gangs

Are civil liberties at risk if we implement laws that might bring relief to communities terrorized by out-of-control gangs?

A delegation of Yakima Valley residents appear willing to put those civil liberties on the line, telling lawmakers that they simply can’t take it anymore.

One high school senior told members of the House Judiciary Committee that she and her siblings have been forced to crawl around on the floor of their home to avoid gunshots aimed at a neighboring house, Beth Leah Ward reports in the Yakima Herald online.

"I don't think it's fair that I have to be afraid for my little brother and sister," Anna Aburto, a senior at Davis High School, told the House Judiciary Committee. "I'm afraid to go out in my neighborhood."

I recently wrote about this problem in Outlook, a small town in rural Yakima County, where one six-block area is home to as many as 150 gang members, where one in every five residents is said to be in a gang. The unincorporated town is only sporadically patrolled by Yakima County Sheriffs’ deputies, and has been plagued by shootings and assaults. There are few community resources for dealing with kids lured by gangs.

At least eight of two dozen homicides in Yakima County last year have been linked to gangs.

It’s a small town America we’re not accustomed to reading about. Yakima Herald-Republic reporter Melissa Sanchez vividly describes a six-block area of the unincorporated town of Outlook in rural Yakima County in central Washington, home to as many as 150 gang members and only sporadically policed.

She writes of a sheriff’s deputy shot in the leg by one gang member to impress other gang members. Of a 22-year old man charged with shooting and killing a 14-year-old runaway after she planned to report being raped at a party in town. Of the shootings of at least three teens in the past 16 months. Of a community where one in every five residents belongs to a gang, and many of the rest live terrified behind locked doors.

No community block watch groups exist here. There are few organized activities for young people. Law enforcement falls to the Yakima County Sheriff's Office, but only four deputies are on patrol at any given moment for the entire Lower Yakima Valley, a sprawling geographic area. And often, the sheriff admits there are even fewer deputies on patrol.

The community has cobbled together a response. The sheriff’s office and school district have joined forces to obtain a small grant - $40,000 – to hire a social worker to go into homes after gang-related arrests and help connect the families to needed social services.

"We found that poverty is a big contributor to why people get involved in gangs," said Heather Elmore, education services manager for the Northwest Community Action Center, which is involved in the project.

What's a Juggalo? Yeah, I wondered, too. And it turns out so do the Utah police. They are trying to figure out whether Juggalos - fans of the rap group Insane Clown Posse - are just that, or whether they have crossed a line to become gang members.

Juggalos, many of whom sport signature "wicked clown" face paint, and "hatchet man" emblems such as necklaces or tattoos, have been implicated in some high-profile and violent crimes in Salt Lake City. Melinda Rogers of the Salt Lake Tribune looks at the debate. As one Juggalo attending an ICP concert last week told her, "We're not Bloods. We're not Crips. We're just us."

But detectives who work the cases said many of the so-called Juggalos seem to fit the classic gang profile.

Gang detectives figure up to 15 percent of Juggalos are engaged in criminal activity and meet the technical definition of a gang member -- they share a common name and symbol, and collectively engage in criminal activities.

Whatever they're called, they also share some common roots with known gangs  - a desire to identify with others who have similar struggles and world views. Definitions can be dangerous, and self-fulfilling in themselves. Ask any student who has been labeled "slow," or athlete who was told they weren't good enough to make the cut whether a definition has power.

Santa Fe residents are struggling to try to prevent gangs from reaching out to their children. Sandra Baltazar Martinez of the New Mexican writes about a community meeting that drew more than 60 residents concerned about gang recruitment that has reached down to the elementary level.

"At a local elementary school, an 8-year-old recently walked onto the campus with the gang sign SUR13 marked on his arm," Martinez reports. The meeting drew youth, police, business leaders, and concerned parents. The kids that were present asked that adults  listen more to their sides of the story when they get in trouble, and police officers urged adults to be role models and give their time, even if it's not their kid.

The most serious mistake would be to pretend gang problems aren't happening in Santa Fe, one social worker told the crowd.

What ever happened to the good-old-days when we called organized criminals "racketeers" or "gangsters"? In the politically-correct era, they are now "gang members." In any case, the Reno Gazette-Journal has a "Q & A" with the head of the local gang task. The best quote is this one: "There are 30 documented gangs in the county, and we deal with about 10 percent of them on a consistent basis." Wow.

Police report “tremendous growth” in gangs in Anchorage, although they admit at least part of the upsurge may be the result of better police work to identify gangs and gang members. Gang activity seems to be increasing as people from the Lower 48, facing hard economic times, move to Alaska’s largest city so they can get their annual dole from the Alaska Permanent Fund, says the story by James Halpin. However, check out these numbers: Police say they recently counted more than 125 gangs, 55 of which met the definition of a gang under Alaska law. (That’s an increase from a total of 112 suspected gangs counted as of last December.) This same count identified 354 verified gang members. Hmm, that’s only about three to six members per gang. Police say they suspect these 354 verified gang members have some 2,400 associates, up from a total of 1,000 verified gang members and associates as of December.