Out of harm’s way

Ellen McCarty

FOUNTAIN VALLEY-- Jose Guadalupe Batella visited Benny Silva Jr. at

his home on Circulo de Juarez just hours before the former La Colonia

Juarez resident was arrested in connection with a shooting on Pepper Tree

Street.

“I asked my son if Jose had mentioned anything about the shooting, and

he said no,” Benny’s mother, Liz Silva said. “But I worry.”

Three gang-related shootings have occurred in the city already this

year. They are part of a chain reaction that, unless stopped, ‘will keep

the fire burning because no one is going to give in,’ Benny Silva Sr.

said.

The tagging on the Calle Zaragosa mural documents the power struggle,

residents said. Spray-painted acronyms like “CJ,” “OCM” and “SSHB”

represent the Colonia Juarez gang, the Orange County Mafia and the South

Side Huntington Beach gang. Neighbors said the gangs battle each other on

local streets, so they’ve launched a fight of their own -- a war to keep

their own children out of gangs and away from trouble.

***

Benny Silva Sr. recently grounded his 17-year-old daughter for hanging

out in the street with her friends.

“I tell her she’s got to be careful because the gangs will retaliate

for the Pepper Tree shooting any day now, and when they do, they won’t

care who they shoot,” he said.

Authorities agree there is a basis for concern.

“Gang retaliation is real,” said Claudia Silbar, the assistant

district attorney in charge of the gang units in Orange County. “It’s not

fiction.”

Gangs might originate in one city and branch out into others, and the

only way to stop them is to report their presence to the police, Silbar

said.

“If you don’t have any confidence in the local police, you can’t

expect them to be there for you,” Silbar said. “They need to know about

problems in order to react to them.”

Yet many parents in the La Colonia Juarez neighborhood see themselves

as their children’s protectors, not the police.

“I see the police come into our neighborhoods with guns, and I see a

black-and-white gang,” Liz Silva said. “We don’t trust them any more than

we do the gang members.”

Benny Silva Sr. and his friend Samuel Islas do not let their teenagers

out of their sight. In addition to full-time jobs, they each spend about

40 hours a week racing remote-controlled cars and playing sports with

their sons to keep them out of trouble.

Islas said he learned to parent the hard way. A few years ago, his

oldest son joined a gang in high school. The father said he won’t let

that happen to his younger sons.

“I go wherever my kids go,” Islas said. “It takes all of my time, but

I don’t mind. If you don’t spend time with your kids, the police and the

gang members will.”

Silva and Islas coached football together at Fountain Valley High

School this summer and plan to enroll their boys in sports leagues

throughout the year.

As he watched his younger brother race a remote-controlled car on

Circulo de Juarez, 15-year-old Sam Islas said his dad doesn’t have to

worry about him joining a gang.

“At first, I wanted to tag along with my brother, then I realized it

was stupid and didn’t do it,” he said.

Last year, the Los Amigos High School freshman was a star running back

on the varsity football team and plans to pursue sports in college.

Silva said with three sons -- ages 12, 13 and 20 -- keeping the family

involved in so many activities can get expensive. But he’s quick to add

that it’s well worth it.

“I have to keep them busy, otherwise they’ll get into trouble,” he

said.

***

Roger Flores, whose son was killed in February, said the community’s

relationship with the police deteriorated decades ago. He was roughed up

by a police officer when he was 15, one of many violent police acts

against members of the community, Flores said.

That old wound didn’t help the Flores’ confidence in the police

investigation of their son’s death.

“They don’t care if Chicanos shoot each other,” he said. “They want to

see us all dead.”

Police Capt. Rod Gillman, who has worked at the Fountain Valley Police

Department since 1972, said the harassment allegations are undeserved, in

the past and the present, and that the police have the best intentions

for the community. Resistance to police investigations only benefits

criminals, he added.

“A lot of times, they don’t understand that we’re questioning people

to protect them,” he said. “When a victim is a gang member, often he

won’t tell us who committed the crime and, instead, says he will take

care of it himself, which doesn’t alleviate our responsibility to find

and arrest the criminals. In fact, it makes our job a lot more

difficult.”

Resident Gloria Peterman agrees that the Mexican American community

doesn’t have a strong relationship with the police.

“I know it can’t be one-sided,” she said. “We need to work with the

police as much as they need to work with us. But it’s such an old

problem, I don’t see how it could be resolved.”

After Roger Flores Jr.’s death, his friends bought jackets

memorializing him, and police officers confiscated several of them, she

said. They also searched her daughter, Rachel Sifuentes’ car and took her

poems and pictures, anything related to Roger, because she used to hang

out with him, she said.

“When the kids asked why, the police said they needed the items for

evidence, but they wouldn’t say when they would return the items, if

ever,” she said.

Peterman said the lack of communication alienates a prime source of

information about gangs: kids.

Gillman said if someone is a gang member or hangs out with a gang

member, he or she can expect to be pulled over and questioned during a

criminal investigation. But, he said, officers only confiscate gang

paraphernalia, which includes pictures or anything boasting gang

insignias, with a search warrant or the individual’s permission, he said.

As part of the city’s new Neighborhood Improvement and Community

Enhancement program, the Police Department wants to provide more

information to the neighborhood and, as with all the neighborhoods in

Fountain Valley, develop a relationship with responsible residents,

Gillman said.

“We attended the neighborhood meeting in La Colonia Juarez, but not

many people asked us questions,” he said. Residents can help the police

by reaching out, he added.

Benny Silva Sr. hopes the police will recognize his kids as good kids.

“They see a group of kids in the street and assume they’re gang members,”

he said, “but most of them are not.”

FYI BOX

FIGHT BACK

Anyone with information about gang-related crimes can call the

Fountain Valley Police Gang Detail hotline at 593-4465 and leave

anonymous tips. Residents can get information on the Neighborhood Watch

program by calling 593-4488.