Taking Down Toonerville?

by Margaret Arnold
News Editor, Arroyo Seco Journal
Just over a year after a major gang raid targeting the Avenues in the Drew Estara area of Glassell Park, another similar sweep has taken place—this one targeting the Toonerville gang in North Atwater Village.

The Toonerville takedown took place during the early morning hours of July 9. 19 arrest warrants had been issued, and all 19 suspects were taken into custody without incident. The charges against those arrested are serious--including murder, attempted murder, narcotics trafficking and weapons violations. Two other alleged gang members were taken into custody during the sweep when police made an unexpected discovery of 48 weapons in one Atwater Village house. Five children were taken into protective custody when they were determined to be living in unsafe conditions.

The 4:30 a.m. sweep was a group initiative, involving 400 officers from the Los Angeles and Glendale Police Departments and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. The effort was initiated by Glendale police. In October of 2008, a member of the Mongols motorcycle gang was murdered by Toonerville in Glendale. During the subsequent investigation, Glendale police found the Toonerville gang to be involved in violent crime and sales of cocaine and methamphetamine in their city. The July 9 sweep was the culmination of seven months of planning.

Toonerville is a well-established street gang. Its presence in Northeast Los Angeles dates to the 1950s. Toonerville has an estimated membership of 450. Police consider it to be the second most problematic gang in Northeast Division, after the Avenues.
According to the Department of Justice, in 2000, “three Toonerville gang members went to conduct a retaliatory drive-by shooting, but instead robbed a pedestrian witness. LAPD patrol officers tried to stop the gang members’ car, which led to a high-speed pursuit. The suspects ultimately led the officers into their gang’s neighborhood, where they were ambushed by others gang members who had blocked the street with a washing machine and bicycle. The officers were shot at from three sides in a coordinated attack. The officers survived and all three suspects were convicted of attempt murder.”

Several key Toonerville members were already in jail before the sweep. The focus of the arrests has been on rounding up the gang’s shot callers. Gang leader Timothy McGhee is on death row for three gang-related murders and four attempted murders. According to the District Attorney’s office, the murders and attempted murders were carried out over a four-year rampage to maintain control of narcotics distribution in the Atwater Village area. To date, there have been 42 Toonerville arrests as part of the campaign. Nine of the arrestees have been charged with murder in connection to four deaths. 74 weapons have been seized.

Some July 9 arrests took place in locations as far away as Bakersfield and Palmdale. However, the majority were concentrated in North Atwater Village, specifically, in the area right around Chevy Chase Park. At a community meeting the evening of the 9th, LAPD Northeast Division Captain Bill Murphy told about 100 community residents that 60 additional police officers would be assigned to the area for the coming days.

“We will not allow a vacuum to occur,” said Murphy, adding specifically that rival street gang Rascals would not be allowed to step in with Toonerville leadership gone.
Deputy Mayor Jeff Carr of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s office, District Director for Constituent Services Mitch O’Farrell and Atwater Village Field Deputy Arsen Melikyan of City Council President Eric Garcetti’s office, Neighborhood Prosecutor Donna Wong of the City Attorney’s office and Atwater Village Senior Lead Officer Gina Chovan of the LAPD were all on hand at the meeting to assure residents that the sweep was not an isolated event after which anti-gang efforts in the area will end. Ongoing activities mentioned included programming for the young people at greatest risk of gang involvement, targeting of specific nuisance properties and organizing of residents through creation of a neighborhood watch. Carr referred to the sweep as, “the first step, not the final step.”

By no means were all of the attendees at the community meeting there to praise the effort.
“Let’s be real,” said one resident. “We have a lot of problems with the police.”
There were complaints at the gathering about children seeing parents arrested, about children being pulled from homes screaming and about officers driving 50 mph on residential streets.

The Toonerville sweep was the second major anti-gang initiative in Northeast Los Angeles in less than a week. On July 3, at 5 a.m., officers targeted an area from North Figueroa to Aldama Street and from Avenue 50 to York Boulevard, where they arrested 44 members of the Highland Park (HLP) and Dogtown gangs. 10 of the arrests were for felonies, the rest for misdemeanors. Police also issued 56 traffic citations and impounded four vehicles.

At least five gangs have been seeking to control parts of the Figueroa corridor through Northeast L.A. in recent months. In June, an 18-year old alleged Dogtown member was arrested for the March murders of two teens on Figueroa near the Highland Park Recreation Center.

According to Murphy, the July 3 sweep was part of a program that requires every police station in the City to identify one area or gang to concentrate on for an all-day major initiative.

And on a happier note, hundreds of Glassell Park residents turned out June 27 for a Drew Estara Block Party. The festivities marked the one year anniversary of the massive multi-agency anti-Avenues gang raid in neighborhood and celebrated improvements in the neighborhood in the past year. The event featured food, games, music, a jumper and drawings for prizes such as Dodger tickets courtesy of Garcetti’s office and dinner at Mia Sushi. The event was organized by Senior Lead Officer Leo Rey with support from a variety of community organizations and businesses.

The Arroyo Seco Journal magazine is available each month at www.magcloud.com. Search "news." It is also also donwloadable in PDf form at www.scribd.com.

Adventures in Vaughtantown

This is the first in a series of videos from my week in Vaughtown, Salamanca, Spain. Two of my cameras have broken on this trip, an Im using my macbook as my video camera. Anyway, this is the first--singing at the first evening of entertainment for the Spanish students. To skip a long explanation, visit www.vaughantown.com

As you know, I've been traveling for the last month, and I have a LOT of things to update here; lots of stories to finish, new stories to tell you, and lots of new videos to show you. I'll be parked in Italy for a month, and I'll start updating again, as soon as I can.( I'm not sure if Italy is aware of the Interners. We shall see.)

Hey it's Lummis Day!

Here is the link! Check 'em out!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/artvillanueva/sets/72157619417689428/

From our friends at the Heritage Museum:

Join us this Sunday for the 20th anniversary of Museums of the Arroyo Day, as six museums located along the Arroyo Seco in Los Angeles and Pasadena open their doors free of charge. At Heritage Square Museum, visit interesting cultural attractions like Ukulele Swing, Blacksmiths, Woodcarvers, Storytellers, members of W.E.S.T., the Rose Bowl Riders, and the Indian War Headquarters.

MOTA Day is generously made possible at Heritage Square Museum thanks to the generous support of our sponsors, including Lizarde Auto Service, the San Gabriel Bead Company, Peter Pepper Products, The York on York, and Steven Ormenyi Associates.

A couple of important notes about the event::
• We encourage you to carpool and consider using the nearby Heritage Square METRO Gold Line stop for parking. From there you can either wait for one of the shuttles, or join one of the volunteer guides on a walk to either Heritage Square Museum or the nearby Lummis Home and Gardens. If you are traveling the Gold Line you won't need a car at all and can exit at either the Heritage Square or Southwest Museum Stop.

• Shuttles will run about every 20 minutes. There will be two shuttles running between the Pasadena-based institutions and the Lummis Home and Gardens and two shuttles will run in a loop between the Lummis Home, Southwest Museum, Heritage Square Gold Line Stop and Heritage Square Museum. There will be a third shuttle running between the Police Historical Museum and the Lummis Home. Heritage Square, the Lummis Home and the Southwest Museum are walkable distance from each other and a great way to get to know the neighborhood!

• Interested in volunteering? On June 13th at 9:30 AM, join us for a brief volunteer orientation on opportunities with the museum. We are also looking for set-up help for MOTA Day (8:00 AM to 10:00 AM). For more information, contact Jessica Maria Alicea-Covarrubias at jessica@heritagesquare.org.

Not a member or need to renew? Join or renew this week and get a free gift from the museum gift shop or the Los Angeles Ballet. For an application click here. For questions on membership, email development@heritagesquare.org.

Celebrating 40 years telling the story of the development of Southern California.
More at www.heritagesquare.org and heritagesquare.blogspot.com

Coming Soon to Amazon.com...

This is What it Looked Like

You read all about it. Now you can experience it, as if you were there, Kinda. Not really.

Vaughantown and the Spanish Sky

MONFRAGUE, EXTREMADURA, SPAIN—150 kilometers from Madrid near the Portuguese border, the sun is bearing down on this national park like light through a magnfiying glass burning little black ants.

Three hours from Madrid, on a four-acre, four-star resort hotel property in the shadow of Castillo de Monfrague, 10 Spanish students and 10 “Anglos” are assembled in “VaughanTown” for a week of one-on-one chats, discussions, phone calls, play performances, evening cocktails and morning coffee. The idea is to create a full-immersion learning situation for native Spanish speakers, far away from dreary classrooms.

I spent three weeks in and around Madrid this summer “working” at Vaughan Learning Systems’ two Spanish campuses, in Gredos de Avila, and Monfrague, in the region of Extremadura.

This is the basic idea: English-speaking “Anglos,” as they are referred to, are recruited from all over the world to stay in a luxury hotel here, and spend the week conversing with Spaniards. About everything. And I mean everything. Spaniards hear english as it is actually spoken, and not just by Americans.

Easy enough, right? Well, we’ll get to that in a second.

I had two misconceptions about this place at the very outset: one, that we would be dealing with stodgy Spanish executives and middle managers, and two, that this would be a vacation. Though the ages vary, the students are all youthful and dynamic. In this first week, there’s Maria Jose, the computer physicist, serious but with a streak of silliness just begging to be coaxed out of her. We spent a walk to the nearby village discussing Cary Grant movies and the creation of new computer ISDN addresses. Earlier in the week, she’d donned a wig and hideous glasses to play one of Cinderella’s ugly sisters, in a performance for the whole group.

Jesus, a 51 year-old business management consultant, portrayed Oscar Madison in a scene from Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple,” with hilarious results.

Andres, a “Master Student” and engineer for a produce company, and I, engaged in an intense discussion of music from Nine Inch Nails and System of a Down to Springsteen, and then, as we walked back to the hotel from the village, he proudly showed me his new iPhone.

Among the “Anglos” are Carolyn, a charming teacher from Manchester Metropolitan University; Will, a young, exuberant former college baseball player here for a week before heading off to a small private school in Maine this fall to teach; Fiona McDonald, a recent Oxford graduate headed off to the world of financial planning; Margaret, from Leeds, a landscape artist who played the wicked stepmother and narrator for an improvised traditional English pantomime version of “Cinderella.” (Due to an accounting error, I was picked to play Prince Charming. I was also the only male in our little troupe).

That’s not everyone, but combined, the first week’s group is dynamic, gregarious, smart and really fun to hang around with.
But this is no vacation, really. Don’t get the wrong idea. Come prepared to talk. A lot.

Our first week’s campus is the Hospederia Parque de Monfrague in Extremadura, a region of Spain known for its blazing hot summers and its ham (There’s a chain or restaurants in Madrid called “The Museum of Ham,” to give you some indication of the importance of the local product.) There is also a luxurious pool alongside a spacious grass lawn, as well as gracious Spanish dining with attentive and courteous waiters.

Both campuses are in fact, luxury hotels, with differing and similar characteristics and facilities. The Gredos campus sits just outside the village of Barco de Avila and the famous walled city of Avila, the fabled home of St. Theresa de Avila.

Over the course of a week from Sunday morning to Friday afternoon, Anglos and Spaniards follow a set schedule that includes general conversations, and group presentations. Imagine being thrust in to a vacation with two dozen strangers, half of whom expect you to talk to them, all the time, non-stop. It is as rewarding and as draining as you might imagine. Our conversations ranged from American and Spanish politics, family issues, morality, business ethics, and well, a lot more sex than I expected. Many times I was asked the names of sexual parts of the body, or questioned as to my own sexual tastes. Oh, those Spaniards. (One Anglo reportedly spent his one-on-one-time showing pictures of his FaceBook female friends to his Spanish counterpart and explaining the American slang names for well, you can imagine).

The show is run and organized by a master of ceremonies and director, who change from week to week, and from location to location. Greg Stanford, a professor of drama at St. Louis’ University’s Madrid campus, led our first week, along with Carmen Villa, our charming and elegant director.

A mixture of corn and sincerity, Stanford engaged the group with a stream of silly jokes, scenes from Simon and Ionesco, and created an atmosphere which teetered easily somewhere between family and best friends.
“We were really fortunate this week to have such a great group,” said Stanford. “Everyone got along so well. That doesn’t happen very often. This one was magic.”

And they are always looking for Anglos, if you’re wondering.

Okay, now add to all of this the fact that this was my first trip to Spain, and my first trip to Europe. Ever. That backpack trip you took through Europe after college? I took it last month.

So everything was new to me. Gathering footage for an accompanying video of the trip, I told the camera more than once, that far more skillful American writers had traveled this road before me, and I wondered what I could add to the hundreds of years of insight.

I arrived on a flight from Munich to Madrid late on a Friday night. I saw little on the taxi ride from the airport to the city. Come Saturday morning. Boarding the clean and efficient (and air-conditioned) Madrid Metro at Ciudad Lineal on my way to the Sol Station, I ascended a flight of stairs to the street above.

As if in a wide-screen movie, I emerged on to Gran Via, on e of the main boulevards of Madrid. The whole of the street appeared before me—heat and crowds and beauty and history converged at once. I literally laughed out loud.

“I’m in Europe.”

Though Spanish-speaking, Madrid isn’t Los Angeles, and it certainly isn’t Mexico. Having only emerged from the shadow of former dictator Francisco Franco in the mid-70s, it has re-emerged, and re-invented itself into one of Europe’s most progressive and important cities. (Following the March 11, 2004 Madrid Metro terrorist attacks, newly elected president Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero promptly withdrew Spain’s forces from Iraq. President Bush, not surprisingly, is loathed by most Spaniards.)

Madrid’s modern wide boulevards, and narrow streets in its historic section near the Plaza Del Sol, teem with people at all hours of the day and night. The afternoon slows slightly with the last vestiges of “siesta,” and then ratchets itself back up, going full-bore till long past midnight.

On the Friday night of my first week in Madrid, I joined a group of VaughanTown Anglos and Spaniards for dinner at Botin, the oldest restaurant in the world, according to Guinness. But before that, I strolled through the Plaza Meyor in the middle of Madrid near the dead center of Spain , as the lights began to come up, families and couples filled the Square, and a thin line of blue and purple lit the skies just over the rooftops. Magic would be too easy a word for it.

And oh, the Spanish skies.

Standing on the terrace at Monfrague on my first night, I stared up into the deepest and biggest sky I had ever seen. Miles from Madrid, thousands of stars filled the sky from horizon to horizon in a huge, mesmerizing, and humbling display of nature.

The Spaniards may remember the idioms and phrasal verbs they learned. I will remember the Spanish sky.

www.vaughantown.com. 0034.91.591.48.30

© Copyright 2008 The Arroyo Seco Journal