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Lawmen attack North County gang violence

September 9, 2011

Law enforcement personnel blanketed Paso Robles over the Labor Day weekend as authorities rolled out their “Safe Streets” campaign, making 35 arrests and issuing 30 traffic citations.

It was the first appearance of a joint agency force, officials of which announced its formation just last week, intended to confront a growing gang problem in the North County.

The “three days of directed enforcement” was a combined effort of the Paso Robles Police Department, San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department, and County Probation, Lt. Ty Lewis said. Arrests were for narcotics, probation, and parole violations, arrest warrants, and numerous traffic violations.

Enforcement operations will continue “for an indefinite period of time,” Lewis said, noting the intent is to “leverage all law enforcement assets to address violent crime in the north county.”

The North County has been plagued over recent months by a surge in gang activity resulting in shooting and stabbing incidents. One victim of gunplay earlier this month remains in critical condition in a local hospital following an incident police believe may have been drug related.


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Well GUESS what folks!?

http://slonews.thetribunenews.com/crime/Paso/chart/


That’s right.. crime has DECREASED CONSISTENTLY IN PASO since 2003. Funny thing is, Paso stopped reporting crime data about 3 months ago, approx. the same period which they cited in their statements as being especially bad. They’re full of shit, and so are most of you. Sorry, that’s what the facts say. Nobody will rethink their position though, because most of you are not even TRYING to be rational.


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Now, if the PRPD would just put my office building under surveillance for the drug deals that go on there…as it happens we had another drug deal go down on Tuesday morning right in front of my front office window. I do, however, feel so very much better they got jay-walkers off the streets of Paso!!


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I’m curious how you know these are drug deals going down? It’s my experience that in small towns, people don’t really buy and sell drugs openly on the street.


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My office isn’t on the street. These are open transactions where one car, maybe two, pull into my office parking lot and park right in front of my office window. Either another car drives up or a pedestrian or even someone on a bicycle. They exchange no conversation, just a cursory nod of acknowledgement and present a small package for money; the exchange is made in a flash, and then they scamper like cockroaches. Sometimes they even take the time to open the small package and check the goods. If you are still curious, come by my office sometime and see for yourself. They really are quite bold in their business deals.


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No I believe you, I would likely come to the same conclusion, especially the part with the bike and the car, pretty standard operating procedure it seems,


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One more comment, because I just am so unbelievable frustrated with perception of people right now. Do you realize that the more you focus on this problem the bigger it becomes? What do you think causes people to get into gangs. Here’s what happens… you focus on gangs so all the police resources go into those areas, and profiling occurs.


– With increased contacts, there are increased arrests.. That would be the case with any group. If you decide to pull over all asian mothers based on profiling, you would see an “increase in crime” associated with that group.


+ with increased arrests, there are more problems with people holding down or even getting jobs.


+ families are broken up more frequently, either because of divorce, CPS taking children, parents spending time in prison


+ people guilty of minor crimes have their life derailed and resort to increased criminal behavior to earn money


+ people join gangs and make additional criminal contacts in prison


= a self perpetuating problem


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This is why gang members should be locked away in hard labor for 30+ years. When they get out they will be too old and beaten for the crime life.


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All you have to do is tune into the nightly news and you can see who is committing the vast majority of the violent crime on the Central Coast and elsewhere in the state. Rapes, murders, stabbings, drive by shootings, child molesting, robbery, drug dealing, etc. It is Hispanics. To say that law enforcement is racist for targeting the root of the problem is idiotic. I, for one, am tired of the politically correct mentality in this country leading the law abiding citizens like lambs to slaughter. All you have to do is look at the facts, but I doubt that you want the truth.


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All you have to do is go to crime statistics websites and you can see the facts. You can see that crime is down. I’m not seeing what you’re seeing as far as “it his Hispanics.” Any increased portion of crime attributed to hispanics is merely because their population is increasing here and poverty and crime happen to have a large correlation. But overall, crime is down, so any greater concern you show for crime is unwarranted, and is not supported by the facts.


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I saved you the trouble.


Hispanics According to a 2009 report by the Pew Hispanic Center, in 2007 Latinos “accounted for 40% of all sentenced federal offenders-more than triple their share (13%) of the total U.S. adult population”. This was an increase from 24% in 1991. 72% of the Latino offenders were not U.S. citizens. For Hispanic offenders sentenced in federal courts, 48% were immigration offenses and 37% drug offenses. One reason for the large increase in immigration offenses is that they exclusively fall under federal jurisdiction.[24]


Crime trends: Some studies had argued for smaller racial disparities in violent crime in recent times. However, a 2011 study which examined the racial disparities in violent crime and incarceration from 1980 and 2008 found little difference for black share of violent offending. Racial imbalances in arrests vs. incarcerations were both small and consistent across the time period. The authors argued that the prior studies had been confounded by not separating Hispanics from Whites. The number of Hispanic offenders has been increasing rapidly and have violence rates higher than that of Whites but lower than that of Blacks.[25]


Youth gangs: The “National Youth Gang Survey Analysis” (2009) state that of gang members, 49% are Hispanic/Latino, 35% are African-American/black, 9% are white, and 7% are other race/ethnicity.[26]


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Yeah exactly.. drug and immigration offenses, exactly what would happen if you increased your focus on hispanics as a target populations, which is what happened. What I asked, is where is the data that backs up what people are saying is occurring in Paso?


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I moved out of Paso Robles four years ago because I could see that the city was quite obviously becoming SLO County’s emerging ghetto apparent. I am so glad I didn’t make the mistake of buying property in P.R. when I moved there from Morro Bay in 2001.


Perhaps I am spoiled by having been born and raised on the Central Coast. But at this point in my life, I would rather see a police cruiser pass my house every hour or so, have the police stop me and check my I.D. every night when I go out for a walk, and even have a cop stop and knock on my front door every week or so – just to say “hello” and see how things are going. I would MUCH rather have those things you call a “Police State,” then would I EVER live in a place like Santa Maria or Salinas.


See how bad the gang problem would be in any SLO County town that could actually afford to have one cop in every neighborhood 24 hours a day. With age and wisdom, I don’t have too many problems obeying the law anymore – and I certainly don’t have fear or resentment of the police. IMO, it would be great to see cops walking the neighborhoods who we knew (and knew us) by our first names and where we lived.


I still remember a time in SLO when we didn’t even have a lock on our back porch door. I think the insurance company made my parents install one in the late 1970’s. Back then we had two cops who lived within a four block radius of us. But back then, police officers and fire fighters could actually afford to live in the same city they served.


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Wow, SLOChildrenAtPlay, are you sure about that? I don’t think you realize what you are saying. You wouldn’t mind living in a “police state”? Come on now! You can’t possibly mean that! What on earth do you think a police state is, a nursery full of benevolent dictators?


Also, have you noticed that with the rise of the current police state that law and order have been degenerating? More police and heavier handed tactics DO NOT MAKE US SAFER! On the contrary! Those officers out there are not there to protect you; they are out there to do what their superiors have told them to do.


What’s wrong with the citizens taking more responsibility for their own safety?


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This reminds me of the mentality people had in the 1980s over crack cocaine. White people might have to serve a year or two for possession or selling cocaine, while black people got 10-20 years or longer for the SAME EXACT crime. The way people get around the racism in their heads, is they identify some behavior or aspect of the crime that is DIFFERENT, but it “just happens” to fall along racial lines. With cocaine, the difference was in the presentation of the product… “crack” vs. cocaine.


But no, it’s not racist to focus on one particular group and find ways to give them longer sentences, or put the focus of the law enforcement on them, destroying families while people in the suburbs commit the same crimes. THIS IS RACIST B.S. and you people KNOW it. So quit trying to rationalize it, at least be honest.


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Where is your anger over all the people police killed last year? And yet they infest your community. Where is your anger over all of the mortgage loan originators that made money on other people’s misery? And yet they infest your community. What about the people that made the wine that people involved in fatal DUI accidents drank? And yet they “infest” your community. Look at the difference between how the firefighter Mason is treated, in comparison. Maybe it doesn’t make you happy, but you let it go down that way nonetheless.


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Sorry mkaney. If anyone is racist, it’s you. Law Enforcement focuses on the law. Do you think we should ignore gang members breaking the law so we won’t appear to be racist.


Years ago, the Paso police fought off the Hell’s angels gang and we have few, if any, Hell’s Angels around here. Now we have the Mexican gangs and we need to drive them out of the city. We can say we are just fighting drug dealing, but since the Mexican gangs are now affiliated with the Mexican drug cartels and drug trafficking, then gangs will be a central concern.


You seem to be suggesting that we leave the gangs alone. That’s what happened in Greenfield. You should go there for a visit.


As I said before, work on making your own community a gang sanctuary, and we’ll send the gang members to your city.


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Did I say that we should ignore gang members? No, what I’m suggesting is that we don’t TARGET groups of people, or add enhancements to their crimes for who they are associated with, under the title of effective-sounding slogans. I’m also suggesting that people should question more, and consider the motives for these actions and whether this is a perception thing or if these people pose a greater danger to you or your wallet than any other subgroup,


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Here’s my problem.. I’ve asked for someone to please provide some factual information, statistics, whatever, to show that their is any change/increase in crimes, particularly violent crimes, and who committed them. If I see that evidence, I’m willing to reevaluate my views.


But, no one is providing ANY evidence. And I think that’s a pretty sad reflection on peoples’ decision making process. So no one knows if their actually HAS been an increase in violent crime?


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Honestly mkaney, you seem to attempt to turn everything into a racist issue. Funny thing is, I suspect if these gang bangers were Irish or German or French or any Caucasian race, you wouldn’t have an issue with the current profiling of a “gang member” or be asking for proof that they are committing more crime than anyone else. I guess you haven’t heard of PR-13 or their exploits but even if you have heard, I don’t think it would make a difference to you.


Likewise, you sometimes seem to make arguments that sound utterly ridiculous, like stating that the estimated 923,000 children of undocumented parents, who are currently enrolled in our K-12 state school system have no impact on the education that is afforded to our own children! You have often, offered these suggestions despite the fact that the cost of these added students is calculated @ $10.8 billion and that is before free breakfast and lunch are added or the special language and social study classes. You also have told us that the potential 2.5 million illegal immigrants sucking off our state coffers (food stamps, medical and ER, housing and a monthly check for anchor babies , WIC, etc. ) doesn’t really impact the financial feasibility of our tax payer state funded social programs . Why should be bother answering you when it appears that raising racist rhetoric seems to trump all other sense of reason with you?


When it comes to racism, I think the difference between you, and the people who you imply exhibit racist undertones is an interesting one. What you don’t seem to know is that we would be screaming just as LOUD if we were being invaded by CANADIAN’s…….. and I think you would be angry too. I don’t know but I believe that you would object to any Caucasian Nationality dumping all over us American’s like the Mexican’s and Latin Americans are doing . I think some people think it’s vogue to rag on whites who defend themselves, somehow I think they believe that it makes them a better white person! I wonder what they think they have to make for?


By the way, all my facts quoting numbers or $$ come from the most recent PEW statistics.


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No Cindy, I turn rednecks exaggerating about gang acitvity into racism, which is exactly what it is. You would NOT be screaming just as loud if we were being invaded by Canadians. Mexico is dumping all over us because WE DUMP ALL OVER THEM. Take a history class or something, especially with regard to the effect the drug was has had on Mexico. We expect we can just walk in and take whatever we and then tell people who to kill and lock up? Well guess what, karma on a global scale is staring back at us.


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I commend these LEO for doing the right them, disrupting crime activities, without regard for it being a little thing or a big thing. ILLEGAL IS ILLEGAL get them all, white, black, brown, yellow. This is the United States of America. You don’t have a license, insurance, registration you get written up, fined, car taken, etc. Every adult should have valid and current ID. We should issue green cards to anyone here illegally. Why can’t our government require all illegals get a green card within 90 days in order to remain in this Country, they don’t have to become citizens to be here. The green card says you know the rules, will do the right thing, and if you don’t abide by our laws you will be deported and then no one should feel sorry for you because we gave you a chance. I do volunteer work and these clients drive up, park their cars and when they come in for services, but the only ID is their expired green cards. I say they must be registered just like the rest of us and when you break the laws you are no longer welcome. Has anyone gone to a bank, hospital, doctor, etc. and not have legal documentation.


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Down with the POLICE STATE.


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Not where gang bangers are concerned. When it comes to these criminals, POLICE THE STATE.


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Exactly right!


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BS. While you are getting you knickers twisted over local crime, you ignore the bigger picture of criminals in Brooks Brothers suits in Sacramento and D.C. The latter are the ones to blame for the influx of Mexican criminals among us. Criminal corporations who have bought off the government have had laws written and/or interpreted to benefit them at our expense. The Mexican drug traffickers work together with the power elite in the U.S. and elsewhere. THEY ARE IN LEAGUE.


How do I know? Simple. Why won’t NORAD keep out the drug smugglers? They can, but they don’t. That means that somewhere along the line, there is COLLUSION. I suspect this all has to do with their lust for money and power, but also their plans for the NAU (North American Union).


This is the big picture. There will be no solution to local crime problems with illegal aliens until the SLAVE POWER and the rest of the POWER ELITE are dealt with.


I am just as exercised about the noxious presence of illegal aliens as any of you. But you are missing the big picture. The NAU will simply be a POLICE STATE which will serve the purposes of some gangster world government. The POLICE STATE is here. Now. It plans to get stronger until you will be totally unable to resist it. It hangs bait out there for you unsuspecting and naive people, candy coated crap to put you to sleep while they rob you and steal your freedoms.


DON’T FALL FOR IT, PEOPLE! Their agenda sounds great until you get into the fine print. We DO suffer from these disgusting gangs, but they are not any worse, in fact, are not even as bad, as the white collar guys doing all the central planning and creating this “collectivist state”/police state which you seem totally to have missed.


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How is this stopping gang activity? Sounds to me like it’s just profiling and racism used to hand out more traffic tickets to Mexicans. And yet, no one person has offered any evidence of this supposed increase in gang activity. What were the numbers of assaults before? How much have they changed? Is this just the police making incidents as high profile as they can in order to secure some additional federal funding? That is what has been happening in small towns all over this country.


If anyone can offer me any FACTUAL EVIDENCE of an increase in gang activity and violence, I would love to see it.


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Lots of thumbs down but NO FACTUAL EVIDENCE YET.. I have no problem conceding that I am wrong and changing my position to support this, if someone can show me compelling information,


HOW in the world do you form opinions without having factual evidence? You rely on your own perception only? Welcome back to the 12th century I guess.


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Yes profiling. Just like preferences are given to college entry, jobs, government bids etc. Get use to it. Everyone else has been mandated to do it what’s wrong with the cops giving credit where credit is due.


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Because it’s NOT due their. It’s a perception of a problem that is self-perpetuating. People react, more people of a particular subset go to jail, then there are more family problems, job problems, and gang contacts in prison.. and it grows..


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Nice to see Chief Solomon take some time off from her entertaining career and put her “SAFE MODE” on hold and go out and kick some ass. Thanks to the efforts of our new Sheriff and all of the other supporting agencies.

Now that the city council can see how real leadership works in law enforcement maybe they will make the decision that needs to be made.


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Mr. Holly, finally a comment that makes sense! Thank you. These commentators all have opinions, but it makes me think of the way the ancient Greeks would begin their political discourse, “Let us begin with the truth and see where that leads us.” Too many “opinions”, too little truth.


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Thirty traffic citations? I suppose whatever it takes. Heck, they got Cappone on tax evasion, so why not?


Thank you, to the LEO’s involved in this; I hope it turns around Paso Robles and helps out the poor citizens who are being held hostage (metaphorically speaking) in the gang-infested areas.


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Thirty traffic citations was excellent. They were using whatever they could to check out the gang bangers and hopefully find something else that they were doing wrong. When they didn’t see anything else they could get them for, they at least wrote them a ticket. They arrested 35 others, that was an excellent day all the way around in my opinion.


Even stopping the jay walkers gives the LEO an opportunity to detect whether they appear to be on drugs. If so, then they get to search them and maybe find that they are dealers or in possession and put them into the system, which will cause them to be on probation where the LEO can keep a closer eye on them and get to check on those little punks at will for any reason or no reason.


One thing for certain, I don’t think we will be getting any of them for tax evasion!


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While that sounds great for busting public intoxicants and gang-bangers, the whole practice of giving police *something* to check out citizens for wrong-doing just sounds Orwellian to me.


Don’t get me wrong, I do not want gangs infesting anywhere, and sure, get them on whatever you can; but we have to be cautious here. I don’t like Brown Shirts, either, and this potentially has the “show us your papers” risk. Sounds crazy now, I know.


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Well said, rOy.


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r0y, I follow you loud and clear, you don’t sound crazy . However, we have to consider the problem we are all faced with. Once these gangs take hold, they take over entire blocks where otherwise peaceful citizens own property and reside with their families.


Those who have been targeted have no respect for human life. They shoot people with no regard for innocent bystanders, sell drugs and smuggle guns and rob, steal and burglarize and anything else they can think of to garner some ill found “deniro” . They also require that initiates commit crimes, often violent felonies to join the gang. They recruit young kids to sell drugs, sometimes as young as pre-teenagers. They have no rules except to tag their turf, honor their colors and take down anybody that looks at one of them sideway’s. They are terrorists, plain and simple. We know what they are about, we know they are criminals (dangerous, violent criminals) and we know how to spot them. If a few innocents get harassed because their pants are baggy and their butt crack is showing while they have the wrong color clothing, I’m sorry, I really am. Either way, only people doing something wrong are being stopped.


Gangs are insidious and we CAN NOT tolerate them in our county. I’m willing to bend the rules on this, yes I know it’s hypocritical of me, I admit it and make no apologies other than those stated above. I suggest non-gangsters pull their pants up, there is a war on and our gang is going to win.


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Getting Capone on income tax evasion was quite a bit different. This is how it began in Germany. You people scare me. I guess I should just be grateful I’m not of hispanic decent.


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mkaney, it’s NOT just Hispanics. NOBODY is safe in a POLICE STATE.


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Why don’t you KNOCK IT OFF? Nobody is profiling or targeting citizens of Hispanic decent. That is ridiculous. Do you have any idea how many California Citizens are of Hispanic decent? Do you have any idea how many of those citizens are Politian’s, Professors, Educators, Engineers, Attorney’s, Physicians, Merchants, Farmers, professionals of all sorts and otherwise, upstanding citizens and our good neighbors? Do you think the LEO are targeting a Hispanic Mom and POP on Sunday outings with the family? Do you think if someone has brown skin, they are automatically assumed to be a gang banger? Hell, I am anything but hip and I can even point them out to you. Many of them have already been identified from previous arrests or associations. Do you think upstanding citizens hang around with known gang bangers? Give it a break, you’re the second person to “rant” that the US is adopting Nazi Ideologies. I hand to politely hang up on one of you extremist the other day because they were ranting and no longer making sense. You sound completely PARANOID and not in the reasonable sense of the word.


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You miss the point. They won’t be convicted of income tax evasion because they don’t contribute anything and they money they have they get through theft and illegal means. And Germany did not arrest people for not paying income tax. mkaney, go enroll in a history course!


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Yeah, and I’m sure that being of hispanic descent didn’t increase their chance of getting pulled over, did it Cindy?


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mkaney , I honestly can say that I believe beyond any shadow of a doubt that:


If a car full of blond haired, blue eyed punks ,who were blasting their BOOM base music (what is that BOOM music called?) and or low riding and or were dressed like gangsters, or loaded with gang tattoo’s or otherwise appeared to exhibit a criminal element reminiscent of gang banging , the LEO would take notice and once that occurs, they would be “targeted”, because if it walks like a duck, and if the ducks are known for selling drugs………


They would be targeted, but not because it’s a crime to look like a duck, not because it’s a crime to own a gang tattoo or wear GB colors, and not because of their skin color. It is because we know what is behind that sort of posturing and it’s criminal gang activities.

Granted that 95% of the gangsters are Hispanic but we aren’t responsible for that and that isn’t what they are in trouble for. Why don’t you understand this?


As for violating people’s right’s in a effort to stop them and check them out. Heck all the cop’s have to do is pull in behind them and follow them until they get so nervous that they screw up and run a stop sign or something. Anyone ever had a LEO following you, it’s uncomfortable as hell even when you know you’re not a criminal of any sort.


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Does mkaney work for TSA?


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Thanks Guy’s, keep it up an we will love you .


P.S. Cramer still needs to get the boot or work on your unit with the agreement that he may not engage any Citizen other than a gang member. Take Mason along too, he can patch the guy’s up after Cramer is done with them. We don’t mind Cramer and Mason working for us in that capacity, do we?


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We don’t really want either of them. A bad apple is still a bad apple, and it would only denigrate the force overall in the end. I would love for crime to be handled by professionals who can do their job effectively and efficiently.


…but I get your point.


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