Small Claims Plan Urged to Fight Crime

Judge Wapner, watch out.

Gangbangers controlling the streets? Prostitutes and pimps setting up shop next door? Drug deals going down at the house on the corner? Neighbor playing loud music all night and letting trash pile up on the lawn?

Take them to court, Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs urged residents Wednesday. Small Claims Court, that is.

In a motion introduced in the council Wednesday, Wachs suggested that Los Angeles join 33 cities in eight states that have adopted a program called Safe Streets Now! It encourages neighborhoods to take local nuisances into their own hands by filing small claims actions en masse against the owners of problem properties.

Forget the police, the city attorney’s office, building and safety and other bureaucratic hassles. This is do-it-yourself justice, a civilized vigilantism in this increasingly litigious world.

Although a solo claim of $5,000--the maximum allowed in Small Claims Court--might be brushed off by a property owner, the pressure mounts quickly when dozens of residents file simultaneous claims, participants in other cities’ programs said. Each claim costs just $15 to file. No lawyers are allowed in Small Claims Court.

“It’s a tool that has brought communities together,” Wachs said at a City Hall news conference with several homeowners from nearby cities that use the program. “It has increased their property values and it has enabled them to take back their neighborhoods.”

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Founded in 1990 by Molly Wetzel, who had successfully shut down a drug house plaguing her Berkeley block, Safe Streets Now! has helped fight 1,200 problem property owners, including about 100 cases that ended up in court, activists said. Wachs wants the City Council to officially adopt the program and spend some money on publicity and training for people who want to use it--the rest is up to the residents.

“It’s allowing people to participate in the most fundamental level of government, to provide a safe, clean and healthy neighborhood, by taking the whole drug and gang problem out of the criminal element and making it a social question,” Wetzel explained in an interview. “It’s very empowering. We need to look at these issues as neighborhood issues and act at that level before it becomes a criminal justice issue.”

It all started in 1987 when Wetzel, a single mother of two, realized that drug dealers had moved into her middle-class neighborhood. Syringes were strewn among the fruit trees. Her son was held up at gunpoint, her daughter solicited for sex. Bullets occasionally flew.

The neighbors organized a crime watch. The police came, but the dealers returned days--sometimes just hours--after the arrests occurred. Eventually, Wetzel found herself sitting at a neighbor’s house, plotting to pay someone $100 to torch the drug dealers’ place.

Then she read about a group of people who had successfully sued a local airport for noise violations. Soon, Wetzel and 17 neighbors--ages 3 to 65--filed a series of Small Claims Court cases. They won, but never even had to collect. The tenants were evicted within two weeks.

Now, Wetzel runs the growing Safe Streets Now! program, offering two-day training seminars for $4,000 and written materials for an additional $2,500. Some Oakland activists complained several years ago that the group unfairly targeted black property owners, but the program has nonetheless continued to expand, taking on single family homes and apartment complexes as well as motels and liquor stores.

Los Angeles would be the largest city to join the network. The program is in place in Pasadena, Long Beach and throughout Orange County.

“We see this as a very effective tool,” said Cynthia Abbott, who works on the program for Pasadena. “It’s really increasing our ability to effect change in our public safety agenda.”

The notion fits neatly into Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan’s philosophy of having government help communities solve their own problems. It also addresses the City Council’s increasing emphasis on nuisance properties as a major public safety priority.

At his news conference, Wachs showcased several success stories.

Tim and Christina Aronhalt of Long Beach said they were up all night worrying about what was happening down the street. Mail turned up missing. Burglaries were rampant. All the problems seemed to lead to the doorstep of 728 Los Altos Ave.

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With the advice of city employees trained by Safe Streets Now!, the Aronhalts and their neighbors began keeping a log of the problems, jotting down every disturbance and lodging as many complaints as possible with the police. A group of 31 took the owner, Ruth Bales, to Small Claims Court. They won $155,000 on Tuesday.

“How can you put a price on your peace and feeling of well-being in your neighborhood?” Christina Aronhalt asked. “You can’t. But small claims allows you to file for up to $5,000, and we were awarded the max.”

Another Long Beach resident, Sheila Allen, said her condominium complex was plagued by hookers and drugs, the smell of pot wafting through the courtyard every time she walked out the door.

“We felt hostage in our own homes,” Allen said. “They were trying to take over our building.”

Like most in the Safe Streets Now! program, Allen did not have to wait for a court order. Once she and six neighbors filed their $5,000 claims, the troubling tenants were ousted.

Ditto for Juana Meza, who lives on Summit Avenue in Pasadena.

“It was like a market that sold drugs,” Meza recalled in Spanish. “The children couldn’t go outside because there were gangs and marijuana cigarettes. We needed to call the police constantly, at all hours of the day.

“This was a problem that seemed like it would never end,” she added. “Safe Streets Now! helped us.”