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Hard-Core Gangs Attract Middle-Class Imitators

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TIMES STAFF WRITERS

One moment, the high school senior boasts of spray-painting graffiti, fistfighting rivals and guzzling beers with his “home boys.” The next, he asks a visitor to avoid trampling the colorful flowers his mother has planted outside their apartment near UC Irvine.

“My mom will kill me,” explained the slight, pale youth, who would only give his name as “T.L.”

T.L. is a middle-class youth who sports a black Los Angeles Raiders cap and cutoff pants, and punctuates his speech with gang-style street slang. A self-proclaimed member of a group called Los Suicycos, he is one of what authorities say is a growing number of middle-class Orange County boys who are emulating the dress, mannerisms and behavior of hard-core street gangs.

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“There seems to be a mini-trend for kids to get together and call themselves a gang,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. John Conley, who heads Orange County’s gang prosecution unit. “That may be harmless, but some go from the label to reality real quick.”

Far from the impoverished, street-tough image normally associated with gangs, these teen-agers live in suburban Huntington Beach, Orange, Fountain Valley, Irvine and Tustin.

Some white boys claim membership in groups naming themselves after two of the most notorious gangs in Los Angeles, the predominantly black Crips and Bloods--bitter rivals known for their drug dealing and violence. They have adopted the gangs’ traditional dress codes--red clothes for Bloods, blue for Crips or just plain black.

To be sure, Orange County has its share of more traditional and violent gangs. In Santa Ana and Garden Grove, for example, warring Latino youths were suspected in a series of drive-by shootings this summer.

So far, officials say, affluent youths adopting gang-type behavior represent only a small part of the total gang activity in the county.

But they are part of a phenomenon of non-traditional gangs that is being seen increasingly in Orange County. Termed by police as “hybrid” or “mutant gangs,” these groups are often multiracial, non-territorial and have members from families that enjoy some degree of economic success, said Colleene Hodges, director of the Probation Department’s Gang Violence Suppression Unit.

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Officials say affluent parents, who believe that gangs only form in lower-income neighborhoods, often have trouble accepting that their children could become attracted to aspects of gang life style.

Ann Ort, who moved her family from Anaheim to a tranquil section of Huntington Beach partly because she perceived that there is less crime, says she did not realize that her 16-year-old son had joined a local Crips group.

“We bought him the BK shoes, blue shoelaces and blue hats. We were just thinking it was a fad,” she said. Besides a penchant for blue, the uniform often includes British Knight athletic shoes because some youths like to say that the “BK” initials sewn on the tops stand for “blood killers.”

“We saw such a change in him and then he got kicked out of school. So we had to do something,” Ort said. The family received counseling at the Back in Control Center in Orange, a private organization that specializes in teaching parenting skills. The boy was enrolled in a wilderness program and now is staying with grandparents in Texas.

Gang counselors say that despite the county’s abundant recreational opportunities--from school bands to surfing--boys are drawn into gang-style groups by unfulfilled desires for companionship and self-esteem.

“They are looking for a sense of belonging and they haven’t found it,” said Anthony Borbon, director of the nonprofit Turning Point Gang Prevention Program in Garden Grove.

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The boys themselves say they join the groups to escape boredom and to develop a cadre of close friends. “It’s like a hobby,” said one Los Suicycos member. “You don’t have to do it, but I like being something. You can’t just go home and do nothing.”

So far, the new groups have limited their troublemaking for the most part to drinking, fistfights with rival groups and graffiti. But police and probation officials say they fear the trouble could escalate.

“They’re just party animals and then, pretty soon, they’re participating in gang violence,” said Deputy Probation Officer Mike Fleager, assigned to the gang unit. “You see them go from first to fifth gear in a period of six months to a year.”

The rise of middle-class youths mocking gang involvement has shown up in other counties as well.

In the San Diego area, a group of well-to-do youths formed the Coronado White Boys on exclusive Coronado Island. The police chief, Jerry Boyd, has warned parents that well-established San Diego gangs may try to violently retaliate against the island youths--known for wearing white baseball caps askew--if they feel threatened.

The development is beginning to occur in Los Angeles as well.

“We are starting to see some gangs spreading into the middle-class suburbia (in the Los Angeles area). It’s not a rash, but we’ve seen it,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Wes McBride, who is also president of the 500-member California Gang Investigators Assn.

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Police in Tustin and Irvine point to Los Suicycos as an example of what one officer termed a “yuppie gang” because of its comparatively upscale membership. Its members describe themselves as followers of the Venice-based Suicidal Tendencies heavy-metal rock band. Also known as the Suicidals, Los Suicycos’ symbol is an S superimposed on an upside-down T, a moniker that resembles a dollar sign.

Several youths claimed the group has about 20 members, while police put the figure closer to 50. With membership open to all races, group members say they are foes of the so-called white supremacist “skinheads.”

Los Suicycos member T.L. said he and his companions are quick to paint over skinhead graffiti. “If I see a swastika--boom!--I’ll cross that out. We’ll put up an ST.”

Neither he nor three other members interviewed will talk about an Oct. 19 incident at Tustin’s Magnolia Park in which a teen-ager, who police believe is a Los Suicycos member, allegedly shot and wounded a 19-year-old youth who was playing basketball.

A prosecutor says he is unsure whether the incident was related to the suspect’s alleged activities in the group and has discovered no motive for the shooting.

Another member, Spot, said that far from being troublemakers, Los Suicycos is “just a group of friends” who are out looking for a good time.

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“We just like kicking back and partying with each other,” Spot said.

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