COSTA MESA : Police Tell of Rise in Gang Membership

Membership in the city’s six known street gangs is rising, and there has been a concurrent increase in misdemeanors, but there have been no reports of serious gang-related crimes in Costa Mesa, police told residents at a meeting this week.

The police gang intervention unit held the meeting Tuesday in response to complaints about graffiti, vandalism and loitering by gangs near Joann Street on the west side. About 65 residents and apartment owners attended.

“People say, ‘Well, they’re just a bunch of kids standing out on the street,’ ” said Tim Schennum, an officer with the gang unit. “But there are crimes that they are committing when they stand out there, like scratching things onto cars or into the light posts or graffiti or drinking in public. They also violate curfew if they’re under 18 and out past 10 o’clock.”

Many gangs form and then dissolve on their own, Schennum said. There are now six active gangs with about 150 members spread throughout the city.

Schennum told residents that Costa Mesa gangs, as well as gangs throughout California, are becoming more racially mixed. For example, the traditionally Latino “Varrio Lil’ Town” gang, centered near 19th Street and Placentia Avenue, now has a black member and a white member, Schennum said.

An Orange County district attorney’s report shows that about 60% of all gangs in the county are Latino and about 23% are of mixed races, he said. Asians make up 9% and whites account for 3%.

Schennum also said Costa Mesa’s gangs are not heavily into drug use, except for alcohol, and do not sell drugs to benefit the gang, as Los Angeles-area gangs often do.

But Roy Alvarado, who runs Project Stop, a program at Costa Mesa high schools to keep students from joining gangs, disputed that claim.

“It shows me how much the police themselves are in denial about the drugs,” said Alvarado, who also works as a drug counselor.

After the meeting, residents said they felt somewhat more at ease about the groups of teen-agers they see in their neighborhoods, but many expressed concerns that the minor problems caused by gang members may escalate into drive-by shootings, drug trafficking and other serious crimes.

“I kind of get the feeling that they are waiting for things to happen, but the police are up against the wall. It’s hard to say what the solution is,” said Ed Evans, who lives in the El Camino area.

Evans also said many residents tend to rely solely on police to take care of the problem and encouraged them to come up with their own solutions, such as starting activities for teens to keep them from joining gangs.

Schennum and his partner, Vern Hupp, repeated throughout the meeting that residents need to call the police whenever they suspect the youths of committing crimes, no matter how minor.

“We look to you for the extra eyes. We look to you to communicate with us,” Schennum said. “We need you to put up ‘No Trespassing’ signs, ‘No Loitering’ signs . . . and we encourage you to get ahold of us and help us do our thing.”