Mi Vida Loca

Small Town Gang Life
By Jared Lewis

Amidst rolling green hills, Green Bay Packer fans and dairy farms, Jefferson County, Wisconsin is not a place that one would suspect as having a gang problem.  Affordable housing and a low crime rate was what lead my family to relocate to the area 3 years ago from California.

We found ourselves in a city where everyone knows their neighbors and the most talked about issue is what impact the planned building of the new Wal-Mart will have on the community.  Lifelong residents strive to maintain the small town atmosphere with such traditions as visiting the seasonally operated hamburger stand operated by the Veterans Affairs League, who are known for making their ‘sliders’ hamburgers, a local favorite.
 
The term street gang is a foreign concept.  Occasionally, I noticed speckles of gang graffiti, but it was often in secluded areas and none appeared to be fresh.  I rarely saw anyone wearing clothing or behaving in a manner that would suggest gang members resided within the area.  As one seasoned resident told me, “Gangs, that’s a Milwaukee thing, Chicago, L. A., not here, not in our town.”

Throughout my travels across the nation, I have found drug and gang problems are only visible if you know what you’re looking for and even then, you have to be actively looking.

Last year I was asked if I would speak with a young gang member who lived in the area.  My initial thought was it probably was a youngster who picked up a few things from MTV.  The word “wannabe” came to my mind, a term that makes many veteran gang cops cringe.

Several months later, I sat down and met with him.  His name was Domingo and he was only 13 years old.

As he sat down, I noticed several tattoos on his hands.  I have seen gang tattoos on many individuals that were younger than him, but rarely on someone who grew up in a small community such as Jefferson County, Wisconsin.  Like a badge of courage, he proudly showed me his four gang tattoos.

The most distinct tattoo was on his arm which displayed the number “13,” a common tattoo worn by Sureno gang members.  Coming from a city in California with a large Hispanic gang population, I recognized the tattoo quickly, as I had seen hundreds of identical ones on the local gang population.   The 2005 National Gang Trends Survey completed by gang investigators throughout the nation, revealed Sureno gang members have been identified in over 51% of our nation’s cities both big and small. 

As I looked at the tattoo I noticed a long jagged scar ran across his bicep.  He explained that a few months earlier he got into a fight with a rival gang member who produced a knife and stabbed him in the arm.  He did not seek medical treatment out of fear that law enforcement would be contacted to investigate the incident.  Instead he treated the wound himself, which without stitches, resulted in a large swollen scar.
 
Domingo’s childhood was not a new story.  His mother and father were born in Mexico and he has one teenage sister who recently gave birth to her first child. 

Domingo has few memories of his father and has not seen him in over six years, since he left Mexico.  He has only spoken to him on the phone a handful of times since coming to Wisconsin.

His mother illegally crossed the border and Domingo was born shortly later making him a United States citizen.  Within months, they returned to Mexico where they stayed until he was 8 years old.  Both he and his sister were then flown to Wisconsin from Mexico to stay with relatives, until their mother could find a way to illegally cross the border where they would reunite.

Domingo has heard his mother talk about her last trip across the border several times.  She had to pay a man to join a group of other immigrants who were also preparing to cross the border.  They climbed through a hole in a fence, ran across a busy road and then to a waiting hotel where a room had been prearranged until they could finalize travel arrangements to their final destination.  She was then on a flight to Chicago and within days was reunited with her children. 

The family moved to a small Wisconsin town where Domingo’s mother found employment.  Their new home would be an apartment complex that also had many other immigrant families living in the country under similar circumstances. 

That was six years ago. 

Although he describes his relationship with his mother as almost nonexistent, he acknowledged his gratitude for how hard she works to support their family.  His mother has worked two fulltime jobs for as long as he can remember.  At the age of eight he enjoyed freedom as a result of the lack of supervision because of her busy work schedule.

Domingo also enjoyed a power over his mother that many immigrant children share—the ability to communicate.  He quickly learned the English language and both he and his older sister became the orators for their mother.  At the post office, the bank, school and the store, it was they who communicated to their mother.  To this day, his mother does not speak much English and has little interest or incentive to learn.

Shortly after settling in, he and his sister were enrolled in elementary school where he realized he did not fit in with those in his class.  He found his social outlet to be the other boys who lived in his apartment complex.  They too had recently come to the United States and were also surrounded by the strange customs, a new language and few worldly belongings. 

As weeks went on, he and his young friends were befriended by the older teens in the area.  They would soon become his surrogate family and the only significant male role-models he would ever have, however they did not teach him about the values of hard work, honesty and respect; instead they taught the 9 year old about drugs, alcohol and gangs—all lessons he took to heart.

As I listened to Domingo, I recalled a meeting I had with a gang member in Chicago, a member of the Latin Kings gang.  He told me how their gang focused their recruiting efforts toward immigrant teens.  “We would offer them protection and be a family for them,” he explained.  Before long the unsuspecting teen would be in the gang’s snare.  I thought about that statement as I listened to Domingo speak, but reminded myself, this is a small town in Wisconsin, not Chicago

Just weeks before his 10th birthday, he and his young friends were taken to the local park where they were beaten by older gang members.  This would be his initiation into the gang.  At the age of 10 years old, a time when most kids are more concerned with watching cartoons and playing video games, Domingo became a gang member, a Sureno.  That same night he received his first tattoo.

For the next 2-years he described a life of frequent drinking and smoking marijuana.  Occasionally neighbors would call the police when he and his friends were making too much noise at night.  Domingo said they would hide when the police came and would then break the windows or flatten the tires of those they suspected of calling the police.  Over time, few people called the police to report their actions.  They soon controlled their tiny neighborhood with immunity.

In return for the marijuana, alcohol and guidance from older members of the gang, he was asked to do small favors.  It started out with stealing items from unlocked cars until he graduated to stealing car stereos, resulting in his first arrest.  His criminal resume grew quickly, but then took a giant leap after he started transporting and selling cocaine for the gang.  Who would suspect a 12 year old of selling drugs, especially in a small farming community?

He realized that he enjoyed using cocaine just as much as selling it.  At the age of 12 years old this young boy living in a small Wisconsin town had already committed more felonies than he could count.  This continued until Domingo hit a bump in the road when he was arrested for selling cocaine to an undercover police officer.  He had to put his life on hold while he served the next 12 months in a boy’s group home.
 
Since returning home, Domingo described gang violence in the area as almost nonexistent.  Maybe every few weeks there might be a fistfight between rival gangs and rarely would someone bring a knife or club.  Only once did he hear about a drive-by shooting and even then no one was injured.  As far as he knew, no one even reported the incident to law enforcement.

At the time I spoke to him, he was just shy of his 14th birthday and had joined his school’s freshmen football team.  He rarely saw his friends from the gang and according to those who knew him, was making great strides towards a meaningful future.  I asked Domingo about his future plans and he told me he had just a few weeks left of his weekly court ordered drug test.  When he mentioned this, his rare smile was an obvious hint that his appetite for drugs had not diminished.

Through my travels, I have concluded that Domingo’s life is not just some strange anomaly in this one small sleepy Wisconsin town.  There are thousands of others just like him living in rural cities throughout our nation.  However, the gang problem is only evident in cities that choose to acknowledge the problem.

As I have traveled throughout the country, I am amazed by the overwhelming feelings of denial that so many community and law enforcement administrators display towards their growing problems of drugs, gangs and school violence.  Time and time again I have met with community leaders and police administrators who are quick to say, “Yeah, we have gangs in our city, but they are nothing like the ones you deal with in California.”

It makes me shake my head.  As I look back at the many gang members I have arrested, both young and old for crimes ranging from murder to tagging, I don’t see a difference in their mentality, lack of values, goals or interest in the criminal lifestyle.  There is no difference between a 14 year old in Los Angeles or a small Wisconsin town if they both share the same interest, desire and commitment to the gang lifestyle.   

With so many new criminal trends continually bombarding law enforcement, such as identity theft, computer crimes, school shootings, drug labs and threats of terrorism, the growth of gangs within the Hispanic immigrant population is a spreading plague that is growing unnoticed in many rural areas and once rooted, quickly strangles a city’s resources, giving them little time to react.

I just returned from touring our nation’s border with Mexico.  Just outside a town in Sierra Vista, Arizona, I had the opportunity to see our nation’s border and with no preconceived notions in mind, I was astonished by the lack of security and the sheer numbers of people illegally crossing every day.

For four hours I toured the border and was surprised that most of it was separated by a barbwire fence that had been broken so many times, no one even attempts to make repairs.  In some areas a metal fence had been installed but was in such a state of disrepair that anyone could climb over, or through, it in just a matter of seconds.

Many of the security cameras did not work and most of the watch towers went unmanned.  I saw no National Guardsmen and just a handful of border patrol officers.  I learned from the local sheriff that in their county alone, last year 500,000 illegal immigrants were apprehended.  With such little border protection, I was amazed that so many people would be caught.
 
The Border Patrol has stated nearly 10% of all those apprehended already have a criminal record for such crimes as murder, drug dealing, sexual crimes and of course, gang-related offenses.  In an 8 month period in 2004, over 30,000 people were apprehended at the border that had previous arrests for criminal offenses.

I concluded that illegal immigration is not a problem that will be solving itself anytime soon.  Most departments throughout the nation view the situation as a federal problem, however the results of illegal immigration affects us all and one of the ways it has manifested itself is the growth and destruction of Hispanic gangs.

According to the 2005 National Gang Trends Survey, Hispanic gangs are the fastest growing gang group, particularly in the immigrant population. The growth of gangs in immigrant neighborhoods is not a new phenomenon, however the rapid growth of Hispanic gangs, especially in rural America is a relatively new trend.
 
Domingo is not a gang member because his mother is here illegally, but his family’s situation, identical to thousands of other immigrant families, contributes to the problem.

Lack of parental supervision is a major problem.  It’s no surprise that immigrants are exploited by their employers.  Low pay, horrible hours and no benefits is the rule and not the exception.  In most cases in order to provide for their families both parents work and in many situations holding multiple jobs is common.  As a result, children often grow up with little supervision.

Another factor is a lack of understanding of the English language.  At a young age, the immigrant child becomes the family mouthpiece and it is not long before the child realizes that this creates a powerful position over the parents.  Many adults must then rely on their children’s ability to communicate and read as a matter of survival.  This creates a unique dependency on the child, giving the child more authority and power over the adults.

Many immigrant families understand little of the American culture.  As a result, some view their child’s gang affiliation as typical American teen behavior.  Because all their child’s friends may be a part of a gang, the parents accept the dress, talk and behavior as normal teenage behavior.

Like many other immigrant children, Domingo resents the United States.  He knows little about Mexico and does not fully understand or care why his family came to this country.  He knows that his mother is exploited at work and as a child he did not fit in at school.

It’s been over a year since I spoke with Domingo and I have been told that he is no longer playing football because of failing grades.  I also heard he is back with his gang.

The last time I spoke to Domingo I asked him about his future goals and from his own description, his future seemed bleak.  The only thing he spoke of any surety was his future gang affiliation and that he will probably be a drug dealer.

I believe him.

Jared Lewis, Director of Know Gangs, will be instructing on this subject at the 2nd annual, Wisconsin Gang Conference.