They all scream about ice cream.

They all scream about ice cream

They are mostly Hispanic. And there are perhaps a thousand of them in Los Angeles County alone. They typically borrow all they can to buy a converted bread truck and the other tools of their trade - a loudspeaker and a freezer.

They are ice cream men. And they aren't happy.

"Ice cream men are being harassed," said Mansour Sahadi, a partner in several South-Central and downtown Los Angeles-based ice cream distributorships. "And we are upset because we see our businesses threatened."

Indeed, on April 17, County Health Inspectors and Los Angeles police cracked down on ice cream vendors, inspecting the trucks and citing jaywalkers who patronized the vehicles.

More recently, Los Angeles Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores introduced a variety of motions to the Public Safety Committee that would effectively put ice cream trucks into cold storage, including a requirement that they carry $1 million in liability coverage and a ban on the blaring tunes that lure their customers.

It is enough to make ice cream men ill-humored.

"We're just a bunch of hard-working stiffs," said George Iwai, owner of Sun Service, an ice cream distribution company that supplies 40 trucks from its downtown Los Angeles lot. "The guys just go out and try to average $300 a day in the summer so that they can survive through the winter."

Los Angeles County's ice cream truck drivers hustle to make a living, he said. The 100 percent markups on Bomb Pops, "50-50" orange treats, drumsticks and Nestle Crunch ice cream bars support large families, he said.

Huge insurance requirements and silent trucks would effectively put an end to a business that is just now verging on legitimacy, Iwai explained.

"Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of the ice cream truck drivers are Latinos who went through the proper channels to immigrate to the United States," he said. "Most find they can't make more than five bucks to six bucks an hour in most lines of work. So they buy a truck and go into business for themselves, not to get rich but to do OK."

For ice cream vendors and the distributors who supply them and store their trucks, though, the message from Councilwoman Flores and others is clear: If they don't change their ways, the business could be legislatively melted into oblivion.

It would not be the first time that a municipality turned the heat on the ice cream business. Carson banned the trucks three years ago. In 1984, the Santa Ana City Council adopted a $1 million liability requirement and prohibited the broadcast of music on the trucks.

The most famous attempt at shutting down street vendors, including ice cream trucks, failed. In 1988, vendors marched on New York City Hall to protest vendor restrictions. Police, in a much-publicized incident, seized a Mr. Softee truck that was selling ice cream in front of Madison Square Garden. The effort to shut down mobile ice cream vendors ended within days.

But nationwide, there is a decided decline in the number of ice cream trucks operating. This year, suburban communities on Long Island in New York and around Chicago have moved to ban ice cream trucks. In the Chicago suburb of Carpentersville, ice cream desperadoes illegally sell ice cream and confound police.

"Los Angeles is one of the last places in the country where ice cream trucks are in (widespread) operation," said Iwai. "And we are going to do what we can to make sure that it stays that way."

The cold war at City Hall is temporarily on hold, because the vendors have formed a trade association. It is Sahadi and Iwai who are leading the charge, forming the Los Angeles Association of Ice Cream Vendors and Lobbying City Hall. Sahadi and Iwai are scheduled to meet with Councilwoman Flores' staff for a third time this week, to discuss how they will self-regulate what had been considered a "fly-by-night" business.

"We are trying to respond to the complaints," said Sahadi, a partner of Central Ice Cream and Candy, Avalon Candy and Ice Cream and Arya Ice Cream Co., which, combined, supplies and garages 300 ice cream trucks.

They have linked up with the National Association of Ice Cream Vendors which has released a film of safety procedures to the group. They are now working on translating it into Spanish so that it will be accessible to its Spanish-speaking truck operators. They are also beginning to develop a program for school children.

"We think that some of the problems that have been brought up are legitimate," said Sahadi. "And all we're trying to do is solve some of the safety issues that have been raised."

Some of those issues were raised by tragedy. Last year, a Wilmington girl was crushed to death in a hit-and-run accident involving an ice-cream truck. It started Councilwoman Flores' inquiry into the industry. She held a press conference just after the accident, proposing that the city right ban on the trucks.

"They say that anything fun is either fattening or dangerous," Flores said.

Things became worse in April, when three accidents involving ice cream trucks happened. A girl was killed in Pacoima when she was hit by a motorcycle after she purchased ice cream from a truck and ran into the street. Another girl was killed in South-Central Los Angeles when she ran in front of one of the trucks. A third girl was injured when she ran in front of an ice cream truck.

After the third accident, Los Angeles Police Department officials recommended that charges of driving without a license, driving without insurance and operating a vehicle with defective brakes and a defective windshield be filed by the City Attorney's Office against the driver.

Quite suddenly, ice cream men were cast in an unfamiliar slant, as outlaws meandering the streets, selling their wares from rattletraps.

"Things don't change overnight and we haven't had a strong organization for 20 years," said Iwai. "We're just now starting to think of our industry as a whole. And it will take some time to convince the public that we're safe and concerned. But we'll get there."

PHOTO : Melting sweets: Driver Angel Paiz scooping confections for 12 years