HOW DO WE FIGHT STREET GANGS?

Fighting street gang violence involves problem solving. As in any

battle, it is crucial that we muster the human resolve to succeed. In law

enforcement, the S.A.R.A. (Scan, Analyze, Respond, and Assess) model

of problem solving has been used in fighting crime with great success

and tenacity by police departments nationwide. Its application will be

discussed shortly, in terms of the following specific case.

I recall one successful crime-solving effort in a community, known

as South Encanto, located within the beautiful city of San Diego. It has

a park, an historical landmark built in the early 1970’s, as part of the

city’s first memorial to be named in honor of the late Dr. Martin Luther

King Jr.: the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial Park. Referred to as

M. L. K. Park by area residents, it is the largest park in the southeastern

San Diego area.

The park is also home to the annual Cultural Arts Festival, and is

the destination point for the annual Heritage Day parades. The park

offers a wide variety of sport activities, from swimming to tennis. It

hosts Little League games and Pop Warner Football, as well as having

a large soccer field. The recreation building houses indoor activities

that include arts and crafts, racquetball, indoor basketball, childcare,

community meeting rooms, and more. The arrival of this park has

certainly been a positive benefit and pleasure for the community.

A seventeen-year-old youth named Ronnie Watson was walking

home from school through the south side of M. L. K. Park. A man

and his wife from Miami, Florida were in the park visiting. The

man happened to be filming his wife when he heard a commotion.

He turned to look and saw six teenaged members of a street gang

known as the “B-Down Boys” savagely attacking seventeen-year-old

Watson. They ripped the gold chain he was wearing from his neck.

The B-Down Boys beat Watson to the ground, then kicked him into

unconsciousness. Watson suffered serious injuries. The crime was

reported but no suspects were arrested. Even though Watson’s parents

had just purchased a new home directly across the street from the back

of Martin Luther King Jr Memorial Park, he never walked through the

park again: it was becoming a bad place for the area’s residents.

For many years, a group of career professionals operated the

Mountain View Sports and Racquet Club, the park’s tennis club of

record, which occupies the seven courts in the rear, southern portion of

M. L. K. Park. This was the area which youth gangs frequented.

Three months later, the tennis club reported to police through their

city councilman’s office that when people arrived for night tennis, and

parked their cars in the back lot, they were exposed to street thugs

smoking drugs. These thugs would vandalize cars, and if the tennis club

remained open late into the night, its patrons would hear gunshots.

Gangs would stage Jump-ins at the rear of the park, and large quantities

of garbage were being dumping in the parking lot area. The tennis club

members’ cars were burgled; one member of the club, a doctor, had

his car broken into twice. The members would find used condoms and

drug smoking paraphernalia in the parking lot on a daily basis. The

tennis club members reported very disturbing confrontations with area

gangs, who threatened them. Tennis tournaments were interrupted

and cancelled due to this type of anti-social behavior. San Diego

Police investigation project SE-0043 was opened and the first phase of

S.A.R.A. was launched.

SCANNING

During the scanning phase of S.A.R.A., it was discovered that at

least nine area gangs were conducting criminal activity there daily. These

gangs were known as the Asian Insane Boys, the Kalaban Boys, the

B-Down Boys, Kuduku, the Santanas, the Stateside Inlanders, Bhahala

Na Barkada, the O’Farrell Park Bangsters, and the Oriental Killer Boys.

A crime analysis check revealed that within a one-year period, a total

of four hundred and seventy-eight calls for police service came from

the phone inside the M. L. K. Recreation Center at the north side,

main entrance to the park. Reports to police averaged 39.8 calls per

month. These calls were mostly cold crimes and non-violent matters.

Only thirty-one calls were for the southern half of the park, which was

a good quarter mile away from the front of the park. Those calls were

assaults and gang-related activities, and they accounted for 2.5 calls to

police per month.

These were stark differences: the statistics did not support the

tennis club’s claim that the park had become a haven for gangs. But

then, police officials knew that there were no pay phones in the back

of the park, which may have been the reason police were not called.

Furthermore, cell phones were not as prevalent as they are now.

With the scanning phase complete, the next challenge was for

officers of the San Diego Police Department to gain a better prospective

on exactly what was occurring at the park. This brought them to phase

two.

ANALYSIS

It was a house-to-house survey campaign of people who used the park,

and of the residents living around the park. In talking to the grassroots

citizens, many facts about M. L. K. Park were revealed. Two hundred

and fifty-one people were surveyed; the answers were to be analyzed to

provide for the third stage of S.A.R.A.

The survey’s six fundamental questions.

1. Do you think problems exist in the park?

2. When using the park, do you feel safe?

3. Have you or anyone you know been a victim in the park?

4. What are the major problems in the park?

5. How can the park be improved

6. How many times do you visit the park?

Based upon this survey it was found that a significant number

of citizens were being inconvenienced, many were unreported crime

victims and their rights were being taken advantage of. Officers began

phase three.

REPONSE

Having scanned and analyzed the problems, phase three of the

project was adopted. Six recommendations were developed to make

the park a positive and safe place again.

1. Continually paint over of all graffiti.

2. Install concrete bunker-type refuse containers.

3. Install more lighting.

4. Install a pay phone in the back of the park where there is

    none.

5. Post reward signs for information leading to the arrests of those

    committing criminal acts.

6. Increase police presence in the park.

For additional park visibility more lighting was installed. Every

time cops needed to meet during their tour of duty, they’d meet at the

park. If cops were in the neighboring areas south side of the park and

received a radio call requiring them to respond to the neighborhoods

north of the park, they’d cut directly through, traveling on the roads of

the park from south to north and visa versa all for one reason—high

police visibility. Councilman Stevens insisted that police officers were at

all the outdoor and indoor functions. For citizen participation, patrol

officers were to meet with area residents at community meetings. The

payphone was installed on the south side of the park so that police could

be called if needed. The continued removal of all elements of graffiti

and the placement of the reward signs served as notice to area street

thugs to vacate. Of course, there were some young thugs who tried to

hang on, resolute in their anti-social gang presence and boasting that it

was their territory. They were either arrested for some illegal activity or

given the opportunity to move on. S.A.R.A. entered its final phase.

ASSESS

With the implementation of these combined recommendations, an

anti-gang atmosphere began to emerge. In just a few short months, the

park was nearly gang-free. After one year’s time, area residents began

coming back and using the park again.

Youths make behavioral choices; among these are bad choices that

can significantly affect not only them but can cause community decay.

Wrong choices redirect their lives, putting them on the wrong course

of travel. It would be preferable to prevent this. By responding with

environmental management using the S.A.R.A. model, a better life has

been attained for this community, a testament to how fighting street

gang violence involves problem solving.

Is the struggle to keep the park safe over? Not by a long shot; as

long as there are gangs it will remain an ongoing battle. Th e only thing

that is crucial as in any battle is that we muster the human resolve to

succeed.

CAN S.A.R.A. HELP ME?

The model above begs the question that must first be answered

with a question: do we possess the human resolve? To that end, this

novel offers no easy answers, but as parents, we ask, where does the

fault lie?

Some parents have children who have more than a curiosity

about gangs; some harbor a desire to be in a gang: we call these

youths “wannabees.” Some youths have already turned to a street life

equivalent to Neon’s, and some to a much more terrible one than his.

Many parents do not have this problem at all, this information is not

for them. But for others, perhaps turning to the S.A.R.A. model can

be of use in deterring problems with budding gang interests. We can

employ the scanning phase of S.A.R.A. by first looking for signs of

gang involvement.

o Have I asked my children if they are in a gang?

o Have I talked to them about gangs?

o Do my children obey me?

o Does the manner of my children’s dress look like

   clothing of a gang member?

o Do my children’s friends belong to a gang?

o Is there graffiti written inside my child’s room,

   textbook, clothes?

o Is he/she throwing up gang signs?

o Why does my child prefer one color of clothing and

   hate another?

o Are school officials or police telling me that my child

   is in a gang?

o Am I in denial?

In the analysis phase what we find is that studies vary, but the listed

questions for discussion seem to come up in every review.

o How much value is put into the importance of the

   entire family being present at dinner?

o Is there gang influence from older siblings?

o Should the fact that parents themselves were/were not

   disciplined as children have any effect on the way they

   raise their own children?

o Should children hear/observe their parents arguing/

   fighting?

o Are infidelities of the parents to blame?

o If they separate, should parents move cross-country?

o Do new living environments affect children?

o How does working full time and being a single parent

   play into family dysfunction?

o Does a “no spanking” policy have merit?

o How much do family-enrichment activities help to

   preserve the family unit?

o What role does a positive role model play in children’s

   upbringing?

o Is there value in marriage/family counseling in what

   seems a hopeless situation?

One would think that, as parents, we want out children to grow up

having learned the basic tools to cope with society. Such is not always

the case. Many children reach adulthood lacking a basic understanding

of what is and what is not acceptable behavior. As educators, parents,

and guardians, we have a responsibility to influence and guide our

children. This leads us to the following questions for segment three, the

response, area of the S.A.R.A. model, on our way toward our objective.

o When is it okay to let your children have their way?

o As parents, are we in denial regarding our children’s

   bad behavior?

o When is it okay to reward bad behavior?

o Why do one child’s values sometimes differ so

   unfavorably from their sibling’s values?

o Is it important to show authority as a parent/educator?

o Does setting goals for children to achieve have

   relevance?

o Should we explain the benefit of working for future

   rewards compared with living for immediate rewards?

o When should we be hard on our children?

o Should we consider an alternative to parents, raising

   incorrigible youth?

o Is it proper to instill into our children the belief that

   they cannot be spanked?

With assess being the last segment of the S.A.R.A. model, we become

aware of our oversights and leave with many thoughts to ponder. Armed

with this information, we put our ideas to use and begin traveling the

road to our goal of attaining a better, enriching life for our youth.