COSTA MESA : Problem of Gangs Tackled at Forum

Robert Schnider came to the community forum on gangs Monday night with a simple question. “My son is in fifth grade and likes to wear baggy clothing,” said the Costa Mesa resident as he stood up before of a group of about 300 parents, teachers and students from the Newport-Mesa school district and two police officers. “Is that OK to wear?”

Officer Vern Hupp said the fifth-grader risks being mistaken for a gang member.

“You don’t want him to become a target” of gang members, Hupp said. Schnider’s question was one of a flurry from concerned parents directed at police officers, community leaders and school district officials. The two-hour meeting was the second in recent weeks to discuss street gangs in Costa Mesa and Newport Beach.

“I never been to a meeting like this (because) I never thought gangs would be a problem in our neighborhood, but it is.” Schnider said later.

The evening discussion at the Costa Mesa Community Center was organized by Ensign Intermediate School Principal Scott Paulsen, who called the meeting after a parent asked him for advice on keeping his son away from gangs.

The conversation ranged from a largely unacknowledged problem with white-supremacist groups in some Newport-Mesa schools to a shortage of Ping-Pong balls at the newly opened Save Our Youth Center in Costa Mesa.

Roy Alvarado, a former gang member who now works in the school district on gang prevention, begged the audience to “compete” with gangs for their children’s attention.

“It’s not kids at risk, it’s a community at risk. . . . It’s us at risk. The kids are OK,” Alvarado said with a laugh. “The answer is competition. If you want to compete with love, then you need to do that. If you want to compete with weapons than you need to do that. . . . We need to compete. We need to get our kids back.”

Sgt. Mike McDermott, who heads the Newport Beach Police Department’s four-man gang detail, and Vern Hupp, one of two Costa Mesa officers who work on that city’s gang problem, briefed the crowd about current gang activity.

McDermott said Newport Beach’s problem is mainly that gang members from across Southern California visit the city’s beaches and commit property crimes and vandalism there.

Hupp said Costa Mesa has four known gangs and 160 gang members.