# Gangs in Vegas



## SGT_GRUNT_USMC

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Jun-18-Sun-2006/news/8012595.html

*Gang violence resurgence seen *

*Number of shootings, homicides are up significantly, police say *

By DAVID KIHARA 
REVIEW-JOURNAL 



Las Vegas police gang unit officer Scott Majewski waves at a child while watching the Doolittle neighborhood, near Martin Luther King Boulevard and Owens Avenue. Officers were in the neighborhood a week ago gathering information on gangs.
Photo by Samantha Clemens.



Las Vegas police Detective Tony Gross takes a photo of a youth in the Doolittle neighborhood, near Martin Luther King Boulevard and Owens Avenue, last week.
Photo by Samantha Clemens.



Sgt. Greg Damarin of the Las Vegas police gang unit rides in an unmarked police vehicle on June 11.
Photo by Samantha Clemens.



Las Vegas police Detective Tony Gross takes a photo of a youth in the Doolittle neighborhood, near Martin Luther King Boulevard and Owens Avenue, last week.
Photo by Samantha Clemens.



Click image for enlargement.

Few people know the effects of gang violence in Southern Nevada like Nellie White.

White's two sons were killed in gang-related homicides. Her 19-year-old son, Cornelius Joe, was found shot to death in 1999 on 16th Street, near Stewart Avenue, in what a family member called a gang shooting.

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Then, in February, less than a mile from the first slaying, her 21-year-old son, Zachariah Joe, was shot and killed by a member of the Brown Pride Locotes.

It got to be too much for White. The shootings and killings. The funerals. She recently moved her family from Bonanza Road, near Maryland Parkway, to a neighborhood near the north end of the Strip.

"It just seems to be getting worse and getting more violent every day," White said.

In fact, it is getting worse. The number of gang-related shootings and homicides has gone up significantly this year, police said.

From Jan. 1 to the first week of June, there were 117 gang-related shootings in the Metropolitan Police Department's jurisdiction, a 48 percent increase from the 79 shootings during the same time period last year.

This isn't a new trend. Though gang activity in Las Vegas peaked in the mid-1990s, it was in decline until 2002.

The recent statistics bear out what police say they're seeing on the streets: There has been a resurgence in violence.

In 2002, Las Vegas police reported 191 shootings. The next year there were 212. In 2004, there were 225 gang-related shootings, and 2005 saw only a slight dip, to 220.

The summer months are when the numbers rise fastest, so the outlook for 2006 is probably another bump in shootings, police said.

Gang unit Sgt. Greg Damarin said in the past six months, he has been seeing more gang members wearing colors.

To him, this means members of the valley's 300-plus gangs are more open about announcing their gang affiliations, be it Crips, Bloods, Surenos, or 18th Street.

But this also means that gang members are going to start getting into more altercations because they now know who their rivals are.

He equated it to the Hells Angels and Mongols motorcycle gangs, who have long-standing conflicts that can erupt when the two groups get together.

When rival gang members identify each other on the streets because of their colors, things can turn ugly.

"It's just a matter of who is going to do what," he said.

The biggest statistical jump is in gang homicides. From Jan. 1 to May 1, there have been 21 killings -- more than double the 10 reported during the same time in 2005 -- in Las Vegas police's jurisdiction.

The homicides reported don't include the three people killed during the Memorial Day weekend block party in the Berkley Square neighborhood, located south of Lake Mead Boulevard and west of Interstate 15.

But Capt. Al Salinas, also with the department's gang unit, advised to not read too much into the increase in homicides this year because different criteria for counting the killings has been put in place.

He said the unit now counts as a gang homicide almost any killing involving a gang member, even if it's not directly related to a conflict between specific rival gangs.

For example, this means that the police now count a killing involving two men -- one a gang member and one not -- who are fighting over a woman as a gang-related homicide.

Police and gang experts say that a steady migration of gang members from Southern California and rising youth membership in gangs has spurred the violence.

"We're getting more and more (gang members) from Los Angeles," Salinas said.

For years, gangs have migrated to Las Vegas from Southern California, and much of this came to a head in the mid-1990s when there were a reported 527 gang-related shootings in Las Vegas police's jurisdiction.

But through community policing, stepped up enforcement and an increase in drug treatment and counseling programs, police say that gang activity decreased to a low of 191 shootings in 2002.

But the numbers are increasing now because there is a new generation of gang members coming to Las Vegas or living here, Damarin said.

"We're seeing a wave of another generation of gang members," he said. "The gang members we're seeing now are the children of gang members."

Gang experts say they are now also seeing the valley's gangs recruiting younger members. Some of the new recruits are as young as 14.

In 2001, there were about 700 juvenile gang members in the Las Vegas Valley counted by the Southern Nevada Community Gang Task Force, but that number has now shot up to between 2,500 and 3,000, said Jerome Simon, a gang specialist with the task force.

He added, though, that some of the juvenile gang members counted in previous years have become adults and the numbers may not reflect that.

Las Vegas police said there are now 7,447 adult and juvenile gang members in Las Vegas. This is a 26 percent increase from 2004, when there were 5,905 gang members in the jurisdiction.

Clark County Sheriff Bill Young also said the gang members coming from California are making Las Vegas their backyard playground.

"We call it the weekend warrior mentality," Young said during a conference call last week with state law enforcement officials.

He said the gang members often come here on the weekends to take advantage of the 24-hour clubs. "We've got all the action here."

Dr. Jorja Leap, adjunct professor of social welfare at UCLA who also works with the Los Angeles City Council's ad hoc committee on gangs, agreed that gang members and their families moving from Los Angeles to Southern Nevada play a part in the rising gang shootings and violence.

But she said there are other factors at work too, such as the lack of family networks or established social services available for young people. This shortage leaves kids at greater risk for problems with drugs, violence, sexual activity and gang activity.

"I think it's too easy to blame Los Angeles. While there is a certain amount of migration, it's not the total problem," she said.

Teens are also becoming more violent nationwide, she said.

"It's youth in general," Salinas agreed. "I don't think they realize the consequences of their actions."

He recounted several high-profile incidents as examples of youths becoming more violent, such as the Berkley Square shootings and the MGM attacks, in which a group of 10 to 15 youths went on a crime spree during Easter weekend, beating and robbing people in at least five separate incidents in Las Vegas.

Gang life is being glorified in both mainstream and underground pop culture, he said, including the "Hood 2 Hood" video series.

This underground documentary shows alleged gang members holding guns and bragging about gang life in large metropolitan areas, including Las Vegas.

The Las Vegas section also shows a man that authorities have identified as Jonathan Leon Toliver, an alleged member of the Gerson Park Kingsmen, one of the city's largest gangs.

Toliver was indicted on murder and attempted murder charges in connection with a September 2004 shooting of a 20-year-old man.

Toliver is seen in the video holding a Glock 9 mm handgun with a bandana covering the bottom half of his face.

"They come around here, this is what they gonna get," he says in the video.

A week ago, Damarin and Detective Tony Gross drove through the Doolittle neighborhood, near Martin Luther King Boulevard and Owens Avenue, an area known for gang activity.

Many residences had wooden boards over the windows. The words "Blood *****" were written in ink on the side of a house.

Damarin and Gross are part of the gang unit's "enforcement team," which goes to neighborhoods and gathers information from gang members and suspected gang members.

They interview people and find out what gangs are active in neighborhoods. They talk to kids who are in gangs and gather intelligence on ongoing cases.

"They are the boots on the ground," Salinas said.

The two officers drove up to a group of four teens sitting in front of a house.

The boys fit the gang profile: They were in a known gang area and wearing oversized black or white T-shirts and baggy pants. Two had doo-rags on their heads.

The officers got out of the car.

"What's going on over here today guys?" Damarin asked.

The teens remained mostly quiet. Damarin started in again.

"Where do you live?" "Were you ever arrested?" "Are you in a gang?"

The mother of one of the youths walked out of her apartment and sat next to her son on the sidewalk.

"The people who live here aren't the problem. It's the ones who live outside and come here," said the woman, who identified herself only as "Gigi."

Damarin and Gross took down the names and ages and did background checks.

One of the teens, a 14-year-old, said that members of the "Wood" hybrid gang had been trying to recruit him.

Hybrid gangs are collections of gang members from rival gangs who hang out together.

Damarin said that even though they were not now in gangs, the boys could be "going down that road."

Police said the enforcement teams are an important tool in combating the gangs and solving gang-related crimes, but not everyone believes the police are doing all they can.

"Metro is not visible sometimes," said Assemblyman Harvey Munford, D-Las Vegas, who represents the downtown area of West Las Vegas that has high gang activity. "They should make a plan to make themselves a presence."

Police, however, say they have stepped up the programs to reduce gang activity.

Since January, the gang unit has increased the number of enforcement teams doing full-time intelligence work. Before, the enforcement teams only did this intelligence gathering part time, Salinas said.

But police aren't the only solution, he said. People in neighborhoods and community groups also need to help inform the police about crimes and, when called upon, testify against gang members during trials.

Prosecutors have had some success putting gang members behind bars.

The U.S. attorney's office recently put a handful of Rolling 60s gang members away, including Myron Manghum, 22, who was sentenced in early June to 14 years after he pleaded guilty to conspiring to engage in a racketeer-influenced corrupt organization in connection with his gang activity.

Manghum was among 21 members of the Rolling 60s, whose roots are in Los Angeles, who were caught up in a crime sweep in 2003 by local and federal authorities.

Still, police say there are more 550 known Rolling 60s members in Las Vegas.

While gang activity is on the rise, however, funding for many of the organizations that work directly with gang members or in prevention is not forthcoming.

The Boys and Girls Club of Las Vegas, for example, didn't get a $50,000 federal grant this year for a program that helps minors who have spent time behind bars to stay straight, said Angela Quinn, the club's president.

The federal government previously provided the grant money.

Other groups have had similar decreases. Back on Track and Late Night Solutions, two organizations that offer youths and gang members alternative activities like music and employment skills, asked for $151,760 in federal grant money, said Alex Bernal, Back on Track coordinator.

This year, the programs only received $30,000 through the annual federal grant which, three years ago, contributed about $150,000 to the programs.

"The increase in gang activity is due to the fact that this city is not kid-friendly," Bernal said. "During the summer, what are they going to do? Without alternatives, they are going to get involved in some negative stuff."


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