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<DIV>This article which appeared Sunday is the first in a series about
gangs. I do not know if Moscow/Latah County has a gang or gang related
problem, but I am concerned about the tagging that has been occurring
lately. Not all tagging is done by gang members, but tagging is a gang
activity.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Having lived in areas where gang activity was a problem, I can vouch that
if not stopped at the beginning of an infestation, the results of gang activity
are destructive and tragic. I noticed a couple of years ago signs of gang
activity in Pullman. I think that LE there is at least aware of the
problem and is taking measures.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I hope both the MPD and the LCSD are taking the tagging incidents very
seriously and are also investigating possible gang connections. Now is the
time for serious prevention strategies.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><BR>Wayne A. Fox<BR>1009 Karen Lane<BR>PO Box 9421<BR>Moscow, ID
83843</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>(208) 882-7975<BR><A
href="mailto:waf@moscow.com">waf@moscow.com</A><BR><BR><BR></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
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<TD align=left><A href="http://www.spokesmanreview.com/"><IMG height=20
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<TD align=right><FONT face="tahoma, sans-serif" size=2>Monday,
March 19, 2007</FONT></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><BR>
<DIV class=label>Spokane</DIV>
<H2>Street fight</H2>
<H4 class=deck>Increasing gang membership and related violence have mobilized
Spokane law enforcement agencies</H4>
<P class=byline><SPAN class=name>Jody Lawrence-Turner </SPAN><BR>Staff
writer<BR>March 18, 2007</P>
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<TD><IMG
src="http://www.spokesmanreview.com/stories/2007/mar/18/srx_gang_group_03-18-2007_P7A28BJ.jpg"
width=198 border=1><BR>
<P class=caption>Young men flash gang symbols while socializing near
the Spokane Transit Authority Plaza. According to the Spokane Police
Department's Gang Enforcement Team, there are 7,000 gang associates
and 900 gang members in Spokane. (Jed
Conklin)</P></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><BR>
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<TD
style="BORDER-RIGHT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid; PADDING-RIGHT: 8px; BORDER-TOP: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 8px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 8px; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid; PADDING-TOP: 8px; BORDER-BOTTOM: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid">
<P><STRONG>Also:</STRONG> <A
href="http://www.spokesmanreview.com/breaking/story.asp?ID=9184">How
to read gang graffiti</A></P>
<P><STRONG>Photos:</STRONG> <A
href="http://www.spokesmanreview.com/inc/photo_slideshow.asp?showid=239">More
images with this story</A></P>
<P><STRONG>Audio: </STRONG>Spokane Police Officer Mike Roberge, a
Gang Enforcement Team member, on <A
href="http://www.spokesmanreview.com/media/audio/022707_gangs1.mp3">gang
culture</A>, <A
href="http://www.spokesmanreview.com/media/audio/022707_gangs2.mp3">respect</A>
and <A
href="http://www.spokesmanreview.com/media/audio/022707_gangs3.mp3">gang
members</A></P>
<P><IMG
src="http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news/live/031807_gangs_t.gif"
border=0><BR><A
href="http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news/live/031807_gangs.gif">Graphic:
Gang nations</A></P>
<P><IMG
src="http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news/live/031907_gangs_t.gif"
border=0><BR><A
href="http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news/live/031907_gangs.gif">Graphic:
Gang members in
Spokane</A></P></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<P></P>
<P>The way witnesses tell it, Derek Wilson walked into a downtown skate park and
fired his semiautomatic handgun.</P>
<P>Police say it was an attempted robbery gone bad.</P>
<P>Behind Wilson's alleged target were homes, a hospital, and Lewis and Clark
High School. Teens were there, too, that sunny day earlier this month, skating
under the Interstate 90 viaduct.</P>
<P>Officers arrested Wilson a few blocks away and seized a handgun and crack
cocaine found in the car he was driving. The 20-year-old, who police say
associates with a Spokane offshoot of a Chicago-based gang called Folk, was
charged with second-degree assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a
controlled substance.</P>
<P>Luck, or bad aim, prevented the bullet from hitting anyone. Next time,
someone could be killed – a rival gang member or an innocent bystander, perhaps
a child.</P>
<P>And make no mistake: There will be a next time. </P>
<P>Spokane has a growing gang problem, police say, a fact they're anxious for
people outside law enforcement to acknowledge and begin addressing before the
community starts seeing violence on the scale of gang-saturated Tacoma.</P>
<P>Since summer, police say, the number of confirmed gang members in Spokane has
risen by 350, to more than 900 members representing some 50 gangs. The dramatic
increase in recent months is partly due to a concentrated law enforcement focus
on identifying members. </P>
<P>Almost weekly, police respond to stabbings, drive-by shootings or violent
assaults they believe are gang-related. The Spokane County Jail typically holds
more than 600 inmates, and at any time about a quarter are associated with
gangs, authorities say. </P>
<P>There may be as many as 7,000 "gang associates" – young people who aren't
documented gang members but who are trying to act like them. Authorities say the
wannabes are dangerous because they are willing to commit violent crimes in
order to be initiated into a gang. </P>
<P>"The situation is definitely something that this community needs to address
now," said Spokane County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Mike Kittilstved. "We still have
the opportunity to make a huge impact; to make these people go elsewhere or to
prison."</P>
<P>Authorities say gangs mostly draw teens and young adults – both genders,
generally between the ages of 14 and 24.</P>
<P>Brant McIver, who police have confirmed is a gang member, said authorities'
concern is justifiable.</P>
<P>"Drugs are (gangs') business and they have to have guns to protect
themselves," said McIver, 27, who has about 60 criminal convictions. He was
released from the Spokane County Jail earlier this month after doing a year's
time for obstruction of justice and a minor assault.</P>
<P>McIver said he was 14 years old when he and some of his Spokane buddies
formed a small group of Sureños, a Latino gang. </P>
<P>Being in a gang offers support, togetherness and protection, he said. "We
hang out together. We fight together. We sell dope together." </P><SPAN
class=subhead>A melting pot</SPAN><BR>
<P>Gangs first migrated to Washington in the late 1980s, mainly from California.
They were hiding from California's more aggressive law enforcement and rival
gangs, and the move was good for their enterprise – selling crack cocaine.</P>
<P>Word spread that the Inland Northwest was an untapped market and it wasn't
too gang-savvy.</P>
<P>Police say they confirmed 25 gang members in Spokane in 1985.</P>
<P>Since then, the area has become a melting pot of gangs, with members
migrating here from Chicago, Texas, New York, Las Vegas, St. Louis and Georgia,
among other places.</P>
<P>Of the 50 recognized gangs in the area, 10 evolved locally, Spokane Police
Officer Mike Roberge said. Those 50 are subsets of six groups: Crips, Bloods,
Folk, People, Norteños and Sureños. </P>
<P>The recent surge in gang activity began after the death of Frank Silva, who
police say was a Crips member, on April 28, 2005.</P>
<P>Dustin A. Davis, who police say is a member of a rival Crips gang, was
convicted of shooting Silva near Holmes Elementary School. Gang members still
memorialize Silva through graffiti on rundown garages facing the alley where he
died.</P>
<P>Spokane authorities became more concerned after seven drive-by shootings
occurred in January 2006, a time of year when gang activity usually slows
because of winter weather. That prompted the Spokane County Sheriff's Office and
Spokane Police Department to dedicate extra officers to gang enforcement.</P>
<P>The Gang Enforcement Team, or GET, formed later that year, with the two local
agencies; the FBI; Drug Enforcement Administration; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms and Explosives; and Washington Department of Corrections. </P>
<P>"I think what we've been presented here is an opportunity to be proactive,"
said FBI agent Frank Harrill, a GET member. "It is not yet the type of problem
other larger cities are experiencing."</P><SPAN class=subhead>Spokane's
appeal</SPAN><BR>
<P>Authorities say many gang members come to Spokane to avoid arrest or escape
death threats from rival gang members. Others come to live with relatives. Drugs
like methamphetamine and crack bring higher prices here than in cities that are
less isolated and have more gangs.</P>
<P>"You aren't looking over your shoulder all the time," said 26-year-old
Josephus McDonald, who police say is a founder of one of Spokane's larger
homegrown Crips gangs. McDonald was sentenced last month to more than six years
in prison for attempting to run over an officer. "Spokane is not really a
gang-bang town," he said in a recent jailhouse interview. Because few gangs
originated in Spokane, the issue between gang members isn't territorial like it
is in Tacoma, where organized groups often fight over control of city blocks or
neighborhood streets. </P>
<P>"There aren't that many prominent 'hoods here," McDonald said.</P>
<P>Tacoma, with nearly the same population as Spokane, has about twice the
number of gang members, according to the FBI. </P>
<P>Tacoma police logged more than 60 shootings and drive-bys in 2006, and two
gang members were shot and killed, according to the Tacoma News Tribune.</P>
<P>LaShaii Brown, a 34-year-old former Tacoma Crips member who served 17 years
in prison for assaults and other crimes, said Spokane is much less dangerous
than where he spent his youth. Brown said he moved here three years ago to get
away from his roots. Police, who confirm Brown's gang background, say he's
stayed out of trouble in Spokane, except for a fight last year.</P>
<P>"They aren't real gangsters" in Spokane, Brown said. "They just shoot when
they have to because they are out in the streets trying to make money.
Ninety-nine percent of these kids out here won't die for their gang
set."</P><SPAN class=subhead>In denial</SPAN><BR>
<P>Last year, the Spokane County prosecutor's gang team filed 343 felony cases
and charged 1,633 crimes, said chief criminal prosecutor Jack Driscoll. Since
the police emphasis began last year, authorities have confiscated more than 100
guns and seized several pounds of drugs. </P>
<P>Nearly $1 million from city, county and federal sources is spent annually on
gang enforcement in this area, authorities said.</P>
<P>Spokane's gang problem was recently brought to the attention of U.S. Sen.
Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who met with the GET in February. </P>
<P>Earlier this month, the GET team was awarded $95,514 by the U.S. Department
of Justice to fight gangs.</P>
<P>But authorities believe Spokane-area residents are still in denial about the
gang problem, and they say solving it no longer can be left up to law
enforcement alone.</P>
<P>"The community has a bigger role in this than they realize," said
Kittilstved, who is a GET member. "People can help by providing strong role
models, good work ethics and not glorifying gang life. People get hurt and
killed all the time when they are involved in gangs and that destroys
families."</P>
<P>Society has bombarded kids with music, movies and video games that glorify
the gang lifestyle. Examples: Snoop Dogg, a rapper and self-proclaimed Crips
gangster who often sings about the lifestyle; "Grand Theft Auto," a video game
in which players rise in the ranks of organized crime by committing increasingly
violent acts; and "The Source" magazine, which shows gang members flashing signs
on several pages in nearly every issue.</P>
<P>And while many prevention and intervention programs exist in Spokane schools
for topics like sex, drugs and alcohol abuse, none focuses on gangs.</P>
<P>McIver, the 27-year-old Sureño gang member, said he hopes to stay out of
trouble so he can help raise his children, ages 2, 4, 6 and 8. </P>
<P>"You can't do anything sitting in this jail for your family," he said. </P>
<P>McIver's advice to teens considering joining a gang: "Join the football team
instead if you want to belong to a group."</P><BLOCK><BLOCK></BLOCK></BLOCK>
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