Moses Lake police discuss gangs with public

MOSES LAKE — Members of the Moses Lake Police Department spoke to an audience of more than 20 people Monday night to address the issues of gangs in the city and youth crimes.

Police Chief Dean Mitchell said the primary reason for holding the meeting was more than 60 percent of people participating in a Grant County Prosecutor’s Office poll indicated they believe gangs are a problem in Moses Lake.

He said gangs are primarily a youth crime and confirmed there are gang members in Moses Lake city limits.

Mitchell said there are five gangs operating in the city: Pocos Locos, Lil’ Valley Locos, Mara Black Crew, Florencia 13 and East Side Familia. The small gangs police deal with in Moses Lake originate from two primary umbrella gangs, the Norteños and Sureños.

Det. Juan Rodriguez said the most prevalent evidence of gangs is the ?graffiti.

He showed the audience a slide show featuring photos of gang members and the graffiti they leave on water towers, houses, vehicles, sidewalks and fences.

“They’ll tag on whatever,” he said. “They want to make sure their gang is known.”

Det. Juan Loera said the gangs in Moses Lake are not typical gangs, like the ones in southern California or Tacoma, Wash., because when they spray graffiti, they are not marking their territory to declare a neighborhood as their own. He said gang members are placing graffiti where there is an opportunity to do so.

Gangs in Moses Lake also do not operate drug rings or theft rings to further promote their gang financially.

Rodriguez said most graffiti is posted to advertise a gang, intimidate another gang or to threaten police.

Loera said although gang members are not a single demographic, they are primarily Hispanic males who come from a family with a single parent working full-time and is not educated about gangs.

“The signs are right there in the room but mom and dad don’t see that,” he said.

Loera said it is key to identify at risk youth when they are young, since it’s clear what type of youth could become an at risk youth. He said it’s crucial for those youth to be involved with positive activities such as the Boys & Girls Club to deter them from gangs.

He said gangs sometimes start loosely as some youth who learn about a gang and decide to start their own group based on a real gang they hear about. These youth and their friends are often those who have too much time in the day with few positive activities.

Some youth, who are not involved with a gang, will see a gang symbol on TV and decide to spray paint that symbol somewhere in the city because they think it’s cool, he said.

Mitchell said there are incidents where gangs do more than graffiti and property crimes.

He said the fatal shooting of Juaquin Labato-Sanchez, 35, Moses Lake, on Sunny Drive in October 2008, was a gang-related shooting. He said the March 2009 Sunny Drive shooting following the murder, was a retaliation shooting where a 19-year-old man was shot in the arm.

Mitchell explained although there are gangs who commit crimes, the majority of crimes committed, are not done by gang members or their affiliates.

Rodriguez explained the difference between a gang member and a gang affiliate.

A gang member is someone who doesn’t care about how their criminal actions affect others and they’ve been “jumped in” to a gang. Being “jumped in” involves taking a beating by a gang before being allowed membership. Gang members have identifying tattoos, avoid police at all costs, they have no concept of their future and they don’t care if they die.

A gang affiliate is similar to a gang member but they were not “jumped in” but they claim the gang’s colors, deliver drugs, are treated as a gang equal, draw tattoos on themselves, display extensive graffiti, confront police more often to show their toughness and are scared to die.

Police are using several tools to prevent and suppress gangs.

Mitchell said the city council passed an ordinance about a year ago allowing law enforcement to order gang members out of a residence when the residence is used for gang activity. He has successfully used the abatement ordinance twice with the same person to remove them from a residence for hosting gang activity.

There are two school resource officers working in the Moses Lake School District. He said those officers work to prevent gang and youth crimes from occurring and gain intelligence on past and future incidents. During the summer, the officers gain training on how to address youth crimes.

When gang graffiti is located on city property, the city removes it quickly to prevent another gang from spray painting over it with their names or symbols. When code enforcement finds graffiti on private property, they can provide the property owner with paint and there are organizations that can help paint over it if the property owner is unable to do so.

Mitchell said Moses Lake police work with other agencies to gain and trade information on gangs.

“We’re not territorial in Grant County,” he said. “We know the patterns. We know the trends going on in other cities.”

For more information, visit www.iir.com or www.great-online.org.

How to identify gang members and their associates:

• Use of gang-related hand gestures

• Spread messages through graffiti

• Lack of typical society values and embrace “street” values

• Use of nicknames over real names

• Clothing slogans such as baseball caps featuring the Raiders and the Dodgers

• Red of blue shoe laces

• The use of bandanas

• British Knight shoes painted red or blue