Catalina, the famous romantic island immortalized in the immensely popular song “26 miles across the sea,†is having gang problems, according to various reports.
Deputies on the island off the coast of California say a gang called the Brown Pride Locos has gotten a foothold among the beaches, covers and tourist shops here.
“A sheriff’s spokesman said Catalina is still a very safe place but that it’s been showing signs of gang activity such as burglaries and other crimes,†said KABC-TV Los Angeles.
“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,†wrote the AP.
A swift crackdown has led to at least six arrests — but it has also caused an uproar in the tiny community, where residents leave their doors unlocked and cruise around in golf carts.
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 and smoke marijuana. 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.
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.
A footnote: The Four Preps song that said Santa Catalina, the island of romance, was 26 miles away miscalculated; it is really only 22 miles.
Report by David Wilkening
