POLICE TASK FORCE LOOKS FOR GANGS ON PENINSULA

Cops Launch Effort To Halt Increase In Number Of Crimes

Darting into a dark driveway, Jesus Gonzalez Lopez didn't spot the
cops on the San Mateo street until the SWAT-trained team spilled out
of unmarked cars to surround him.

The burglary suspect, sporting the blue-dot tattoos associated with
the Sureños gang, emptied his pockets of contraband: methamphetamine
and ceramic spark plug parts handy for shattering car windows, police
said.

``It's guys like this that are causing problems for people around
here,'' said San Mateo police officer Bryan Thompson.

The recent sweep that netted Lopez was part of the San Mateo County
Sheriff's Department's new, multi-city gang task force. The effort was
set up this summer to derail a surge in gang-related crime in northern
San Mateo County cities unaccustomed to such levels of violence, which
includes at least three murders.

The cities of San Mateo, San Bruno, South San Francisco and Daly City
have registered 28 incidents of gang crime so far this year, nearly
double last year's tally of 15. What worries police is the violent
nature of the crimes: three-fourths of this year's incidents are
homicides and assaults.

Police attribute the crimes, in part, to gang members who recently
immigrated here or were pushed out of other communities after police
crackdowns.

Critics have questioned the police use of gang sweeps, saying they
simply spread gang members to neighboring Bay Area towns. But Marc
Violette is happy to see the police on his street.

Violette, who lives in San Mateo with his family in a house ringed by
neatly pruned bushes, said his street has spruced up since the 1970s,
when crime was rampant. But Lopez's arrest and a recent drive-by
shooting across the street have rattled Violette, who likes to chat
with neighbors on his porch as his son plays with his favorite stuffed
animal.

``You can't let these guys take over,'' he said. ``They need to clean
up the place and shake it down.''

Police believe a big reason for the rise in gang-related crime in
northern San Mateo County is members coming from East Palo Alto after
a gang crackdown there two years ago.

Other gang members are sweeping south from San Francisco, police say.
Meanwhile, gang leaders from Mexico and El Salvador have been lured by
the lucrative methamphetamine trade and by family ties in the area.

A 1990 study that tracked gang migration patterns in several hundred
police jurisdictions nationally found that about 60 percent of the
shifts were for social and family reasons and 20 percent for
drug-selling opportunities, while the rest moved because of police
crackdowns or other factors.

With all of the migration, police say members of the rival Norteño and
Sureño Latino gangs are now jostling for power in territories
dominated by Pacific Islander gangs.

San Mateo County Sheriff's Sgt. Tom Gallagher, the task force's
leader, pumped up rap mixes on the stereo one recent night as he
maneuvered through South San Francisco behind a caravan of four
unmarked police cars trolling for parolees. A reason to cruise gang
hideouts en masse is to develop a roster of new arrivals, he said.

Looking for violators

``We want them to realize that being a gang member here is not
acceptable, and make this less of a desirable neighborhood to operate
in,'' said Gallagher, sidling up to a what he said was a known
Norteños hangout. Their strategy is to visit known gang members, watch
for drug deals and arrest those violating parole.

Octavio Reyes, wearing a red baseball cap that cops said marked him a
Norteño, bristled when a pack of officers frisked him for weapons as
he stood in front of the building about 7:30 p.m.

``This is harassment,'' said Reyes, who was not arrested. ``You don't
see any gang members around here.''

Gallagher said another goal of the task force is to break apart groups
of young gang members that have grown stronger during the summer.
Officers hope to disentangle allegiances before clashes erupt on campuses.

Color confusion

As part of their sweep, officers searched for gang members as young as
12 who may be committing assaults or vandalizing property in an East
Daly City dirt lot, where Norteños initiate wannabes by beating them
bloody.

Daly City police officer Jamie Draper said the white-on-black graffiti
wall behind the dirt lot is like a local Norteños hall of fame. One
three-foot scrawl, reading ``R.I.P Mr. Solo,'' memorializes Aurelio
Cerdas, who was shot to death at age 16. Draper tries to educate
parents to track their children's whereabouts and to pay close
attention to their wardrobes.

``A lot of them are out with no supervision, and parents don't
question why 90 percent of their children's clothing is red,'' he
said, referring to the Norteños' color.

Police said it's been tougher to spot gang members recently because of
gang leaders in prison telling members to inhibit identification by
not wearing gang colors.

At the same time, police said, the seemingly pervasive merchandising
of gang clothing, such as T-shirts emblazoned with names of gangs, has
made detection more difficult, because non-members are sporting gang
gear. Some residents say they've been stopped solely for the way they
dress and others because of their ethnicity.

Gang sweeps across the country have been effective in dousing new
gang-driven flare-ups -- at least, in the short term, according to
several experts. Since July, the San Mateo County task force has
nabbed more than 20 suspected criminals on charges ranging from
vandalism to murder -- including Lopez, who faces charges of
possessing drugs and burglary tools.

But Cheryl Maxson, a criminology professor at the University of
California-Irvine, said gangs can go underground, downsize their
operations or shift towns.

Trisha Violette, cradling her infant on her San Mateo porch, said the
sweeps offer only temporary relief.

``It's like a hornets' nest,'' she said. ``You spray them, and they
scatter to a neighborhood not far away.''

Success, experts say, hinges on whether offenders taken from the
streets get often-expensive social services.

``When you throw enough bodies at a problem, you can reduce it,''
said Maxson. ``The issue is, how long can you keep it up?''