[Vision2020] SR: Gang Activity Part I

Mon Mar 19 10:06:19 PDT 2007

This article which appeared Sunday is the first in a series about gangs.  I do not know if Moscow/Latah County has a gang or gang related problem, but I am concerned about the tagging that has been occurring lately.  Not all tagging is done by gang members, but tagging is a gang activity.

Having lived in areas where gang activity was a problem, I can vouch that if not stopped at the beginning of an infestation, the results of gang activity are destructive and tragic.  I noticed a couple of years ago signs of gang activity in Pullman.  I think that LE there is at least aware of the problem and is taking measures.

I hope both the MPD and the LCSD are taking the tagging incidents very seriously and are also investigating possible gang connections.  Now is the time for serious prevention strategies.

Wayne A. Fox
1009 Karen Lane
PO Box 9421
Moscow, ID  83843

(208) 882-7975
waf at moscow.com

   Monday, March 19, 2007 

Spokane
Street fight
Increasing gang membership and related violence have mobilized Spokane law enforcement agencies
Jody Lawrence-Turner 
Staff writer
March 18, 2007

            Young men flash gang symbols while socializing near the Spokane Transit Authority Plaza. According to the Spokane Police Department's Gang Enforcement Team, there are 7,000 gang associates and 900 gang members in Spokane. (Jed Conklin)

            Also: How to read gang graffiti

            Photos: More images with this story

            Audio: Spokane Police Officer Mike Roberge, a Gang Enforcement Team member, on gang culture, respect and gang members

            Graphic: Gang nations

            Graphic: Gang members in Spokane

The way witnesses tell it, Derek Wilson walked into a downtown skate park and fired his semiautomatic handgun.

Police say it was an attempted robbery gone bad.

Behind Wilson's alleged target were homes, a hospital, and Lewis and Clark High School. Teens were there, too, that sunny day earlier this month, skating under the Interstate 90 viaduct.

Officers arrested Wilson a few blocks away and seized a handgun and crack cocaine found in the car he was driving. The 20-year-old, who police say associates with a Spokane offshoot of a Chicago-based gang called Folk, was charged with second-degree assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a controlled substance.

Luck, or bad aim, prevented the bullet from hitting anyone. Next time, someone could be killed - a rival gang member or an innocent bystander, perhaps a child.

And make no mistake: There will be a next time. 

Spokane has a growing gang problem, police say, a fact they're anxious for people outside law enforcement to acknowledge and begin addressing before the community starts seeing violence on the scale of gang-saturated Tacoma.

Since summer, police say, the number of confirmed gang members in Spokane has risen by 350, to more than 900 members representing some 50 gangs. The dramatic increase in recent months is partly due to a concentrated law enforcement focus on identifying members. 

Almost weekly, police respond to stabbings, drive-by shootings or violent assaults they believe are gang-related. The Spokane County Jail typically holds more than 600 inmates, and at any time about a quarter are associated with gangs, authorities say. 

There may be as many as 7,000 "gang associates" - young people who aren't documented gang members but who are trying to act like them. Authorities say the wannabes are dangerous because they are willing to commit violent crimes in order to be initiated into a gang. 

"The situation is definitely something that this community needs to address now," said Spokane County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Mike Kittilstved. "We still have the opportunity to make a huge impact; to make these people go elsewhere or to prison."

Authorities say gangs mostly draw teens and young adults - both genders, generally between the ages of 14 and 24.

Brant McIver, who police have confirmed is a gang member, said authorities' concern is justifiable.

"Drugs are (gangs') business and they have to have guns to protect themselves," said McIver, 27, who has about 60 criminal convictions. He was released from the Spokane County Jail earlier this month after doing a year's time for obstruction of justice and a minor assault.

McIver said he was 14 years old when he and some of his Spokane buddies formed a small group of Sureños, a Latino gang. 

Being in a gang offers support, togetherness and protection, he said. "We hang out together. We fight together. We sell dope together." 

A melting pot

Gangs first migrated to Washington in the late 1980s, mainly from California. They were hiding from California's more aggressive law enforcement and rival gangs, and the move was good for their enterprise - selling crack cocaine.

Word spread that the Inland Northwest was an untapped market and it wasn't too gang-savvy.

Police say they confirmed 25 gang members in Spokane in 1985.

Since then, the area has become a melting pot of gangs, with members migrating here from Chicago, Texas, New York, Las Vegas, St. Louis and Georgia, among other places.

Of the 50 recognized gangs in the area, 10 evolved locally, Spokane Police Officer Mike Roberge said. Those 50 are subsets of six groups: Crips, Bloods, Folk, People, Norteños and Sureños. 

The recent surge in gang activity began after the death of Frank Silva, who police say was a Crips member, on April 28, 2005.

Dustin A. Davis, who police say is a member of a rival Crips gang, was convicted of shooting Silva near Holmes Elementary School. Gang members still memorialize Silva through graffiti on rundown garages facing the alley where he died.

Spokane authorities became more concerned after seven drive-by shootings occurred in January 2006, a time of year when gang activity usually slows because of winter weather. That prompted the Spokane County Sheriff's Office and Spokane Police Department to dedicate extra officers to gang enforcement.

The Gang Enforcement Team, or GET, formed later that year, with the two local agencies; the FBI; Drug Enforcement Administration; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and Washington Department of Corrections. 

"I think what we've been presented here is an opportunity to be proactive," said FBI agent Frank Harrill, a GET member. "It is not yet the type of problem other larger cities are experiencing."

Spokane's appeal

Authorities say many gang members come to Spokane to avoid arrest or escape death threats from rival gang members. Others come to live with relatives. Drugs like methamphetamine and crack bring higher prices here than in cities that are less isolated and have more gangs.

"You aren't looking over your shoulder all the time," said 26-year-old Josephus McDonald, who police say is a founder of one of Spokane's larger homegrown Crips gangs. McDonald was sentenced last month to more than six years in prison for attempting to run over an officer. "Spokane is not really a gang-bang town," he said in a recent jailhouse interview. Because few gangs originated in Spokane, the issue between gang members isn't territorial like it is in Tacoma, where organized groups often fight over control of city blocks or neighborhood streets. 

"There aren't that many prominent 'hoods here," McDonald said.

Tacoma, with nearly the same population as Spokane, has about twice the number of gang members, according to the FBI. 

Tacoma police logged more than 60 shootings and drive-bys in 2006, and two gang members were shot and killed, according to the Tacoma News Tribune.

LaShaii Brown, a 34-year-old former Tacoma Crips member who served 17 years in prison for assaults and other crimes, said Spokane is much less dangerous than where he spent his youth. Brown said he moved here three years ago to get away from his roots. Police, who confirm Brown's gang background, say he's stayed out of trouble in Spokane, except for a fight last year.

"They aren't real gangsters" in Spokane, Brown said. "They just shoot when they have to because they are out in the streets trying to make money. Ninety-nine percent of these kids out here won't die for their gang set."

In denial

Last year, the Spokane County prosecutor's gang team filed 343 felony cases and charged 1,633 crimes, said chief criminal prosecutor Jack Driscoll. Since the police emphasis began last year, authorities have confiscated more than 100 guns and seized several pounds of drugs. 

Nearly $1 million from city, county and federal sources is spent annually on gang enforcement in this area, authorities said.

Spokane's gang problem was recently brought to the attention of U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who met with the GET in February. 

Earlier this month, the GET team was awarded $95,514 by the U.S. Department of Justice to fight gangs.

But authorities believe Spokane-area residents are still in denial about the gang problem, and they say solving it no longer can be left up to law enforcement alone.

"The community has a bigger role in this than they realize," said Kittilstved, who is a GET member. "People can help by providing strong role models, good work ethics and not glorifying gang life. People get hurt and killed all the time when they are involved in gangs and that destroys families."

Society has bombarded kids with music, movies and video games that glorify the gang lifestyle. Examples: Snoop Dogg, a rapper and self-proclaimed Crips gangster who often sings about the lifestyle; "Grand Theft Auto," a video game in which players rise in the ranks of organized crime by committing increasingly violent acts; and "The Source" magazine, which shows gang members flashing signs on several pages in nearly every issue.

And while many prevention and intervention programs exist in Spokane schools for topics like sex, drugs and alcohol abuse, none focuses on gangs.

McIver, the 27-year-old Sureño gang member, said he hopes to stay out of trouble so he can help raise his children, ages 2, 4, 6 and 8. 

"You can't do anything sitting in this jail for your family," he said. 

McIver's advice to teens considering joining a gang: "Join the football team instead if you want to belong to a group."

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