SCHOOL, LAPD DENY MAYOR'S CLAIM OF GANG WAR OVER TURF.Byline: NAUSH BOGHOSSIAN Staff Writer NORTH HOLLYWOOD Hollywood. 1 Community within the city of Los Angeles, S Calif., on the slopes of the Santa Monica Mts.; inc. 1903, consolidated with Los Angeles 1910. -- It was news to police, school administrators and students alike when Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Antonio Ramon Villaraigosa (born Antonio (Tony) Ramon Villar, Jr. on January 23, 1953) is the mayor of Los Angeles, California. He is the first Latino mayor of Los Angeles since Cristobal Aguilar in 1872. declared in his State of the City address that four gangs were fighting a turf turf: see lawn. turf In horticulture, the surface layer of soil with its matted, dense vegetation, usually grasses grown for ornamental or recreational use. war for East Valley High. At the six-month-old campus where Villaraigosa gave his speech Wednesday night, Assistant Principal Karen Williams said Thursday that four gangs operate in the neighborhood, but that none of their members attend the school. And Los Angeles Police Department "LAPD" and "L.A.P.D." redirect here. For other uses, see LAPD (disambiguation).  This article or section is written like an . Lt. Paul Vernon said there are
actually three small gangs in the neighborhood and that some of the
members attend East Valley High, but there's no battle for them to
"claim" the campus as their turf, as Villaraigosa said.
"There isn't a single school in the city of L.A. that any gang controls," Vernon said. "This gang picture is typical of many neighborhoods that we deal with on a small scale." Villaraigosa's staff said the mayor's comments were based on information provided to them by Williams about the four local gangs. But 16-year-old students Albert Quintero and Martin Cabrera, who both attended Villaraigosa's speech on Wednesday night, said they felt he overstated o·ver·state tr.v. o·ver·stat·ed, o·ver·stat·ing, o·ver·states To state in exaggerated terms. See Synonyms at exaggerate. o the threat. "This territory is not a gang territory," Quintero said. "I don't really know what gangs are trying to claim territory at this school, so I was surprised when he said that." "I don't normally see gangs around this area, so it's not true," added Cabrera. "Sure there are fights at the school, but it's not gang-related. "It's making the school look bad." As president of the 15-year-old Communities and Schools, Bobby Arias has been working with the mayor's staff on gang intervention A procedure used in a lawsuit by which the court allows a third person who was not originally a party to the suit to become a party, by joining with either the plaintiff or the defendant. and prevention programs. He said his staff plans to meet today to discuss whether the problem near East Valley High is as severe as the mayor implied. "The worst thing we want to do is create hysteria hysteria (hĭstĕr`ēə), in psychology, a disorder commonly known today as conversion disorder, in which a psychological conflict is converted into a bodily disturbance. ," Arias said. "I'm not prepared to say it's not real, but it was news to me." naush.boghossian@dailynews.com (818) 713-3722 |
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