four gangs in south modesto

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PAGE: A 4 MODESTO
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The Modesto Bee / www.modbee.com
FROM PAGE ONE
MONDAY, JANUARY 2, 2012
GANGS
GANG DIVISIONS
CONTINUED FROM A-1
132
Roselle Ave.
Lakewood Ave.
Oakdale Rd.
N
r.
ic D
Scen
St
.
L
Kansas Ave.
reek
Dr y C
East Side
Modesto
132
East Side Sureños
ESM-Airport Mitche
Yosemite Blvd.
Paradise
Rd.
DSSM
Crows Landing Rd.
Norteños
Sureños
Black Gangs
Southeast Asian
Gangs
Central Ave.
Valley Boyz
West Side Modesto
Modesto Hit Squad
Sureños Por Vida
Vernon
ll
Rd
Tuo
Block Crips with Attitude
lum .
Funk Mob
ne
Brick City DSSN
Riv
18/LTS Crazy Mob Family
er
Asian Boyz West Side Boyz South Side Trece
Block Boi
Hatch Rd.
OGL-YGL
Bedrock Bloods
Maze Blvd.
Parklawn Boyz
CERES
SPN
Whitmore Ave.
MST
Roeding Rd.
H St
.
FOUR GANGS IN SOUTH MODESTO
132
lvd.
Maze Blv
MODES
TO
N
um
Tu o l
ne
Riv
er
ing
and
Ave.
Whitmore
99
L
ws
t h Rd.
Hatc
CERES
.
Rd
Deep South Side Norteños
The Parklawn Boys
O.G. (Original Gangster) Locos
Barrio South Side Modesto
Froilan Mariscal, a district attorney’s
office gang investigator, grew up in
south Modesto and has insight into
the gangs that are entrenched in his
old neighborhood.
For more than 20 years, he said,
south Modesto has been carved into
four factions of the Norteños street
gang. He said the gangs have
different names, but they all operate
under the umbrella of the Nuestra
Familia gang based in Pelican Bay
State Prison.
The prison gang creates the ground
rules for the soldiers on the street to
regulate criminal activity and the
profits the crimes produce.
THE BEE
to me they feel safer,” Perez said.
“The gangs aren’t as visible as
they were before.”
A volunteer group of residents
known as Manos Unidas, or United Hands, held a 5K Race-Walk for
Peace through the area last fall.
The race was the group’s first effort to bring residents together.
“The people are taking a lot of
pride in the community,” Perez
said.
Ben Aguirre is the pastor at the
Apostolic Jubilee Center at the
corner of Lassen Avenue and Tulsa Street. He said there is less intimidation since the injunction
went into effect.
“I see fewer (gang members)
walking around,” he said. “I don’t
see the clusters of gang members I
used to see before.”
For the past five summers,
Aguirre’s church has offered children another safe place to play.
The church hosted Family Fun
Nights, themed events designed to
bring together residents, community groups and public safety officials.
The events are organized in a
collaborative effort with Modesto
City Schools and several other
groups. Organizers provide information about educational, health
and community support services
to families.
Family Fun Nights are not faithbased and are open to anyone.
“It’s not just about saving souls;
it’s about saving lives,” Aguirre
said. “We’re not afraid to come
out here. We’re not threatened by
gangs.”
FEAR
CONTINUED FROM A-1
fuses to call police because it never amounts to much, and the graffiti returns as soon as county officials paint over it.
Authorities say crime has
dropped in her neighborhood, but
police still find reluctant witnesses who would rather look the other way and avoid the threat of
gang reprisals.
Mariscal explained to the fearful woman that every crime needs
to be reported or else police will
never know it happened. He told
her there are other residents facing the same threats, that she is
not alone and that they can work
together.
“There’s still a lot of work to be
done,” Mariscal said as he drove
away from the woman’s home.
“The outreach is never-ending.”
Grass-roots volunteers
Despite the lingering fear, other
residents have stepped up to form
a grass-roots group of volunteers
working to develop long-lasting
change. Some do believe there is
less brazen gang activity and intimidation.
The neighborhood that is encompassed by the gang injunction is
bordered by the Tuolumne River
on the north, Crows Landing
Road on the east, Whitmore Avenue on the south and Carpenter
Road on the west. Nearly
20,000 people live there.
Unincorporated county islands
are surrounded by city blocks
within Modesto’s boundaries.
Some streets have sidewalks with
curbs and rain gutters, others
don’t. Small houses along dusty
streets sit near subdivisions of
two-story tract homes with green
lawns.
Some residents are newcomers,
working hard for a better life in a
new country. They stay because
it’s all they can afford. Other families have called the neighborhood
home for decades.
Mariscal and other officials
have reached out to the community through parent meetings and
student mentorships. Neighborhood churches have become safe
havens, hosting summer events
when gang activity usually increases.
Resident Alfredo Navarro
works hard to keep his youth soccer team going, sometimes dipping into his own pocket to make
sure children have something positive to do. He tries to convince
his neighbors they can be part of
the solution.
AOUB
El Vista Ave.
MODESTO
.
Morse Rd.
Briggsmore Ave.
St
Carpenter Rd.
Blue Gum Ave.
Hillglen Ave.
Loc’ed Out
Criminals
Tunez
CLS
Coffee Rd.
North Side
Modesto
McHenry Ave.
FamBam
Sylvan Ave.
St
.
Dakota
Ave.
99
Rumble Rd.
Cro
Bee staff writer Erin Tracy can
be reached at
etracy@modbee.com or
(209) 578-2366.
Carver Rd.
North Side Boys
ABBREVIATIONS
Beckwith
Rd.
MLS – Mexican Loco
Sureños
CLS – Crazy
Little
Shoemake
Sureños Ave.
LTS – Little Town
Sureños
VSSM – Varrio South
Side Modesto
OGL-YGL – Original
Gangster LocosYoung Gangster Locos
MST – Malitos Sureño
Trece
SPN – Smyrna Park
Norteños
DSSN – DeepSouth
Side Norteños
DOTN – Devils of the
North
AOUB – All on You
Bitches
COLOR KEY
108
Standiford Ave.
.
side of a utility box on Pecos
Avenue. “Can’t Stop, Won’t
Stop,” a phrase used by
Deep South Side Norteños,
was tagged on a wall in an
alley several blocks away.
In the Parklawn area in
west Modesto, DSSN graffiti
was found alongside graffiti
from the neighborhood’s
gang, the Parklawn Boys.
Conversely,
Original
Gangster Loco graffiti was
found recently on a tree in a
prominent Norteño area
within the safety zone.
If the gangs had a problem
with DSSN tagging on their
turf, it would have quickly
been crossed out, but it appears for the time being that
the different Norteño sets
are getting along, Bejaran
said.
How long they will continue to align and what it
means for the future of the
DSSN remains to be seen.
DOTN
219
Claratina Ave.
H
Finney Rd.
Dale Rd.
Prescott Rd.
Pelandale Ave.
Rd
rules.
Sgt. Anthony Bejaran, a
Stanislaus County sheriff’s
gang investigator, said he
has made contact with documented DSSN gang members in places claimed by
other Norteño factions.
Sometimes they travel
just blocks outside of the injunction. Other times they
are found in Ceres, north
Modesto and as far south as
Keyes.
“They will go out of the
safety zone to hang out and
then they will go back
home,” he said.
Before the injunction, it
was rare to see DSSN graffiti outside the area they lay
claim to, Bejaran said.
During a tour of the area
last fall, the gang’s tagging
was visible east of Crows
Landing Road in a neighborhood claimed by the Original Gangster Locos.
In bright red letters, DSSL
(for Deep South Side Locos,
a new name for the same
gang) was tagged down the
Claribel Rd.
Kiernan Ave.
9th
ERIN TRACY/etracy@modbee.com
Multiple DSSN tags are visible on a vacant house near
Parklawn Park alongside tagging from the area’s own gang.
MLS
Riverbank Vatos Locos
Tully Rd.
Salida
Norteños
ter
They might not be moving, but an increasing number of DSSN gang members
are choosing to spend their
days outside the injunction
area to avoid the stringent
SALIDA
pen
Graffiti, members spread
The Deep South Side Norteños are not the only street gang in the Modesto area. The Norteños and
Sureños each have various factions that can work together, but usually work independently and
sometimes act violently toward each other. While the Norteños and Sureños are mostly Latino, there
are also Southeast Asian and black street gangs that have strongholds in the area.
Car
Mariscal took into account
the possibility of gang members moving to other parts
of the city or county to bypass the injunction area,
which is why the DSSN was
a good candidate.
“That area has been
claimed by the gang for at
least 20 years, so it is going
to be very hard for them to
pick up and go somewhere
else,” he said.
It’s certain that some of
the 103 teens and young
men on the injunction have
moved, though the exact
number is unknown.
Ceres Street Crimes Unit
detective Carlos Quiroz
said he has come into contact with about 15 DSSN
members in Ceres, half of
whom are listed on the injunction.
“They are definitely migrating to Ceres because it
is not part of the safety
zone,” he said.
The gang’s graffiti can be
found in county pockets
within Ceres. But most of
the gang’s members still
live within the safety zone.
“If they were to leave because they have an injunction against them, they
would lose power because it
shows other gangs that law
enforcement is dismantling
them,” said Modesto police
gang unit detective Robert
Gumm. “You are not going
to see them fleeing the area
because a lot of them are juveniles living with their parents.”
Gumm said he has heard
residents in west Modesto
express concern about
DSSN gang activity because
many of the teens attend Petersen Alternative Center
for Education on Blue Gum
Avenue. The youngest member listed on the injunction
is 15.
MODESTO_BEE - FINAL - 4 - 01/02/12
*A-4
Bee staff writer Rosalio Ahumada can
be reached at
rahumada@modbee.com or
(209) 578-2394.
TRACY BARBUTES/tbarbutes@modbee.com
Since the implementation of the injunction zone in south Modesto, some residents report less gang activity.
“I keep telling them, ‘It’s not
your problem now, but eventually
it will be,’ ” said Navarro, who
has lived with his wife and children on Inyo Avenue for more
than a decade.
Like others, the Navarros were
victims of violence. Their teenage
son was beaten by gang members
when he tried to intervene when a
friend was attacked for not affiliating with the Norteños.
Navarro said his neighborhood
feels safer now and he doesn’t
have plans to move out.
“Trust me, I wouldn’t risk my escaped the gang underworld in
family just to stay here,” he said. Salinas and knows how gang recruiters lure children into their
Youth recruitment
criminal activity. He said “prime
Jorge Perez, an outreach coordi- time” is the few hours after the
nator for Modesto City Schools, school day ends when children
used to worry about students are the most vulnerable to recruitwalking home from an after- ers.
Perez works closely with stuschool program at Bret Harte Elementary. He said the kids had to dents and their families to keep
walk through a gauntlet of gang youths from following a criminal
members loitering in front of path. He said more parents are
BART AH YOU/bahyou@modbee.com
participating in school outreach
homes and on street corners.
Officer Jesse Gutierrez with K-9
“At times, it would get really programs.
scary,” said Perez, who as a youth
“I can say that parents have said Zak during Family Fun Night.
OUTPUT: 01/01/12
19:06 USER: LMYRLAND V44S_BR MASTER 10-12-10