Feb. 8: Afternoon Watch 5 roll call at Mission Community Police Station in Mission Hills.

A bit of high drama, even for jaded journalists and TV cameramen, crammed against the back wall of the narrow squad room while some 30 LAPD officers filed in, filling rows of tables and chairs.

They looked too young with their closely cropped hair and clean-cut expressions - some probably the same age as the gang members they would shortly be asked to aggressively pursue, as the City of Los Angeles launched its latest gang suppression plan.

First, Deputy Chief Earl Paysinger, commander of the detective bureau - and the department's newly named gang coordinator - told the police officers their efforts in reducing overall major crime by seven percent in the San Fernando Valley was "just this side of heroic. But," he solemnly added, "the work is not yet done."

During 2006, the deputy chief pointed out, there had been a "precipitous rise" in gang crime by more than 15 percent throughout Los Angeles. So their charge for 2007 was to "take our city back."

Next, the watch commander went over the officers' "daily mission" heavily laden with stopping gang carnage, which spiked nearly 160 percent last year in the area covered by Mission station. Showing them a map, he pointed out that south of Rinaldi Street there had been 30 violent gang crimes alone in the last seven days.

Matter-of-factly, he reported they were still looking for a Jan. 31 homicide suspect who drove a Honda Civic and was believed to be a member of the MS (Mara Salvatrucha) gang. He urged officers to "keep an eye out" for the driver of a Ford Explorer, another alleged gang member who took a life four days later.

And then there was the perp who had committed assault with a deadly weapon.

"This one we're particularly looking for," the commander said, with more emotion in his voice. "He's actively involved in the recruiting of gang members. He may be in and around the areas of a school looking for middle school kids, 13, 14, 15 years old, trying to recruit them into the gangs. So keep a good eye on him."

With its dramatic rise in gang-related crime, the north end of the San Fernando Valley was arguably the best place to kick off Los Angeles Police Department's 2007 Gang Enforcement Initiatives, according to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

And the city and LAPD produced a weekday event that would make any Century City PR guru proud - with an eight-page booklet featuring color mug shots of the top 10 most wanted gang members, a large map of top targeted gangs and gang injunctions, plus a chart of gang-related crimes and bar graph of gang-related violent crime.

Also spotlighted, of course, were the 11 gang initiatives - displayed on the cover and detailed inside the professionally designed publication.

Suppression strategy
The two most prominent - and controversial - measures of the regenerated war-on-gangs publicly identify the city's "Top Targeted Gangs" along with the "Ten Most Wanted Gang Members."

In the past, law enforcement officials, including the LAPD, did not divulge the names of individual gangs involved in crimes. The reasoning was this would just backfire, raising the gangs' standing and status among other gangs. But now the list will be publicized to the max, rivaling the top ten hits on golden oldies radio stations.

Pointing to a propped up white board with the names and location of 11 gangs, Police Chief William Bratton said, "We intend to make that information public, and I know that's contrary to policy in this city for the last 30 or 40 years. I'm from back East. Back East we publicize our criminals because we've found that it basically helps to identify them, get them prosecuted, get them arrested."

Then, for emphasis, he added, "So if you want to stand up and get some notoriety, I'll be happy to work with the FBI, DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration), ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms), city attorney, district attorney and 9,400 Los Angeles Police officers to seek you out, arrest you and put you in jail for the rest of your life."

The second contentious initiative announced last week was providing the media and public with an updated list of the top ten gangbangers in Los Angeles, along with their pictures and bios. The LAPD promised to also provide the FBI with the identify of the Southland's worst gang member to be posted on the federal agency's infamous Ten Most Wanted list. And when that young criminal is captured, the name of another Southern California gangster will be handed over to the FBI.

"We're mounting a coordinated, aggressive suppression strategy that targets the worse offenders and the most violent gangs," Mayor Villaraigosa declared. "And we're coming at them with everything we have."

Other new gang enforcement measures besides naming a "Department Gang Coordinator," included launching a South Bureau Criminal Gang Homicide Group made up of homicide investigators focusing only on gang murders and creating a "Community Safety Operations Center," where some 50 officers will work out of Mission Station in a special intelligence unit gathering information about gang activity in the San Fernando Valley.

Moreover, a new patrol proliferation strategy was unveiled, allowing patrol officers to enforce civil injunctions and serve arrest warrants on named gang members. New gang abatement legislation and activity was also promised, including enforcement action against the lately-in-the-news 204th Street gang from the Harbor area.

A convergence of local, state and federal law enforcement agencies was being established to go after local gangs. In addition, community symposiums on gang awareness will be held regularly to heighten citizens' knowledge of gang cultures and trends. Finally, the LAPD will soon start distributing mailers to keep community partners abreast about neighborhood gang problems.

Altogether, more than 200 police officers will be assigned specifically to these tasks in fighting the city's so-called most violent gangs.

Enforcement not enough
"We've got our work cut out for us, because we know that the street gangs are responsible for the majority of all the murders," Mayor Villaraigosa noted. "Some 56 percent of the murders that occur in Los Angeles are committed by gang members. Nearly 70 percent of the shootings that occur in our city are gang related."

During the past few months, gang violence has claimed the life of a nine-year-old girl who was playing in the kitchen of her house and a 14-year-old girl who was murdered because of the color of her skin, the mayor lamented.

"The rise in gang violence must stop, and it starts with all of you - the brave men and women of the LAPD," he said. "We're placing an L.A. gang member on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. We're for the first time - with some controversy, I might add - identifying the city's most targeting street gangs and most violent gang members."

But the mayor readily admitted that increased enforcement alone was not enough. Pointing out that many gang members cannot read or write, he promised to address the "root causes" of violence through educational prevention and hands-on intervention programs that offer at-risk youths opportunities and hope for the future.

Referring to Father Greg Boyle, a Jesuit who founded and runs Homeboy Industries in East Los Angeles, Mayor Villaraigosa said, "A great priest I know who works with some of these kids has said, 'Nothing can stop a bullet quite like a job' and the skills to get one."

Without giving a definite timeline, the mayor promised to examine closely current prevention and intervention anti-gang programs, which cost the city $82 million annually, and to weed out efforts that do not work while focusing on "best practices."

Still, he stressed, "The suppression strategy, as Chief Bratton said very well, can't wait. We're beginning it now. It's unprecedented in scope and its level of coordination with other law enforcement efforts. And I can tell you, it will be effective. We don't tolerate the murder of innocent residents of this city, and we won't tolerate violent attacks on our brave men and women in the LAPD.

"No one should have fear for their life because of the color of their skin," he declared. "Not in our city. Not in this great country. And, certainly, not here in the San Fernando Valley."

Chief Bratton echoed the mayor's hard-line resolve.

"Crime is now down overall," he said. "Murders are down five years in a row. However, this past year we saw this increase in gang crime, so we are refocusing again. And many of the things we learned in the past, will be repeated.

"I and this department commit to you, the public; You give us the resources and I'll knock the hell out of crime in the city. The only thing that holds us back from knocking it down even further is the resources. We know how to do this. The problem is there's not enough of us. And that's why we're so fortunate to have the partners that we have - federal, state and locally."

'The wildest dream . . .'

Father Greg Boyle, who has worked with gang members for two decades, did not attend the Feb. 8 event at the Mission Community Police Station because he was out of town. A couple weeks ago, however, he told The Tidings that any "top ten" gang announcement was bound to backfire with terrible results.

"It's the wildest dream of any gang to make the 'top ten' list," he said, shaking his head. "Injunctions have sort of done that already. But you don't want to popularize that with some huge graphic - Here are the ten gangs that we hate the most."

Father Boyle, after learning about the new gang suppression plan's implementation, e-mailed a response from Washington, D.C., to The Tidings:

"I have polled any number of gang members about the top ten list. They all say the same thing: it will encourage the gangs on the list to stay there, and those not mentioned will strive to make the list. Not one gang member felt this was an approach other than pure folly.

"I personally don't mind that they actually have a list - but nothing is served by making it public. The fact that for 30 years it has been the policy not to mention names, and now we are experiencing an up-tick in gang violence, has no relation at all to the naming of names.

"Gangs that are notorious enough to deserve police heat will know soon enough that they are on 'the list' - no need to announce this in the Los Angeles Times."

On Feb. 9, The Times published the names of the "Top Targeted Street Gangs," along with photos of four of LAPD's "Top 10 Most Wanted Gang Members."