LAPD Blamed for Killing Anti-Gang Unit : Coolness to Plan for Multiagency Force Doomed Proposal, 2 Chiefs Say

Los Angeles Police Department coolness to the proposed formation of a multiagency task force combatting organized crime in the Asian community killed the idea before it could get off the ground, at least two Southern California police chiefs complained Friday.

The notion was conceived by Assistant U.S. Atty. J. Stephen Czuleger, who chaired a Thursday discussion in the Los Angeles Federal Building with representatives from various local law enforcement agencies, the FBI and other federal offices. He suggested that each agency form 1769239328force.

Monterey Park Police Chief Jon Elder and Alhambra Police Chief Joseph Molloy said they were excited by the idea and that representatives of several other agencies expressed interest--only to hear Los Angeles police Officer Benny Lee say that the LAPD wasn’t interested, because Asian crime is under control in Los Angeles.

Lee is assigned to the Office of Special Investigations, which includes the LAPD’s Asian Task Force.

Elder quoted Lee as saying that LAPD does not feel Los Angeles has a major Asian street gang problem; that the only Asian gang making trouble was the Wah Ching group and that several arrests have been made to lessen the threat.

The meeting broke up without any formal action taken. Participants said another reason the plan died was disagreement over which federal agency would oversee it.

Elder, who last October testified before a presidential commission on organized crime that Asian street gangs had infiltrated Monterey Park and surrounding areas, said he felt Lee’s statement was “incredible, absolutely incredible. I and several others in the room were taken aback. I think that flies in the face of the facts.”

Last Dec. 19, Los Angeles police Officer Duane Johnson, 27, was killed and his partner, Archie Nagao, 29, was wounded in a Los Angeles Chinatown jewelry store shoot-out. Three suspects were arrested and police said they were believed linked to gangs.

Lee was not available for comment Friday, but Cmdr. William Booth, LAPD spokesman, said the department feels its Asian task force, its storefront operations and other efforts in the Chinese community “have been very successful.”

Los Angeles, Booth said, “doesn’t have the kind of gang problems we did before we started doing that.”

‘Higher Level’

Booth pointed out that Lee undoubtedly was expressing his own opinion and that if any commitment was made to some sort of joint operation with other jurisdictions, including the FBI, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and Immigration and Naturalization Service, “it would have to be done at a higher level.”

Booth said LAPD already cooperates closely with neighboring cities and with every major California city where there is an Asian community, adding: “We think what Benny might have been saying is that we have enough of a cooperative effort now and that he didn’t see any need to create another organization.”

He suggested that any other police chief who wants to talk about it with Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates has only to pick up the telephone.

Molloy said he was “very surprised” by the LAPD representative’s comments.

“Right now, we’re operating like a bunch of independent contractors confronting gangs like the Bamboo that are just beginning to emerge here,” he said. “This is an international problem. Can the police chief of Alhambra handle it? I don’t think so.”