Keeping heat on gangs
On today's Opinion page, we write about the Bulldog gang's response to the law enforcement crackdown in Fresno. Read our editorial here. Not surprisingly, the Bulldogs are on the run. While it's good for Fresno when they leave town, it's not so good when they show up in outlying communities - Reedley, Selma, Sanger etc. These small cities have far fewer public safety resources than Fresno and they have large rural areas, making it a little easier for gang members to plot and organize in isolation.
It's important that residents and law enforcement in these communities do what they do best - know their neighbors, stick together and keep a close eye on the kids. It may mean that the children do not have as much freedom as they once did, but it's better than allowing gang members to harm, hassle - or worst of all, recruit their children.
Schools, churches, community youth organizations and law enforcement need to ramp up their knowledge of the gang mentality and learn from Fresno's example. Offer to help them get out and get training for good jobs -- or aggressively make them very uncomfortable. Gang members cannot be allowed to bring their brand of misery to the Valley's small, quiet communities.
Comments
In response to your opinion on fighting gangs with a regional approach. You mentioned that the Sheriff's department was joining the party too late. Actually, the Sheriff's Department arrived at the party in 1997 when M.A.G.E.C. (Multi Agency Gang Enforcement Consortium) was formed. When it began, both Fresno P.D. and Fresno Sheriffs each had twelve officers, two sergeants and a lieutenant on the team. The team had C.H.P. officers, probation, parole and officers from most of the other law enforcement agencies in the county. It also included State and Federal Agencies. We had juvenile probation officers working with deputies and police officers and the schools. It also has a vertical prosecution team from the District Attorneys Office.
It also has a gang tracking system called Cal Gang. It lists gang members by name and monikers, it lists them by their particular neighborhoods and towns. It lists their scars marks and tattoos. It also links each gang member to others in their particular area and to other gangmembers in other towns or areas. This is a state wide gang tracking system. Unfortunately, some agencies chose not to share their information and did not enter the names of gang members in their cities into the system.
Local agencies as well as some state and federal agencies began to pull their people out of MAGEC. MAGEC still goes out to assist smaller agencies in the county as well as assisting Fresno P.D.
Officers went out to schools and the community and gave hundreds of gang presentations giving advice on how to curtail and recognize gang activity.
The MAGEC Team was a recognized team accross the state and became the model for other counties.
Hopefully the new plan will be as effective as the old plan was when it first began. It will be up to all the agencies in the county to support it and make it work.
Marty Rivera
Fresno County Sheriff's Department Gang Lieutenant (Retired)
Posted by: Marty Rivera | August 28, 2007 9:59 PM
I read your editorial this morning. I must say, I'm disgusted. Are we in Nazi Germany or the United States?
I DO NOT support criminal behavior, but Operation Bulldog sounded bad from the start. We ALL have a right to freedom of association, and we are innocent until PROVEN guilty. Besides, everything that should be a crime (murder, rape, assault, robbery, theft, and fraud) already is. It doesn't matter if you wear a red shirt and have tattoos.
It's easy to target gangs, because no one likes them. That's also what is so dangerous about it. Hitler was able to target homosexuals and Jews, because no one liked those groups.
Thomas Paine, a great thinker and a man who did so much for the American Revolution, said, "He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself."
Here are a few phases from your editorial that are particularly alarming.
"...before Fresno's police offensive even started."
"Fresno's strike team"
"Chief Jerry Dyer says his department is trying to secure a federal grant"
"Fresno police have been sending letters to landlords of known Bulldogs, threatening them with fines of up to $25,000"
"...has told all other officers that their top priority should be making cases against the gang's 4,000 known members and 6,000 known associates."
Are you guys insane?
There are many more rational options before increasing taxes and having the police adopt strong-arm tactics.
The number one thing is to wipe all victimless "crimes" off the books. Re-legalize all drugs. Decriminalize prostitution. This would cut them off at the knees. At least 80% of the profitability of gangs would be gone.
Follow that by eliminating minimum wage laws, welfare, and compulsory education. Reduce the barriers presented to entrepreneurs. Lower taxes, and stop inflating the money supply, which means even the little guy can save for the future.
These are the things that give people opportunity, the incentive to work, hope for the future.
I realize that we can't accomplish all of this at the city level, but it's time for people to start opening their eyes.
Freedom works, police states don't.
Posted by: Michael | August 29, 2007 2:29 AM
What? All of a sudden gang members got money to relocate to other cities? People, get real. Every thing Michael said was right on target. (targetting the poor)
Posted by: Sal Fernandez | August 29, 2007 12:24 PM