Gang violence spreads across city

To date, 19 people have died in gang-related killings in 2006, up from 10 in 2005. Over the last five years, the city averaged 8.2 gang-related slayings a year, police say.

While the problem has historically been seen as rooted on the South and West sides, police note that eight of the 19 homicides have been on the East Side and in Midtown.

A map of 305 known violent gang-related crimes or arrests in 2005 and 2006 reaches every corner of the city except the farthest Southeast Side.

Even Park Place, the commercial crown jewel where Midtown meets the East Side, has been touched, Tucson Police Chief Richard Miranda said in an interview Friday.

He said the mall, because of its popularity, is a place where gang members and wannabes hang out, in turn vandalizing the surrounding neighborhood as well as an adjacent park.

Miranda characterized the rise in gang crime as part of a national trend stemming, in part, from the release from prison of gang members who were arrested five or 10 years ago.

"I've been trying to communicate in the last year or so that the trend nationwide has been an increase in gang violence, particularly in homicide," he said.

The chief said he doesn't believe the increased killings, and other violent gang crimes, signal a gang war. But he said the community and his department need to act now to make sure it doesn't become one.

One step, which he is expected to ask the City Council to approve, is permanent funding of an expanded gang unit within the Police Department. But he also envisions more community discussions, particularly with schools.

There was a time when neighborhood gangs such as the West Side Barrio Hollywood or Downtown-area Barrio Viejo more or less stayed in their own neighborhoods, he said. But just last week officials were cleaning up a Barrio Hollywood tag at Park Place, seven miles away.

"There's a big graffiti problem around Park Mall," Miranda said.

And new gangs have arisen in somewhat surprising locations. Miranda cited the rise of the Edith Street Posse Bloods, which are predominant between North Country Club Road and North Alvernon Way near East Grant Road.

City Councilman Jose Ibarra, who represents many of the South and West Side areas where the gangs originated, said he fears the mall's problem goes deeper than just graffiti.

He said he has heard reports about illegal activity going on in Park Place's back parking lot but has not substantiated that information, adding that's something he would like police to look into.

Efforts to reach Park Place officials for comment were unsuccessful.

Rise in home invasions

One offshoot of the rise in gang crime has been a spike in home invasions.

There have been at least 177 home invasions in the city reported to police this year — roughly one every other day. Three of the home invasions resulted in someone getting killed.

"We have gangsters in town who are making a business of it," Miranda said, adding that not all of the invasions have been gang-related.

While the majority of the home invasions are taking place on the city's West and South sides, about 60 of them have happened in Midtown and on the East Side.

At least four of those invasions happened in the Oak Flower Neighborhood, near Grant and Alvernon.

Along the 2500 block of North Walnut Avenue, where at least one documented invasion took place, many residents would not talk on the record about the home invasion or the presence of gangs for fear of retribution.

Mandy Lane, who has lived in the area about 10 years, spoke reluctantly about her neighborhood and the recent levels of crime.

Lane said she knew of several home invasions, particularly one at a nearby house — now being remodeled — that prompted the owners to move.

Many of the homes on her street have high front-yard walls or locked fences, and Lane said most people park their cars in their driveways because of petty thefts. She had not heard of any organized gang activity, but rather believed her neighborhood's crime was linked to drugs.

"I don't really know that there are gangs, but I know there's been break-ins," she said.

Abby Wine, head of the Oak Flower Neighborhood Association, said the group is working with police to try to get a handle on the recent uptick in crime. A police officer attended last month's meeting and will be at the group's next meeting, Dec. 12, to help address questions and concerns.

Wine, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood for two years, said she is not surprised by the presence of gangs.

"But I wouldn't say that there are young people around flashing signs all over the place," she said.

Over in the Loma Verde area just west of Park Place the mood was much calmer.

Those residents who had the greatest complaints about graffiti or possible gang traffic in the park that serves as a buffer between the neighborhood and the mall would not comment.

Eliseo Garza, director of Neighborhood Resources for the city, said cleaning graffiti off the wall that serves as a boundary between Park Place and the park has been a "regular occurrence."

And a walk along the length of the wall proved it, showing numerous tag marks that had been sandblasted away. There has also been quite a bit of tagging in nearby alleys as well as washes.

Those residents who were willing to speak on the record characterized the graffiti as a moderate nuisance that the city has handled well.

"I haven't seen much of it lately," said John Schneider, who has lived in the neighborhood 22 years.

But he has seen a number of police officers cruising the neighborhood, and midday Saturday one was parked for a few hours at the park.

"Cops have been up and down the street," he said.

Call for more resources

Although overall violent crime in the community has dropped in the past year, Miranda said he has been concerned for months about the rise in gang violence.

Besides the jump in gang-related killings, reported gang-related aggravated assaults are up almost 20 percent from 2005.

More than 4,300 gang members have been identified, although not all of them are active. Over the past two years city police have seen activity from more than 2,500 gang members.

And Miranda pointed to last week's likely gang-related violence, in which three people died, as motivation for more community awareness.

Two men were killed at a carwash shootout Thursday morning near South 12th Avenue and West Ohio Street. The night before, a man was found dying in the street near North Stone Avenue and Grant Road.

"The incidents in the last couple of weeks should be wake-up calls for us as a community to mobilize and provide a firewall so we don't have the wars other cities have," Miranda said.

Like Miranda, Ibarra said he's been hearing for the past year in neighborhood meetings about the increasing gang activity, as drive-by shootings and violent break-ins have increased and people have noticed the spread of graffiti.

"We're not only talking about homicides between gang members," he said. "We're talking about innocent people being affected."

The two have talked about how to reduce the violence.

This fall, Miranda doubled the department's gang unit, bringing the number of officers dealing with gangs to 30. The difference, he said, was noticeable. Violent crime sharply dropped this fall, compared with last year.

He now wants money to support the expanded gang unit and make it permanent.

"We are going to find the resources to do that," he said.

In turn, Ibarra is bringing the issue to the City Council, with a memo this weekend requesting gang prevention be placed on the agenda for Dec. 12.

But David Brotherton, chairman of the Sociology Department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, expressed measured skepticism that more police resources would truly reduce gang violence.

He said often police chiefs and politicians seize on crime statistics to garner money for their departments or to gain political clout.

True change comes from generating a dialogue among community leaders, schools, government and, of course, gang members, Brotherton said.

"The community needs to begin an open dialogue to end this phenomenon of increased homicide," he said.

Miranda said that's just what he is trying to do.

"The successful instances that we've had is because neighborhoods have taken ownership of themselves," he said. "I can't arrest away this problem."

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