The drill on gangs The drill on gangs (January 27, 2006)

Seminar explains signs, symbols amid rising activity

By Molly Tanenbaum

Two large bulletin boards hung at Castro School on Tuesday night -- one covered in red bandanas, red shirts, red hats and symbols, the other in all blue. Each board contained typical clothing from two rival gangs, the Nortenos and the Surenos -- the most prominent gangs in Mountain View.

"Kids identify and victimize other kids just because of colors," explained Pastor Tony Ortiz to a large, diverse audience of parents, school administrators, counselors and police officers.

Ortiz, a former gang member who is now a nationally known expert on the subject, was the guest speaker at a free gang awareness seminar put on by the Mountain View Police Department and the Mountain View/Los Altos/Los Altos Hills Challenge Team. His talk provided community members with tools to identify gang activity, from the obvious warning signs -- clothing, tattoos, behavior, hand signals, music and nicknames -- to the social motivators for joining a gang. (The challenge team works to combat substance abuse among young people.)

"Nobody wants to admit that their children, community, or neighborhood have gangs or are involved in gangs," Ortiz said, pointing out that denial is a huge barrier to gang prevention and intervention.

Nowadays, he said, young people can start drawing gang markings on their hands and notebooks as early as elementary school, and parents need to know what to look for so they can intervene.

This seminar comes almost a year and a half after the death of Los Altos High student Alejandro Fernandez in a drive-by shooting that is believed to have been gang related.

Gang activity has increased steadily in the past three years in Mountain View, though it is still not close to its all-time high in the mid-1990s. Police records show 33 incidents in 2003, 44 in 2004, and an estimated 70 in 2005, according to Mountain View police spokesman Jim Bennett. These incidents include battery, misdemeanors, and assault with a deadly weapon.

Since the mid-1990s, Mountain View police have started the Dreams and Futures intervention program to steer at-risk middle school students away from gangs. They have also trained patrol officers to be gang experts and formed a gang suppression team to deal specifically with gang-related issues. Under a "gang enhancement" law, gang members can receive up to 10 more years of prison time if the crime they commit is gang-related, said Mike Ecdao, a Mountain View police officer who gave a presentation following Ortiz's talk.

While the police department is confronting the issue of Mountain View gangs from various angles, Ortiz's talk stressed the importance of community involvement in the effort, especially when it comes to keeping young kids safe.

One such way to keep gang involvement down, he said, is to be vigilant about graffiti and ask for it to be removed immediately when spotted. Graffiti identifies turfs, and if removed, it lessens the claim one gang has over an area.

"Wherever gangs congregate, they bring a certain element of danger to whoever resides in the area," Ortiz said, adding that young children often end up as casualties in gang face-offs.

Another way to stay safe is for kids who are not in gangs to avoid wearing anything that could send the wrong message to a gang. Ortiz explained that Latinos and non-English speaking kids are at a greater risk for being mistaken for a gang member if they happen to be wearing red or blue.

At the end of the night, police officers encouraged people to call the police department with their gang-related concerns and inquiries. The number to call is (650) 903-6728.

E-mail Molly Tanenbaum at mtanenbaum@mv-voice.com

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