Thursday, Sep. 20, 2007

Gangs thriving in Modesto

Experts expose lifestyle myths, urge teens’ families to step up

Experts expose lifestyle myths, urge teens' families to step up

Take a walk with Modesto police Detective Richard Delgado and you'll get an earful about a persistent problem that thrives on fear and intimidation, prompts cycles of violence and cannot be solved with arrests and incarceration alone.

A decade ago, most gang members in the region affiliated with the Norteños, or northerners, who claim red.

Due to a migration of street gang members from Southern California -- and home-grown youngsters who simply choose blue over red because that's the dominant color in their neighborhood -- the number of documented Sureños now is rising faster than Norteños.

So the north-south rivalry is growing, too.

"It's all about a color," said Delgado, a member of the Stanislaus County Gang Intelligence Task Force, which includes representatives from federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.

Although the authorities think gang membership has grown along with the population in the last decade, they cannot pinpoint that growth because the Sheriff's Department and city police departments adopted a standardized classification system only two years ago.

The task force has documented about 4,000 gang members, which is less than 1 percent of the population. And its members believe the true number is 7,000 to 10,000.

The vast majority of documented gang members, 87 percent, are Latino, though Asian, black and white gangs exist, too.

And 24 of 74 people awaiting trial on murder charges in Stanislaus County Superior Court are charged with gang "enhancements," an indication that officials believe a killing is gang- related and deserves extra punishment.

Gang markings can be found in alleyways and fences and street signs throughout Modesto, though they are most concentrated in neighborhoods in the southern and western areas of the city.

On a recent morning, Delgado explained the rivalry by pointing to graffiti on a fence near Rock Pine Court and Marlow Street, home of the Rock Pine Gangsters.

The dominant marking is a big blue XV3, which shows that the Sureños claim this turf. They often have tattoos with "SUR" or three dots, referring to the 13th letter of the alphabet, or M, for the Mexican Mafia, the prison gang from which they sprang.

There's another marking -- ST18 -- that suggests an affiliation with the 18th Street gang, a 10,000-member Sureño gang from Los Angeles. The XV3 marking also relates to the 18th Street gang.

And there are challenges left by the Norteños, who identify with the 14th letter of the alphabet, or N, and often mark themselves with four dots or the huelga bird, a symbol César Chávez used when he pushed to expand rights for immigrant workers.

An X4 shows that the West Side Norteños claim this territory, too.

And there's an SK, with a slash mark through the S, which is shorthand for "scrap killer." That's a sign of disrespect to the Sureños, who return the favor by calling the Norteños "busters," referring to their agricultural roots as sod busters in Northern California fields.

The graffiti-painted fence forms the boundary for a paddock in which a horse is grazing, a rooster crowing in the distance. It could be a bucolic setting, but the police fear that the boys who used to call themselves the Little Town Sureños are linking up with a tougher crowd.

"We can expect a lot more violence, because 18th Street is a much more powerful gang," Delgado said.

Lives changed after attacks