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[Photo: Night Out on Crime marchers pass Mr. X Bar, 1427 W. 24th Street,
alleged by neighbors and police to be a gang hangout. The bar has been ordered
closed by City Zoning officials and is currently appealing that decision.] Three block clubs hold joint walk through Adams-Normandie area on National Night Out on Crime
Dozens of neighborhoods in Los Angeles held marches, meetings, or parties on
Tuesday, August 3 to mark this year's National Night Out on Crime. In our part
of the West Adams historic district three block clubs held their second annual
march and potluck. Participating were the Budlong-Juliet-Catalina Neighborhood
Association, the main organizer of the event; the Adams-Normandie Neighborhood
Association; and the Van Buren Place Community Restoration Association. The
neighbors gathered at Salvin Elementary School on Budlong Avenue just north
of the 10 Freeway in the early evening, dropping off their contributions to
the potluck. About 25 people took up banners, posters, and piercing whistles
and set off through the nearby streets, stepping off a little after 7:00 pm.
The signs told the story: "No Violence, No Drugs," "Keep Our
Community Safe," "No Dumping, No Graffiti," "Stop the Violence,
Killings, Shootings." The National Night Out is sponsored by the National Association of Town Watch
as a police-community partnership. This was its 21st year. The local police
station, Southwest Division, sent half a dozen officers led by Senior Lead Officer
Sergio Sanchez to accompany the BJC-ANNA-Van Buren march. At the head of the
parade were three motorcycle officers who stopped traffic for the marchers all
along their route. The marchers shouted "No Gangs, No Guns, No Drugs" and blew screeching
serenades on their whistles as they walked through the Budlong Tunnel under
the freeway, east to Vermont Avenue, one of the major thoroughfares in the area.
From there they turned south to historic Adams Blvd. where they headed west.
Throughout, the parade was in the street, not on the sidewalks. At Budlong Avenue
police halted traffic on both sides of Adams to let the marchers cross. They
then went up to 27th Street and Budlong, long a hangout for the local Harpys
street gang, then west to Raymond Avenue where a member of the Rollin' 20s Bloods
was gunned down in December 2003. The march re-crossed Adams Blvd. and returned
to Salvin School where people, after a brief blessing by BJC President Yvette
Jones, sat down to a late dinner in the school auditorium. The march was smaller this year than last. In 2003 it drew more than 100. The
main reason for the drop-off, many people thought, was a dramatic improvement
in the crime situation in the neighborhoods on both sides of Adams. There had
been an outbreak of gang activity, drug sales, and inter-gang violence in 2003
that brought out many neighbors who do not often take to the streets. This year
things have been very quiet and a lot of last year's participants stayed home.
On the whole, most of us were ready to celebrate the peace in the neighborhood.
Original Homies
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Neighbors March Against Crime and Drugs
August 8, 2004
Published: 8/8/2004
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