ESCONDIDO: Police chief rallies community to fight gangs

[FedUpinFarmersBranch]

ESCONDIDO: Police chief rallies community to fight gangs
New group brainstorms ways to improve city
By COLLEEN MENSCHING - Staff Writer | Wednesday, July 16, 2008 11:04 PM PDT ∞

7 comment(s) Increase Font Decrease Font email this story print this story ESCONDIDO ---- Police Chief Jim Maher said Wednesday's inaugural meeting of a gang-prevention group came too late for 17-year-old Danny Medina and 15-year-old Eduardo Aranda, both of whom were killed in separate gang-related attacks this year.

"But it doesn't have to be too late for everybody else in this community," Maher said to a group of about 50 invited residents, law enforcement officials, school officials and community group representatives who gathered for the daylong session Wednesday at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido.

Maher said he has long felt the Police Department needed to be more active in preventing gang crime and, in particular, preventing youths from joining gangs.

Wednesday's meeting was organized by the police department and was intended to be the first step in an ongoing effort to collaborate with the community on gang prevention. Escondido, with approximately 143,000 people, is the second-largest city in North County.

After the chief's opening remarks, Escondido gang unit Detective Erik Witholt gave the group a crash course in Escondido gang culture:

-- Escondido has four gangs, all Latino, and a total of 356 documented gang members, including some juveniles.

-- Children who join gangs typically get involved in gang activity at 13 or 14 years of age.

-- The number of gang "associates" who spend time with gang members but are not believed to be full-fledged members is approximately 1,050.

-- Gangs have operated in the city since at least the 1970s; the city's fourth gang formed in the early 2000s.

-- Rival gangs Westside and Diablos are the city's largest gangs and account for 342 of the city's documented gang members.

-- Escondido has two civil gang injunctions to prohibit a range of activity by Westside and Diablos members in specific parts of the city.

Danny Medina and Eduardo Aranda, the two teens the chief referred to in his opening remarks, were killed in gang-injunction areas ---- Danny in an April stabbing and Eduardo in a July shooting.

Police said neither teen was a documented gang member; they have suspects in custody who have gang connections. Family members of the slain boys have said they were not gang members.

After the presentation, attendees were asked to work in small groups to draw pictures of the best neighborhoods ---- or the worst ---- they could imagine.

Drawings of good neighborhoods tended to include parks, schools, churches and police, while drawings of bad neighborhoods showed gang members, pollution, liquor stores in residential areas and bars on windows.

Overworked parents, negative media attention, absentee landlords and poor economic conditions all have the power to drag a neighborhood down, participants said.

Gangs are a symptom of those problems, some said.

And while there are many ways a neighborhood can be improved, the community needs to rally around the cause before change can occur, several people said.

Tony Ricchiuti, a Del Dios Middle School teacher who launched his own nonviolence program about a decade ago, said the community will was palpable at Wednesday's meeting.

"It'll take the citizens of Escondido making Escondido better, and I saw that citizenry here today," Ricchiuti said.

Arcela Nunez-Alvarez, associate director of Cal State San Marcos' National Latino Research Center, said she was pleased to see many segments of the community represented Wednesday.

When the center did a study of problems in and around Escondido's Mission Park two years ago, researchers recommended a meeting like the one held Wednesday, she said.

Members of the group assembled Wednesday plan to continue meeting, and Nunez-Alvarez said the center will participate by studying the community impact ---- as opposed to the law enforcement impact ---- of gangs, particularly those in Escondido.

In his closing remarks, the police chief said he initially thought the group's goal should be to eliminate gangs from Escondido, but he thought better of it because some people might not believe that was possible.

"But, you know what, maybe that should be our goal," Maher said. "Right now in Escondido there are kids who are 12 years old, or 10 years old, or 6 years old, who now are going to have a different life because of what we're doing."

Contact staff writer Colleen Mensching at (760) 739-6675 or cmensching@nctimes.com.
I have never been there but this place sounds like a feal 3rd world sh_ _ hole.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/07 ... 6a5469.txt

[vmonkey56]

What took the police so long? California is what the country will be like in ten years?

Anchor Babies and Illegal aliens export them!