FEDERAL ANTI-GANG DRIVE RESUMES L.A. KILLERS WORSE THAN MAFIA, FEINSTEIN SAYS.

Byline: Beth Barrett Staff Writer

To dismantle increasingly violent street gangs operating nationwide, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said Wednesday that she'll reintroduce a sweeping package of federal laws modeled after those used to combat organized crime.

The proposal would establish a separate class of federal crimes targeting participation in criminal street gangs, just as the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, Act targeted organized crime.

With about 3,100 gang-related homicides since 1999, Southern California likely would get a significant share of the $650 million proposed over five years, as well as federal law-enforcement reinforcements, under a formula targeting high-crime areas.

``I've watched - virtually all my political life - gangs go from next to nothing in this country to where they are the major criminal enterprises, more vicious than Mafia crime ever was,'' Feinstein said in a phone interview.

A similar version of the Gang Prevention and Effective Deterrence Act, co-sponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, was passed out of the Judiciary Committee last year, but never was voted on by the full Senate. Led by Democratic Sens. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts and Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, opponents complained about provisions making it easier to prosecute juveniles as adults and allowing the death penalty for more gang crimes.

``The big question was whether the federal government should be federalizing normal street crimes,'' said one aide to a Senate Democrat.

Feinstein's proposed legislation faces many of the same hurdles, although there have been some modifications, including a requirement for a judge, rather than a prosecutor, to decide whether to try a 16- or 17- year-old gang member as an adult.

Feinstein said she anticipates more negotiations on the bill's final version.

She said a major element of the package would make recruitment of a minor into a street gang a federal felony, and there would be help to create interagency, anti-gang task forces, like those now used to fight drug trafficking, targeting Los Angeles and other high-intensity gang areas.

There are about 100,000 gangsters in Los Angeles, Ventura and San Bernardino counties, and they account for at least half the region's homicides. About 80,000 to 85,000 of those gangsters are in Los Angeles County, which has the nation's largest gang problem.

The Daily News reported last fall about an explosion in gang membership across Southern California since the 1960s in the face of ineffective law-enforcement efforts and inadequate prevention and intervention strategies.

Los Angeles law-enforcement officials plan to back Feinstein's proposal, saying federal coordination is crucial to dismantling gangs.

``The gang problem is spreading across America almost like a fire,'' said Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, adding that local agencies lack the resources to combat the explosion of gangs.

Baca said a national index, similar to the gang-tracking system used in California, also is needed.

``Each state needs to realize (gangsters) are mobile and travel across country as a basic menace to society.''

Los Angeles Police Department Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell said the agency's priorities are hiring more anti-gang officers, who can focus on ``the worst of the worst,'' and getting more money for prevention and intervention programs.

``We appreciate federal support in dealing with the gang issue,'' McDonnell said. ``We see the spread of gangs from L.A. nationally and internationally, and it's a concern to everyone.''

But youth advocates criticized the proposal as short-sighted, saying juvenile offenders need to be rehabilitated rather than incarcerated in federal prison.

``We're dealing with youthful offenders acting with less than adult judgment and maturity. ... The juvenile system is a better place to deal with crimes, including ones like homicide, because it is set up to deal with the goal of rehabilitation,'' said Michael Bochenek, counsel to the children's rights division of Human Rights Watch in New York.

Mark Soler, president of the Youth Law Center in Washington, D.C., said juvenile offenders receive little education or job training in adult prisons.

``If you were going to engineer a system to create a class of individuals who can't get jobs because they're not educated and have felony convictions, and have few resources for support other than illegal means, you'd do it by sending kids into the adult justice system,'' Soler said.

In California, voter-approved Proposition 21 and other laws allow juveniles as young as 14 to be tried as adults for certain crimes.

Sue Burrell, staff attorney at the Youth Law Center in San Francisco, said finding the solution to the problem is complex because of the opportunistic nature of gangs.

``Addressing gang issues is a good thing, but it has to be balanced,'' she said. ``We'd like a lot more resources for employment and education programs, really working with kids to deal with peer pressure.

``We have a continually marginalized sector of young people, not seeing themselves as fitting into the mainstream of society, who are continuing this historical tit for tat of revenge and loyalty.''

Feinstein said while the bill would fund prevention programs, the focus would be on gang criminality.

``If there were fewer people joining gangs today than 10 years ago, or fewer gangs, there would be some hope prevention is working, but there are more. ... At some point, there has to be a very heavy penalty for this.''

Beth Barrett, [phone]

beth.barrett(at)dailynews.com