Gang Violence in Southern California Increases

Anyone who doesn't see a direct correlation between the bloody cartel war going on in Mexico and the increase in violent activity in southern California hasn't been paying any attention to the news this year, beginning with the shocking execution of South El Monte resident Bobby Salcedo and 10 other people in a single night in Palacio Gomez in Durango State, and punctuated by hundreds of incidents around the Southland since then.

In June 2010 just in Santa Ana, two teenagers were shot in separate incidents by teenagers on bicycles. A few days after, a man was shot in the face. Gang related shootings occurred on South Sullivan St, Willits St, on the 1600 and 1700 blocks of South Evergreen, the 1200 block of S Maple St, and the 1000 and 1800 blocks of West Glenwood Place. Most of the suspects are described as teenagers or young men in their early 20s, and Hispanic or Latino.

Also in June of this year, the federal government released the Methamphetamine Threat Assessment, which acknowledged that methamphetamine availability in the U.S. was at a 5 year high. Domestic production steadily decreased as production dramatically increased in Mexico, and gang activity has stepped up to accommodate the U.S.' voracious appetite for drugs.

In many neighborhoods in Santa Ana, as in other cities with an established or growing gang presence, certain houses do not contain families, but rather act as meeting places and distribution centers, where gang members and affiliates may gather in large groups. Often the police do little more than patrol, as these gang groups are usually heavily armed, and with departmental cuts, police resources are spread more thinly. Families are afraid to report things they might see for fear of retribution. The extreme disparity in personal wealth distribution and relative neighborhood safety within Orange county is largely unknown outside of Orange county, in part because of shows like The O.C. and The Hills, which represent the OC that most people know of, but in which very few participate.

Some arrests are being made; by the beginning of June this year, Attorney General Eric Holder reported that an additional 400 arrests were made in a nationwide sting which has so far resulted in the arrests of over 2000 people and the seizure of over $150 million, as well as large stashes of heroin, marijuana, and other narcotics.

In late June, two men were arrested for separate gang-related homicide incidents in southern California, dating back to 2007 and 2009, respectively. While it's certainly good that suspects are being pursued and brought to justice, it's frightening that the gap between a known crime and the apprehension of the criminal is often measured in years, allowing the gang members to continue their activities, often as they travel in and out of the state and the country at will. And even after the arrests of thousands of people, and the deaths of tens of thousands in Mexico and the U.S. directly related to the drug war, the violence continues unabated.

However, cities and states across the nation are making drastic budget cuts in the face of decreased revenues and soaring operating costs, resulting in a number of public service cuts, including the laying off or cutting of overtime hours for city police and sheriffs. Santa Ana has had to make a number of cuts to its police department's overtime, and having to make the cuts at a time when the drug cartels are growing more brazen and active is allowing the street gangs plaguing Santa Ana to grow and thrive at the retail level of the lucrative drug trade.

After a marked increase in gang violence five years ago, the Gang Homicide and Felony Assault Reward Program was launched in Santa Ana in 2006. At this same time violent and savage gang attacks were surging in the border towns of Mexico, and in December of 2006, Mexican President Felipe Calderon launched his government's military offensive against the cartels. Thousands of people have been gunned down since then by gangs and powerful cartels, including many journalists.

Recently President Calderon commented on recent evidence that cartel activity is not just invested in drugs and narcotics movement, but in infiltrating or supplanting local governments in Mexico, taxing residents and agencies in exchange for temporary safety.

The FBI released statistics from the National Gang Intelligence Center in 2009. An estimated one million gang members have spread to all parts of the country, but no part of the country is more plagued than southern California, specifically Los Angeles, San Bernadino, Riverside, and Orange counties. An estimated 240,000 gang members, or fully one quarter of the total estimated within the U.S. are mostly concentrated into this area of SoCal, although a significant presence can also be found in the Sacramento area.

KTLA and the Chicago Tribune reported the most recent gang homicide in the Southland occurred Sunday evening, August 15 in Van Nuys. A man was killed in a car-to-car shooting at about 9:47 pm. Car-to-car gunfights are not new in southern California; a few incidents occurred in recent years on several freeways in Los Angeles and Orange counties, although the Van Nuys shooting did occur on city streets.

1. http://www.streetgangs.com/news/062310_santa_ana_gang

2. http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/16/world/la-fg-mexico-narco-censorship-20100816/2

3. http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jan/02/local/la-me-elmonte2-2010jan02

4. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38565051/ns/world_news-americas

5. http://documents.nytimes.com/justice-departments-methamphetamine-threat-assessment

6. http://www.gangstaextract.com/2010/08/man-killed-in-car-to-car-shooting-in-van-nuys/