SCENE OF THE CRIME : Bashing Back

Two young men saunter down Ocean Boulevard toward Ripples, a gay disco in Long Beach. In their 501 jeans and T-shirts with rolled sleeves, they’ve got “easy target” written all over them.

As they stroll, a handful of undercover officers in several unmarked cars stand watch. Across the street is “the box,” a run-down old van loaded with cameras, tape recorders and a night-vision periscope. The two young men are decoys, and they’re wired for sound.

This is a sting, one of several run over the last two years to counter violence against Long Beach gays. No one has been arrested yet--no one has actually struck a decoy--but a gay and lesbian group that works with the department says assaults are down dramatically as word spread about the sting. (Police say their statistics on gay bashing are not reliable because many incidents go unreported.)

But not everyone has gotten the message. This night, three young men, apparently drunk, head for the bar. One of the decoys walks toward them, braced for an assault if they turn out to be violent.

An officer in a nearby car radios the van: “Victor One to the box! Send one of your guys to meet up with the suspects. Let’s see if we get some action going here.”

A suspect approaches the blond decoy, yelling, “Hey, there’s a faggot! Why don’t you get the f--- out of our neighborhood?”

“What’s it to you, man? Mind your own damn business,” shouts the decoy.

The harassment continues and the man draws his arm back as though to throw a punch. But before he does, his friends drag him off.

Later on in the evening, a report comes in that some nearby skinheads are yelling obscenities, but they all stay in their car.

The sting wraps up at about 2:30 a.m. The last of the taunters drive by Ripples just as its neon light blinks off.