ANAHEIM — It is safe to say they don't come to Disneyland to meet Mickey.
Teenagers in Mohawks, dog collars and anarchy patches crowding Tomorrowland. Groups of ghoulishly dressed youths in the parking lots of Disneyland and nearby businesses, some drinking or smoking joints and sending tourists walking the other way.
Trouble encroaching on the Magic Kingdom?
No, according to Disneyland officials and Anaheim police. They say the resort is still, if not the Safest Place on Earth, certainly one of the most secure amusement parks around.
But since 1993, when the cost of holding the least expensive annual pass to the resort dropped from $195 to $99, Disneyland has become the favored Friday night hangout of hundreds of local teenage pass-holders, some of whom have been tied by Anaheim police to growing incidents of vandalism, petty theft and drug use around the park, and occasionally inside it.
The teenagers make up a tiny fraction of the tens of thousands of visitors to Disneyland on weekend nights, yet with many favoring punk-like regalia and some breaking the law, they stand out.
"They are just misdirected delinquents rather than gang members, but they are all the heck everywhere. And when they have been drinking, they taunt tourists, they use spray paint, they throw bottles, camp out . . . it's kind of turned the tourist area into a free-for-all," Anaheim Officer Dave Wiggins said.
At the request of Disneyland and local merchants, Wiggins has led two special enforcement operations since June to discourage the youths from breaking laws and harassing other visitors to the resort.
Many of the teenagers do nothing more heinous than hog benches in Tomorrowland, which, with its rock bands and space for dancing, has long been a hangout for young people. With Disneyland's private security force constantly on the lookout for drug users or harassment of tourists, serious problems have been kept to a minimum.
The number of people arrested in Disneyland or its vast parking lots on charges of using or selling methamphetamine, LSD, speed or various forms of cocaine climbed from four in 1991 to 34 in 1995, then dipped to 29 last year and 10 through this August. The number of arrests is tiny compared to the estimated 11 million annual visitors to the resort.
Nevertheless, Anaheim police and resort security have not hesitated to crack down on teenagers who intimidate tourists, even when the youths are breaking no law.
