EDITORIAL:

Is crime, particularly gang crime, worsening in Costa Mesa?

In the past week or so, we’ve reported the shooting of a 15-year-old girl on Shalimar Drive, a bar brawl allegedly involving gang members and a suspected gang member arrested on suspicion of stabbing someone near Harbor Boulevard and Victoria Street. Then there was an Aug. 5 beat-down near the 7-Eleven on Harbor that left a young man clinging to life.

Just a rash of crime that’s mostly coincidental? Or a trend?

We’ll leave that to our law enforcement leaders to determine.

One rational way to address the question is to study the statistics. In June, the FBI released its annual city-by-city comparison of 2006 and 2007, and there are some interesting numbers revealed there.

For instance, violent crime overall was down from 306 in 2006 to 258 in 2007. That had a lot to do with six homicides in 2006 and none last year. But rapes went up from 30 in 2006 to 39 last year. Robberies dropped from 123 in 2006 to 77 last year. There were 147 aggravated assaults in 2006 and 142 last year.

Those statistics compare favorably to Downey, a city of nearly the same population.

But this is an election year, so be careful. It wouldn’t surprise the more cynical among us if some politicians exploit crime for votes.

The most effective way to crack down on crime is to help our police do their job. We saw that this past week during National Night Out, when neighbors walked out of their homes and joined local cops in a show of force to the bad guys. These events help grow neighborhood watch organizations, one of the most effective crime-fighting tools we have. If a thug knows the neighborhood’s not only watching him, but also willing to call the cops and turn him in, then he’s more likely to move on.

That’s what they’ve learned in the Shalimar neighborhood, despite the shotgun attack of that 15-year-old girl July 28.

“Ten years ago, you didn’t walk anywhere,” said Effy Sanchez, a neighborhood leader, during the National Night Out event.

But now it’s “peaceful,” Monique Perez, 12, said.

It’s always nightmarish when someone is shot on your street, but it’s comforting when the police take action, and in this case they have rounded up four suspects.

Let’s be careful not to be too rash drawing conclusions when there’s a rash of crime. It’s more productive to get involved with your area watch group and help our officers do their job.