Police Crackdown Sends O.C. Gangs Off Home Turf

An ongoing police crackdown on gang warfare has lowered violent crime in some of Orange County’s toughest neighborhoods, but gang members are now venturing out of their turf and into public spaces where they face less scrutiny.

Investigators this week said gang violence is spreading beyond its traditional borders to bars, shopping centers, movie theaters and sometimes along city streets.

And while police have proven successful in limiting encounters between rivals in gang territory, officers say it is much more difficult to prevent violence from erupting during chance encounters outside.

“We’re finding that the gang members are far more mobile than five or 10 years ago,” said Orange County sheriff’s Lt. Paul Sullivan, a supervisor in the department’s gang detail. “It’s harder to hit a moving target than a stationary target.”

Recent incidents range from a wild car-to-car shooting in an upscale Fullerton cul-de-sac last month to a fatal stabbing at The Block shopping center in Orange, which police said had gang ties.

In San Juan Capistrano recently, gang members in one car opened fire on a rival group in another as both vehicles drove through a quiet residential neighborhood previously untouched by gang violence, according to the Sheriff’s Department. One person was killed and another seriously wounded in the attack.

“If you just look at the contacts that police have had [with gangs], you traditionally had them in certain parts of the county,” said Mike Clesceri, who heads a new district attorney task force focusing on mobile gangs. “Now you’re seeing them all over.”

Gang violence in Orange County has dropped by nearly a quarter since peaking in 1996--with gang-related homicides falling at an even greater rate. Law enforcement officials attribute the trend largely to a significant fall in the number of drive-by shootings in gang territories that were so common in the early 1990s.

But as traditional gang territories enjoy a relative respite, police said that officers often find themselves playing “cat-and-mouse” with gang members who are constantly on the move.

Adding to the problem, officials say, are new breeds of gangs that focus their energies--and violence--on graffiti and party-hopping instead of defending territory.

In South County, for example, several new roving gangs are believed to be responsible for a string of assaults and vandalism at parties in a half-dozen cities. Deputies on gang patrol now routinely target public hot spots like movie theaters where teenagers congregate to check for possible gang members.

And authorities recently charged 10 members of one group--the Lords of South County--after a dozen members allegedly attacked two teenagers at a Lake Forest gas station, according to sheriff’s Sgt. Bill Hunt.

In Los Angeles County, while most gang violence continues to involve turf battles, sheriff’s deputies say the same trend is emerging, with some Compton gang members who once stayed close to the city now traveling to neighboring cities to steal cars and commit other crimes.

“A lot of times they’ll live in an area but they’ll caper somewhere else because they don’t want to bring the heat on themselves,” said Los Angeles County sheriff’s Lt. Paul Denney.

Other gang members visit malls or entertainment areas to party or relax, he said.

In Santa Ana, gang-related homicides dropped from 48 in 1993 to just four so far this year--in part because police are targeting traditional gang neighborhoods.

But officials say that as patrols mounted, some gangs began to avoid the heavy police presence by moving around outside their territory, sometimes traveling to other cities, said Santa Ana police Lt. Hugh Mooney.

Gang officers have worked to keep ahead of the trend, with officers trying to track down gang hangouts and alerting neighboring police agencies when they need to, Mooney said. But chance encounters of roaming gang members are more difficult to prevent.

Last year, a Santa Ana gang member sprayed a crowded Costa Mesa sports bar with buckshot, wounding seven patrons, following an argument with a rival gang member inside.

Already this year, investigators in Santa Ana have recorded more than a dozen rolling gun battles between carloads of rival gang members, Mooney said. The episodes rarely end in injuries but worry investigators, who often find it difficult to determine which gangs were involved, he said.

When crime occurs inside gang turf, many departments have a variety of informants who can help quickly explain what happened. Detectives often find it harder to solve gang-related cases outside these areas--especially when there are few witnesses.

“In the old days, if you had a problem with a gang, you knew where they hung out,” said Anaheim police Lt. Joe Vargas. “Now you have to go out and find them.”

As territorial gangs branch out, police gang units have also had to grapple with new types of gangs that in some cases move across city boundaries. Groups of youngsters who once banded together to spray graffiti or attend parties frequently adopt signs, names and the behavior associated with street gangs, police said.

These “smaller, lighter, faster gangs” often prove as dangerous as street gangs, with many hoping to rapidly gain a reputation for violence, said Santa Ana police Capt. Dan McCoy. In recent years, police said, roughly 60% of all gang-related homicides involved such groups.

Fullerton police say they first saw the emergence of such groups almost a decade ago and that their numbers are continuing to increase, said Fullerton police Sgt. Joe Klein.

A dispute at a party last year attended by members of street gangs and so-called party crews ended in the killing of the event’s deejay as he tried to break up a confrontation, Klein said. The city, he said, has taken notice of the problem and tried to enforce strict permitting rules for all parties at large venues.

“Communities really need to be very, very concerned about this,” Klein said.