Antigonic Gangs
OREGONIAN
(Portland, Ore.)
June 6, 1993, pp. A1+
"Copyright (c) 1993 Oregonian Publishing Company."
HISPANIC GANGS: AN EXPANDING MENACE by George Rede of The Oregonian staff
- Outreach workers, the police and community members worry that LA-style gang violence will increasingly rack the metro area
As twilight falls across the park, a father gently pushes his daughter on a tire swing. A little girl climbs on the jungle gym. Two boys go one-on-one in hoops.
Around the corner, two half-cases of Bud and some "40s" lie empty on the parking strip. Twenty young toughs cluster nearby, reeking of beer and menace.
The one known as "Flaco" swings a bowling pin above his head, from time to time smacking it against a tree.
It's …show more content…
"For every one we know of, there's probably two to five we don't know of," says Portland police officer Rafael Cancio, a specialist in Hispanic gangs.
Authorities say a sharp increase in the Hispanic population and a high school dropout rate among Hispanic youths combine to create fertile recruiting soil in Oregon.
The Hispanic population, the state's largest ethnic minority group, skyrocketed over the last decade in Oregon--from about 66,000 to 113,000--thanks in part to people moving from California and Mexico.
"I'm seeing two or three kids being recruited every day," says Louie Lira, a former gang leader in South Central Los Angeles, now an outreach worker.
But the public has been slow to recognize the threat of Hispanic gangs, much as with black gangs 10 years ago.
"I was seeing a lot of where Portland was in 1988 or '89," says Blanca Ruckert of the Multnomah County Sheriff's Department. "People are saying, `No, we don't have them here.'"
In fact, Hispanic gangs are everywhere in the metro area. They are in Cornelius and Hillsboro, in Gresham and Clackamas. They've gained footholds in Salem, Woodburn, McMinnville, Ontario and Klamath …show more content…
You do the same thing all the time. I want to have my own life."
Potential harm
Police say Hispanic gang members commit such crimes as vandalism, assaults, car thefts, burglaries and robberies. Some deal in drugs.
No one has been killed as a result of Hispanic gang violence in Oregon. But police worry that innocent people may be hurt or killed.
In 1990, shots were fired during a confrontation between Hispanic and black gang members after a rock concert at Waterfront Park.
In Cornelius last month, police arrested three adults and six teen-agers, including two girls, after someone fired an assault rifle at the house of a suspected gang member. No one was injured in the drive-by shooting, which came on the heels of a similar attack nearby.
Over the Memorial Day weekend in North Portland, a gang member aimed a handgun at an 18th Streeter whom he accused of damaging his car. The accused 16-year-old grabbed the man's wrist, causing two rounds to go off in the air, while one companion smashed a beer bottle over his head and a second companion stabbed the man in the back with a screwdriver.
Origins
Hispanic gangs, their origins going back to the 1930s and 1940s, are rooted in LA traditions of turf protection among self- styled "soldiers of the
(Portland, Ore.)
June 6, 1993, pp. A1+
"Copyright (c) 1993 Oregonian Publishing Company."
HISPANIC GANGS: AN EXPANDING MENACE by George Rede of The Oregonian staff
- Outreach workers, the police and community members worry that LA-style gang violence will increasingly rack the metro area
As twilight falls across the park, a father gently pushes his daughter on a tire swing. A little girl climbs on the jungle gym. Two boys go one-on-one in hoops.
Around the corner, two half-cases of Bud and some "40s" lie empty on the parking strip. Twenty young toughs cluster nearby, reeking of beer and menace.
The one known as "Flaco" swings a bowling pin above his head, from time to time smacking it against a tree.
It's …show more content…
"For every one we know of, there's probably two to five we don't know of," says Portland police officer Rafael Cancio, a specialist in Hispanic gangs.
Authorities say a sharp increase in the Hispanic population and a high school dropout rate among Hispanic youths combine to create fertile recruiting soil in Oregon.
The Hispanic population, the state's largest ethnic minority group, skyrocketed over the last decade in Oregon--from about 66,000 to 113,000--thanks in part to people moving from California and Mexico.
"I'm seeing two or three kids being recruited every day," says Louie Lira, a former gang leader in South Central Los Angeles, now an outreach worker.
But the public has been slow to recognize the threat of Hispanic gangs, much as with black gangs 10 years ago.
"I was seeing a lot of where Portland was in 1988 or '89," says Blanca Ruckert of the Multnomah County Sheriff's Department. "People are saying, `No, we don't have them here.'"
In fact, Hispanic gangs are everywhere in the metro area. They are in Cornelius and Hillsboro, in Gresham and Clackamas. They've gained footholds in Salem, Woodburn, McMinnville, Ontario and Klamath …show more content…
You do the same thing all the time. I want to have my own life."
Potential harm
Police say Hispanic gang members commit such crimes as vandalism, assaults, car thefts, burglaries and robberies. Some deal in drugs.
No one has been killed as a result of Hispanic gang violence in Oregon. But police worry that innocent people may be hurt or killed.
In 1990, shots were fired during a confrontation between Hispanic and black gang members after a rock concert at Waterfront Park.
In Cornelius last month, police arrested three adults and six teen-agers, including two girls, after someone fired an assault rifle at the house of a suspected gang member. No one was injured in the drive-by shooting, which came on the heels of a similar attack nearby.
Over the Memorial Day weekend in North Portland, a gang member aimed a handgun at an 18th Streeter whom he accused of damaging his car. The accused 16-year-old grabbed the man's wrist, causing two rounds to go off in the air, while one companion smashed a beer bottle over his head and a second companion stabbed the man in the back with a screwdriver.
Origins
Hispanic gangs, their origins going back to the 1930s and 1940s, are rooted in LA traditions of turf protection among self- styled "soldiers of the