Posted on 03/18/2006 8:35:08 AM PST by NormsRevenge
RIALTO - Like a Trojan horse rolling into an unsuspecting camp, an average U-Haul truck packed with heavily-armed SWAT officers led a multi-agency incursion into one of the city's most crime-laden neighborhoods.
During "Operation Lucky Charms," a St. Patrick's Day sweep of East Jackson Street, police arrested 29 people and seized 13.5 pounds of marijuana, 2.5 ounces of crack cocaine and eight firearms, according to Lt. Tony Farrar. Led by Rialto police and SWAT officers, the six-agency collaborative included San Bernardino and Colton SMASH units and comprised a total force of about 75 officers.
The 7 a.m. sweep Friday was the culmination of more than two months of intelligence gathering in the 100 and 200 blocks of East Jackson, which generated dozens of arrests and eight search warrants, Farrar said.
The sweep also marked the launch of a sustained effort to put the hammer to what Rialto police say is the one of the city's crime strongholds.
"We will make a difference here," said Police Chief Frank Scialdone, who for two hours walked the half-mile street and its alleys. "We first need to get rid of the intimidation factor, that's what today is about, and then it's up to us to keep it up."
The intimidation factor belonged to law enforcement Friday. SWAT officers armed with AR-15s and MP5s bolted from the U-Haul and filed in tight formation toward a condominium suspected of being a hive of drug activity.
SWAT officers pounded through the door while others shattered a window and rifled "flash-bang" canisters inside. The detonations blasted like gunshots, disorienting those inside, which made resistance less likely, Farrar said.
SWAT had secured what Farrar said was the most "high-risk location" on East Jackson in seconds.
At the same time, with officers strategically posted on corners and in alleys to secure the perimeter, parole agents and police fanned out in search of 100 people named in arrest warrants suspected to be in the area.
Minutes after the SWAT's raid on the condominium near East Jackson's southeast corner, tensions flared again when officers called for backup.
A man on a bicycle fled from police and took refuge in an upstairs apartment, blowing past residents standing in the doorway.
SWAT officers sprinted across the street, upstairs and into the apartment, and took the man into custody without struggle. SWAT officers suspected the man was flushing narcotics down the toilet.
"I was scared," said Tedria Glen, 17, who lives in the apartment with her aunt. "He just ran in our house and then next thing I know all these guys with big guns are running up, too."
Police say the area is a hotbed for sales of crack cocaine, an assertion they based on video capturing more than 50 transactions over a two-month span.
Friday marked the beginning to an operation hatched soon after the Jan. 21 death of Tyrone Brooks, 19, whom San Bernardino Police shot to death in the alley south of East Jackson after a high-speed chase.
Scialdone, then freshly installed as interim chief, decided to begin advance planning to transform Jackson after driving alone around the squalid neighborhood.
Scialdone toured the area up close Friday with Rialto City Councilwoman Winnie Hanson at his side. Scialdone and Hanson toured rental units after search warrants were served. Both said they were revolted by the unkempt living conditions and commented on the tragedy of children living in such squalor.
The sidewalks bustled with children walking toward a nearby bus stop in the middle of the heavily-armed police presence.
Scialdone emphasized a desire to apply heavy, lasting and multifaceted efforts to reform the area.
"I formulated in my mind at that time, when I was driving through here, what we should do here," Scialdone said near the back-alley wall, still splashed with a spray-painted memorial to Brooks, whose dead body was ogled by hundreds of residents while police investigated.
"It is incumbent on us that we maintain what we did today with a total city effort," he said.
Phase Two will begin immediately.
Redevelopment Agency officials, who have won raves for their work in the Willow-Winchester area, only recently supplanted by East Jackson as the city's grittiest, began inspecting the neighborhood Friday afternoon.
With a chunk of the criminal element cleared out, officials said, the path is open for code enforcement, building and safety and public works personnel to begin extensive work in the area.
Code enforcement will serve inspection warrants this morning.
Public works will sweep clean trash-strewn alleys and trim trees and shrubs.
At the pre-dawn briefing before the "Operation Lucky Charms" launch Friday, Scialdone told officers the new holistic approach would include an "After Action Team" of four officers whose primary charge would be patrolling East Jackson.
In the alley south of East Jackson Friday, Scialdone grimaced at the sight of an electrical box with its security door ripped open, exposing high-voltage wires at a height a child could reach, and said vigilant efforts by code enforcement officers was critical in forcing compliance from the absentee landlords who own most of the apartments.
Scialdone tagged Lt. Joe Cirilo with the responsibility of connecting the children of East Jackson to recreational and community programs, which he called part of a more "progressive" policing strategy.
But for all the high hopes and law enforcement's vows to make East Jackson safer, some residents were dispirited. After police ripped open the trunk of a customized Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme that belonged to a suspected drug dealer, 18-year-old Keyona Smith said she wasn't looking forward to more police on East Jackson.
"The police are always around, and they overdo it sometimes, like right now," she said. "Sometimes we just be outside playing Double-Dutch and the police come up and harass us."
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