.

Eleven-year-old Juan Cazares says he wants to be a officer when he grows up. But for now, he wishes the police would spend less time asking him and his friends what they have in their backpacks and where they are going, when all they want to do is play outside.

``I'm never going to join a gang,'' Juan said. ``I'm never going to wear baggy pants or get tattoos.''

At the request of Los Angeles Councilman Richard Alarcon, City Attorney Jim Hahn said he will consider seeking an injunction against gang members in the Orion Avenue area of North Hills.

Other gang injunctions have limited those named in the court order from congregating publicly in groups of two or more, possessing pagers and police scanners or acting as lookouts.

On Oct. 23, Alarcon, Hahn and Mayor Richard Riordan are scheduled to meet with the community to discuss the issue. But some in the neighborhood couldn't wait to express their opinions, so they walked the perimeter of the proposed injunction with handmade signs in English and Spanish, demanding ``Social Justice for All.''

The North Hills injunction would encompass a 2-square-mile area south of Nordhoff Street and north of Parthenia Street, with east-west boundaries of the San Diego Freeway and Sepulveda Boulevard.

Area resident John McDonald, marching with his four children, said he believes the community needs more youth activity programs to curb gang activity, not more police and prosecution.

``They want these kids to get out of gangs?'' McDonald said. ``Give them something to do.''

The crowd stuck to the sidewalks, walking and chanting behind the drums and quick-stepping of Danza Cuauhtemoc, an Aztec dance group. A single police car chaperoned, driving alongside with only the yellow flashers blinking slowly on the multicolored light rack.

Los Angeles police Sgt. Terry Hale was behind the wheel and shook a few hands after the march was over.

``I think it was great; they did a good job,'' Hale said. ``They monitored themselves and really didn't need police presence.''

Contradicting the protesters, Hale said a court-ordered injunction would be a step in the right direction.

``They're overridden with gangs here,'' he said. ``They could use the peace of a gang injunction.''

Since 1993, the City Attorney's Office has sought several injunctions, and that year convinced a judge to order one around Blythe Street in Van Nuys. Since then, a similar injunction was approved for the Jefferson Park area in Los Angeles.

Residents in the Orion Avenue area have been provided with a ``What is a gang injunction?'' letter from Hahn.

The letter reads in part, ``In the same way as a battered wife asks a court to order a violent spouse to stay away from their home, a neighborhood asks for a court to order a gang to stop their harmful behavior.''

Most of the windows along the protest route didn't have bars on them, the basketball hoops at Langdon Avenue Elementary School still had nets, and bicycles were left unlocked in front yards. The Rev. Jim Hamilton said the crime problem is decreasing in the poor community.

Hamilton, pastor at United Methodist Church of Sepulveda, said some policemen like Hale are approachable, but too many are ``stricter.''

``I think there is a spirit around these people that there is an injustice in their community,'' Hamilton said. ``I think things like (the march) bring people together.''

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2 Photos

PHOTO (1) Aztec dance troupe Danza Cuauhtemoc kicks off a march against a gang injunction Saturday in North Hills.

(2) Young marchers and their parents carry homemade signs protesting the proposed injunction as they walk along Orion Avenue.

Phil McCarten/Daily News