Chief Defends Crackdown on L.A. Gangs : Police: Williams tells South-Central audience that raids were not racially motivated. He denounces small group responsible for high percentage of crime.

Police Chief Willie L. Williams defended last month’s massive crackdown on alleged gang members, telling South-Central Los Angeles residents Monday night it is outrageous that such a small group is responsible for as much as 85% of violent crimes in their neighborhood.

Williams said the raids, called Operation Sunrise, no more targeted South-Central because it is largely black than arrests of alleged Mexican Mafia members last weekend targeted Mexican American neighborhoods.

“We targeted (the suspects) because they are killing people in our neighborhoods,” Williams said. Wherever violent gangs think they can take over the streets, he said, “you have to demand that we in law enforcement get out of our offices--out of our cars--and make our streets safe.”

About 800 law enforcement officers from several agencies, including the FBI, served warrants at more than 100 locations April 1, arresting more than 60 people in a crackdown on the Eight-Tray Gangster Crips.

Two weeks after the raid, however, only one of those arrested had been charged with a violent felony, according to records released by authorities, and seven others had been charged with felonies ranging from illegal gun possession to drug trafficking.

At Monday’s meeting, organized by Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, Williams said that 23 suspects were locked up for violent felonies and that 20 others were arrested for other felony offenses.

A woman in the audience asked the chief if there was “any real expectation of prosecution” of those arrested.

“Yes, the numbers I gave you, these are the numbers where charges were filed,” Williams answered.

Later, however, Cmdr. Tim McBride, a spokesman for the chief, said that charges had not been filed in all 43 of the cases, and that Williams actually meant he believed charges would be filed in those cases.

At a news conference after the April 1 raids, Williams told reporters: “We talk about Beirut. But we have neighborhoods like Beirut right here in Los Angeles, and we’re going to turn that around.”

That comment outraged some residents who demanded that the chief apologize to all of South-Central. They said the chief’s remarks were an attempt to criminalize their community and its residents.

On Monday, Williams said: “I did not call your neighborhood Beirut.” He pointed out that he had grown up in an African American community in Philadelphia and would not insult theirs.

While several people in the packed church hall in the 1900 block of 48th Street had pointed questions about police behavior in their community, most supported the chief’s and Ridley-Thomas’ emphasis on reducing violent crime.

The most sustained applause of the evening came when one resident told the councilman and the police chief: “You’re doing a magnificent job.”