University of San Diego

UNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO

San Diego, CA

LEPS570: Community Assessment Organizations

Module 7: (Final Project)

By

Team Foxtrot

Introduction: Gangs pose a serious threat to public safety throughout the United States. The solutions to combat these problems span every level of government and involve a variety of methods including prevention, intervention, suppression and a combination of some or all of these methods. The purpose of this proposal is to outline and ratify a multi-agency anti-gang task force aimed at combating the West Coast Crips gang within San Diego. The Crips membership nationwide is estimated to be between 30,000 and 35,000 individuals, most of whom are African-American males from the Los Angeles metropolitan area (13). Crips gangs operate in 221 cities and 41 states across the U.S. (13). The West Coast Crips set of San Diego has been around for over thirty years and is currently believed to have a membership between 200 and 300. The West Coast Crips have terrorized their community and the city of San Diego by committing just about every crime imaginable including drug trafficking, assault, auto theft, burglary and homicide (13). This proposal will outline a plan to form the San Diego Foxtrot Gang Task Force and will effectively disrupt, dismantle and defeat the West Coast Crips Gang in San Diego.

Of the information that we present, we have been cognizant of the validity and

reliability. Understanding the Interrater Reliability and Test/Retest Reliability helped us recognize that different evaluators may have different outlooks and that when a theory is tested it should be tested in the same way (9). Understanding that if there are even slight changes to either method, there will be altered outcomes. We considered the validity of the research. Understanding the Construct Validity helped us look at how the study focused on core concepts. External Validity helped us understand how the study can be applied to the larger population. And Empirical Validity was supported by evidence (9). We also carefully used induction to evaluate strategies applied to similar gang problems of our particular gang set. Having a strong understanding of research methods as outlined by Hagen, we were able to reliably decipher between studies that use validated and repeatable methods and ones that did not.

Mission Statement:

The San Diego Foxtrot Gang Task Force is a multi-agency group dedicated to the prevention, suppression and intervention of illegal gang activity within the City of San Diego. By leveraging the collective knowledge, experience, and resources of our key stakeholders and using scientifically validated methods, the task force will effectively disrupt, dismantle and defeat the West Coast Crips Gang in San Diego. Our mission is to restore justice, peace, and safety to the community members and their property by ridding its residence of the negative influence, fear, and violence caused by the West Coast Crips Gang.

Part 1: Gang Profile

Geographic Area:

The area our group will concentrate on will be the territory of the “West Coast Crips.” Specifically, this area is in the city of San Diego and is south of Market Street and west of 36th Street, north of Imperial Ave (east of the I-15 freeway), west of the I-15 Freeway (south of Imperial Ave), North of National Ave (west of the I-15 freeway), east of S. 28th Street, north of Commercial Street (west of S. 28th Street) and east of 25th Street (See figure 1). This neighborhood mostly includes the Logan Heights neighborhood. This is the “turf” in which the West Coast Crips operate. Gangs have a given turf in which they control the illegal activities such as drugs and prostitution in order to make money and further the gang.

According to the empirical data presented in the Unified Crime Reports by the San Diego Police Department, our target area in 2014 had the fourth highest violent crime rate of all the 125 San Diego individual neighborhoods (12). This empirical data was collected by crime reports taken by the San Diego Police Department and documented in their local Automated Regional Justice Information System (ARJIS) (12). This small neighborhood within San Diego has one of the highest crime rates in the city and geographically appropriate for gangs and gang members to commit their crimes. Specifically, in 2014, the West Coast Crips were responsible for 13 percent of San Diego’s overall murder tally (6).

Figure-1 (4)

Figure 2 (2)

Targeted Gang:

The group will target the Crips Gang and specifically the West Coast Crips of San Diego. Crips membership nationwide is estimated to be between 30,000 and 35,000 individuals, most of whom are African-American males from the Los Angeles metropolitan area (5). Crips gangs operate in 221 cities and 41 states across the U.S. (5). The West Coast Crip set of San Diego has been around for over thirty years and is currently believed to have a membership between 200 and 300 (11).

These statistics represent “Empirical Validity” (9) that come from surveying law enforcement jurisdictions throughout the country. The law enforcement agencies rely on their data from police reports and are probably one of the most reliable forms of gang measurement. In figure 2, the map depicts the results from the 2013 National Gang Report published by the National Gang Intelligence Center in which law enforcement agencies throughout the United States provided information about known contacts with members of the Crips criminal street gang. (See figure 2).

Magnitude and Typology of Crimes:

The Crips are responsible for committing just about every crime imaginable. The primary source of income for Crips gangs is derived from the street-level distribution of powdered cocaine, crack cocaine, marijuana, and PCP (phencyclidine) (5). The Crips also are involved in other criminal activities including assault, auto theft, burglary and homicide (5).

In January of 2014, the FBI arrested 17 gang members for Human Trafficking charges. The gang members were from the “Black MOB,” “Skanless,” “Neighborhood Crips,” “Lincoln Park,” and “West Coast Crips,” which show that at times, the gang does collaborate with other Crip gangs in a criminal enterprise. This criminal group concentrated primarily on the trafficking of humans in 46 cities across 23 states (7). This shows us that at times we may have to look beyond the reaches of just our gang's target area in order to understand the full scope of their criminal enterprise.

The Crips also have ties to Mexican Drug Trafficking Organization (MDTO) which sometimes blur the traditional rivalry lines (3) . According to the National Alliance of Gang Investigators’ Associations, 2015 National Gang Survey - Prison Gangs Survey, the Crips gang along with select other criminal street gangs worked closely with the Sinaloa Mexican Drug Cartel (1). This means we will need to work closely with federal agents on both sides of the border as the criminal enterprise may be international and not just located within their “turf”.

As a result of a massive law enforcement operation in 2014, the United States District Attorney’s office charged 49 West Coast Crip gang members with crimes including murder, attempted murder, high-speed chases, armed robbery, prostitution, money laundering and the importation and distribution of meth, cocaine, and marijuana (6). Also, law enforcement seized more than 16 guns, many rounds of ammunition, 4.5 pounds of methamphetamine, 4,400 pounds of marijuana, and $300,000 in counterfeit bills (6).

In March of 2016, a federal jury convicted four West Coast Crip gang members, finding them guilty of participating in a racketeering enterprise involving six execution-style murders, a takeover robbery, witness intimidation and other violent acts (10).

Part 2: Community Assessment and Demographics

Demographic Information: The demographics in our target area where the “West

Coast Crips” operate offer some explanation and are consistent with the prevailing theories of gang membership. According to an article in the Journal of Adolescent Health, youth gang members are disproportionately male, black or Hispanic, from single parent households, and from families living below the poverty level (25). Our target area is within one of the lowest income areas of San Diego county with one of the highest percentages of the population earning an annual income below $30,000 (14). The median income level for residents in the gang area is $28,185 annually, while the annual average household income is $40, 649. Both of these are well below the median and average annual income levels of both San Diego County, which is $63,996 and $86,416 respectively, and the city of San Diego, which has an annual median income level of $65,773 and an average income of $86,416 (14).

According to 2010 census data, the target area has approximately 13,596 residents with 6% being White, 8.7% Black, 84.2% Hispanic and less than one percent Asian or other (15). Detective J. Barrera of the San Diego Police Department estimates the size of the West Coast Crips in our target area at 300 members (23). Since the West Coast Crips gang is a Black gang, one can extrapolate that approximately 25% of the Black population in the target area is a member of the gang.

The schools in the target area rank on the low scale with Rodriguez Elementary School at a score of 3 out of 10, Memorial Scholars & Athletes School at 2 out of 10 and Garfield High at 2 out of 10 (16). For population 25 years and over, 53.8% had a high school degree or higher with only 7.6% holding a BA or greater. In fact, 46.2% of the population had less than a high school education compared to 18.3% of the population for the rest of the state (16). A recent study by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention indicated that not only will poor performance in school be a risk factor for joining gangs, but also a poor performing school creates a high-risk environment for youth to enter or join a gang (26).

A lower education rate can lead to a higher instance of unemployment. Residents in the gang territory had a 19.8% unemployment rate (19) compared to a 6.1% unemployment rate for the rest of the city (18). A higher unemployment rate can lead to the population resorting to other avenues to make a living. The image of the gang lifestyle and the money it can provide can also facilitate an avenue for people to join the gang who see it as the only way to survive. According to an article in Psychology Today, Dr. Muller asserts that, “Media portray gangster life as one filled with excitement, power, fortune, and ease (29).” Dr. Muller further explains that given adolescents are joining gangs as young as eleven years of age, these children lack the maturity and critical thinking skills required to fully understand danger and negative consequences (29). Coupled with a lack of support and guidance from positive role models, oftentimes a life of relative poverty, and few alternate activities to occupy their attention, it becomes easy for these youth to be wooed by the false promise of a glamorous lifestyle and for older gang members to step into the role of mentor (29). Dr. Muller provides his insight based on a study conducted by the News and Record where inmates that were gang members were interviewed about their reasons for joining a gang (29). This study has Construct Validity because the questions were directed at gang members themselves.

For population 15 years and over in the gang area, 48.3% have never been married (18) compared to the national rate of 25% (19). Additionally, 38.6% were currently married, and only 6.2% were divorced (18) compared to the national divorce average of 50% (19). These figures may indicate a significant percentage of the population are cohabitates, but not married. According to Judith Wallerstein who is widely recognized as an authority on marriage and divorce, cohabitation relationships lend themselves to a lot of instability (19). An unstable home life can lead individual members of a family to seek out the image of stability and a sense of belonging that a gang provides (20). In a broken family, many children grow up without a father figure or a mentor in their life. They see the older gang members as this figure and are easily influenced and molded by these gang members (20).

An article in the American Journal for American Therapy described, “African-American adolescent involved in gang have lower social problem-solving skills, lower family involvement, decreased family communication, diminished parental monitoring, more likely to be exposed to and victims of violence, and have more distressed symptoms when compared to non-gang members (27). Numerous studies show that gang members usually enter the lifestyle during their early teen years (25 & 27), so parenting is crucial to keeping youths out of the gang life. Also when juveniles are at the age of highest risk for entering a gang, their peers play a major influence in recruitment. According to the same study, one of the strongest risk factors for gang involvement is having friends that are delinquent gang members (27). Without proper supervision and parenting, juveniles are more susceptible to finding and hanging out with delinquent peers, such as gang members.

Social, Structural, and Individual Variables: There are many theories as to what social, structural and individual variables contribute to formation and proliferation of gangs. By looking at these theories, one can induce the variables that apply to our target gang within our target area. Frederic Thrasher (1927) described a theory of social disorganization which states, “economic destabilization contributed to social disorganization, which in turn, led to the breakdown of conventional social institutions such as the school, the church, and most importantly the family, which ‘failed to hold the boy’s interest, neglects him or actually forces him onto the street’ (p.340)” (10). In our target area, these conditions are present which could point to the reason for the gang’s existence. A gang can provide a sense of stability and organization to fill the void left from an economic and social destabilization. Clifford Shaw and Henry D. McKay (1931,1942), elaborated on Thrasher’s theory by providing a theory of “cultural transmission” which states these socially disorganized neighborhoods create a culture of criminality that is passed on from generation to generation (22). This theory is consistent with the information Detective J. Barrera provided saying a large percentage of current West Coast Crip gang members were, “born into the gang” meaning they have paternal members or other relatives who were also in the gang (23). Shaw and McKay also argued families in low-income/inner-city areas have, “low levels of functional authority over children, who, once exposed to delinquent traditions, succumb to delinquent behavior” (22). A lack of authority by a youth’s family, church or school can allow a delinquent young adult’s behavior to go unchecked. As this occurs, the young gang member can step through the gang progression (21) without the righting actions of a positive social support system.

There are empirical findings which support these theories discussed. Street gangs exist in environments that are impoverished, and where victimization, fear, and social disorganization are prevalent (22). People sometimes join a gang because they feel it will protect them from other gangs and help them escape their substandard lifestyle (21). Once they are in the gang, they continue a repeating cycle of perpetuating victimization and fear which causes more people to be drawn towards the gang for a perceived relief.

Part 3

Law and Policy Description and its Efficacy for our Multi-Pronged Task Force:

(Combination of Assignments 3, 4, & 5)

The Foxtrot Gang Task Force has used proven scientific research methods to research appropriate, reliable and tested programs to integrate into our multi-pronged task force. Below are the suggested policies, programs and laws we will use in our task for along with empirical data to justify their effectiveness.

Suppression/Enforcement-Prong: Our first strategy to our multi-pronged gang task force will be enforcement and suppression programs. To be specific, we will employ law enforcement officers from different local, federal and state agencies to be a part of our task force. Our task force will concentrate on long-term violent gang-related investigations that involve the use of state and federal racketeering laws and tactics such as wiretapping. With federal assistance to our task force, we will be able to apply federal laws concerning wiretapping and witness protection. They will also be helpful to cover overtime expenses, equipment, office space, and money for informants and undercover purchases of drugs and firearms in a similar manner utilized by the Los Angeles Metropolitan Task Force (39). We will also enlist the assistance of the San Diego Counties District Attorney’s office for assistance with investigations and Civil Gang Injunctions.