Series: Gangs: Behind The Headlines: Part 1 of 5

GANG STRUCTURE

Longtime residents know there have been gangs on the Central Coast since
the 1950s. Yes, even here in the idyllic part of California that seems far
away from the type of urban crime that plagues areas such as Los Angeles
just 200 miles away.

And though media reports over the decades linking gang members to shootings
and drug trafficking have highlighted the more sensational incidents
related to gang activity here, the fact is the problem is cyclical.

Deaths suffered at the hands of gang members climaxed in the mid-to late
1990s with three shootings in one year. All the shootings were motivated by
a long-standing turf rivalry between Santa Maria and Guadalupe gangs.

After a 1997 murder at Waller Park in Santa Maria, Santa Barbara County
Superior Court Judge James Jennings pleaded for a stop to the violence.

"An accident of fate makes one person live in Santa Maria, the other in
Guadalupe," said Jennings.

Since that time, many have worked to diffuse the rash of gang-related
crime, including lawmakers and law enforcement agencies. New legislation
and the formation of gang task forces, coupled with a better economy, have
helped lower the gang-related crime rate.

Throughout the years, there has remained a constant of largely nonviolent
gang activity on the Central Coast, peppered with periodic violent crimes
committed by gang members, many from the Los Angeles area.

For the most part, the most violent gang offenders don't live on the
Central Coast. They're mostly associates or "wannabes," based on the basic
lack of nonviolent crimes they commit.

According to Urban Dynamics, a gang research organization, wannabes are at
the fifth level of the gang structure. The first through fourth, in order,
are leaders, hard-core members, associates and fringe members.

Those who stick to associate and wannabe status are involved in "cliques"
according to Urban Dynamics.

"Very seldom is the gang at full strength," the report said. "Exceptions to
this … would be times of conflict …" The handful of shootings and robberies
committed in the region over the past 30 years serve as proof of this
description.

Jennings, a criminal court judge for 35 years in Santa Maria until 1997,
said he was always reluctant to sentence reputed local gang members to the
California Youth Authority. Instead, he sentenced them to a boys camp,
juvenile hall or probation. Jennings said he feared sending Santa Maria and
Lompoc youths to CYA because he didn't think they could defend themselves
against the big city gang members.

"The gangs around here aren't nearly as tough … " Jennings said.

A major gang activity on the Central Coast is the sale of drugs, which
provides a way to make money.

Methamphetamine and marijuana are the most popular illicit drugs sold by
gang members. The older or hard-core gang members buy or make the largest
amounts of meth and sell to those who divide up the drug into smaller
units, said a source at the San Luis Obispo County Gang Task Force who
requested anonymity. The drugs go through four or so levels before they
make it to the street level.

"It's not going to go away," the source said. "They make a whole lot of money."

Drugs are also firmly entrenched in gang culture. For example, a lyric from
a Santa Maria rap band called Central Coast Clique says, "Keep dropping
hits and taking toasts. Drinking sh--, and pumpin' out smoke." Hits is
likely a reference to smoking marijuana.

Young people join gangs for a multitude of reasons. Law enforcers from
Lompoc to the Five Cities said inner-family, multi-generational gang
membership is one of the No. 1 reasons young people get involved in gangs.
Others factors include being latchkey children in single-parent households
and seeking approval, a sense of belonging and leadership opportunities.

Starting in the mid-to late 1990s, members started getting younger and younger.

"We're finding that many gangs are recruiting (members) from junior high
(schools)," said Ed Lupo, a law enforcement instructor at Hancock College.

Sources also said the younger gang members are committing more serious crimes.

"The difference in 12-year-olds in the 1970s and 12-year-olds now is night
and day," said Foster. He said some of the crimes include assaults with
deadly weapons and drug trafficking.

Foster said they're getting involved at the behest of older members because
they don't fear punishment. They know they won't receive harsh adult
sentences such as that provided under the three strikes law, he said.

Other minors don't see serving time at juvenile hall as harsh punishment.
Foster said some would rather stay there than at home. And when they're
older and they commit the same caliber of crime, they don't understand
what's in store for them when they're sent to state prison.

The incidence of female gang involvement is also on the rise, said Lt.
Larry Davis of the San Luis Obispo Sheriff's Department. He said he's
seeing more girls engage in narcotic offenses, running away from home and
lashing out at parents and at school in a violent manner.

Davis blames much of the problem on parents not being there, or being gang
members themselves.

Crimes committed over the years illustrate just how much gang activity and
membership has changed over the years.

Turf wars in the 1980s to mid 1990s used to be the gang-related crime of
choice as opposed to drug trafficking. Since then, dealing drugs has become
the most popular gang-related crime.

Central Coast gang members may commit a lot of the same types of crimes,
but the number of gangs in each city varies.

The court system has identified three active gangs in the Santa Maria
Valley, said Cpl. Craig Ritz of the Santa Maria Police Department's Gang
Task Force. Two active gangs have been located in southern San Luis Obispo
County. Three active gangs have been identified in Lompoc, said Sgt Tom
Walton, a member of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department
problem-oriented policing unit.

Lompoc police Chief William F. Brown Jr. explained that the gangs in his
city fall into on e of three categories. The first is made up of imported
members of gangs. Brown explained that parents who try to stop their
children from participating in gangs move from urban to more rural areas,
thinking this will solve the problem. What often ends up happening is the
child continues the gang behavior and finds new gang members to associate
with in the new community.

The second category is generational, also common in Santa Maria and
southern San Luis Obispo County. The third category involves urban gangs
expanding enterprises into rural communities, said Brown.

The latter type is also cropping up throughout the United States. Between
the 1970s and 1990s, gangs started spreading to states and rural areas that
had never seen gang activity before, according to a recent Department of
Justice study. Gang growth occurred most markedly during that time period
in Florida, Washington and Indiana. California came in 19th.

Ed Miller, head of Santa Maria's FBI field office, said he thinks urban
gang members might see rural communities as ripe places to commit crimes.

Three violent incidents were committed within the past five years on the
Central Coast by urban gang members, including the 1997 murder of a woman
at the Vandenberg Federal Credit Union Branch in Lompoc, and two Los Padres
National Bank armed robberies in the summer of 2000 in Pismo Beach and
Atascadero. Most recently, a reputed gang member from Los Angeles shot a
man outside a nightclub in Santa Barbara in December.

Miller said suspects, while driving on Highway 101 corridor, might see the
Central Coast as vulnerable.

"There may be some opportunity, some vulnerability," he said. Miller also
pointed out that gang members traveling from Los Angeles to the Bay Area
may, for whatever reason, decide to pull off the freeway and rob a bank.

That's about the only contact the Central Coast has with genuine,
inner-city gang members. Two law enforcers in southern San Luis Obispo
County, however, said there's some relationship between urban gangs and
those in their area.

Foster said there are some links of drug cartels and organized crime
between the Mexican mafia and local gangs. Incarcerated Mexican mafia
leaders are capable of directing gangs from behind bars because of their
power and influence over gang members, said Davis.

Another less-active type of gang on the Central Coast has ties to white
supremacy. Walton said they're not very organized and haven't been
criminally active lately.

Mongolian gangs were common in Lompoc in the mid 1970s, but moved out after
marrying women outside of the gangs, said Jennings.

Overall, gang activity has been decreasing in recent years. Experts cited
several reasons, including new, tough state laws and a better economy.

One of the best tools law enforcement has at their disposal is California
Penal Code Section 186.33, also known as the gang enhancement statute.

The statute, passed in 1993, can add eight years or more to prison
sentences for 25 different crimes, including fights, graffiti, retaliation
and turf violence, armed robberies and burglaries.

For example, a carjacking sentence without the gang enhancement lasts eight
to 10 years, said Ritz. With the gang enhancement, the sentence can be 15
years or more.

Another lifesaver for law enforcement has been the three-strikes law,
police officials said. Foster said gang member usually don't have much of a
problem serving limited sentences, but longer ones aren't as tolerable.

"I've had gang members look me in the face and say, 'You broke our back,'"
said Foster.

Technology is also helping law enforcement keep track of gang members, Ritz
said. Calgangs. An online database accessible by all agencies, keeps
records of each and every person suspected of being a gang member.

Gang members giving false identities don't get too far, Ritz said. The
database is searchable not only by name, but also by tattoo image and
location. The feature serves as a very helpful identifier, he explained.

Special probation orders are also helping to clean up problem areas of
Santa Maria, Ritz aid. A few years ago, judges started ordering
probationers to stay out of the West Newlove area. That area is no longer
plagued with gang activity, Ritz said.

And during crowded weekend festivals at which gang members tend to
congregate, agencies from outlying areas team up to provide stronger
enforcement, said Lompoc police Detective Allen Chisholm, a liaison to
Santa Barbara County's informal gang task force.

Informants have also been helpful in providing information to law
enforcement, Ritz said.

Law enforcement can't take credit for all of the decrease in gang activity.
Some of the changes have come about from within communities.

Ritz said gang activity is slowing down in Santa Maria because those who
used to be in rival gangs are getting married. Once they do, the rivalry
usually dissolves and allegiance to gangs gives ay to parental
responsibilities.

In Nipomo and Oceano, residents are starting to take pride in their
communities, which helps combat gang activity, said Davis.

"A better influx of people are working to make a change," he said.

School-based programs taught by law enforcement such as Drug Abuse
Resistance Education, or DARE, can be effective in deterring juveniles who
seem interested in gangs.

"If we can take one kid and turn their life around and plant the seed in
his or her head and heart to change their life, then programs like DARE are
worth the effort," said Davis. Ritz said he's been working on a gang
presentation to give in local classrooms.

But the most effective tool for keeping kids out of gangs is parental
influence, said Foster.

Foster suggested that parents be involved in their kids' lives, no matter
how nosy it makes them. He said violating their privacy can't be an issue,
considering the object he's seen in some kids' rooms.

"I've found everything from bomb equipment to drugs …" he said.

Tomorrow: The Crime Factor

[Sidebar table: From gangs101.com (note:
http://www.lincolnnet.net/users/lrttrapp/block/gangs101.htm)]

All gangs have identifiable levels of membership. These levels of
membership indicate status within a gang and act as organizational
maintenance systems. There are actually six levels of gang structure.

1. Leadership: The leader(s) of a gang determines at what level of the
criminal activity the gang will function. Characteristics of the leader(s)
are reflected in the day-to-day activities of the gang. The leader is all
powerful.

2. Hard-Core: The hard-core gang members are usually the older gang
members, the individuals who are culturally and criminally enmeshed in the
gang and are at risk of being so for life. Most violent gang activities
emanates from the hard-core gang members. Hard-core gang members usually
make up about 10 percent of gang membership.

3. Associate: The associate gang member has usually made a personal
commitment to the gang culture and is dedicated to achieving the level of
recognition needed to attain hard-core status.

4. Fringe: The fringe gang member is still able to function outside of the
gang structure and has not made a commitment to a life in the criminal gang
culture. This type of member drifts in and out of the gang and seems to
lack direction.

5. Wannabes: Wannabes are not actually gang members. They are youth who
view the gang as an exciting place to be, a place where they could become
"somebody." Wannabes may emulate gang dress, graffiti, hand signs and other
gang cultural symbols, and they may associate with known gang members, but
they have not yet been accepted into the gang.

6. Cliques: Very seldom is the gang at full strength. Exceptions to this,
of course, would be times of conflict or possibly at social functions. What
is most often seen as "the gang" is usually a clique from within the larger
gang. The clique is a group of associate, fringe, and often, wanna-be gang
members, who gravitate around one or more of the hard-core gang members.
This somewhat resembles a gang. From gangs101.c