Saying that local police were "outnumbered," a Pomona councilwoman called Monday for a court order against the 12th Street gang after a wannabe member had shot and killed a California Highway Patrol officer last week.
Councilwoman Norma Torres called on the city's lawyers to seek an order that would prevent gatherings of the 12th Streeters, the San Gabriel Valley's largest and reportedly most ruthless gang with nearly 1,000 members and associates.
Valentino Mitchell Arenas, 16, allegedly told authorities that he shot CHP Officer Thomas Steiner at random outside the Pomona courthouse in the hope of gaining status with the gang.
"To stop short of an injunction against the 12th Street gang would be an insult to this officer," Torres said.
Private services for Steiner, who is survived by his wife and a child, are scheduled for 11 a.m. today at Calvary Chapel in Downey.
Arenas will be tried for murder as an adult.
As anger was building over Steiner's slaying, Pomona Mayor Eddie Cortez and other city officials said they would create an antigang task force. Councilman George Hunter denounced gang members as terrorists.
The Pomona 12th Street gang is one of at least 15 gangs within the city and claims as turf much of south Pomona, which includes the civic center and courthouse. The gang, which has close ties to one of California's most powerful prison gangs, the Mexican Mafia, uses the shark as its symbol and has spread into eastern San Bernardino County. In recent years, the gang has been suspected of complicity in the racially motivated murders of two African Americans.
Pomona's homicide rate has declined from more than 30 annually in the early 1990s to 18 in 2002 and 17 last year. In the first two months of 2004, as homicides continued to decline, aggravated assaults, which include shootings, jumped by more than 40% over last year.
"We've had a Band-Aid approach," said Torres, a Los Angeles police dispatcher. "Our police officers under Chief [James Lewis] are doing the best job they can, but they are outnumbered and overworked and they need some help."
In Los Angeles, civil injunctions that bar certain gang members from congregating, flashing gang signs, violating curfews or wearing certain attire have been a staple of law enforcement's antigang efforts since the early 1990s. Results, according to most accounts, have been mixed.
