CITY TO CLOSE DRUG 'MARKET,' PURSUE FUNDS ANTI-GANG EFFORTS IN COURT, SEEKING HELP FROM THE STATE.

Byline: RICK COCA and HARRISON SHEPPARD

Staff Writers

City officials traveled near and far Thursday to battle street crime, vowing to clean up a San Fernando Valley house being used as a "supermarket" for drugs and meeting in Sacramento to strategize with state officials.

At the LAPD's Foothill Division in Pacoima, Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo announced that his office would seek court orders against two gang members and the owners of two adjacent single-family homes in the 13200 block of Filmore Street.

"Right in the middle of an otherwise quiet and decent neighborhood, members of the Front Street Crips, a criminal street gang, have used this property as a supermarket for narcotic sales," Delgadillo said.

Delgadillo said he would seek court orders to prevent Larry Atkins and Charles Nero, gang members suspected of selling drugs from the homes, from coming within 500 feet of the properties.

Atkins and Nero are already in custody awaiting trial on drug-related charges.

The city will also seek an order requiring the property owners, Jacqueline Atkins and Mkrtich Mendikyan, to prohibit loitering and remove all obstructions on or surrounding the property, including opaque fencing, screen doors or tarps.

Between June 2005 and February 2007, undercover Los Angeles Police Department officers made 38 arrests stemming from activity at the homes, seizing cocaine, marijuana, weapons and ammunition, police said. Thirteen of those arrested were known gang members.

Meanwhile, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Police Chief William Bratton traveled to Sacramento along with their counterparts across the state to discuss ways of combating street crime at a meeting called by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Schwarzenegger said he wants to focus on a variety of strategies, including providing alternatives to youths such as after-school programs and better career education.

"What we want to do is really declare war on gang violence and on gangs all over the state of California," Schwarzenegger said.

And he told the mayors: "You can count on the state. We're going to work with you. You're not out there by yourself."

In the 1990s, Bratton said, cities were successful in reducing gang violence thanks to strong partnerships with state and local governments, but some of that cooperation has faded.

"(In the 1990s) we got it right," said Bratton, the former New York City police chief who is credited with a major crime reduction there.

"Then after 9-11, the federal government dropped off the Earth -- and basically went to war across the ocean, and forgot about the wars we're fighting at home."

Villaraigosa in the past has pressed the governor to create a new statewide anti-gang program that would provide at least $30 million to Los Angeles over three years to create 10 gang-reduction zones, with additional law enforcement resources as well as youth programs.

He said that request did not come up in Thursday's meeting.

Villaraigosa added that one consensus among the mayors and other officials was that additional law enforcement alone is not enough.

"We've got to deal with the root causes of crime," Villaraigosa said. "You've got to have prevention, intervention. That means after-school programs, apprenticeship programs. That means summer youth jobs, training programs for youth."

Back in the San Fernando Valley, residents blamed crime on illegal immigrants and called for tougher policing and swifter deportation procedures.

"It seems like every time there is a crime, it's an illegal alien," said an unidentified woman who attended a Los Angeles Police Commission meeting in Sun Valley.

"It's important that we ... (show) respect to various ... communities of the city ... and respect one another," said John W. Mack, president of the Police Commission.

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