http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_3279615

Anatomy of gangs in SB

Megan Blaney, Staff Writer
San Bernardino County Sun

There is one known gang member for every 150 people in San Bernardino.
In recent weeks, police have arrested six of the city's estimated 12,786 gang members, in connection with the shooting death of an 11-year-old girl.

That girl, Mynesha Crenshaw, has become a rallying point for outraged residents demanding action and city leaders promising solutions.

Her death also underscores the danger that gangs pose not just to people, but to communities.

``Gang members kill neighborhoods just as surely as their bullets kill people,'' said Wes McBride, president of the California Gang Investigators Association.

``I've never found a gang member that was sorry he did what he did, even if he killed an innocent. He'll be sorry as hell that he got caught, but not that he did it. If a little girl is killed, they will rationalize why she shouldn't have been there.''

There are no numbers to show how many innocent civilians are killed by gangs, but McBride said it breaks down like this:

About 60 percent of gang-related homicides are of other gang members. About half of the remaining victims are innocent bystanders, he said. The others are drug dealers or other non-gang members targeted by gangs.

``There are consistently innocents who die,'' he said. ``There are parties where gang members fire into the party. Sometimes it is grandmothers or small children who die. Sometimes it's store owners who are killed during robberies. Some are where they were gang members, but we just couldn't prove it.''

Since gang members rarely rob other gang members, civilians become the target, McBride said. Sometimes, though, they are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Aspiring gang members are also asked to ``make their bones'' or prove themselves to the gang by committing crimes -- shootings, robberies and carjackings among other things.

Another common initiation practice is to be ''jumped in,'' where the new person is beaten by existing gang members.

There is no sure way to steer clear of gangs and their flying bullets.

``Should the general public be afraid? They should certainly be concerned,'' said Phil Brown, sergeant for specialized detectives in the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.

McBride recommended caution if confronted.

``You don't ever want to challenge a gang member,'' he said. ``It is almost like trapping a wild animal. Corner them and they will fight.''

The slaughter of innocents continues in San Bernardino County, the Inland Empire and around the country, as law enforcement and government look for solutions to stem the violence.

``Some neighborhoods are worse than others, but I can't think of one community that does not have them,'' said sheriff's Deputy Mike Martinez, who is a member of the San Bernardino County Movement Against Street Hoodlums -- a program known as SMASH comprised of city, county and state law-enforcement agencies that conducts gang sweeps.

Martinez and other members of local, state and federal gang units maintain relationships with gang members to gather intelligence about members and organizations.

Gang division Law enforcement classifies gangs into three main categories street gangs, prison gangs and outlaw motorcycle gangs.

Many street gangs in Southern California further divide themselves by ethnicity Latino, black, white and Asian.

The Latino gangs outnumber the other gangs and generally adopt the banner classification of Los Sureþos, Martinez said. They have ties to the Mexican Mafia and are largely run by incarcerated felons in the prison system -- the prison gangs.

The black gangs are generally divided into the Bloods and the Crips -- gangs that originated in Los Angeles. White gangs often adopt white supremacy beliefs and Christian identity, Martinez said. Asian gangs are rooted in Orange County communities and frequently have strong ties to Asian organized crime activity.

The fourth category -- outlaw motorcycle gangs -- are best known for the group, the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club.

The Hells Angels were founded in San Bernardino in 1948, and the group has since established chapters in Alaska, Arizona, Nevada, Washington and Colorado.

Biker gangs often portray themselves as being a legitimate group, but in reality they are as violent as the others, Brown said.

Gangs are the primary distributor of drugs throughout the United States, are heavily involved in street crime, vandalism and graffiti, and have more guns than ever before, according to the 2005 National Gang Threat Assessment -- a study by the National Alliance of Gang Investigators Association.

Traditional Latino gangs have existed in the Inland Empire since the 1950s, but an influx of gang members and their families from Los Angeles have created a myriad of hybrid gangs with different rules, tattoos, symbols and loyalties.

But deep down, experts say they are all interested in one thing -- money.

``They all come from the same stew pot that creates gangs,'' McBride said. ``They're all from the same recipe.''

Gangs and their families relocate to follow labor opportunities, and a host of other reasons including expansion of a gang's territory or the incarceration of a family member.

Many gang members are immigrants or illegal aliens and when they are deported back to their country, they stay for only a short period of time before returning to the United States, McBride said.

But often times, they come back through Texas and end up in Florida or the Carolinas, finding work and settling there, he said. The transportation of drugs across the country also accounts for the migration of gangs. It is difficult to track their migratory pattern due to denial or inaccurate reporting by officials, McBride said.

Gangs are easily able to keep their membership even when gang members relocate, are sent to prison or are killed. They simply turn to the schools. Gangs recruit members as young as elementary school-age children. Numerous factors induce young people to join a gang including protection from thugs or other gangs, money, glamour and peer pressure.

But in most cases, gang members have grown up around gang activity either in their family or in the neighborhood.

``It's not just the father or brother,'' said Sgt. Hector Moncada. ``It's sometimes the mother, sister, the aunties or the whole family.''

Moncada belongs to the San Bernardino City Unified School District police force, which patrols the schools in San Bernardino as well as parts of the county and Highland.

They share information with city police about gang members in the schools as well as members of ``party crews'' or ``tagger crews,'' which are often precursors to gangs.

The tagger crews use graffiti to make a name for themselves in the neighborhood. Tagger crews are not known to be violent, but party crews are beginning to exhibit gang activity, said San Bernardino City Unified School District police Officer Eric Vetere.

``It starts when there is an individual beef between people, and then the crews want to fight,'' he said.

Gangs have become more sophisticated and law enforcement is constantly trying to keep up.

``This is the worst thing ever invented,'' said Vetere, holding up his Nextel two-way phone.

The walkie-talkie function on the phone allows instant communication with anyone else who has the device, and is relatively inexpensive -- about $30 a month. The Boost Mobile phone also allows communication with the push of a button and is referred to as ``chirping'' because of the noise it makes.

``Lookouts used to whistle to alert them we were coming. Now they're ahead of the game,'' Moncada said.

School police Chief Gary Underwood said gang members and members of crews comprise about 5 percent to 8 percent of every school.

``They're not taking over the school by any means,'' he said. ``But it's something we are monitoring closely.''

A sanctuary

When a child is involved in after-school activities, sports, or academics, the likelihood of joining a gang diminishes, school police said.

One organization is offering just that a retreat where kids and adults can avoid street life and its temptations.

The majority of the patrons of the Christian-affiliated Victory Outreach Church of San Bernardino are either former gang members, former drug addicts or probationers.

Its congregation is an anomaly members of rival gangs coexisting peacefully, having abandoned the gang life.

``You see the gang members, still all tatted up, saying hi and hugging hello,'' said 16-year-old Paul Lujan. ``Even rival gangs.''

Lujan and about 100 other teenagers and children attend services of a program called God's Anointed Now Generation at least once a week.

Kids showed up in droves to the Wednesday night service -- walking, biking or packed into cars. Many sport the group's acronym G.A.N.G. Life on the front of their T-shirts.

Youth leader George Santiago, 20, used to be a member of the notorious 18th Street gang. At 17, he had been to juvenile hall three times for weapons charges and stabbing someone.

``If I continued being involved in the gang, I realized it was going to be prison or the grave,'' he said. ``So I said, `God, help me get out of this, please.' God did his part. Now it's my turn.''

It's not easy to leave a gang, Santiago said. Generally gang members live by the motto, ``Blood in, blood out.''

But Santiago said he is not afraid.

``I just told 'em I didn't want to be gangbanging no more,'' he said. ``It is dangerous, for sure.''

``It's real poor here,'' said 22-year-old Edmund Fierro, a former drug addict and gang member. ``The city's broke. Everyone's looking for something to do, something to be a part of. (Gangs) offer fun, thrills, mischief, the partying lifestyle.''

``We want to reach people and tell them we have the answer they've been looking for,'' said the Rev. Ramon Ramos. ``It's never too late.''

Ramos' older brother was a gang member and introduced him to the life at an early age.

``He got me high since I was kid -- since I was 11,'' Ramos said.

The drugs -- PCP and crystal methamphetamine -- took control of his mind, he said.

``I was pulling out guns on trees,'' he said. ``But then I was saved. We want to do that for everyone.''

Victory Outreach groups go out on Tuesdays and Saturdays to apartment complexes and educate the residents about the church and the available programs.

``We don't just come out when there's a murder in the paper,'' Ramos said. ``We are there around the clock.''

The other side of the battle

To combat gang activity, everyone must play a part, officials said.

McBride offered tips to spot gang presence.

Community members should watch for an increase in graffiti, especially that with gang signs or names, drive-by shootings, groups of young people in their teens to late 20s wearing similar attire, shaved heads or tattoos, or a rise in vandalism or other crime.

McBride urged residents to be proactive. Call the police and report crimes, keep the neighborhood looking tidy, and most importantly, he said, is for parents to keep close tabs on their children.

San Bernardino County has 360 gangs and 12,786 documented members, according to the sheriff's department. Others estimate that number could be as high as 17,000 after including unknown members. While it does not compare to Los Angeles, it is a serious problem, McBride said.

Los Angeles, which McBride called ``the gang capital of the world,'' has about 1,300 gangs and 100,000 members.

To combat this type of army, McBride said law enforcement officials need more funding to wage a full-on assault.

``The worst enemy we got is the politicians,'' he said. ``It comes down to conservative versus liberal and neither side is going to let the other side have anything.''

He lauded a gang-abatement bill that he said could help, but it has languished in the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.

Although the bill has bipartisan sponsors, it is in the middle of a tug-of-war between Republicans and Democrats.

The Gang Prevention and Effective Deterrence Act, co-sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, would:


Authorize $762.5 million over the next five years to support law-enforcement efforts against violent gangs
Create new criminal gang offenses
Increase penalties for violent crimes
Propose reforms for prosecution of gang members
Facilitate federal prosecution of 16- and 17-year-old gang members who have committed violent crimes
``It's an important priority for the senator,'' said Feinstein's spokesman Scott Gerber. ``She's been fighting for years to give a federal hand to local law enforcement who have been fighting to combat this problem.''

The right solution is hard to pin down, but the common thread running through each opinion is simple parental and community involvement.