OCR Text |
Show lnow Your Sheriff An informational series for Davis County by Sheriff Harry Jones This Week: GANGS and CRIME 1 d Youth gangs are no longer relegated to the evening news. The violent Los Angeles-area gangs (Crips, Bloods, etc.) are now attempting to establish a foothold in northern Utah, described by one California crime analyst as "the next Big Easy." The Sheriff's Department is aware of some 30 different gangs along the Wasatch Front. As in the larger metropolitan areas, most of the gangs number from a mere handful to 100 members, base membership around ethnic orientation, and support themselves through a variety of violent and drug oriented activities. Sadly, gangs prey upon youths who most need a sense of personal identification and they find it through gang handshakes, graffiti and AUTOMATIC WEAPONS. The Sheriff's Department has been tracking gangs for the past two years and was instrumental in forming a three-county gang intervention t program to hinder gang recruitment in schools and i neighborhoods. In addition, i Detectives Glen Parker and Dino Bolos recently returned i from meetings with Los i Angeles-area detectives where they shared information i on gang-related activity in Utah. . It's not alarmist to say that ' gangs see Davis County as ( fertile ground. The gangs t view Davis residents as considerate and possibly ( naive, unaware of the violent t crime they spawn. Well, the gangs are wrong, ( and the Sheriff, with the police i chiefs, will not allow them to make Davis County a "second ' home." In the Utah envi- ronment the gangs are more mobile than they are in ' neighborhood-centered California but their form of terrorism is the same... And it's ( a terrorism we won't allow i here. i 77js week 's column is paid for by another supporter of effective law enforcement: Robynn Glassman |