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Home > All News > 2009 News
Rally at Santa Cruz courthouse decries stiffer sentences for gang-related crimesPosted: 06/18/2009 01:11:45 AM PDT Updated: 06/18/2009 01:11:59 AM PDT
SANTA CRUZ - A new group called the Santa Cruz Alliance Against Gang Enhancements held a rally outside the courthouse Wednesday, carrying signs proclaiming sentencing enhancements unfair and urging "prevention not enforcement" as a better way to stem gang crime. One provision in the 1988 California Street Gang Terrorism and Enforcement Act can add 10 years to a convicted violent felon's sentence, if prosecutors prove the crime was done to benefit, in association with or at the direction of a criminal street gang. They also must prove the violence was done with the specific intent to promote, further or assist in criminal conduct by gang members. The act includes more than a dozen elements that define a criminal street gang. But organizer Jenn Laskin, a South County high school teacher, said such membership is difficult to determine and that trying to do so can lead to youth being unfairly targeted by police. Laskin said that while she believes gang violence is "horrible," piled on gang charges can lead to youth being given inordinately long sentences when rehabilitation would do more good. She gave an example of a 16-year-old accused of shooting into a Watsonville apartment building on Bockius Street in April who is being prosecuted as an adult and faces more than 20 years in prison due to gun and gang enhancements. Such prosecutions of teens as adults are expensive and don't prevent crime, she said. "Give that funding to the educational system," Laskin said. Demonstrator David Partida, 22, said gang members are often kids who grow up in tough neighborhoods and view police as the enemy. Partida said he has seen police harass people in his lower Ocean Street neighborhood. "They are intimidating," he said. "And it doesn't help." The rally drew about a dozen participants, but Laskin said the feedback from passers-by was encouraging. "People seem interested and positive and want to be informed," she said. Many at the rally called for more funding for organizations that help youth find alternatives to gangs, and said the priority is too often placed on law enforcement. Participant David Beaudry of the violence prevention organization Barrios Unidos said they lost funding for an outreach program several years ago, but that he and another employee have started walking the streets in some tougher neighborhoods on their own time every Friday, to offer help and referrals to those in need. "I've seen so much the last year, more and more violence; it's just heartbreaking," he said. "I had to do something." Beaudry said targeting people for gang crime can be analogous to casting a net for fish with little regard to what else is dragged in. Those with certain probation terms can be arrested for simply associating with gang members - who are sometimes family members - or reported by police to have had a "gang contact" for being with suspected gang members; the type of contacts then used in court to prove someone is a gang member. "They catch innocent people," he said. "People can get arrested for doing something like talking to an uncle or a brother." News Topics | Surenos | Home | Research | History | Blood Gangs | Crip Gangs | People | Gallery | Blog | |