Police to gangs: ‘We’re watching’

Despite recent reports of gang violence in Costa Mesa, police said there has not been an overall increase in gang-related crimes in the city.

Since January, there have been three gang-related shootings and at least one violent assault. One of the shootings resulted in the death of a 20-year-old Santa Ana man.

And in March, three members of a white supremacist gang were arrested in Costa Mesa as part of a countywide gang sweep.

Police said they don’t have available statistics for previous years, but they say the incidents don’t reflect a rise in gang crime in Costa Mesa.

“It’s a constant problem. I don’t think it’s on the increase,” said Costa Mesa Police Capt. Ron Smith.

There are seven gangs with 204 known members in Costa Mesa, Smith said. Costa Mesa gangs aren’t typically defensive about territory and are made up of young people, ranging in age from 12 to 20.

Kids get involved with gangs early, Smith said, adding that some join because of a family affiliation, though that isn’t as common in Costa Mesa as in other cities.

Some city officials say a proposed five-year plan to eradicate gangs in Costa Mesa can work, but it’s going to be a long haul. Police say that effective enforcement combined with prevention will give kids other options, breaking “the gang cycle.”

Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor said there’s always going to be concern about gang violence, but he believes police do their job.

“There are gangs pretty much everywhere,” Mansoor said. “I believe our Police Department does an outstanding job in addressing these issues in our community.”

The four-officer, one-sergeant Costa Mesa gang unit makes day-to-day contact with known gang members throughout the city. School resource officers ? on-campus police officers ? are regularly involved with gathering information from school children, Smith said.

“The message is: We’re watching,” Smith said.

A lack of support at home is one factor that drives kids into gangs, said Trevor Murphy, who works with at-risk kids as director of Save Our Youth in Costa Mesa.

“The kids that are attracted to gangs are the ones that struggle to blend in with their school community,” he said. “At home there’s not a strong family.”

Project ASK ? Advocates Supporting Schools ? provides for three full-time people who work on gang, truancy and bullying issues in Newport-Mesa schools, said project director Jane Garland.

“We do have some increases, and we are vigilantly working on it,” Garland said of recent gang activity.

By their mid-20s, most Costa Mesa gang members have outgrown the gang ? unlike the notorious Los Angeles gangs such as the Crips and the Bloods in which the only way out is to die, Smith said.

Costa Mesa gangs identify themselves by school and by neighborhood, he said, not by race as is common elsewhere.

City police see the gang activity and illegal immigration as separate issues, although the city does not track immigration status of known gang members, Smith said.

“I don’t think our gangs are involved with our immigration issue,” he said. “I don’t think our day laborers join gangs, I don’t think our day laborers form gangs; our day laborers are here to work.”

Although Costa Mesa police have said that a majority of the recent increased graffiti in the city is not attributed to gangs, graffiti is the most common crime committed by known gang members in Costa Mesa, Smith said.