Taking the Glitter Out of Gang Life : Gangs: Santa Ana and county law-enforcement officials have joined schools and the clergy in a coalition that will work to cut off the recruitment of pre-adolescent members.

Alarmed by the proliferation of gangs, a coalition of Santa Ana and county law enforcement, schools and clergy representatives has organized to try to squeeze gangs out of existence by choking off the flow of new members.

Through the county-sponsored program, the officials hope to remove some of the imaginary glitter from gangs and cut off their recruitment of pre-adolescent members.

Calling itself Empowering the Community Against Gangs, the program joins the forces of the Santa Ana police, the Santa Ana Unified School District, the county district attorney’s office, the county Probation Department and members of the clergy.

The program will focus on Santa Ana, home of the largest gang population in Orange County. If the program--initially financed through a $60,000 state grant--is successful there, officials anticipate that other cities will adopt the concept to fight street gangs.

The program will attempt to combat gangs by training parents to recognize signs of gang involvement, or even interest in gangs among young children, said Colleene E. Hodges, supervisor of the county Probation Department’s gang unit.

Armed with information about graffiti, types of clothing worn by gang members and gang jargon such as “mad dog,” “packing hard core” and “drive-by,” parents will be able to identify whether their young children may have joined or are thinking of joining a gang, Hodges explained. The new program, she said, adds gang prevention to the Probation Department’s existing gang-suppression efforts.

“The trick is to catch them before the gang stuff becomes ingrained,” said Deputy Probation Officer Michael S. Fleager. “We have pictures where an older brother will dress up his 3- or 4-year-old brother in clothing that makes him look like a little gang member.”

For a youngster, it is never too soon to begin debunking the gangs, according to Hodges. “Show them that gang members don’t drive nice cars, wear thick gold chains, but, instead, that they go to jail and probably stay there.”

Santa Ana Police Lt. David Salazar said there has been a dramatic increase in gang activity in the city over the last two years. What’s more, he added, the activity has become more violent and gang members are becoming more sophisticated in the types of crimes they commit and the kind of weapons they carry.

For example, Salazar said, police have identified 60 gangs in Santa Ana with 5,500 gang members. The gangs have been involved in the sale of narcotics, automobile thefts and robberies.

Countywide, according to H. Wayne Field, a senior investigator for the district attorney’s office, the number of gangs in Orange County has increased from 80 to 100 in the last two years, with a total of 9,500 members.

Field figures that 70% of all street-gang crimes in the county occur in Santa Ana. He said that countywide, gangs were identified in 14 murders, 24 attempted murders and 71 armed robberies in 1988. There were 26 drive-by shootings.

“There are no other crimes that are more difficult to investigate and prosecute than gang crimes,” Field said, adding that it is a continuous battle to retain witnesses because of intimidation from the gangs. And because of gangs’ cohesiveness, when investigators question one member of a gang, it is as if they are questioning the whole gang, he said.

Police statistics show that the ages of gang members range from 13 to 30, with the most active members being between the ages of 15 and 18 years old.

Hodges of the Probation Department said the major goal of Empowering the Community Against Gangs is to develop a “self-sustaining parent network that can effectively combat street gangs’ active recruitment of new members.”

She said the goal will be accomplished by educating parents and school officials on ways to “extinguish early gang involvement among children,” develop school safety programs and provide “suggestions regarding security programs that would inhibit gang activity” on school campuses. Parents will be reached through presentations to parent-teacher organizations, churches, homeowners’ associations and businesses.

Santa Ana Unified School District administrators Nancy J. O’Connor and Ernest Gomez said that if gang graffiti were found in a student’s notebook or books, it would be reported to an assistant principal and the parents would be notified.

Gomez said parents are eager to learn about what their children are doing and what they can do to keep them out of gangs.

Additionally, Hodges said, the gang-prevention program is designed to create task forces composed of police, school district officials, clergy, parents and community business leaders to ensure the continuation of Empowering the Community Against Gangs.

“This task force would also address other gang-related issues as they arise, such as planning of training sessions, recruiting parents and teachers and the promotion of positive, youth-oriented events,” she said.

It will not be an easy task, but that will not stop the program, Hodges said.

“We could give in; that would be an alternative,” she said. “But it’s not too late and we’re not going to throw in the towel.”