Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "gangs"

Dr. King's dream and march, our nightmare and pain

2012-01-13T04:56:13Z

Dr. King’s dream and march, our nightmare and pain

“I feel so broken hearted, I cried so many tears
There was so much you gave me, to my heart, to my soul
So much of your dreams that were never told
There was hope for a brighter day
Why were you, my flower, plucked away
Oh, oh, I’m missing you
Tell me why the road turns
I’m missing you”
—Diana Ross

I miss my son. I miss hugging him. I miss looking in his eyes when he is excited. I miss us discussing his plans for his future. I miss sharing in his everyday experiences. I miss his smile. I miss his joy.

All I ever wanted was for him to be in an environment where he can grow.

My son was arrested at 19 years of age. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison, more years in prison than he was alive. http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/mothers-prayer/content?oid=309130

My son was sentenced under California's 10-20-life law. For two years he continuously rejected a plea and maintained his innocence. After being denied a fair trial and fair legal representation, he felt forced into taking two years for allegedly robbing someone for marijuana and 20 years for allegedly discharging a firearm.

Due to the time he received, not the crime itself, he is housed as a level-four prisoner with prisoners who have life- and life-without-parole sentences. With the 10-20-life law, you do not have to commit a murder or cause great bodily injury to receive life in prison.

Sentencing a youth under California's 10-20-life law can be a death sentence when youth are housed not due to the crime but due to the prison sentencing time.

The youth incarcerated are not just losing freedom; many will lose their parents, siblings, spouse, girlfriend, children and their hope of a future outside of prison walls. For an inmate to live in a prison where many are sentenced to spend their entire life behind those walls is a great challenge in itself.

Sacramento courts have sentenced teens, as young as 14 years of age, to prison terms of life without the possibility of parole.

The outrageous misconduct within the investigation leading to my son’s arrest, as well as the outrageous misconduct through the court process, is all documented on appeal. It is only due to the pending appeal in the Ninth Circuit Court that I will not, at this time, discuss the particulars of the case and the circumstances leading to the misconduct.

For two years we fought in Sacramento Superior Court for a fair trial. When it became obvious he was not receiving a fair trial nor fair legal representation, we wrote letters to the trial court and the Sacramento Superior Court presiding judge.

Within the letters we continuously pleaded for his constitutional rights of a fair trial with fair legal representation.

We wrote letters to the California Bar Association, American Bar Association and to various local and statewide civil rights organizations.

At my son’s request, I went to our state capitol and cried, pleading for assistance from our senator and our assemblyman’s office. I left and painfully cried all the way to my councilmember’s office. None could assist us in our quest for a fair trial and fair legal representation.

I went to the NAACP. While they tried to assist by attending court, we were still not given a fair trial and the court denied our motion to have the attorney removed from the case. I went to anyone who would listen and begged, cried, pleaded for assistance in obtaining a fair trial.

I wrote letters throughout the state of California and wrote letters to organizations in other states. I went to so many, pleading for assistance to help my son get a fair trial, heck reward or penalty, with fair legal representation.

Our pleas were denied. The court would not acknowledge our concerns and failed to hold an evidentiary hearing. When I was brought into the courtroom and told to tell my son to take the plea deal or he would do life in prison, my son, under great duress, involuntarily and without understanding the consequences of the plea felt forced into taking the plea.

My son was coerced into pleading, denied fair legal representation and a fair trial and tried to protect his mother from further pain.

We were not alleging after the fact, once sentenced, that he was being denied his constitutional right to a fair trial and fair legal representation. We made those founded truthful accusations prior to the trial that ended in mistrial, and we continued begging for his constitutional rights during the start of the second trial.

We sent letters certified mail to the court to ensure they were being received. We have response letters showing the presiding judge, American Bar Association and California Bar Association all received the letters, and each responded they could not assist us.

The response letters are dated prior to my son taking the coerced, involuntary plea made under duress.

Four years later, we are still fighting in appeal courts. Our appeals have been denied, each without an evidentiary hearing, and we continue up the writ of habeas corpus ladder put into existence by our freedom-minded forefathers who valued the criminal justice system and the rights of the accused exposed to it.

It is extremely painful with each appeal court process. We have no money to afford an attorney. We have no legal skills to argue against skillful attorneys. We fight with the truth and a $50 book explaining the Great Writ and U.S. constitutional rights which should not be violated.

While it appears some of our Sacramento courts may have been hijacked by pirates posing as prosecutors, and some within the judicial process are more concerned with personal vendettas or winning cases, by any means necessary I still have faith in the Constitution of the United States of America because In God We Trust.

It is painful. It is time consuming. It is difficult. It is exhausting, but it is what it is, a fight we must endure to have an opportunity of life and freedom outside of our overcrowded, dangerous prison walls.

Sadly, once my son is released from prison it will be painful, difficult, time consuming and exhausting to ensure life within our neglectful, lack-of-opportunity, lack-of-employment, lack-of-resources-for-our-youth city since our politically ego-driven elected officials value endorsements from unions to advance their careers.

Sadly, some politically ego-driven elected officials would rather ensure that police union departments are enhanced rather than ensure that the residents of the city are provided with resources.

On June 30, 2005, during an NAACP Police Brutality town hall meeting, former Police Chief Albert Nájera defensively and accurately stated, "A black young man between the age of 16 and 25 has a 50 percent chance to die in the city of Sacramento, and he is dying at the hands of another black young man."

I was at the meeting to discuss our city youth violence and deaths. I wondered the same thing the police chief did: Why were we gathering for a police brutality case and failed to gather for the hundreds of youth who have died in this city at an alarming rate at the hands of another?

I wondered why we were not meeting with the city and county of Sacramento insisting on jobs, resources and opportunities for our youth?

Our black youth were losing life and freedom, and our civil rights leaders solely focused on prejudice- or police-related issues. The police chief’s aforementioned statistic about black youth nor their 92 percent arrest rate was not mentioned by the media, nor the organizations holding the meeting.There was no focus on the loss of life, nor the loss of freedom.

Some of our children are faced with the plight of two options either dying on Sacramento streets or dying in a California state prison.

The mounting deaths and arrests due to youth violence were dismissed. The loss of life and loss of freedom of Sacramento's low income youth was dismissed; until grant-funding became available.

Civil Rights Groups, concerned over police interaction within the low income community, held townhall meetings to discuss Sacramento Police Racial Profiling and Sacramento Police Brutality cases.

Grant dollars, for youth and gang violence prevention, suddenly becomes available and Sacramento law enforcement jumps on the youth and gang violence prevention funding bandwagon. The same Civil Rights Groups concerned with Police Racial Profiling and Police Brutality decide to apply for grants to work with law enforcement for youth and gang violence prevention.

The low-income community affected and exposed to the violence living in communities divided into victims and suspects were not seen until grant-funding became available. Were they looking at the low income community affected and exposed to the violence? Or were they looking at money?

This past week, my son was beaten, physically assaulted on the prison yard. He could have fallen asleep and not woken up due to head injuries. By the Grace of God, my son’s life has yet again been spared. He was placed in the hole. His life is in danger if he steps foot back on that particular prison yard.

His prison counselor stated, “It is the safest place for him.”

Can you believe it? Can you imagine the pain of knowing the safest place for your child is in the hole in a prison? No windows, no TV, no outside contact, no contact, visits from his mother, sibling or girlfriend?

Can you imagine living in America, the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave, my country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty of thee I sing, where I pledge allegiance to our flag, in so much pain fighting for life and freedom and the Pursuit of Happiness?

When I march in the annual Martin Luther King Parade, I don’t march to sing and dance of the triumphs of yesterday. I have genuine, deep-rooted horrible never-ending pain.

Can you imagine fighting for your child to live in this city and immediately thereafter fighting for him to know freedom? Then have to fight the appeal courts for the truth to be seen? Then with all your heart, have to find a way to keep him alive in prison?

Imagine being a mother having to cry and beg for a prison in the state of California to do what the city of Sacramento failed to do: protect my son

That suffering is the plight of many of us who live in communities divided into victims and suspects, where our children have become commodities to enhance departments and advance political careers.

In God we trust, since the money the motto is written on appears to be valued more than many of low-income, disadvantaged citizens. And many are looking at money, grants, enhancing departments through crime and not looking at those of us affected and exposed to the violence.

I march out of pain for the plight many of us are experiencing today. I also march out of my own personal pain. I don’t think I am disrespecting Dr. King by writing this, since Dr. King did not march singing and dancing for the triumph of the end of slavery.

Dr. King did not march for the past. He marched for his present-day crisis and to provide a better future for many of us. Dr. King did not look backward. He looked to the present and hoped for a better future.

Those of us with current-day suffering from the death or arrest of our youth are expected to march in the annual parade walking on a treadmill of the past.

I realize the definition of insanity is to continuously do the same thing over and over and expect different results. But what else do we have? I do plan on attending the MLK march.

But with all due respect, for some of us to sing and dance once a year is not what I believe Dr. King would have wanted us to honor. I am a mother in pain 365 days a year.

I will walk surrounded and suffocating with pain. In fact, it will be pain moving my feet. I have nothing left to carry me. While addressing youth violence, I gave this city everything I have. http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/death-be-not-shrouded/content?oid=47273 Unwillingly, I even gave my first born son.

There are days when my pain is so deep I don’t have a will to live. There are days I don’t want to wake up. There are days when I am afraid of living in this world gone mad and afraid of dying wondering who will protect my children that I brought into this world.

There are nights when I am afraid of falling asleep due to the nightmares I have still hearing the sounds of gunshots outside my home, leaving shell casings that would have blown tremendous holes throughout my son’s body.

There are nights I am afraid of going to sleep because I am afraid of waking up to this nightmare I am living.

But I have to awake. Who else will fight the writ of habeas corpus ladder of a low-income mother for her son to know what was rightfully his: freedom?

To march with a hollow lack of substance in tribute to a man of great substance, to me, is disrespectful.

I will be in the crowd, but instead of carrying a poster of Dr. King I will carry one of me and my son. Our pain is real, it is today, it is now, and it appears it will be forever if some are just going to live in the past and dismiss the present-day plight that has left so many of us broken, suffering to live and die in pain.

I appreciate honor and respect Dr. King for having a dream, but while many are reminiscing on his dream, many of us are living a nightmare.

Instead of gathering at the end of the event to speak of history, why can’t we gather to find solutions and make history and change the current state of affairs where too many are losing their lives and losing freedom?

I tried to protect my son when youths armed with guns were shooting at him in my front yard. We wrestled trying to protect one another. I was praying the next bullet would take my life and not that of my son.

I tried to protect my son when he was suffocating in an unjust court.

This city has left both my son and I nearly breathless on more than one occasion. We, and so many others, are suffocating in the city of Sacramento. I don’t believe Dr. King was ego-driven.

I believe Dr. King would have wanted us to acknowledge the current plight where thousands of youth bodies lay prematurely dead on American streets and thousands more are living and dying in California prisons.

I think Dr. King would have been more concerned with our plight than concerned with us paying tribute to him.

I knew when civil rights organizations addressed Jenna Six, the plight of many of us would be overlooked due to the fact our plight is not prejudice-related.

I knew some leaders in America would focus on prejudice versus freedom. But should prejudice overshadow life and freedom in America, a country dedicated to looking into the life and freedom of citizens of other countries?

While it appears this low-income mother’s plight, the plight of my son, is dismissed by today’s civil rights organizations, I do feel Dr. King would have embraced us, supported us and acknowledged us.

I do not believe Dr. King would have expected us to pay homage to him when we are in fact suffering from the great pain of losing our children to death on our streets or to be the walking dead in one of California's many prisons.

With and through pain I will march on Jan. 16, but I will be the one carrying a poster of my son and not one of Dr. King. And, to be honest, I think Dr King would have wanted it that way.

I hope many others join in carrying a poster of their loved ones, whether they have been murdered in the city of Sacramento or sentenced to be the walking dead in one of California’s many for-profit prisons housing the low-income youth of America.

After all, Dr. King was not singing and dancing of yesterday’s struggles and triumphs. Dr. King was justice-driven, equality-driven, looking and laboring for the end result of change. Dr. King acknowledged, saw and labored for the low-income, the voiceless, the powerless.

Dr. King understood America’s motto of Life , Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness for all.

I am not walking for the civil rights of yesterday. I walk for the human rights of today.

I did not bring a child into this money-, political ego-driven world for his body to lay dead on a Sacramento street, gutter, sidewalk or home, nor did I bring him into this world to live or die in a California state prison

We, America's low income citizens living in communities divided into victims and suspects, can not raise our children from the dead. Nor can many of us afford to visit or receive telephone calls from our children being raised in a California State Prison.

We, the low income community divided into victims and suspects, are missing our children.

Disclosure: Mother of three. I've taken my younger son to two funerals of murdered friends. I am fighting for him to have life. I have attended many funerals of my older sons friends and I am fighting for him to know freedom. (Photo 4) I love my children

Gang violence drops due to city’s new efforts, officials say

2011-11-01T03:30:52Z

Gang violence took what officials described as a drastic drop since July 2010, attributing the drop to Mayor Kevin Johnson’s gang-prevention programs initiated in June of 2010 and again after last December’s fatal barbershop shooting.

Since implementing some of the measures, Lt. Bill Champion of the Sacramento Police Department said that the results have been effective. The number of gang-related firearm assaults has dropped by 60 percent, and the overall rate fell by 39 percent. In addition, there has been a 75 percent drop in homicide rates, and a 100 percent drop in non-fatal shootings.

Community leaders gathered at City Hall Monday morning to discuss the mayor’s plan. Speakers, including Johnson and Khaalid Muttaqi, the head of the mayor’s gang-prevention task force, updated citizens on the new plan, explaining the problems they seek to solve, the methodology of their approach, and the results thus far.

“We asked the community what needs to happen,” Muttaqi said. “The community is obviously engaged.”

Champion spoke about the Sacramento Safe Community Partnership, known more commonly as Ceasefire, a program started by the Police Department to combat gang and gun violence in ways that are different and more effective than in the past.

“A traditional law enforcement response … has been to send a lot of officers into an area with gun violence or gang violence, and you have zero tolerance,” Champion said, adding that this kind of police crackdown not only stops the gangs, but builds distrust between the local community and the police.

“You end up enforcing the rules on the people that are crying out for help,” he said.

He said that Ceasefire is changing the the traditional methods by concentrating its efforts on finding out specifically who is causing the violence. The two primary gangs of the Mack Road commercial corridor, one of the worst areas in Sacramento for gang activity, were found to responsible for a majority of gun violence in the area.

Instead of waiting for a crime to occur, Champion said, the police identify prime suspects and have their probation officers reach out to them, asking them to attend community meetings. Faith-based organizations, health groups and community members are present, asking the gang member to not resort to violence. Champion said that this process is called an intervention, as labled in the graph.

“We have the community tell (the gang members), ‘The violence needs to stop,’ and now it’s very personal because we’re sitting there looking at them,” Champion said.

Muttaqi said that another important element of the task force is to provide alternatives to the gang members, such as educational opportunities, work training programs and other positive and productive options.

Leading the way for community-based efforts is the newly-planned Men’s Leadership Academy being put in place by the Sacramento City Unified School District and the Sacramento Violence Intervention Program, which is run by The Effort, a Sacramento-based health care provider that reaches out to lower income neighborhoods.

Adrian Williams of SCUSD said that the Men’s Leadership Academy is a 4-year program for high school students that is similar to programs such as AVID, a program for advanced high school students that has a class during the school day and additional responsibilities for the students to complete.

He said that a small number of students will be admitted to the program, where they will be closely mentored by teachers who are popular among the students. They will be taken on field trips to top colleges and be given opportunities that will move them away from gang life, such as being required to dress nicely on occasion. The program will begin in the spring.

SVIP is bringing services to struggling communities that were previously unavailable, said Melisa Bayne, who is in charge of the program. By providing services like counseling, addiction help and other medical services, Bayne said that the SVIP has seen drastic improvements in former gang members whom they reached out to.

Berry Accius, a 34-year-old teen mentor who lives in Natomas, attended the meeting and said that while he thought the effort was great, it was very important that people continue to come up with new ideas to combat gang violence.

“We need leaders who really identify with the kids,” he said. “You really need to engage them so they understand that people care about them.”

Muttaqi said that this is only the beginning of the mayor’s push for gang prevention, and that these ideas will continue to be implemented.

“We’re optimistic, and we hope it will continue,” Champion said.

Youth violence forum draws large crowd

2011-02-17T06:47:26Z

In the view of Sacramento community activist Kathy Jenkins, stronger parenting of youth is key to reducing gang violence. At a forum in Oak Park on youth and gang-related violence, Jenkins told a crowd of about 150 Sacramento residents, city staffers and police officers that assertive parents should influence the lives of young people.

“This is called parenting, this is not policing,” Jenkins said.

“If we could parent, and if we can raise,” she added, “and if we can encourage, and if we can take guns and give books, if we can give dolls instead of pimping ... If we could do these things, we could put (the police) out of work. I would rather see them writing parking tickets.”

Jenkins was one of many speakers at the forum, organized by Mayor Kevin Johnson’s office. Johnson had planned to attend the Oak Park event, said his special assistant, R.E. Graswich. But he canceled in order to accept an invitation from the White House to spend time on Wednesday with President Barack Obama, according to Johnson’s press office.

Police Chief Rick Braziel, Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones and Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully were among others who made remarks at the forum. Residents also participated in the forum by brainstorming ways to halt youth violence in the Sacramento area.

Braziel explained the police department’s Operation Ceasefire program, in which officers meet with youth involved with violence, he said. “We bring them in and give them alternatives,” Braziel said.

The department and local support service programs provide services to the youth so they can stop a violent lifestyle, Braziel said. Other partners in the program include the U.S. Attorney’s office and the District Attorney’s office, he said.

Jones emphasized prevention of gang violence and said it was part of his gang strategy. “What’s been long overdue is the prevention side,” he said.

One of the attendees, Malcolm Stone, 63, told The Sacramento Press that he recently moved to south Sacramento from Riverside County. He said he had earlier thought that Sacramento was somewhat “sleepy.” He and his wife are “shocked about all the violent crime in the news” in Sacramento, he said.

Assistant City Manager Cassandra Jennings wrapped up the event, telling the attendees that city leaders plan to create an action plan to address youth violence. She said focus groups will be organized in March, and another community forum will be held in April. In June, the city hopes to have an outline of a strategy, she said.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Editorial: Crime and the City

2010-11-30T02:59:17Z

My, it was a busy weekend around Sacramento. And I'm not talking about the holiday.

People were shot, people were killed and people (and homes) were robbed. And there was all the other horrible stuff that happens daily.

I took the four-day weekend off from news consumption. Monday morning, I remembered why. Much of it, especially the crime news, is depressing and does nothing to improve my life. Worse, some of it is not even entirely true.

But confronting it now gives me the opportunity to ask Sacramento Press readers a question about the future of this website.

But first, as they say, the news:

The big news that I missed until Monday was that a group of four people – described in The Bee and other media as "a family of four" – were shot at (and two hit) near the Safeway at 19th and S. They were walking to Panda Express. This was, of course, seized upon by Sacbee.com commentors as proof that "downtown" Sacramento is unsafe.

Having taken place a mere two blocks from The Bee building, and since the central city remains our civic focus, this was the big news. But it wasn't the only news.

A man was shot in Folsom during a dope deal gone bad. The victim said the shooter, a customer, was from Elk Grove. Meanwhile, a 15-year-old boy was shot and killed while walking near Encina High School in Arden Arcade. A man was shot outside the Virgin Sturgeon restaurant on Garden Highway on Sunday morning.

And Monday's big crime news was that a former Sacramento County sheriff's deputy Chu Vue was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for arranging the murder of state correctional officer Steven Lo. That murder occurred in South Sacramento. Cop-on-cop murder. What next?

Meanwhile, there were ten home burglaries over Thanksgiving week in supposedly bucolic Folsom. Notice that none of these crimes occurred in the central city. The fact that there were also 10 robberies in Midtown in November shouldn't make people in Folsom feel smug.

My point isn't that murders and other crimes don't occur in the central city; it's that they happen all over, but only downtown/Midtown gets branded for it.

Think back to the “Second Saturday shooting” that occurred in Midtown a few months ago, and how much drama it stirred up in the central city. Everything that happens in downtown Sacramento – as long as it’s bad – seems to expand in meaning when it hits the local media.

So, back to this horrible story of the "family of four walking to a restaurant" that The Bee, KCRA-3 and other outlets reported, once again stoking fear in – and of – the central city.

The truth was actually this: A 21-year-old man, his girlfriend and her two younger brothers were approached and shot at by suspected gang members.

"It's being investigated as a gang-related shooting," Sacramento Police spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong told me Monday afternoon.

Which means we still don't know much. But things are rarely as simple as they may first seem, and where there is a "gang-related" crime, there is no telling who is a gangster and who is a victim, or what the relationship between the shooter and the victim might be.

What we do know is that this is a very different story than the image of a "family of four," whether from the suburbs or not, coming to the central city, going to a shopping center and being randomly shot.

How random this was, we don't know. But we do now know the make-up of this "family." But The Bee's lede and headline ("Gunmen shoot 2 members of family walking to midtown eatery") remained in place, uncorrected, as late as 6 p.m. Monday. This was even after the police had clearly said that this was not a family in any sense readers would recognize.

And thus is Sacramento's urban core tarred: not safe for "families."

This sort of news is destructive to our central city. It lacks nuance. It lacks accurate information. And it hurts Sacramento.

Beyond that, like most crime reporting, it's useless information. What can I do with it? I won't stop shopping at Safeway, I won't stop walking downtown after dark – that's after 5 p.m. these days, folks – and it certainly won't stop me living downtown.

But it did confirm the wisdom of my impulse to take the long weekend off of news. And it raised a question in my mind:

Who wants crime reporting in The Sacramento Press?

Crime news is a staple of local news reporting – TV would cease to be profitable without it – but we don't run much crime news on The Sacramento Press.

That's not because I don't like it; it's because we don't have the staff, and our readers have thus far not expressed much interest in it. But we want to expand our coverage of Sacramento, and we want to do it in ways that reflect reality, rather than just offering sensational fodder.

What do you think? Would you, as a Sacramento Press reader, like more crime reporting? This being an open platform, you can of course just post such news yourself, as Ed Fogle, of Maverick Photography, and his colleagues occasionally do.

But I am contemplating a new section on the Press, perhaps expanding our coverage not just to "crime" but to "public safety." Such a section could offer not just bad news to scare (and perhaps thrill) readers of such things, but also help make our neighborhoods safer and our citizens more savvy.

So I'm curious: Do you want more "crime" reporting? Fire reporting? Advice on dealing with either, and with other public safety issues? What would those be?

How can we do it differently, so that we don't spread misinformation or simply scare people to no good end? How can The Sacramento Press move journalism forward, so that we're not a mouthpiece for the police department on the one hand, or a cheap thrill to "sell papers" on the other?

This is what we do, and we're learning. We want to do it better, and I’d love to hear your ideas.

Ask Officer Michelle - When is it Gang Colors?

2010-10-10T15:33:49Z

Posted by Mark.D.Carlos

My oldest son started middle school this year (Cal Middle School). Today, an "incident" happened which, before I speak with the school administration, might warrant a police perspective.

My son wore white tennis shoes with white laces, white socks, red shorts, and a red T-shirt with white lettering saying "Home Run" and a decal of a baseball. Early in the school morning, he was stopped by a security guard (assigned that role by the school) who apparently made reference to the fact that he was wearing gang colors/clothes, and that he could easily have a gun pointed at him.

At the end of the school day, before leaving the campus, my son called me to tell what had occurred. I asked him to go the front office, and ask for the school’s dress code policy. The woman at the front counter said "that is absolutely not acceptable", pointing to what his outfit, and then said there is no written dress code.

So my issue is pretty simple, seemingly with the school: develop and distribute a dress code to allow parents and kids to avoid any kind of similar occurrence. But what I really want to now is what the Sac PD believes are the current trends in gang colors which should be avoided at all times by kids (at school or anywhere)

Dear Mark,

It is time to sit down and have a heart-to-heart talk with your son. I only have a small amount of information that you sent to me and just because your son wears red doesn’t mean he is in a gang. The only person who can really tell you whether they are partaking in gang activity is your son. I will tell you that the popular gang colors are red and blue. Gang members wear these solid colors to let others know which gang they are in.

Look at your son’s school books. Look for writing or doodles on his books. Be aware of any derivative of the number “14” or XIV. Note whether he is behaving differently. Check out his friends. Keep track of which websites he is visiting online. Has your son become withdrawn from the rest of your family? Have his grades changed? Has he adopted slang or jargon to his vocabulary that is new to you? Look in his backpack to see if he has any literature or notes from friends talking about gangs. If you are concerned about invading his privacy, think of the alternative. If your son was dabbling in gang activities and gets hurt or hurts someone else, it would be devastating to know you could have possibly done something about it.

You are in a good position to speak with your son about this. The middle school years are very impressionable and he may be much more receptive to speaking to you now as opposed to high school. Listen to your gut dad. You know what is best for your son. Speak to his school principal and teachers as well. As far as the dress code, it should be in the school rules and regulations. Ask to have a copy of it. It may even be online. If they don’t have one, go to the school board.

Go to www.sacpd.org and watch our public service announcement on gangs. Just click on the “be safe” section and click on “gangs.” It has a lot of useful information that may be helpful to you and your son. Thank you for your post and take care.

Officer Michelle

Second Saturday: A Tragedy Waiting to Happen Can Anything Be Done To Save It?

2010-09-17T21:37:11Z

A rock band steps onto a portable stage set up in the old Sacramento News and Review parking lot at 20th and J streets. They tune up and begin to play. This promotion marked beginning of the end of the traditional Second Saturday.

Second Saturday was no longer going to be an art walk and about visiting art galleries. Second Saturday was going to be about bringing large numbers of young people to Midtown to stay after the event and continue partying and drinking in the Midtown bars and nightclubs.

City officials and the Midtown Business Association (MBA) immediately tried to distance the Midtown Second Saturday Art Walk event and themselves from the unfortunate and preventable death of Victor Hugo Perez Zavala and shooting of three others.

Why unfortunate and preventable? There had been plenty of warnings from Midtown residents and others that the art walk (Second Saturday A) and, more to the point, the after-event – the unofficial party in the streets of Midtown (Second Saturday B) – was rapidly reaching the point that a major incident was becoming a foregone conclusion.

This peaked after August’s Second Saturday (both A and B). The outcry become so loud that it was finally reported by The Sacramento Bee and The Sacramento News and Review. Both promptly poo-poo’d it along with city officials and the MBA.

So why were things allowed to spiral so out of control that Sacramento Police officers at the scene of the shooting last weekend could not prevent it or even identify a suspect? It can be traced back directly to the relationship between city officials and the MBA with the purveyors of highly profitable liquor in Midtown.

A little history: A few decades ago there was no way there would be a clubbing scene in what wasn’t even known as Midtown. White flight to the suburbs had left the area to drug dealers, prostitution, social services and Section 8 subsidized housing.

Slowly, a small group of determined individuals and families recognized the potential of the neighborhood and started demanding that the city help clean up the area and contribute to its livability.

About the same time, some art galleries began opening, along with a few nice restaurants. As Marion Millen described in an earlier SacramentoPress.com article,

“Gallery owner Michael Himovitz brought Second Saturday to Sacramento two decades ago, to ‘educate and connect people through discussing art.’ He advocated coordinating individual efforts into an event that benefited all the galleries, their customers, local culture and the community. It worked.”

It worked very well for a long time. Midtown grew to have a good quality of life (livability). It had a variety of businesses within walking distance serving the neighborhood. This included restaurants focused on food and a vibrant art scene.

It needs to be emphasized that what is called Midtown is overwhelmingly residential. It is an area made up of several-century-plus-old historic residential neighborhoods. Midtown is crisscrossed by two two-block-wide commercial strips: J and K streets and 19th and 21st streets.

The other small commercial areas are 28th Street south of J Street and a small area on Capitol Avenue. All the rest is residential. A significant amount is single-family homes. A lot of these residents are still occupied by those who fought for a good quality of life or those attracted to the neighborhoods because of the quality of life and the philosophy of new urbanism (Live where you are not dependent on a car, goods and services are within walking distance or public transportation and your living situation takes up much less space).

The latest changes to Midtown started a little over a decade ago. Midtown went from livable to being marketed as “THE HOT” location in Sacramento. High-end restaurants that morph after 9 or 10 p.m. into bars and nightclubs designed to attract 20-somethings from the whole region and beyond displaced the businesses serving the neighborhood.

Except for negative impacts on nearby residents, it worked for a while. But then came the recession coupled with overconcentration. And along with that came desperation. The bars and nightclubs became desperate to find any way to attract patrons to their near-empty businesses. No one was in a better position to witnesses this than the residents of Midtown.

It didn’t take the alcohol purveyors long to realize that they could have an OK to even good night once a month on the night of the Second Saturday Art Walk. Soon there was promotion of the Second Saturday “After Party.” The one city block of eight bars and nightclubs between 27th and 28th on J Street, the self-named “Bloc,” is a good example. With nary an art gallery in sight they started proclaiming, “Come to the Second Saturday After Party at the Bloc!”

Now here comes what really led to last Sunday morning’s shooting. Not content with the amount of business they were getting from Second Saturday A (the wine-sipping and cheese-nibbling art crowd was not contributing to their business), through the MBA and with the assistance of the city, they hijacked Second Saturday A.

There is a thing with late-night talk shows sometimes called the “warm-up.” This consists of someone, sometimes the star, appearing before the show starts telling jokes and getting the audience going. So when the show starts, the audience members are all excited, and the home audience sees them on their feet cheering.

Second Saturday A has now become the “warmup” for Second Saturday B. This is well-documented. No one denies that Second Saturday A has become more of a Mardi Gras event.

Loud bands are located throughout the area with large numbers of street vendors. Many galleries have dropped out, complaining of vandalism, thefts and crowds only interested in drinking their wine with no interest in purchasing art. Few feel it is safe to bring their children. In fact, few genuinely interested in art attend. Many are afraid of the crowd that has gotten more and more out of control.

Second Saturday A getting everyone in a major party mood for Second Saturday B has been a massive success. Well, at least in terms of attendance and rowdiness.

Now add to this ready-to-continue-to-party crowd an unwillingness to disperse them.

The whole mood is conducive to partying and, more importantly, drinking. With word of the Second Saturday B spreading, and with a lot of promotion, the event has continued to grow.

Along with the frat boy types and others with a propensity to drink spending money in the bars and nightclubs, Second Saturday B has attracted the underage with not much else to do, and, sadly, those prone to anger and violence.

With no mechanism to sort out and remove the latter, it became inevitable that there would be a major incident, and sadly that incident took a bystander’s life and injured three others.

So what is the City of Sacramento’s role in all this? What were they thinking in allowing these crowds to grow so large in the first place? Did they not listen to their officers telling them this was getting beyond what they could control? Do they truly think that this is what makes Sacramento a world-class city – ignoring the loss of quality of life for the residents of these neighborhoods? Are they so beholden to the political power of the bar and nightclub owners that they are so willing to put people’s lives at risk?

The city had almost exactly the same situation in Old Sacramento. When this started to threaten the business interests, the crowds were forcibly driven out of Old Sac. Police officers told residents of Midtown neighborhoods that that is where these individuals ended up, making it more difficult for the police to deal with them.

When the the Thursday Night Market got so out of control that the police realized they no longer had the resources to deal with it, city officials at the time wisely shut it down before someone was killed.

In regards to the Midtown Business Association: the MBA started out many years ago, founded by owners of many of the small individually owned businesses that served a number of the needs of the neighborhoods.

It has changed into a business association that primarily represents the interests of the high-end restaurants, bars, nightclubs and associated businesses. As I have already stated, many of the original businesses have been displaced, and those that are left are mostly ignored. If you don’t believe, me just attend their monthly meetings.

After a shooting on the patio of Harlow’s Nightclub, there was a lot of media coverage. During the same period, female patrons were robbed at gunpoint crossing 27th Street at J Street. The bar and nightclub industry feared a loss of patrons afraid to come into Midtown.

A security company was hired and instituted things like security patrols and other systems that improved the situation for residents while making it safer for patrons. When the memory of the shooting faded, the security was discontinued. The problems for the neighborhood returned.

It is not surprising that the public has not heard anything from any of the bar or nightclub owners that have benefited so much from Second Saturday. That is what they have the MBA for.

Some immediate solutions: If the City, they MBA and everyone else involved truly wants to save the 6 to 10 pm Second Saturday A they need to shut down the after party crowds of Second Saturday B. It has been made crystal clear that even with added resources the Sacramento Police Department can not control what happens in these crowds. After 10:00 pm anyone who is not in a restaurant/bar/nightclub, coffee house or other legitimate business or on their patio needs to move on. There are plenty of locations east and west of Midtown to legally drink and enjoy them selves.

The crowds need to be controlled so they do not move out into the residential area. To help prevent this a two hour or less no parking without a residential permit zone needs to be instituted throughout the Midtown residential areas and ENFORCED. 311 needs to be staffed adequately on the second Saturday/Sunday morning so that residents can call and report drinking and other illegal activities. Police need to be dispatched to deal with this. Some residents are going to whine about the parking but it is a small price to pay to have peace in the residential areas. Guests at legitimate gatherings can move their car every two hours or hosts can easily obtain one day visitor permits.

These two things would go a long way in having a post Second Saturday that would much safer and sane.

About those of not of drinking age and the problem of gangs: Youth are attracted to the Second Saturday events to see and be seen. An area in the central business district needs to be set aside for them that access can be controlled. Possibly a section of the convention center. It needs to have food and soft drinks available at a reasonable cost and feature music. Could one or more of the bands at Second Saturday A be brought in?

As for gangs, having a controlled access area would make it much easier to exclude them and weapons.

But sadly gangs are a long term problem with no quick solutions. While a lot of resources have been put into Second Saturday the city has cut youth programs and gang prevention nearly to the point of non existence. Mayor Johnson talks of working for youth but with out the support of the whole council to find money and other resources how is this city going to have a better future for its’ young people?

Opinion: Let's drop the ugly equivalence

2010-09-17T00:49:19Z

Let's get a couple of things straight: The shooting at 18th and J this weekend wasn't caused by Second Saturday. And it isn't going to take Second Saturday down.

The shooting was an act of violence by someone who ended up in Sacramento's central city with a grudge and a gun. Sure, they may have been drawn here by the street party atmosphere that has grown around what began as an art walk. But they might have been here on a Tuesday night as well.

Did they come to drink? Possibly. Did having a drink or two cause them to shoot at each other? That's a leap. Alcohol does not make someone a murderer.

It may, however, cause one to hurl. And the ongoing irritation of some Midtown residents with drunken young adults has led the opportunistic to link what is essentially a nuisance with…murder. This linkage is specious, and it is callous. The chorus of "I told you so’s” from some neighbors of the area has been particularly disturbing.

As a former resident of Midtown, and a current resident of the more-challenged Alkali Flat neighborhood downtown, I sympathize with those who have had to wash vomit off their sidewalks, had their fence posts or potted plants broken, or even had to shovel excrement out of their flower beds. I've done it myself. No fun.

But the aggressive exploitation of this tragedy by a handful people with an agenda has been disturbing. Let's be real: The nuisance of immature, drunken people is not comparable to an innocent young man dying in a crossfire. Those who are linking the two together for their own rhetorical gain should be ashamed of themselves.

If anything, the argument could be made that the shooting this past weekend was simply the exception that proves the rule. People got shot. The first thing I thought of was: Wow, most of the time, thousands and thousands of people come to Second Saturday and no one gets shot. And most of the 15,000-20,000 people who come don't even get drunk.

Sacramento, like most large American cities, has a gang problem. It has crime. And despite the histrionic claims of some Midtowners – one recently referred to the lovely Marshall Park area as “a war zone” – the central city actually has less crime than many outlying areas.

I've lived in the central city off and on since 1981. I have never been robbed, mugged, burgled, assaulted or otherwise accosted. I did have my car broken into once. But one friend who lives in a very nice neighborhood in South Land Park had his car broken into three times – in one year.

The snobbery of some central city residents is revealed in such circumstances: the dismissal of other Sacramentans as “suburbanites” and “douches” is just a more acceptable form of prejudice, and may masked deeper prejudices.

And it feeds a new kind of NIMBYism: Gangland slayings are too bad, but I can ignore them if they’re in South Natomas or North Sacramento; they’re tragic if they’re in my backyard.

A post-shooting blog post on sacbee.com noted the other day that statistics show that there has been no increase in crime on Second Saturdays during the last two summers. So again: the linkage of nuisances with violent crime is rhetorical rather than actual.

More police will probably help, but there were cops all over that one block of J Street Saturday night, and they couldn't stop the shooting. There was a crowd of witnesses, and they haven’t yet found the shooter.

Even if Second Saturday were shut down entirely, we'd still have occasional shootings, even in gentrified Midtown. People shoot each other. It happens. It's a crime, and it's a tragedy, but it's the way things are in gun-happy America. Putting police on every street corner and closing down every restaurant and bar at 10 p.m. isn't going to change that.

Midtown does not have a bad gang problem. What it has is a mixed-use problem. Again, like many cities, it has shops next to bars next to apartments next to houses next to hotels next to restaurants. But this is why we like such cities. This is why we like Midtown, isn't it?

Some neighbors of bars take the brunt of nuisances that are the result of drunken, rowdy behavior. And they are within their rights requesting cooperation from club owners, agitating for better street lighting from the city and working to improve their neighborhoods. Perfectly reasonable.

But you can only control the world around you so much. Things change, cities change and neighborhoods change. Most agree Midtown is changing for the better. Shops, restaurants, theaters and, yes, even bars make Midtown a more interesting, more fun and more valuable place. What it may not make it is quieter. Or cleaner.

For people who prize peace and quiet, there's always the suburbs.

Sacramento is changing from a mostly-suburban area to a real city, and we need to learn how to live real city lives, with sometimes awkward, or even challenging, encounters with people who don't share our values. We need to learn to live in a way that is not a dash between our house and our car and the office and the mall.

The young people who come into the central city to party, no matter what night of the week or month, need to learn how to behave themselves. How we can teach that, as a city, is open to debate. People drink. People misbehave. People are "douches." It's just a fact of life.

But the older, settled folks need to get a grip. Midtown Sacramento isn't what it was 10 or 15 years ago. That’s a good thing. When these bars and restaurants that are so reviled by the party-haters close down for lack of business, we'll see how well people like empty (though yes, quiet) storefronts as their neighbors.

A city is what it is. It's not about you. It’s about all of us.

And so, we will work this out together. The loudest voices will get attention, but the cooler heads will prevail. There is too much at stake, and there are many ideas being bandied about, and will continue to be, both on The Sacramento Press and at Midtown Monthly's website. Some of them are very good.

But none of those fixes would have prevented a random, gang-related shooting. Life is unpredictable. Stuff happens. Sometimes, that stuff is people messing with your azaleas; sometimes, that "stuff" is someone getting shot.

And in the heated debates about this that will surely continue into this fall, I would like to encourage my neighbors to recognize the difference between the two.

City seeks answers, suspect after Second Saturday killing

2010-09-14T04:07:15Z

Sacramento Police said Monday that gang violence led to a fatal shooting within a crowd gathered outside a Midtown bar after a Second Saturday Art Walk.

Police presence was stepped up Saturday, and for the first time, officers enforced the 10 p.m. curfew for minors, which coincides with the art event's official closing time. But the killing early Sunday has pressed city and business leaders to find additional ways to address growing concerns rather than end the popular event.

On Saturday, 20 Sacramento police officers and at least eight undercover officers from the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control worked to combat underage drinking and public partying or "tailgating," said Sacramento Police Captain Dana Matthes.

The shooting took place at about 12:13 a.m. Sunday on the sidewalk outside Streets of London Pub, 1804 J St. Officers were inside the bar and at both ends of the block when the shooting occurred.

Words were exchanged between about 10 people from two gangs before gunfire broke out. The victim, Victor Hugo Perez Zavala, 24, was not a gang member. But one of the three others who were shot — two men and a woman — is in a gang, police said.

"This was in fact a gang confrontation," said Matthes, who asked for tips to help police find the suspect. He is described as an African American male with shoulder-length dreadlocks, who is 5 feet 11 inches to 6 feet tall, aged 18 to 21 and weighing 180 to 200 pounds.

About 30 community leaders including Mayor Kevin Johnson and City Councilman Steve Cohn, whose district includes Midtown, met Monday afternoon to discuss the shooting and other concerns about the art walk at the MARRS Building. The building at 1050 20th St. and its neighboring bars and art galleries have become the epicenter for Second Saturday Art Walk crowds.

The building's owner, Mike Heller, has helped build the Midtown scene after renovating the former state agency building and has energized the block on Second Saturdays with live music. Heller was among those at the meeting.

Johnson vowed to commit even more police officers to Second Saturdays and to refocus on a regional gang problem and the same kind of "late-night youth violence" that closed down Thursday Night Market on K Street Mall more than a decade ago. The city must have "zero tolerance" for violence, he said.

"We are outraged as a city by the shooting," Johnson said at a 3:30 p.m. press conference.

Johnson announced plans to create a task force to study the issues and compare best practices used in other cities to address problems, such as the growing number of people under 18 in the crowd. One possibility would be to assign gang unit officers to identify gang members at the event, and the city could consider banning gang members, Matthes said.

Second Saturday has grown largely because Midtown is a mixed-use neighborhood where people can walk easily from art galleries to businesses, Cohn said.

"We're not going to let this kind of youth violence end Second Saturdays," he said.

Business and property owners, local residents and art lovers have complained in recent months about growing crowds, public drunkenness, garbage, graffiti and other vandalism — especially near bars — during the monthly art walk.

Reports that a J Street church has been vandalized on Second Saturday could not be confirmed. But a neighboring state agency building, its parking lot and the alley get more garbage, vomit and window damage on Second Saturdays, managers said.

Some art galleries such as the Sacramento Art Complex and the Kennedy Center have begun holding "Premiere Thursdays," just before Second Saturdays to offer an alternative for people who want to focus on art, rather than go out for a night on the town.

"That's when we get the more serious collector in," said Sacramento photographer Alister Oliver, a resident artist at the art complex. "It's not the college kids. It's not the drunks."

In 2007, the high-end Solomon Dubnick Gallery became the first tenant in the MARRS Building. Soon after at Second Saturday events, two small paintings were stolen right off the walls, and a $16,000 ostrich sculpture was stolen outside.

Crowds swelled from 500 at a previous location to 1,500 to 2,000 those nights. The gallery stopped offering free wine or champagne and hired two security guards after just one month of Second Saturdays, said co-owner Michael Solomon.

"It was crazy. We went through 12 cases of champagne (in a night), and I don't believe we sold any art," he said. "It was too expensive, if nothing else. And we felt abused, giving away alcohol."

The gallery has since moved to a building Solomon owns at 1017 25th St., mainly to avoid having to pay rent in this economy. Gallery owners now offer private catered receptions for regular clients.

A laptop computer was stolen at the Kennedy Center one Saturday. But artists like Michele Fisher are very supportive of the event. She sells smaller, less-expensive art those nights, anything from $40 rings to $800 statues, she said Monday outside the gallery.

"It's when most of us make most of our money," she said.

As many as 20,000 people from throughout the region have been drawn to Midtown for the event. Second Saturdays have been very lucrative for many restaurants and bars.

"It's great to hear the mayor say we're not going to give this up," Midtown Business Association Executive Director Rob Kerth said. "This is a late-night problem. It's not a Second Saturday problem."

Business owners including Olivia Coelho, co-owner of Bows & Arrows resale shop, say Second Saturday is the biggest sales day each month.

"Without the revenue generated on Second Saturday, we would struggle to pay our rent," she said at the press conference.

Second Saturday photo by David Barton. Other photos by Suzanne Hurt, a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

“From the Crack House to the White House”

2010-08-03T08:58:30Z

“10 years ago I was high on crack cocaine, now I’m high on life.”, these are the words from Sacramento native, Bishop Ron Allen, a former crack cocaine addict for seven years, and now one of the must prominent leaders in the country on the war on drugs.

Allen united with law enforcement agencies from all over the world, who assembled themselves in the nation’s capitol last week to share data and strategies to help fight the escalating war on drugs in this country. The event was hosted by HIDTA (The High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program) an organization under the executive order of the White House.

Allen was there with the I.F.B.C. (International Faith Based Coalition), an organization in which he is the founder and director of. The coalition focuses on drug prevention within the faith based community. The organization’s ideology is that people are more likely to receive an anti-drug message from their place of worship, rather than a message brought to them sporadically elsewhere by strangers. Allen, along with other members of his coalition were honored with the HIDTA Award for superior performance.

For more information on the I.F.B.C movement, call 916-807-1210.

(This story was originally written in April of 2010)

By Ray Johnson/Npaphoto.com

Let's Talk About the Root of Bloods and Crips

2010-04-20T06:30:07Z

It was my intention to continuing interviewing families affected by youth violence. I have not abandoned speaking to families. I feel it's important to go beyond the surface and take a good hard look at the history of gangs, specifically Bloods and Crips.

It is important we go beyond simply saying "it's gang-related" or simply blaming parents. It is necessary for us to look at any and all contributing factors if we desire effective solutions.

Before I begin I want to make it clear not all black youth are involved in gang culture.

In Sacramento gang culture has masqueraded, for some, as black youth culture. In 2005 I read several editorials in the SacBee titled, "Hmong gangs need to be addressed, Hmong gang situation urgent, Hmong gangs need swift broad response."

In one article a Hmong spokesperson stated "Hmong gangs came into existence to protect themselves from pre-existing African American and Hispanic gangs."

The article never mentioned why African American or Latino gangs came into existence. In fact I wondered if African American and Latino gangs were pre-existing why were we only addressing Hmong gangs with swift broad response? Why did Sacramento only see Hmong gang situation urgent? What about the African American and Latino youth dying at an alarming rate? I also wondered if Hmong youth were protecting themselves from African American and Latino gangs why were Hmong youth hurting Hmong Youth?

In most youth violence cases the Sacramento community is simply told "the crime is gang-related". But isn't simply saying the crime is gang-related also simply addressing youth violence on the surface? What else could it be related to? What are the other contributing factors resulting or causing youth violence?

I don't expect this topic to be embraced. But I am not writing it to make friends. I will not sugar coat or walk on egg shells the disease plaguing our community when the aftermath of pain is tremendous.

Some will not embrace the fact that parents can be a symptom and not the disease of youth violence. I respect the opinion of others. I ask that you please take a moment and think outside the blame the parent box. But are we simply addressing a complex problem by simply looking on the surface for parental blame? While some parents are a contributing factor the ugly truth is the root of youth violence is deep rooted even below parental blame.

Sacramento address gangs in the spirit of anger, frustration, hate, prejudice, ignorance and greed and visions to find solutions were clouded and the disease plaguing our community has spread.

In the Spirit of love and truth we will see through the fog of deceit and misinformation. If we want to truthfully address gangs shouldn't we start from the beginning looking at the root and not simply pull on easy to grab branches?

Why should the government address gangs? Because if truth is told throughout history the government has had a role in division caused within the Black community. The government had a role with the division of house negro and field negro, Malcolm X and Martin L King, Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam, Black Panther Party and US Organization.

If we don't hold the government accountable for its responsibility it's possible all efforts of the community will be unsuccessful after-all so many profit off crime occuring in a community divided into victims and suspects.

It is felt that youth are angry and the anger could be resolved with simple anger management training. Should we be taught to suppress our anger? Can we simply manage anger? Or should we go beyond the surface and understand why some of us are angry?

How effective will we address youth violence if we simply manage an anger instead of addressing the reason for the anger? You can't suffocate / manage deep anger because sooner or later it erupts.

Doesn't it seem silly to address youth violence without first truthfully understanding the past? Why is it so easy for some to believe Black youth simply woke up one day with dysfunctional parents and decided to kill one another? If we know the history of gangs we can use the past to understand the current psychological frozen state and redirect the future of at-risk youth failing prey to youth violence.

I ask that you please watch the below documentary. I must warn you it will not be easy for some to watch. There is explicit language.

Please be patient in watching it. Please don't stop watching it mid way if you feel offended. Please don't take it personally. It's not an attack on Sacramento Law enforcement. It begins with two topics, racism and police brutality, which are not easy for many to accept or watch. But if we watch it in its entirety I believe we can begin to have a constructive bridge of dialog in addressing gangs.

The documentary is titled, "Bastards of the Party". I believe in Sacramento we have Bastards, the illegitimate children, of Reagan and Bush War on Drugs and War on Crime. But before we discuss the current state we should look at the past.

I do not believe we should rest or dwell in the past. But the key to the future could be the same key to unlocking the past if we want to effectively and significantly address a youth gang crisis. Since Sacramento has never fully addressed the past of gang culture sweeping through this city it's hard to imagine we could or would effectively address the current state of violence.

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/bastards-of-the-party/

Webinar to Address Gang Prevention

2010-04-17T17:05:32Z

Below is Information of an upcoming event to address Youth & Gangs. If you're interested in participating I encourage you to please register. Also please forward the information to any interested person or organization. Thank you

Webinar To Address Gang Prevention
On April 21, 2010, at 2:00 p.m. E.T., the National Evaluation and Technical Assistance Center for the Education of Children and Youth Who Are Neglected, Delinquent or At Risk will host a Webinar on gang prevention. Gang Prevention From Multiple Perspectives: Federal, Research, and Practice will explore youth involvement in gangs, including current data and initiatives, research, and prevention and reduction strategies, with emphasis on school-based programs.

Presenters will include staff from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention with gang-related expertise.The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is a component of the Office of Justice Programs in the U.S. Department of Justice.

The National Evaluation and Technical Assistance Center is designed for the Education of Children and Youth who are Neglected, Delinquent, or at Risk (NDTAC)

NDTAC, according to their web site, serves as a National resource center to provide direct assistance to states, schools, communities, and parents seeking information on the education of children and youth who are considered neglected, delinquent, or at risk.

A primary focus of the center is the education of youth involved in the justice system.

For additional information on the National Evaluation and Technical Assistance Center for the Education of Children and Youth who are Neglected, Delinquent, or at Risk (NDTAC) For additional information on the efforts of NDTAC go to www.neglected-delinquent.org/

Event Title: Gang Prevention From Multiple Perspectives: Federal, Research, and Practice

Event Type: Webinar
Event Date: April 21, 2010, 2:00 - 3:30 pm ET
Event Description:
Low school attachment and poor academic achievement are known risk factors for youth to become involved in gangs (source: “Frequently Asked Questions About Gangs” from the National Gang Center, http://www.nationalgangcenter.gov/About/FAQ#q15). Title I, Part D, funding and programs can target gang reduction and prevention programs in an effort to achieve better outcomes for youth who are neglected, delinquent, or at-risk. This Webinar will explore youth involvement in gangs, including current data and initiatives, research, and prevention and reduction strategies. Emphasis will be given to school-based programs.

Dennis Mondoro, Strategic Community Development Officer, and Steffie Rapp, Program Manager, from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), will provide a Federal perspective on youth involvement in gangs, discuss OJJDP’s current gang prevention initiatives, and share national data on this topic. Dr. Finn Esbensen, the Desmond Lee Professor of Youth Crime and Violence in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, will discuss the risk factors of gang involvement and how gang prevention and reduction programs should address those risk factors, with a focus on the education setting. Tim Cowan, Gang Resistance Education and Training (GREAT), School Resource Officer, Garland Police Department, Garland, Texas, and Tony Ostos, Program Manager, Gang Resistance Is Paramount (GRIP), Paramount, CA, will provide insight on gangs and discuss the characteristics, strategies and outcomes associated with each program.

Ask Officer Michelle - Best Way To Help Police and Stay Safe

2009-09-06T15:55:17Z

Posted by Sorren

Hi Officer Michelle!

I’m a twenty one year old college student at Sac State, and I notice a lot of gang-activity in my area.. sometimes it’s just loitering, other times it’s visable drug-dealing, but it’s often hard to get anyone there in time, because the people involved usually leave right away, so I wouldn’t want to waste an Officer’s time by calling them down there to see an empty parking lot and no way to prove what went down.

I know Cops don’t like civillians medelling in what they do, but I feel that as a witness to some of this stuff, it’s my responsibility as a citizen to do something. I am (obviously) interested in law enforcement, but not ready to decide whether I want to start down the path of being a Cop myself..

I was wondering, would the Sacramento PD find it acceptable for me to like sit in my car and video tape criminal activity so that I could notify the police? Or something similar? is that discouraged or illegal in any way? I hate gangs, I hate drug dealers, and I want to help the Cops in any way that I can, IF I can. How can I become more actively involved without becoming a Law Enforcement Officer?

Dear Sorren,

I share your sentiment about gangs and drugs. I worked narcotics for several years and saw what drugs can do to people.

I would suggest you call our Narcotic Tip Line at 808-5796 and leave a message about the activity you are witnessing. Be specific. Give license plate numbers or vehicle descriptions if you have them, suspect descriptions, times of day you are seeing this, etc. One of our investigators will receive the information and process it. They can go from there.

As far as you videotaping these activities, it is not illegal, but could be dangerous for you. If they discover that you are taping them, they may become violent, and oftentimes, these are not nice people to tangle with. If you have a legal right to be somewhere, you can tape it, but there can be civil ramifications if you post any footage on public sites.

I would advise to you act as the best possible witness you can be, while staying safe, and call us. If the crime is in progress, you can still call 264-5471 to have an officer dispatched. If they leave before we get there, you can always call us back to let us know they’ve left and are no longer on scene. We appreciate when the public gets involved as our eyes and ears when we aren’t there. Thanks for your comment.

Officer Michelle

A brush with death.

2009-01-24T00:37:24Z

Yesterday it rained in Sacramento. Yesterday I didn’t pay close enough attention to the weather forecast in Sacramento. Rather than parking near my office, I decided to park about a mile or so away and ride my skateboard in to work. It’s fun and gets me a little exercise. The ride in to work was quite pleasant. The ride back to my truck wasn’t so much, and the rain was not the worst part.

I left my office around 5 PM, at which point a steady rain was falling. Skateboarding in the rain sucks. Getting wet sucks, having your wheels get super slippery sucks. That would’ve been plenty to spoil what’s usually an enjoyable ride. Not only did I have to endure getting soaked and trying not to fall and bust my ass on the pavement, but I also dodged what could have been a quite unpleasant encounter.

I work in a building in downtown Sacramento. It’s also very near the river and Old Sacramento. These three elements make it prime territory for homeless people and crazy people… and often people that are a 1-2 punch of both. To skate from my building to my truck, I have to go along the river walk alongside the river. The river walk has lots of benches and open electrical sockets. This is practically a luxurious hotel to the homeless. They can sit on a bench and stare at the river and also plug in their stereos and listen to music. This is usually fine. I skate past homeless people every day who are just admiring the view and talking to their imaginary friends, no problem. I used to talk to myself too, but I was only 3 and tried not to do it in public or in a manner that made it appear I was arguing with myself.

So back to yesterday. As I said, it was rainy pretty steadily and I was skating down the river walk. On rainy days, the usual homeless folks are taking cover somewhere sheltered rather than hanging out getting rained on. This was the case as I started my way down. The river walk is probably about the length of two football fields and fairly slender. As I got about halfway down, I noticed that indeed not all the homeless folk had headed for cover. At the end of the river walk, I spotted one. This would usually not register as being anything of consequence; however, this gentleman was standing out in the rain wearing only a pair of denim pants. No shoes, no socks, no shirt of any kind, and due to his pants being drenched and sagging with water, I had a pretty good idea of the fact that he probably was going commando as well.

Perhaps it’s just me being a Nervous Ned, but when I spot a shirtless, shoeless man hanging out in the rain after the sun has gone down, it raises a bit of a red flag. You don’t hear many stories of a shoeless, shirtless man out in the rain changing your grandma’s flat tire on the side of the road. I spotted the dude quite a ways away and at first thought that perhaps he was just a highly fashionable gentleman wearing a skin tight ostrich leather coat and Italian leather shoes. As you now know, that wasn’t the case. When I got about 30 yards away, he had done a sufficient amount of pacing and turning to and fro for me to be able to conclude that he was indeed just a guy standing out in the rain looking like a lunatic. This then got me thinking of the multitude of possibilities that I should be prepared for when I passed him by. Here are a few examples of what my brain was envisioning happening (in order of likelihood) as I gingerly floated by on my skateboard like a prey waiting to feed the predator:

1) Crazy guy would wait until the last second, pounce on me like a hungry leopard, smash me across the face with my own skateboard, throw me over the river walk wall on to the bank and sodomize my unconscious body.
2) Crazy guy would wait until the last second, pounce on me like a crazy shirtless guy and bite my nose off of my face.
3) Crazy guy would wait until the last second, Liu Kang Mortal Kombat karate style kick me off of my skateboard, smash me across the face with it and skate away with my property.
4) Crazy guy would wait until the last second, turn to face me and compliment me on my excellent taste in shoe wear.

Now that my brain had cooked up it’s top 4 logical responses from the crazy guy, I was prepared to pass by in defense mode. I approached, keeping him in my sites and as I got about 10 feet away, as expected, crazy guy turned and faced me. As he turned, he made direct eye contact. In order to try to diffuse what I had concluded would most likely be a very uncool situation, I politely nodded to the man and said hello to which he responded by saying, “You’re gay” as I cautiously floated by continuing on to my truck and eventually back home.

My feelings were so hurt by his assumptions about my sexual proclivity that as he turned back around to face the river, I quickly jumped off my board and proceeded to option 1 his unconscious body. That’s not true.

What IS true is that I have a solution to Sacramento’s ongoing homeless problem. Two words. BROKEN BLUETOOTHS. Think about it. The problem with homeless people isn’t necessarily that they don’t sleep in a house at night. The problem is that they make me uncomfortable when they’re shouting at nobody (yes, that is the real problem). If we took all our broken bluetooths and forced homeless people to wear them at all times, it would just look like a bunch of dirty, smelly businessmen having heated business discussions on their wireless head sets. It’s genius!

Open letter to Sacramento Parking Authority

2009-01-24T00:13:28Z

The writing doesn't show up well on the scanned ticket, and satan is in color on the real thing, but you get the idea...

...and yes, I did black out my address and phone number. There are lots of weirdos in Sacramento and I don't want them having my address so they can show up to my house, drain me of my fluids and attempt to bottle and sell my badassedness on the black market.

Update: Cooler in color.

Youth gang prevention and intervention campaign

2008-12-21T03:35:09Z

The City of Sacramento Department of Neighborhood Services announces:

The City of Sacramento, Office of Youth Development (OYD), Sacramento Police Department, and U.S. Attorney’s Office are working together on the campaign. The campaign is designed to divert youth from gangs. The campaign consists of billboards throughout the City of Sacramento, public service announcements aired on local television stations, and hundreds of posters.

Research has shown that effective, community based programs can keep at-risk youth from joining gangs, and rehabilitate those already in gangs. Accordingly, the campaign links parents, adults, and young people to the City of Sacramento’s information line, 3-1-1, which will connect them to a wide array of youth programs and resources currently operating in our community. These programs and resources not only focus on gang prevention and intervention, they also provide academic support, job and life-skills development, and employment assistance.

In addition, calls emanating from this campaign will be tracked, and when appropriate, OYD staff will conduct follow-up inquiries with callers who require additional assistance. Most of the funding for the campaign comes from Project Safe Neighborhoods, a federal grant program that focuses on reducing gang and gun violence through education and early intervention. Additional contributors, in the form of time and/or money, include CBS Outdoor (donated billboards), the Astone Agency, and Fresno’s “Valley Crime Stoppers."

For more information and to view the attached information, please visit the Office of Youth Development's website at www.cityofsacramento.org/Youth-Development/

Gang Warfare: War on Gangs

2008-11-18T18:03:18Z

Police sirens are heard in my city as often as a declining pulse in the E.R. and most of the time one has something to do with the other. The police have become the most powerful gang in America.

Sheriffs are like mighty tyrants and their reign of terror is looked over because unlike most gangs they have a secret weapon, a secret identity... their badge.

Badges enable the police to do as they will, and trust, they will. Once you're in the system hope is almost well — hopeless. A record is like an infection that spreads until it consumes you or destroys you and that is the mission statement of Sac PD's war on gangs, to destroy them.

Americans today have been brainwashed to believe all people should look and think like them. Right and wrong are no longer determined by one's own morals. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying gangs are righteous, more like misunderstood by those not a part of the lifestyle. To people like me gangs are nothing more than a way of life, not a vicious army as depicted on the 10 o'clock news.

But as Americans we think about how can we point fingers at gangs for their ways. Look at American history, our fore fathers killed and died for the same reason gang members die today — colors and territory. There was no war on America when the Indians were murdered, enslaved and infected by illness they never even dreamed existed. And why did they die? Territory. The same territory we walk upon today.

There was no war on gangs when Africans were first kidnapped and brought across our seas and then terrorized in this country. And for what? Nothing more than a color. So what's the difference? America was founded on gangs. America was founded on a gang mentality. And the casualties aren't even half as numerous today.

If you ask me, parents should spend more time loving their own children so they don't have to run to the streets. Raise their kids to be smart enough to follow their own hearts and trust their own morals. Because gangs aren't going anywhere and never will. I do have a more suitable cause for those righteous cops out there still trying to save the world though, a war on crooked cops. But that's a whole other story.

So let me be the first of many to say I'm happy to be pro-gang.

Editor's Note: The Sacramento Press editorial staff edited this article after it was published for grammar and formatting only.