26 Miles Across the Sea, a Gangster's Paradise for You and For Me...

Sitting just 26 miles off the Los Angeles coast is Catalina Island, a place where chewing gum magnate William Wrigley used to have a home and where his Chicago Cubs used to do their spring training, and where many a Hollywood movie has been filmed. The island's wild buffalo population was brought over by some movie crew back in the 30's and set free when filming was completed and now roam across much of the island. If you fly into the "Airport in the Sky" you can get pretty good buffalo burgers made from the local stock.

I've taken family vacations and day trips over there, as well as landing at the airport several times in my flying days, and the island always seemed pretty idyllic. According to this report, Los Angeles street gangs have begun to exert their influence in Avalon (the main town) and are threatening the tourist trade that feeds the city:

AVALON, Calif. - It seems even 22 miles of open ocean might not be keeping gangs off Catalina Island, a mist-shrouded outpost of Los Angeles County best known for its Hollywood history and crystal-clear harbors.

Deputies on the isle say a fledgling gang called the Brown Pride Locos has gotten a foothold among the beaches, coves and tourist shops. A stabbing, burglaries and graffiti are being blamed on the gang, and deputies last month surprised teenagers practicing moves with knives on a dark bluff above Avalon's crescent-shaped bay.

A swift crackdown has netted at least six arrests and led to a pair of police raids — but it has also caused an uproar in the tiny community, where residents leave their doors unlocked and putt around in golf carts.

Locals insist that LA's corrupting influences could never penetrate their paradise, where the stars of Hollywood's golden age frolicked and where dozens of classics, such as "Mutiny on the Bounty" and parts of "Jaws," were filmed.

Deputy David Mertens, a six-year gang enforcement veteran from Los Angeles, is trying to gain the upper hand before the violence escalates.

"Before I transferred here, I came to do my interview and I was shocked," said Mertens, who was brought in with a new commander late last year. "I could not believe all these gangsters walking around and all these drug deals going on right in the open."

Mayor Bob Kennedy, a scuba shop owner who never locks his truck and doesn't have a house key, acknowledges that some teens on the island heckle tourists, smoke marijuana and do some tagging. But he worries that overzealous policing — and the gang label — could empty the daily ferries that bring as many as 15,000 visitors to the island on summer weekends.

Catalina is accessible only by private plane or boat. A strict limit on cars means most residents cruise Avalon's 2 square miles by foot, bike or golf cart.

"I know that we have some misguided youth that think it's cute to spray paint skateboard signs in the skateboard park and do a little vandalism in the bathrooms," said Kennedy, a 26-year Avalon resident. "Do we want to get after that? Absolutely. Do we need 30 officers in flak jackets and machine guns to do that? I don't think so."

What do you want to bet that Mr. Mayor is one of those liberal Democrats who's more afraid of the police than the gangbangers?

Mr. Mayor, as a past tourist visitor to the island let me tell you that I'd rather see 30 officers in flak jackets and machine guns than even one gangbanger, and hearing that tourists are being heckled by gangsters who are running free on the island would be enough to keep me away. Who needs to pay good money for that?

You need to wake up, Mr. Mayor, or your precious tourist trade will vanish. Those cruise ships that dock there and the many daily ferry trips will go bye-bye if the local population is too dense to see what's happening in their own backyard and aggressively do something about it. Get out of the cop's way and let them do their jobs. When it comes to street gangs I guarantee you that you don't know what you're messing with, but the Sheriff's Department does.