Bikers leave a bad taste in San Pedro

[Mystic]

DISTURBANCE: Motorcycle club overwhelms area, upsets residents.
By Donna Littlejohn, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 06/30/2008 11:42:02 PM PDT


"Born to be wild" wasn't a theme that resonated very well with San Pedro residents this weekend when a motorcycle club - later involved in a shooting near Carson - converged on a local park and made several streets impassable.
Complaints ranged from noise to rowdiness as the Rare Breed Motorcycle Club roared into town Saturday morning to have a picnic at Joan Milke Flores Park. Later, the group would be implicated in a shooting shortly after midnight near 186 th and Figueroa streets that left two victims hospitalized.
Crowd estimates were in the thousands when the group gathered for the afternoon picnic. Police said initially there were 300 to 500 people, but those numbers quickly multiplied.
And while no arrests were made, it all left nearby residents in a rather foul mood when the club finally was forced to clear out.
"It was horrible," said one resident who didn't want her name used. "I've never seen anything like it in San Pedro, I couldn't get to or from Paseo del Mar."
City officials said no park permits were issued for the event, apparently an annual or biennial picnic held by the group that has members throughout the state.
"We're still gathering information" about what happened, said Bara King, principal recreation supervisor for the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks.
Most of the complaints, she said, were about excessive noise from the altered motorcycles and boom boxes.

Streets were so gridlocked that residents had trouble getting into or out of their own neighborhoods.

"I sat trapped in my home and suffered for six hours until police finally broke it up," said one Point Fermin resident.
Staff members and volunteers at the nearby Fort MacArthur Military Museum had to close down that facility, which is adjacent Joan Milke Flores Park.
"We basically had to lock down the museum's main gate," said Joe Janesic, vice president of the museum's volunteer support group. "These guys were riding their motorcycles right through the gates. They almost hit a couple of pedestrians. They were riding off-road and on restricted roads" in Angels Gate Park.
"They were obnoxious," he said.
"There were cars parked where there was no parking, and they were taking over Paseo del Mar so no traffic could pass," said Lt. John Pasquariello of the LAPD's Harbor Division. "It got a little rowdy. - Officers responded and at around 4 p.m. they were able to disperse the crowd."
One resident said the bikers were generally well-behaved, but that the sheer size of the group and the noise was an issue.
"There was no violence, there was no bottle throwing," said Peter Warren, a member of the Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council. "It was an upscale crowd, these were very modern and expensive Harleys."
Big community events like the Taste in San Pedro held every August at nearby Point Fermin Park, Warren said, pose a much bigger challenge when it comes to crowds and parking.
Other residents said the incident highlighted the community's access problems, saying the unexpected crowd demonstrated how difficult it would be to evacuate neighborhoods at San Pedro's southern end.
After police dispersed the bikers, the motorcyclists rode north on the Harbor (110) Freeway and were allegedly involved in an alcohol-fueled dispute and shooting several hours later, just after midnight, according to police.
The two victims were believed to be Rare Breed members but police have not released their names.
Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn's office took about 20 telephone calls from upset residents on Monday. The Police Department fielded many more through the weekend.
"While people have the right to gather at our parks, when a small party turns into thousands of people, it is clear that we require a permit for a reason," Hahn said in a prepared statement released Monday.
"For events this large, the city requires that the LAPD and the Department of Transportation be there to keep the public safe and our roads moving."

[Mystic]

Please note the remark in the article by a member of the Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood council concerning the event called the Taste, which he says posed a much bigger challenge.