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Recent shootings trigger new look at gangs Law enforcement agencies uncertain whether drive-bys signal an increase in battles over turf By SARAH LEMON Mail Tribune A shot was fired at a Medford home last month. Shotgun pellets struck a car and a White City house in March. No one was injured in either case. Police are still looking for the shooters - most likely gang members, they say. Another "drive-by" in White City and possibly three others in Medford over the past month went unreported, police said. Investigators said they heard about the other shootings from anonymous police informants. Assaults and fights spurred by gang rivalries cropped up in March and April. An upswing in gang activity since the first of the year prompted police, school officials and community activists to focus attention on the situation before it gets out of control. Investigators said they know who fired at a Benson Street home on April 12. They just haven't been able to arrest the man. A passenger in a white Buick or Oldsmobile reportedly fired three or four rounds from a semi-automatic pistol around 3:40 a.m. A 19-year-old male resident in the home was believed to be a member of a white supremacist gang, police said. He told investigators that two Hispanic men yelled obscenities at him - possibly in response to his gang-related tattoos - as he was walking home that night. A Hispanic gang member was the target of a White City drive-by on March 28. Someone in a small pickup reportedly fired a shotgun into a home on 23rd Street near Avenue G around 3 a.m. Pellets also hit the tailgate of a Ford Explorer parked in front of the house. The victim told police that he recently had moved to White City from California and was a member of the Brown Nation gang, said Jackson County sheriff's deputy James Biddle. However, the man didn't cooperate with police. There are no new leads in the case, Biddle said. Police are puzzled by the increase in clashes between gangs over the past few months. The valley's menagerie of about a half-dozen gangs - Hispanic, multiracial and white supremacist - may be fighting for dominance, said Medford police Sgt. Mark Bell. Bell and a group of officers in Medford Police Department's gang and street drugs unit (GSD) make it their business to know the identity of major gang players and to make criminal cases against them. Peckerwoods, Brown Nation, Northside and Brown Pride are a few of the valley's gangs. Informants involved in the world of gangs, drugs and crime provide police with much of the information they need. Investigators know that gang activity typically goes down in the summer because schools are used as a recruiting ground. Administrators at Jackson Elementary have reported that older kids are trying to recruit new gang members as young as students in the sixth grade, Bell said. Cooperating with school officials, Community Justice and youth programs, police aim to get kids out of gangs, Bell said. The biggest reason kids say they join gangs is because it's fun, Bell said. Others in the community cite risk factors common among nearly all kids who get involved in gangs. Whatever the reasons behind gang involvement, police make it clear to suspected gang members that police will do everything possible to eradicate gang activity. "They're not the Boy Scouts; they're not the Girl Scouts; they're not the Future Farmers of America," Bell said. "If you want to be in a gang, it's not going to be fun." Police tell gang members that they and gang-related crimes will be targeted. But they don't do it alone. School officials have aggressively targeted the problem whether it's apparent in students' clothes or doodles on their notebooks. "We decided a long time ago ... that we weren't going to ignore (gang activity) until it got out of control," said Ernie Whiteman, North Medford High's school resource officer. A parents' meeting at North High early this year unveiled for parents many of the mysterious signs of gang affiliation. After the meeting, gang-related graffiti at and around North High noticeably decreased, Whiteman said. But at a Medford youth development agency, those kids can turn graffiti into art. An art program at Kids Unlimited of Southern Oregon gives at-risk kids whose traditional means of expression is graffiti the chance to develop their skills, sometimes leading to college scholarships, said Tom Cole, director of the nonprofit agency. The agency regularly serves kids who identify themselves with gangs, as well as other kids with the same risk factors - poverty, struggles in school and at home and a need to fit in, Cole said. "They're on the path of needing some help," Cole said. "It's a bigger problem than just gangs. We have to do a better job of engaging kids at different levels." Reach reporter Sarah Lemon at 776-4487, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.