Spartan Daily

University Police warn students about gang violence near SJSU campus

Leo Postovoit, Spartan Daily

Police arriving on the scene secured one wounded suspect and captured another — the rest fled south with an San Jose Police Department SWAT team on their heels, according to SJPD.

Four days later, on Sept. 28, University Police Department issued a campus safety advisory warning students of an apparent increase in gang activity in the neighborhoods south and west of campus, and advising students to exercise caution when traveling through these areas after dark.

There have been a spate of violent gang encounters in the last month, and UPD felt it was time to warn students about the trend, Sgt. Manuel Aguayo of the UPD said.

“It was an advisory to make students aware of the climate south of campus,” Aguayo said of the warning.

There was gang brawl at a McDonalds on South Third Street over the summer; a mystery shooting at 10th and San Carlos streets early in the semester that police believe was gang-related; a shooting at First and Willow streets on Sept. 18th; a stabbing at Seventh and Reed streets on the 19th; and finally the gunfight on 10th Street on Sept. 24.

Acts of violence aren’t the only indicators of an increasing gang presence in the area, Aguayo said.

“Property crimes are up in the neighborhood,” Aguayo said.

He said gangs use home and car burglaries as a primary source of revenue, along with drug dealing, and an increase in these kinds of crimes can be used as an indirect indicator of gang presence.

Graffiti is another good indicator of gang presence, Aguayo said

“There has been a big increase in graffiti all around campus and in the neighborhoods around campus,” he said.

The city of San Jose is very aggressive about removing graffiti, he said, but its constant appearance in certain areas is an indicator of areas which gangs are attempting to claim.

“There have always been spikes in gang activities,” Aguayo said. “It’s a generational thing … it's cyclical.”

As previous generations of gang veterans are caught or run out of town by law enforcement, there is a general dip in gang crimes until the younger generation become strong enough to make their presence felt again, Aguayo said.

SJPD Sgt. Jason Dwyer said a large spike in gang homicides earlier this year was successfully stamped down when large numbers of officers were, in response, re-tasked to gang enforcement.

"We have a 38-member metro unit that is 100 percent all-the-time gang enforcement," Dwyer said.

Entire gangs can vanish under the pressure of police anti-gang task forces, only to be resurrected years later by the few remaining veterans who have escaped police or been released from prison, Aguayo said.

Older gang veterans then begin recruiting fresh members from local middle schools and high schools, using the enticements of money, prestige, and pop-culture glamour to prey on desperate and disenfranchised adolescents, he said.

Aguayo said he grew up in a tough East Bay neighborhood, and thus knows these patterns well. He said he believes the area is seeing this kind of growth in the areas around campus.

“The majority of the gangs in San Jose are gangs that have been around for generations,” Dwyer said.

Dwyer said he worked in gang enforcement for several years and knows the city's gangs well.

“San Jose gangs differ from L.A. gangs in a lot of ways,” said Dwyer.

The most active gangs in San Jose are part and the larger Norteño and Sureño gangs, Dwyer said.

The Norteños and Sureños, or “Northerners” and “Southerners,” trace their roots back to a 1960s culture clash between established Mexican immigrants, the Norteños, and the new wave of Mexican immigrants coming up from the south, the Sureños, Dwyer explained.

These gangs began and are still largely headquartered in the California state prison system, he said.

The Norteños and Sureños are not specific to San Jose, Dwyer said, but are endemic to all of California and the American Southwest in general.

Bakersfield is a commonly accepted dividing line between the gangs, said Dwyer.

In San Jose, Dwyer said, there are about a dozen major gangs operating at any one time, and many more smaller, short-lived, gangs made up of less serious adolescents and wannabes.

The problem in dealing with San Jose gangs from an enforcement standpoint, Dwyer said, is the difficulty in pinning them down.

Although San Jose gangs will defend their nominal “territories” if their criminal enterprises are threatened, they are far more interested in looking for fights with their rivals, wherever they may be, he said.

San Jose gangs hunt one another throughout the city, and members from any one gang could potentially be found in any part of the city, said Dwyer.

“It's pretty spread out, all over the city,” he said. “The misconception is that East San Jose has all the gangs. There are sixteen districts in this city, and every one of them except the airport has gangs.”

Despite this, there are historic hotspots, Dwyer said.

“10th and William, you’re looking at a hotspot,” Dwyer said.

The neighborhoods around campus, particularly to the south, have had gang violence in the past, but are better known among interviewed students for their levels of petty crime.

"I used to live downtown on Sixth Street, there was a gang shooting there on Halloween once," senior advertising major Jennifer Giles said.

Audrey Ford, a molecular biology senior, said she has lived both at 10th and St. John streets, and at 5th and Reed streets, and has seen her share of drug dealers and other shady characters at each.

“It’s sad because it’s really not that bad downtown, it's just bad late at night,” she said.

Like most students interviewed, senior business major Ron Buena said he didn't know about the gang violence, but had heard plenty about robberies and other petty crimes in the neighborhoods south of campus.

UPD is more than willing to provide escorts for students walking alone at night within two blocks of campus, Aguayo said.

Beyond that, he recommended avoiding making yourself an attractive target for robbery by hiding you valuables, particularly money and phones, and always trying to walk in groups on the better lit streets.

Most gang violence is directed at other gangs, and they typically only attack bystanders if they get in the way or have something they want to steal, Aguayo said. But times may be changing, he said.

“The code in the new generation of gangs is much, much different than the older gangs,” he said, referring to an unofficial code of conduct among older gangs theoretically prohibiting attacks on bystanders. “With the new generation, there is more of a sense of entitlement."

Aguayo said he fears San Jose gangs may someday evolve into something similar in behavior to the Oakland gangs, for whom anyone is fair game.