Black, Samoan Leaders Pledge War on Gangs

Black and Samoan community leaders told Oceanside parents and government officials Thursday night that adults must unite to fight youth gangs and their violence.

The session, one of several community meetings held in the wake of the death of a popular East Oceanside teen-ager, brought out about 60 residents who applauded speakers who said that churches, schools and parents must join and take the lead in providing alternate activities for the city’s youth so they will not be drawn into gangs.

Fourteen-year-old Michele Tate, who was black, was shot to death by a sniper Oct. 1 while standing in front of a Mexican restaurant near the back gate to the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base. Her pregnant friend was wounded.

Police at first thought the shooting was a drive-by gang shooting but later announced that the girls had been innocent bystanders and that gangs were not involved. Even so, the attack sent shock waves through the eastern Oceanside community and El Camino High School, where Tate was a student.

A 21-year-old Samoan was later taken into custody and charged with the shooting, which police said apparently stemmed from an earlier argument with another group of youths gathered outside the fast-food restaurant.

The Rev. Clarence Clayton, the black pastor of Faith Temple, pointed to the clashing of youth programs and the drop-off in parent participation in youth activities as symptoms of the problems that have led to the buildup of ethnic gangs in Oceanside.

“Our youth are out there on the streets fending for themselves,” Clayton said. “It has taken the death of a young girl to do a thing that should have been done a long time ago”--face the problem of youth violence, he said.

He warned that “very little has been done or can be done, if we remain deaf to our young people.”

Samoan George Molifua, representing the Church of Latter-day Saints, stressed the need for the Samoan community to unify and fight gang violence. He also recommended that Samoan counselors be added at the city’s two high schools.

Willie Buchanan, a former San Diego Charger, said that, in his youth in Oceanside, “we used to have a gang who ran together, but the difference was that our parents were concerned for us.”

Buchanan said, “Oceanside is still a good place to raise a kid in” but added, “We have to come together if we don’t want to become like San Diego and Los Angeles, where youth violence happens every day.”

Samoan Wayne Godinet of the Oceanside Boys and Girls Club cited the need for providing job opportunities and counseling for the city’s youth as well as youth activities and facilities.

Wally Molifua, an Oceanside High School representative, blamed a communications breakdown between parents and their children for the increase in gang activities and violence. He noted that, for the first time, there is an identified all-Samoan youth gang that calls itself the Samoan Deep Valley Bloods.

Larry Bauman, police public information officer, said Thursday’s session was called by the Oceanside Crime Prevention Task Force, Police Chief Lee Drummond and leaders of the city’s minority communities.

“We were trying to bring the people together to talk about the issues, not just about gang violence,” Bauman said. “And we wanted to get people’s opinions on what could be done, on more constructive youth activities.”

The Tate shooting, he said, was a catalyst in making the community aware of the city’s problems.