Pasadena: February 2008 Archives

This from Brian Day:

Police are continuing to hold several Blair students and teachers as they search the school for a suspected gunman. This standoff began at 9:30 a.m. and is still going at 5:30 p.m.

Is this necessary?

There seems to be some confusion as to what buildings on the Blair campus have been cleared.

Two are apparently being detained. A police officer running the command post gave specific instructions to keep "the media" away from parents at the school.

Another officer referred to media as "any of those"  as though we are something to scrape off their shoes.

We still don't know the full extent of the situation.

Students have been evacuated to the football field. Classrooms are still being cleared.

A man suspected of cultivating Marijuana was targeted by a couple of 211 specialists, police told reporter Dan Abendschein. Here's an excerpt:

PASADENA - An armed robbery took place Thursday night at the apartment of a man authorities described as a pot dealer and grower.

Police confiscated about 200 plants of marijuana and several guns from the apartment of the victim, who was confronted around 6:10 p.m. by three armed suspects who entered his home, according to Lt. Alex Uribe of the Pasadena Police Department.

The victim was held captive while two of the men searched the apartment for cash, said Uribe.

He added that the detectives suspected the suspects knew the apartment was a place they would find cash.

"We don't know for sure yet, but I'd venture to guess they knew that there was dealing going on there," said Uribe.

The apartment is located at 365 Hastings Ranch Road, said Uribe.

While the suspects were in the home, a second victim knocked on the door, said suspects. While the suspects were taking him inside, the first victim broke through a window and fled, injuring himself in the process, Uribe said.

He went to a neighboring apartment and called the police, Uribe added.

The victim has not yet been arrested for marijuana cultivation or sales, said Uribe, but he said he expected the arrest to come soon.

Pasadena's interim police Chief Chris Vicino takes exception to Tuesday's column  in a Letter to the Editor.  Here's an excerpt:

This letter is in response to the recent editorial "Gang Injunctions Can Work Wonders," published in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune and the Pasadena Star-News.

Your reference to Pasadena's interim City Manager Bernard K. Melekian was unjustified, as it failed to provide the reader with historical data that shows a spectacular crime reduction under Melekian's leadership. By doing this, you minimized the good work of the men and women of the Pasadena Police Department and courageous citizens of the Pasadena community who have always collaborated with its police department to fight criminal activity.

Once a month, the Hispanic Outreach Taskforce gets together with the police chief in Whittier to discuss topics of interest to the community at large.

The meeting is a brown bag deal. There are sandwiches, sodas and a lot of conversation.
Topic A last week was a gang injunction the police are beginning to enforce against Whittier Varrio Locos, near Uptown.

Police Chief David Singer said officers are still in the process of notifying 40 gang members that they can’t do certain things in their neighborhood anymore. Among those things: carrying weapons, loitering, throwing gang signs and tagging.

Montebello has a similar ordinance on the books and officials claim that since it was enacted in 2004, there has been a marked decrease in gang crime.

In the wake of recent violence in Monrovia and Duarte, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Capt. David Shaw of the sheriff’s Temple Station, which patrols unincorporated areas of the community, suggested a gang injunction was being explored as a possible way to get gang members off the streets. No action has yet been taken.

While the injunctions in Montebello and Whittier are relatively new, the tool has been in law enforcement’s toolbox since the mid-1990s.

For example, Norwalk used one with great success against a particularly violent Latino gang. Pasadena hoped to duplicate the effort and enjoined the Pasadena Denver Lanes Blood gang.

The move essentially flowed from a community reaction to the Halloween Homicides. On Oct. 31, 1993, Edgar “Eddie” Evans, Reginald Crawford and Stephen Coates were gunned down as they walked home from a friend’s Halloween party.

Herbert “Monster” McClain, Lorenzo Newborn and Karl Holmes, all members of the Denver Lanes gang, were convicted of murder and ultimately sentenced to death.

Enforcement of the order against PDL was fairly effective, and the neighborhood around Summit Avenue became safer for a while.

Nearly a year later, city officials and the District Attorney’s Office came close to taking similar action against the Villa Boys and Krazy Boys Latino gangs.

But when Bernard Melekian took over as chief in 1996, he derided the injunctions and chose to fight gangs with a mantra of “community policing” that was popular at the time. The injunctions faded away from lack of enforcement and Pasadena’s gangs went back to being Pasadena’s gangs.

A few years later, Melekian defended the decision to Daniel Sharfstein, a one-time reporter here, who was writing a piece for a publication called The American Prospect.

The chief, now interim city manager, called injunctions “an intellectual substitute for responsible public policy.”
My guess is that officials in Montebello, Whittier and Monrovia know best what they are up against. They also know what makes “responsible public policy” in their communities.

If a gang injunction works in Monrovia, my guess is there won’t be too many law-abiding taxpayers who will complain.

Alhambra Airport, Crawfords Corner, Montgomery Ward, Fedco, Street Cars, Wardy surfboard shop, The "old" Icehouse, Helm's Bakery trucks, The Royal Coachmen Restaurant, The Crushed Grape on Garvey, Victoria Station on Restaurant Row.

Local blogs recently put together a list of places in the area that used to be here, but aren't now.

Don't forget Bullock's on South Lake in Pasadena and Buffums in Pomona. At least Rick's on Greenleaf in Whittier is still going strong.

I won't claim to have known all of these landmarks that have disappeared from local neighborhoods, but as of this month we can add one I did know (and love) to the list - Bungalow News in Pasadena.

As reporter Janette Williams wrote this week, Bungalow on East Colorado is closing its doors for good in just 10 days, Feb. 24 to be exact. It will be a sad day for Pasadenans, especially those seeking esoteric mags that are virtually unavailable anywhere else - except in cyberspace.

That's part of the reason behind the closure, according to owner Larry Frisina, whose parents started the business in 1962.

I used to go to Bungalow to pick up Sunday copies of the Detroit News/Free Press and day-old copies of the San Francisco Chronicle. I also bought more packs of Marlboro Lights and MAD magazines than I care to count.

While there were plenty of customers in Bungalow buying the latest copy of "Contemporary Stone & Tile" or "Diplomatie, Affaires Strategiques et Relations Internationales," they were usually outnumbered by the raincoat crowd in the side section perusing copies of more "adult" fare.

These days I get the Free Press and Chronicle online. No doubt the raincoat crowd has turned to the Internet as well.

Besides cyberspace, older businesses in Pasadena's Playhouse District have to contend with the gentrification of the neighborhood. What used to be sort of seedy, run-down and filled with some of the greatest used-book stores anywhere is now cleaned up and trendy.

That means higher rents, less parking and more visibility for the raincoat crowd. Which translates to less customers for Bungalow.

Of course my theory about Bungalow's demise doesn't fully explain the changing face of our local streets.

Big-box stores have replaced local hardware stores and five and dimes. Chain restaurants with consistent menus have taken the place of the Stan's and A&Ws of the world.

For that matter, try finding a 25-cent cup of coffee.

I guess that's the point. Who's got beaucoup bucks for day-old newspapers and esoteric magazines when you need the cash for Starbucks?

Van shot at in Pasadena.

Suspected thief caught hiding in back yard.

Astronomy "teacher" accused of touching.

Man dead after torching home following domestic dispute.

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This also makes a nice mash-up with the map showing Pasadena homicides in 2007. Thanks to Pasadena police Cmdr. Mike Korpal for the heads up on today's arrests. 

PASADENA - Police arrested four men as suspects in a year-old murder case, conducting SWAT-supported raids at five locations early this morning.

Authorities said the arrests were part of an investigation into the shooting death of 18-year-old Sean Baptiste exactly one year ago today. Officials said Baptiste was shot at Lincoln Avenue and Orange Grove Boulevard.

Sixty-five Pasadena Police Department officers took part in the operations that involved serving warrants at residences on the 1700 and 1800 blocks of Lincoln Avenue, the 900 block of Mountain Street, the 1800 block of Summit Avenue, and the 1400 block of El Sereno Avenue, said police Cmdr. Mike Korpal.

While detectives had been working on the Baptiste shooting case for a year, Korpal said the raids sent a message that police never give up.

"It sends a message to criminals that if you commit a crime here we are going to exhaust every effort to find out who is responsible and prosecute that person," he said.