CALIFORNIA - LAPD wary of Mongols' rise in the Harbor Area

OFF THE WIRE
Donna Littlejohn
 dailybreeze.com

The growing presence of a notorious motorcycle gang in the Harbor Area has raised the antenna of local law enforcement.
Word that as many as 300 members of the Mongols Motorcycle Club were headed this past Sunday to San Pedro's Point Fermin Park - where there was a free concert near Walker's Cafe, a long-standing biker burger haunt - spurred a preemptive response by Los Angeles police.
Many of those arriving by motorcycle were turned away for lack of parking.
Both Walker's Cafe and the adjacent park's popular Music by the Sea series are big draws every summer.
But the five-concert series - which began July 1 and ends this Sunday - almost was canceled when skirmishes broke out just outside the park during a July 15 outdoor performance.
Police say the trouble erupted between members of the Mongols and a rival motorcycle gang. The concert producer disputes that. No one was hurt and no weapons were involved.
Concert producer Mike Caccavalla said the fights did not involve motorcycle club members, who he said have always been welcome to attend the free summer concerts at Point Fermin.
Club members regularly attend the concert series, Caccavalla said, and have never caused any problems.
"When they come into the park, they're nothing but respectful," he said. "They're the nicest bunch of people. ... They spend their money with the vendors and in the past they've helped me patrol and keep things under
control."
Members of the motorcycle group could not be reached for comment.
Sgt. Catherine Plows of the LAPD Harbor Division said officers worked with the Department of Transportation to control parking at the park and Walker's Cafe this past Sunday to make sure there wasn't a repeat of the scuffles the week before.
The Mongols, she said, "are in the process of trying to make San Pedro their home city, which is a little disconcerting. They have every right to be wherever they want to be, but we want to make sure their events are safe."
This coming Sunday afternoon, Plows said, the group plans to celebrate its 13th annual South Bay anniversary at an auto brake repair shop near Anaheim Street and Western Avenue in Harbor City.
The club has been known to gather at Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park, also in Harbor City.
"When you look at their vests, they have a harbor insignia on them, so they're claiming the area," Plows said.
The concern, Plows said, is when members of rival groups - primarily the Hells Angels, the Mongols' longtime archenemy - also show up.
Caccavalla said the Mongols have been coming to the free concerts in Point Fermin Park since the club formed 16 years ago.
While there have never been problems, Caccavalla said he nevertheless appreciated the additional parking enforcement and police presence last Sunday. There initially was talk of suspending the concerts after the July 15 trouble, he said.
"This has been a community event that's been going on for 16 years and it's something that needs to continue," he said.
One observer, though, said the parking enforcement was heavy-handed, turning away most of the iconic Walker Cafe's traditional biker business.
"This place is famous on weekends for being packed," said the individual, who did not want to be identified. "Is it illegal to triple park motorcycles? Yes. Have people been doing it here for 17 years? Yes, and the police have always allowed it."
The motorcycle club's website - http://www.mongolsmc.com/ - lists numerous chapters in California, including a Harbor Chapter ("Los Angeles Port area"). The group also has chapters in Italy, Germany, Mexico and Scandinavia.
In a news release issued last May, the FBI's San Francisco office referred to the Mongols as an "outlaw motorcycle gang." The release outlined the sentencing terms of Christopher Bryan Ablett ("Stoney"), a member of the group's Modesto chapter, for the 2008 gang-related murder of Mark "Papa" Guardado, president of the San Francisco chapter of the Hells Angels.
Abett claimed he acted in self-defense.
Testimony in the trial by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives described the Mongols as an "organized criminal motorcycle gang whose primary rival is the Hells Angels motorcycle gang," according to the release.
A 2002 clash between the two groups in Laughlin, Nev., left two Hells Angels and one Mongol dead.
Plows said LAPD officers have been in communication with the Mongol leadership, which she said has been cooperative.
"We had a conversation early this morning and told them we're not here to take away their good time," she said Tuesday.
"We're just letting them know that if they're going to have an event here ... we're not going to tolerate any nonsense as far as other groups coming in."
donna.littlejohn@dailybreeze.com