STIFFER GANG PENALTIES CONGRESS TO VOTE ON MOB-STYLE STATUTE.

Byline: Lisa Friedman Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Congress wants prosecutors to go after the Crips and the Bloods the same way they go after the mob.

And a sweeping gang bill the House plans to vote on today would do that by expanding the federal government's role in fighting street violence while ratcheting up mandatory punishments for most violent crimes - a proposal that has provoked deep rifts among area lawmakers along conservative-liberal lines.

Supporters such as Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Thousand Oaks, say the legislation gives cops and prosecutors more legal weapons to dismantle gang networks. Opponents such as Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, and Linda Sanchez, D-Lakewood, predict that the bill will sweep juveniles into prisons but do nothing to encourage kids to steer clear of the gang life.

``It has all of the penalties and none of the prevention,'' said Schiff, who along with Sen. Dianne Feinstein is pushing separate legislation that combines anti-gang measures with about $400 million for prevention and witness-protection programs.

Gallegly, who described the modern-day gang problem in Los Angeles ``like the mob was back in Al Capone's days,'' said he feels the bill's mandatory minimum sentences for everything from drugs to murder is an important protection against lenient judges.

``People have got to know going in, if you commit the crime you're going to pay the price,'' he said. ``It makes the penalties believable. It takes the latitude away from a liberal judge who decides he's the one that's the legislator.''

Sponsored by Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va., and co-sponsored by Gallegly, the bill creates an anti-racketeering statute similar to the one used against Mafia dons to prosecute criminal street gangs.

Offenses like drug crimes and firearm possession would be punishable by a minimum of 10 years. Any assault resulting in serious bodily injury would be met with a 20-year minimum.

Kidnapping, maiming or aggravated sexual abuse would get a gang member at least 30 years. Involvement in a murder would require life in prison or death.

In addition, federal prosecutors would no longer need judicial review to transfer 16- and 17-year-olds to adult court, and the bill would expand the very definition of a gang. Under the legislation, groups as small as three people with two or more crimes under their belts would constitute a criminal street gang.

Pomona Police Department Chief James Lewis said he thinks the bill is critical to cities like his, which is home to more than 20 active gangs. Many of them, he said, are sophisticated networks linked to international narcotics trafficking.

``Clearly, it's time that we treated gangs as organized crime. It's clear that they have wreaked more misery on families and communities than traditional organized crime ever had,'' he said. ``I think to look at it as neighborhood crime is naive.''

Lewis said he also supports the mandatory minimum sentences.

``I do not think the victims would at all think those were excessive,'' he said of the sentences.

Eddie Banales, senior pastor at the Southern California Dream Center in Pomona, said sending more young people to prison will only create more hardened gang members.

``What they're doing is going to strengthen the position of people behind the prison walls,'' he said.

Nancy Lidamore, head of the Hardcore Gang Division of the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, said the issue of mandatory minimum sentences in gang crimes is complicated by the fact that the crimes are often random acts of violence.

Lidamore said the DA's office has not issued a position on Forbes' bill, but said one thing Washington could do to help the county prosecute gangs is increase funding. She said her unit alone tried 120 gang-related murder cases last year and 30 attempted murders.

``At any given time we have hundreds of pending cases,'' she said. ``Funding would certainly be helpful for us.''

Sanchez called the Forbes bill a ``knee-jerk reaction'' to gang violence and said even if the measure included more money for prevention and law enforcement she could not support the mandatory minimum sentences.

``We have judicial discretion for a reason,'' she said. Every gang member is not a member of the notorious MS-13 suspected of recent beheadings ``but you're going to treat them all the same way,'' she said.

Schiff, whose alternative measure was voted down on partisan lines in the House Judiciary Committee, said he expects much of the prevention funding to be added once the bill gets to the Senate.

In the meantime, he is fighting a separate gang battle this week in Sacramento where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed cutting funds to a $100 million annual juvenile-justice program that Schiff co-authored when he was a member of the state Legislature five years ago.

Lisa Friedman, [phone]

lisa.friedman(at)langnews.com

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WAR ON GANGS

SOURCE: Los Angeles Police Department 

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