Riverside authorities see ad as a threat
Investigators in Riverside are searching for whoever took out a classified ad that police view as a serious threat against Dist. Atty. Rod Pacheco.
Officials in the district attorney’s office believe members of an East Riverside gang known as East Side Riva may have bought the ad in this weekend’s Riverside Press-Enterprise.
The ad, which is being investigated as a criminal threat, was for a “Big Blowout” yard sale in East Riverside. It listed personal contact information for Pacheco and stated that proceeds would “benefit [the] Rod Pacheco memorial fund. Everything Goes.”
Pacheco said Monday that the nature of the threat suggested it was placed by East Side Riva members.
“It seems fairly obvious where it is coming from,” said Pacheco, who said his office was working with Riverside police detectives. “This is Riverside’s oldest, largest and most violent gang.”
Pacheco noted that the ad ran a day after the district attorney’s office announced a permanent injunction against the East Side Riva, prohibiting members from congregating in certain areas, carrying guns, publicly consuming alcohol or wearing gang apparel.
The East Side Riva was responsible for 897 crimes in Riverside between 2001 and 2007, according to court papers, and its ongoing rivalry with the 1200 Blocc Crips has led to frequent shootings. On Friday, the district attorney’s office ran a full-page ad in the Press-Enterprise warning East Side Riva members of all the activities banned under the injunction.
Pacheco, who declined to discuss the investigation, said the ad caught him off-guard and that he didn’t know of anyone who had a vendetta against him.
“We are not going to run and hide,” Pacheco said. “We’re not changing course because somebody put an ad in the newspaper.”
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