Gang troubles on the rise in Galt

When Rosie Pena and her husband bought their west Galt home 15 years ago, she never thought twice about leaving her back sliding glass door open when she left the house during the summer.

"Now, no way," she said Friday.

She's not the only Galt resident to worry about gang troubles in her neighborhood, and police agree that it's a bad trend.

"Our gang crimes over the past few years have been slowly creeping up," said Galt Police Sgt. Chuck Dedriksen. "Fifteen years ago, we didn't have these problems."

The problems he referred to include three weekend shootings late last month, at least one of which investigators believe was retaliation for the first one.

Graffiti around town is another sign of gang activity. While all taggers cause their own sort of destruction by defacing public property, it's the gang members who leave the crude symbols and letters.

They don't leave the colorful, unique designs often seen on train cars. Instead, gang members use black, red or blue paint to scrawl "Sur" or "XIV" in reference to Sureno and Norteno gangs.

On 4th Street, such graffiti covers a large storage container just north of A Street. One side is layered with crossed-out symbols, an unspoken testimony of the gangs' determination to come out on top.

Pena passes that storage container on her way home to her well-kept house with a tidy, green lawn. But she prefers that eyesore of a storage container to her previous route down Spruce Avenue, the scene of a recent shooting that injured two men.

One of her neighbors, Deanna Antes, also tries to avoid Spruce Avenue, though she didn't have to do so when she moved in 13 years ago.

"I used to be free to come out at night to walk with my daughter," Antes said. "Now I have to be a little scared."

Since the shootings, police have conducted a number of probation searches on known gang members, and one boy who lives on Spruce Avenue said things are quiet now. Fights aren't breaking out every night, Ricardo Guerrero said, and his mother isn't having to sweep up glass from broken beer bottles anymore.

But the gangs haven't suddenly disbanded, and police say they've gradually increased their membership in recent years.

"You've got people from Southern California moving up here to get away from the gangs, but they bring the gang ties with them," said Detective Bruce Ramos, who works gang enforcement.

Gang members themselves don't always cause trouble, but the problems arise when they feel a need to express dominance. Northern California has more Nortenos than Surenos, Ramos said, but now more Surenos are moving to Galt. Nortenos think of it as an invasion and want to keep their turf, while Surenos are determined to stake out their own space.

Gang activity tends to move in "nonsensical" cycles, said Lodi Police Detective Eric Bradley, one of the department's gang experts. He said the two biggest factors are the influx of outside gang members, as well as the number of gang members who are off the streets in jail. Since those factors are unpredictable, it is tough to know when gang crimes will rise.

Crime statistics maintained by the FBI show a cyclical trend, too.

Last year in Galt, there were about 66 violent crimes — murders, rapes and robberies — or about 14 per 5,000 people. That number dropped significantly from nearly 18 such crimes per 5,000 people in 2005, but it was much higher than 2004, when the rate was 11.39. And though 2004 was also lower than last year, 2002's crime rate was higher.

One crime spree can alter numbers quickly in a town of a little more than 23,000 people, such as Galt. The city had 14 robberies last year, according to the FBI. But in the span of about an hour on Oct. 30, two men and a 13-year-old boy — who are charged with, among other things, being members of a street gang — allegedly carried out three robberies. In 2001, the city had four robberies in the entire year.

Breaking the gang stronghold can be a challenge.

Antes raised her children in Milpitas, where her son began getting involved in gangs. She got him out of it by sending him to live with his father, who was active in church and also got their son involved in church activities. That worked, Antes said, and her son never returned to a gang.

Now she finds herself living in a place where gang members have stolen the decorative rocks from her front yard to throw at cars.

She'd like to have a stronger neighborhood watch group, but it's a challenge because most of her neighbors don't speak English.

Language barriers lead to segregation, and it often intensifies when children speak English and their parents don't know what they're saying or planning.

Additionally, some parents have to work so many hours that they don't keep a close eye on their children, Bradley said. Or some let their children get away with a few things, and then it escalates.

"The parent loves their child, but they're afraid of their child," Bradley said. "They can say, 'You're grounded,' but the child will get up and walk out and the parents can't stop them."

Pena has talked to her grandchildren and watched her neighborhood change, and she still doesn't understand why people fight because one is wearing red and one is wearing blue.

"Tell me what's the difference between red and blue? If you cut yourself, there's only one color of blood," she said.

Contact reporter Layla Bohm at layla@lodinews.com.