heres those articles you needed.....
I posted a lot of different articles in this post, its not one big one
October 1, 1995
Section: NEWS
MOTHERS UNITE, GET GANG MEMBERS ARRESTED
Mary Anne Ostrom Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire
SAN JOSE The well-kept Monte Alban apartments appeared to be an oasis in the middle of one of San Jose's most troubled communities. But some residents, who have watched as neighborhood youngsters grew into gangbangers, say they know better.
In what police are calling an act of courage they rarely see, a half-dozen Monte Alban mothers in June finally marched down the block to a city service center to tell their story.
The result: On Sept. 13, 135 law enforcement officers stormed the complex, arresting 19 residents aged 15 to 47 for drug, gun and parole violations.
"It was like living in a jail cell," one mother said in Spanish through an interpreter. "I now have confidence that we can do something . . . to make a better life."
The woman was afraid to use her name. "Life is too short to have to defend myself," she said.
Three years ago, she said, her teen-age son had been beaten bloody by a group of older boys while she had taken another child to the doctor. She said she had complained to the manager "but they said they could do nothing."
After learning from the city's special crime fighting team, Project Crackdown, that help might be available, the mother decided to do something herself.
"It started with the mothers," said police Sgt. Paul Panighetti. "We wouldn't have done the project had they not stepped forward. That was the catalyst to get it going."
But as life at Monte Alban settled back to normal Friday, some residents complained that families have been torn apart over arrests for having a rusty pair of brass knuckles that the children brought home. And, they said, reports that they lived in a battle zone were exaggerated.
Monte Alban residents said their complex really can be a nice place to live - most of the time. There is a Head Start preschool and the Just Say No to Drugs clubs the managers sponsor. In fact, 300 families are on a waiting list to move into the government-subsidized units.
But other times, they said, thugs brazenly sold drugs and strutted around with guns. Robert Martinez, who police say is a gang ringleader, would sell narcotics out of his bedroom window, even putting up a "Closed" sign when his day was through.
"They are the type of individuals who would go to the Capitol Drive-In and bring baseball bats, where you and I would bring money for popcorn," Panighetti said.
Martinez was arraigned Sept. 15 on charges of possessing methamphetamines and a stolen .44-caliber Magnum revolver with a telescopic sight, which authorities say he kept for the gang.
Gang members, who came from several families, reportedly grew up in Monte Alban.
Problems had escalated in recent years, exacerbated when a number of parolees nabbed in earlier gang roundups returned.
Yet most residents said they never bothered to complain. Or when they did, there were no results.
For one thing, it was widely believed that a manager's assistant lived with a gang member, the father of her children, who was arrested in the raid.
The assistant, Mathilda Rivera, 24, denied police allegations that she told gang members who was complaining about them. She said she could not comment further, pending an investigation by her employer who has put her on administrative leave.
Rivera has not been charged with a crime.
Manager Frank Ruplinger called "a little far-fetched" the descriptions by police and some residents that the complex was under siege. "I'm sure some people were intimidated. But as for total intimidation, I didn't see it."
For 20 years, the 191-unit Monte Alban Apartments has been owned and managed by the John Stewart Co., which controls 100 properties in the Bay Area. Debbie Burch, Ruplinger's boss and a supervisor of several complexes for the company, said she welcomed Project Crackdown to Monte Alban because neither her staff nor the part-time security guard could handle the problems.
"We weren't completely clueless. But we had no specific details," she said, adding that she could not comment about Rivera's role in the office.
But even when Project Crackdown began holding organizing meetings at Monte Alban earlier this summer, gang members warned residents not to attend, police said.
The six mothers, however, ignored them.
They met authorities in secret locations, even occasionally sneaking out back doors to ensure gang members didn't see them.
Since the raid, police Officer Dan Fino said callers to the violent crimes unit have offered more tips and are applauding them for "cleaning the place up." Others want police to come to their neighborhood next.
Police say the toughest task could still lie ahead - keeping calm at the complex where members of about a dozen families have been arrested.
A rival gang already claims adjacent turf. And the families of those in custody probably face eviction from their longtime homes, where they pay government-subsidized rents of as little as $200 a month.
"Our goal is to send them to jail," said Panighetti of the gang members. "Our real goal is getting them evicted."
That's what the John Stewart Co. says it intends to do.
San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright 1995, San Jose Mercury News
September 20, 1995
Section: Editorial
ARREST FEST BRAVE MOTHERS' COMPLAINTS WILL GET GANG OUT OF HOUSING PROJECT
ANYONE who's ever looked a young gang member in the eye knows that crazed look. ''Man, I'll kill you for nothin','' it says. ''I'll kill you for looking at me like you just did.''
So you can imagine the courage of a group of women at the Monte Alban apartments in San Jose in June. When a street gang moved into the government-assisted housing project, a half-dozen Monte Alban mothers worked up the nerve and complained to city police. This week, their courage paid off. About 135 law enforcement officers stormed into the housing project and arrested 19 alleged gang members.
For all that show of force, the bust netted one small weapon, some speed pills and a bunch of relatively minor charges. That's led some to cry police overkill, but the critics forget something more important. Putting the gang in prison wasn't the primary goal. The arrests will help federal authorities
evict the gang members and their families, and keep them out. That's what the Monte Alban mothers want and deserve.
Monte Alban isn't at all like the hopeless federal slums they blow up on the East Coast. Its beige stucco buildings are neat. No iron bars cover the windows. The manicured lawns and neat playscapes for the kids give it a suburban condo look. Losing Monte Alban to gangs would have been a tragedy. That's why it was important to nip the problem in the bud, and why the city should keep doing it everywhere and anywhere gangs gain a foothold.
And while we're recognizing citizens who get involved, try to spot the Citizen Surveillance Program the next time you visit downtown San Jose at night. They're a group of volunteers who spy on graffiti taggers from tall buildings. They helped arrest five taggers one recent weekend during a festival. N
San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright 1995, San Jose Mercury News
September 16, 1995
Section: Front
RESIDENTS FOUGHT BACK AGAINST ALLEGED GANG INTIMIDATION 'IT STARTED WITH THE MOTHERS' SOME SAY THE FEAR WAS EXAGGERATED, 19 ARRESTS WERE OVERKILL
MARY ANNE OSTROM, Mercury News Staff Writer
The well-kept Monte Alban apartments appeared to be an oasis in the middle of one of San Jose's most troubled communities. But some residents, who have watched as neighborhood youngsters grew into gangbangers, say they know better.
In what police are calling an act of courage they rarely see, a half dozen Monte Alban mothers in June finally marched down the block to a city service center to tell their story.
The result: On Wednesday, 135 law enforcement officers stormed the complex, arresting 19 residents aged 15 to 47 for drug, gun and parole violations.
''It was like living in a jail cell,'' one mother said in Spanish through an interpreter. ''I now have confidence that we can do something . . . to make a better life.''
The woman was afraid to use her name. ''Life is too short to have to defend myself,'' she said.
Three years ago, she said, her teen-age son had been beaten bloody by a group of older boys while she had taken another child to the doctor. She said she had complained to the manager ''but they said they could do nothing.''
After learning from the city's special crime fighting team, Project Crackdown, that help might be available, the mother decided to do something herself.
''It started with the mothers,'' said police Sgt. Paul Panighetti. ''We wouldn't have done the project had they not stepped forward. That was the catalyst to get it going.''
But as life at Monte Alban settled back to normal Friday, some residents complained that families have been torn apart over arrests for having a rusty pair of brass knuckles that the children brought home. And, they said, reports that they lived in a battle zone were exaggerated.
Monte Alban residents said their complex really can be a nice place to live - most of the time. There is a Head Start pre-school and the Just Say No To Drugs clubs the managers sponsor. In fact, 300 families are on a waiting list to move into the government-subsidized units.
But other times, they said, thugs brazenly sold drugs and strutted around with guns. Robert Martinez, who police say is a gang ringleader, would sell narcotics out of his bedroom window, even putting up a ''Closed'' sign when his day was through.
''They are the type of individuals who would go to the Capitol Drive-In and bring baseball bats, where you and I would bring money for popcorn,'' Panighetti said.
Martinez was arraigned Friday on charges of possessing methamphetamines and a stolen .44-caliber Magnum revolver with a telescopic sight, which authorities say he kept for the gang.
Gang members, who came from several families, reportedly grew up in Monte Alban.
Problems had escalated in recent years, exacerbated when a number of parolees nabbed in earlier gang roundups returned.
Yet, most residents said they never bothered to complain. Or when they did, there were no results.
For one thing, it was widely believed that a manager's assistant lived with a gang member, the father of her children, who was arrested in the raid.
The assistant, Mathilda Rivera, 24, denied police allegations that she told gang members who was complaining about them. She said she could not comment further, pending an investigation by her employer who has put her on administrative leave.
Rivera has not been charged with a crime.
In an interview Friday, manager Frank Ruplinger called ''a little far-fetched'' the descriptions by police and some residents that the complex was under siege. ''I'm sure some people were intimidated. But as for total intimidation, I didn't see it.''
For 20 years, the 191-unit Monte Alban Apartments has been owned and managed by the John Stewart Co., which controls 100 properties in the Bay Area. Debbie Burch, Ruplinger's boss and a supervisor of several complexes for the company, said she welcomed Project Crackdown to Monte Alban because neither her staff nor the part-time security guard could handle the problems.
''We weren't completely clueless. But we had no specific details,'' she said, adding that she could not comment about Rivera's role in the office.
But even when Project Crackdown began holding organizing meetings at Monte Alban earlier this summer, gang members warned residents not to attend, police said.
The six mothers, however, ignored them.
The met authorities in secret locations, even occasionally sneaking out back doors to ensure gang members didn't see them.
Since the raid, police officer Dan Fino said callers to the violent crimes unit have offered more tips and are applauding them for ''cleaning the place up.'' Others want police to come to their neighborhood next.
Police say the toughest task could still lie ahead - keeping calm at the complex where members of about a dozen families have been arrested.
A rival gang already claims adjacent turf. And the families of those in custody probably face eviction from their longtime homes where they pay government-subsidized rents of as little as $200 a month.
''Our goal is to send them to jail,'' said Panighetti of the gang members. ''Our real goal is getting them evicted,'' he said.
That's what the John Stewart Co. says it intends to do.
INFOBOX: (box) On Wednesday, some 135 law enforcement officers raided the 191-unit Monte Alban apartment complex on Santee Drive in central San Jose.
(box) Nineteen residents, aged 15 to 47, were arrested for drug, gun and parole violations.
(box) Robert Martinez, 20, the alleged ringleader of Varrio Monte Alban, was arraigned Friday on charges of possessing methamphetamine and a stolen .44-caliber Magnum revolver with a telescopic sight. N
San Jose
21 arrested at housing terrorized by gang
Police arrested more than a dozen people Wednesday in a crackdown on a gang that terrorized other tenants at a public housing complex.
Gang members intimidated residents with blows and brandished weapons, sold drugs and recruited children to serve as lookouts and hide weapons, officers said.
The crackdown occurred Wednesday morning at the Monte Alban apartments, with about 192 federally subsidized units for low-income renters. Police began an investigation in June, after residents complained about the gang, Varrio Monte Alban.
Officers searched several addresses at the complex and arrested 21 suspected gang members, 19 adults and two juveniles. They were arrested for investigation of offenses ranging from probation and parole violations, to theft to sale of narcotics. More arrests were expected.
Investigators said they found gang paraphernalia, several knives and a .44-caliber handgun.
San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright 1995 The San Francisco Chronicle
September 14, 1995
Section: News
SOUTH BAY 21 ARRESTS IN CRACKDOWN ON PUBLIC HOUSING GANG
San Jose -- Police arrested more than a dozen people yesterday in a crackdown on a gang that terrorized other tenants at a public housing complex.
Gang members intimidated residents with blows, brandished weapons, sold drugs and recruited children to serve as lookouts and hide weapons, officers said.
Officers searched several addresses at the Monte Alban complex and arrested 21 suspected gang members, 19 adults and two juveniles. They were arrested for investigation of offenses ranging from probation and parole violations, theft and sale of narcotics. More arrests were expected.
The gang had been active at the apartment complex for several years, but officers had only made sporadic arrests in the area, Lieutenant Tom Brewer said. Investigators did not know of the severity of the problem until recently, when residents came forward, complaining on hotlines and at community meetings.
San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright 1995, San Jose Mercury News
September 14, 1995
Section: Local
S.J. POLICE RAID GANG STRONGHOLD TASK FORCE: OFFICERS SEIZE GUNS, ARREST 19 AT THE MONTE ALBAN PROJECT ON SANTEE DRIVE.
RAOUL V. MOWATT, Mercury News Staff Writer
In a major move to end a gang's choke-hold on a troubled San Jose neighborhood, 135 police, probation and parole officers raided a Santee Drive-area housing project early Wednesday and arrested 19 people on narcotics, firearms and parole violations.
Police said they succeeded in Operation Reclamation, their bid to end the gang's power to beat up residents and brandish weapons, brazenly sell drugs day and night and prevent members of opposing gangs from entering the complex in the 1300 block of Santee.
Anti-gang tactics
The raid, one of the city's largest in years, was the latest anti-gang tactic officials have brought to central San Jose - and an approach they say they might use in other gang-plagued neighborhoods.
''Through this investigation, we're delivering a very strong message to anyone who attempts to intimidate residents of the city so that they can conduct illegal activities,'' Police Chief Lou Cobarruviaz said at a news conference. ''This is the kind of thing that we're not going to allow in the city of San Jose.''
Three-month investigation
Authorities said the 7 a.m. raid on a dozen apartments in the Monte Alban federally subsidized complex capped a three-month undercover investigation sparked by complaints to Project Crackdown, one of the city's most prominent anti-crime efforts.
Officials described it as a triumph for community policing, a philosophy in which residents, police and other government agencies band together to fight crime.
No one was injured, and only minor property damage resulted from the raids, police and complex managers said.
Residents of the 192-unit complex had reactions ranging from joy over an operation they said was long overdue to skepticism about its lasting effects to outrage that friends were arrested.
''The cops just came in, a whole army of them, like in the movies,'' said Michael Reyes, 22. ''They had it planned perfect, real early and everything.'' Reyes added that he was concerned that rival gang members might fill the vacuum.
Just a beginning
But police and representatives of the San Francisco-based John Stewart Co., which owns the complex, promised that the raids and seizures were just a beginning.
Among items officers confiscated were a .44-caliber Magnum revolver with a telescopic sight, a scrapbook filled with pictures of gang members posing with weapons and a brown jacket with the gang's name on the back.
The gang came to the attention of authorities about four years ago when members attacked someone at a Cinco de Mayo event. It has since become one of San Jose's most violent Norteno groups, said police detective Daniel Fino, whose legwork provided the foundation of the operation.
Grew up in complex
Most of its estimated 25 to 30 members have lived at the complex all their lives. Although precise figures on incidents involving them were not immediately available, the group has squared off with members of nearby Sureno gangs, sometimes bringing the conflicts back to Monte Alban.
Police said the group shielded itself from harm by enlisting children as lookouts and a secretary in the apartment manager's office to hide the scope of its activities.
The woman, who was neither identified nor arrested, told residents to contact her rather than police with complaints about gang activity, police said. Instead of giving the information to authorities, police said, she helped gang members retaliate by telling them who had complained.
One of many attempts
The raids follow several other attempts to quash gang activity nearby. They include Weed and Seed, a federally funded program to root out crime and provide job training, parenting classes and other social services. The city also obtained an injunction to prevent gang members in two other neighborhoods from a wide range of activities, but it will not seek a third injunction until the state Supreme Court decides its legality.
Lt. Tom Brewer said police would step up patrols in the area, good news for residents who want increased protection. The complex may take other security measures, including hiring off-duty police officers as guards, said Mari Tustin, vice president of the Stewart Co.
''It was about time somebody did something,'' said a 57-year-old resident who did not want his name used. ''I'm tired of looking at the same thing all the time. Everybody's drinking, everybody's doing drugs, and nobody's doing anything about them.''
Some were angry
A 20-year-old woman who said she used to belong to the gang was depressed and angry over the raids. Instead of concentrating on Sureno rivals, she said, police were harassing people whose main crime was just hanging around.
For others, such as Rocio Gomez, the effort wasn't enough. A janitor who is paying less than $200 for her three-bedroom apartment, she already has sent her 17-year-old son to Nevada to keep him away from gang members. A shooting and fight that broke out while her 2-year-old was playing outside convinced her to not leave her children outside unless she is there.
Gomez, 34, said she plans to move out as soon as she can afford it.
''When I moved here, it was different,'' she said. ''The kids here were quiet. . . . (Now) it's a big circle. It's the same problems, over and over again.'' N
San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright 1995, San Jose Mercury News
September 13, 1995
Section: Local
POLICE RAID TARGETS S.J. GANG SANTEE DRIVE: ARRESTS STRIKE BACK AT TAKEOVER OF MONTE ALBAN HOUSING PROJECT.
CATHIE CALVERT, Mercury News Staff Writer
In a major move to eradicate the alleged gang takeover of a housing project in the troubled Santee Drive area, federal and state agents joined more than than 100 San Jose police in an early morning raid today.
Law enforcement's target was the Monte Alban Apartments at 1324 Santee Drive in central San Jose , where residents of the large complex lived in fear of the Barrio Monte Alban . The gang had established a stronghold on the low-income housing project, said Sgt. Bob Beams.
At least a dozen arrests were made on assorted charges, including illegal possession of narcotics and firearms, he said.
Confiscated weapons included a .44-magnum revolver with a telescopic sight taken from ''one of the gang leaders,'' Beams said.
''We're trying to send out a loud and clear message that gang activity in San Jose will not be permitted or tolerated'' and that an environment will be created at the Monte Alban Apartments ''so people can safely raise their children,'' Beams said.
He said the streeet gang ''had taken over the Monte Alban complex and carried out a campaign of harrasment, threats, physical violence and intidation against complex residents.''
Information supplied to police since their investigation began in June showed that the gang ''controlled access to the complex to keep out rival gangs, sold narcotics and used narcotics openly in the complex,'' Beams said.
''The gang used small children to act as lookouts and to hide weapons. It recruited gang members to move into the apartments to establish a command center,'' he said.
''The people we talked to in the complex were afraid to let their children play outside. They told of gunfire between gang members breaking out, and having to run out and pull children inside,'' Beams said.
''People said they were threatened with hand guns. People were talking about fights, shootings, things that went on throughout the night. One particular courtyard was used for noisy partying with drugs, with music blasting through the night,'' he said.
''Intimidating hard-working residents who are trying to maintain the quality of their lives will not be tolerated by the police department, the mayor, the council - by this city,'' said Dick de la Rosa, gang policy manager for Mayor Susan Hammer.
''This morning, (at the apartment complex) a lady told me that kids were in the play yard when gang members fired seven or eight rounds in front of the little kids. Fortunately, no one was shot,'' he said.
Beams said residents were afraid to call police.
Today's action, he said, was a result of the confidence officers have won from residents over the past several months.
''This goes to the heart of comunity policing: the police department working with the community to rid their areas of crime,'' Beams said.
Today's raid, based on search and arrest warrants for several apartments, was among the largest in recent years, Beams said.
Approximately 135 San Jose officers, including those from the Narcotic Enforcement Team, violent crime and narcotics units and patrol officers, were joined by about 20 officers from other agencies, including the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the district attorney's office and adult and juvenile probation departments, Beams said.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development, the federal agency that oversees the housing project, also was involved, he said. N
I posted a lot of different articles in this post, its not one big one
October 1, 1995
Section: NEWS
MOTHERS UNITE, GET GANG MEMBERS ARRESTED
Mary Anne Ostrom Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire
SAN JOSE The well-kept Monte Alban apartments appeared to be an oasis in the middle of one of San Jose's most troubled communities. But some residents, who have watched as neighborhood youngsters grew into gangbangers, say they know better.
In what police are calling an act of courage they rarely see, a half-dozen Monte Alban mothers in June finally marched down the block to a city service center to tell their story.
The result: On Sept. 13, 135 law enforcement officers stormed the complex, arresting 19 residents aged 15 to 47 for drug, gun and parole violations.
"It was like living in a jail cell," one mother said in Spanish through an interpreter. "I now have confidence that we can do something . . . to make a better life."
The woman was afraid to use her name. "Life is too short to have to defend myself," she said.
Three years ago, she said, her teen-age son had been beaten bloody by a group of older boys while she had taken another child to the doctor. She said she had complained to the manager "but they said they could do nothing."
After learning from the city's special crime fighting team, Project Crackdown, that help might be available, the mother decided to do something herself.
"It started with the mothers," said police Sgt. Paul Panighetti. "We wouldn't have done the project had they not stepped forward. That was the catalyst to get it going."
But as life at Monte Alban settled back to normal Friday, some residents complained that families have been torn apart over arrests for having a rusty pair of brass knuckles that the children brought home. And, they said, reports that they lived in a battle zone were exaggerated.
Monte Alban residents said their complex really can be a nice place to live - most of the time. There is a Head Start preschool and the Just Say No to Drugs clubs the managers sponsor. In fact, 300 families are on a waiting list to move into the government-subsidized units.
But other times, they said, thugs brazenly sold drugs and strutted around with guns. Robert Martinez, who police say is a gang ringleader, would sell narcotics out of his bedroom window, even putting up a "Closed" sign when his day was through.
"They are the type of individuals who would go to the Capitol Drive-In and bring baseball bats, where you and I would bring money for popcorn," Panighetti said.
Martinez was arraigned Sept. 15 on charges of possessing methamphetamines and a stolen .44-caliber Magnum revolver with a telescopic sight, which authorities say he kept for the gang.
Gang members, who came from several families, reportedly grew up in Monte Alban.
Problems had escalated in recent years, exacerbated when a number of parolees nabbed in earlier gang roundups returned.
Yet most residents said they never bothered to complain. Or when they did, there were no results.
For one thing, it was widely believed that a manager's assistant lived with a gang member, the father of her children, who was arrested in the raid.
The assistant, Mathilda Rivera, 24, denied police allegations that she told gang members who was complaining about them. She said she could not comment further, pending an investigation by her employer who has put her on administrative leave.
Rivera has not been charged with a crime.
Manager Frank Ruplinger called "a little far-fetched" the descriptions by police and some residents that the complex was under siege. "I'm sure some people were intimidated. But as for total intimidation, I didn't see it."
For 20 years, the 191-unit Monte Alban Apartments has been owned and managed by the John Stewart Co., which controls 100 properties in the Bay Area. Debbie Burch, Ruplinger's boss and a supervisor of several complexes for the company, said she welcomed Project Crackdown to Monte Alban because neither her staff nor the part-time security guard could handle the problems.
"We weren't completely clueless. But we had no specific details," she said, adding that she could not comment about Rivera's role in the office.
But even when Project Crackdown began holding organizing meetings at Monte Alban earlier this summer, gang members warned residents not to attend, police said.
The six mothers, however, ignored them.
They met authorities in secret locations, even occasionally sneaking out back doors to ensure gang members didn't see them.
Since the raid, police Officer Dan Fino said callers to the violent crimes unit have offered more tips and are applauding them for "cleaning the place up." Others want police to come to their neighborhood next.
Police say the toughest task could still lie ahead - keeping calm at the complex where members of about a dozen families have been arrested.
A rival gang already claims adjacent turf. And the families of those in custody probably face eviction from their longtime homes, where they pay government-subsidized rents of as little as $200 a month.
"Our goal is to send them to jail," said Panighetti of the gang members. "Our real goal is getting them evicted."
That's what the John Stewart Co. says it intends to do.
San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright 1995, San Jose Mercury News
September 20, 1995
Section: Editorial
ARREST FEST BRAVE MOTHERS' COMPLAINTS WILL GET GANG OUT OF HOUSING PROJECT
ANYONE who's ever looked a young gang member in the eye knows that crazed look. ''Man, I'll kill you for nothin','' it says. ''I'll kill you for looking at me like you just did.''
So you can imagine the courage of a group of women at the Monte Alban apartments in San Jose in June. When a street gang moved into the government-assisted housing project, a half-dozen Monte Alban mothers worked up the nerve and complained to city police. This week, their courage paid off. About 135 law enforcement officers stormed into the housing project and arrested 19 alleged gang members.
For all that show of force, the bust netted one small weapon, some speed pills and a bunch of relatively minor charges. That's led some to cry police overkill, but the critics forget something more important. Putting the gang in prison wasn't the primary goal. The arrests will help federal authorities
evict the gang members and their families, and keep them out. That's what the Monte Alban mothers want and deserve.
Monte Alban isn't at all like the hopeless federal slums they blow up on the East Coast. Its beige stucco buildings are neat. No iron bars cover the windows. The manicured lawns and neat playscapes for the kids give it a suburban condo look. Losing Monte Alban to gangs would have been a tragedy. That's why it was important to nip the problem in the bud, and why the city should keep doing it everywhere and anywhere gangs gain a foothold.
And while we're recognizing citizens who get involved, try to spot the Citizen Surveillance Program the next time you visit downtown San Jose at night. They're a group of volunteers who spy on graffiti taggers from tall buildings. They helped arrest five taggers one recent weekend during a festival. N
San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright 1995, San Jose Mercury News
September 16, 1995
Section: Front
RESIDENTS FOUGHT BACK AGAINST ALLEGED GANG INTIMIDATION 'IT STARTED WITH THE MOTHERS' SOME SAY THE FEAR WAS EXAGGERATED, 19 ARRESTS WERE OVERKILL
MARY ANNE OSTROM, Mercury News Staff Writer
The well-kept Monte Alban apartments appeared to be an oasis in the middle of one of San Jose's most troubled communities. But some residents, who have watched as neighborhood youngsters grew into gangbangers, say they know better.
In what police are calling an act of courage they rarely see, a half dozen Monte Alban mothers in June finally marched down the block to a city service center to tell their story.
The result: On Wednesday, 135 law enforcement officers stormed the complex, arresting 19 residents aged 15 to 47 for drug, gun and parole violations.
''It was like living in a jail cell,'' one mother said in Spanish through an interpreter. ''I now have confidence that we can do something . . . to make a better life.''
The woman was afraid to use her name. ''Life is too short to have to defend myself,'' she said.
Three years ago, she said, her teen-age son had been beaten bloody by a group of older boys while she had taken another child to the doctor. She said she had complained to the manager ''but they said they could do nothing.''
After learning from the city's special crime fighting team, Project Crackdown, that help might be available, the mother decided to do something herself.
''It started with the mothers,'' said police Sgt. Paul Panighetti. ''We wouldn't have done the project had they not stepped forward. That was the catalyst to get it going.''
But as life at Monte Alban settled back to normal Friday, some residents complained that families have been torn apart over arrests for having a rusty pair of brass knuckles that the children brought home. And, they said, reports that they lived in a battle zone were exaggerated.
Monte Alban residents said their complex really can be a nice place to live - most of the time. There is a Head Start pre-school and the Just Say No To Drugs clubs the managers sponsor. In fact, 300 families are on a waiting list to move into the government-subsidized units.
But other times, they said, thugs brazenly sold drugs and strutted around with guns. Robert Martinez, who police say is a gang ringleader, would sell narcotics out of his bedroom window, even putting up a ''Closed'' sign when his day was through.
''They are the type of individuals who would go to the Capitol Drive-In and bring baseball bats, where you and I would bring money for popcorn,'' Panighetti said.
Martinez was arraigned Friday on charges of possessing methamphetamines and a stolen .44-caliber Magnum revolver with a telescopic sight, which authorities say he kept for the gang.
Gang members, who came from several families, reportedly grew up in Monte Alban.
Problems had escalated in recent years, exacerbated when a number of parolees nabbed in earlier gang roundups returned.
Yet, most residents said they never bothered to complain. Or when they did, there were no results.
For one thing, it was widely believed that a manager's assistant lived with a gang member, the father of her children, who was arrested in the raid.
The assistant, Mathilda Rivera, 24, denied police allegations that she told gang members who was complaining about them. She said she could not comment further, pending an investigation by her employer who has put her on administrative leave.
Rivera has not been charged with a crime.
In an interview Friday, manager Frank Ruplinger called ''a little far-fetched'' the descriptions by police and some residents that the complex was under siege. ''I'm sure some people were intimidated. But as for total intimidation, I didn't see it.''
For 20 years, the 191-unit Monte Alban Apartments has been owned and managed by the John Stewart Co., which controls 100 properties in the Bay Area. Debbie Burch, Ruplinger's boss and a supervisor of several complexes for the company, said she welcomed Project Crackdown to Monte Alban because neither her staff nor the part-time security guard could handle the problems.
''We weren't completely clueless. But we had no specific details,'' she said, adding that she could not comment about Rivera's role in the office.
But even when Project Crackdown began holding organizing meetings at Monte Alban earlier this summer, gang members warned residents not to attend, police said.
The six mothers, however, ignored them.
The met authorities in secret locations, even occasionally sneaking out back doors to ensure gang members didn't see them.
Since the raid, police officer Dan Fino said callers to the violent crimes unit have offered more tips and are applauding them for ''cleaning the place up.'' Others want police to come to their neighborhood next.
Police say the toughest task could still lie ahead - keeping calm at the complex where members of about a dozen families have been arrested.
A rival gang already claims adjacent turf. And the families of those in custody probably face eviction from their longtime homes where they pay government-subsidized rents of as little as $200 a month.
''Our goal is to send them to jail,'' said Panighetti of the gang members. ''Our real goal is getting them evicted,'' he said.
That's what the John Stewart Co. says it intends to do.
INFOBOX: (box) On Wednesday, some 135 law enforcement officers raided the 191-unit Monte Alban apartment complex on Santee Drive in central San Jose.
(box) Nineteen residents, aged 15 to 47, were arrested for drug, gun and parole violations.
(box) Robert Martinez, 20, the alleged ringleader of Varrio Monte Alban, was arraigned Friday on charges of possessing methamphetamine and a stolen .44-caliber Magnum revolver with a telescopic sight. N
San Jose
21 arrested at housing terrorized by gang
Police arrested more than a dozen people Wednesday in a crackdown on a gang that terrorized other tenants at a public housing complex.
Gang members intimidated residents with blows and brandished weapons, sold drugs and recruited children to serve as lookouts and hide weapons, officers said.
The crackdown occurred Wednesday morning at the Monte Alban apartments, with about 192 federally subsidized units for low-income renters. Police began an investigation in June, after residents complained about the gang, Varrio Monte Alban.
Officers searched several addresses at the complex and arrested 21 suspected gang members, 19 adults and two juveniles. They were arrested for investigation of offenses ranging from probation and parole violations, to theft to sale of narcotics. More arrests were expected.
Investigators said they found gang paraphernalia, several knives and a .44-caliber handgun.
San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright 1995 The San Francisco Chronicle
September 14, 1995
Section: News
SOUTH BAY 21 ARRESTS IN CRACKDOWN ON PUBLIC HOUSING GANG
San Jose -- Police arrested more than a dozen people yesterday in a crackdown on a gang that terrorized other tenants at a public housing complex.
Gang members intimidated residents with blows, brandished weapons, sold drugs and recruited children to serve as lookouts and hide weapons, officers said.
Officers searched several addresses at the Monte Alban complex and arrested 21 suspected gang members, 19 adults and two juveniles. They were arrested for investigation of offenses ranging from probation and parole violations, theft and sale of narcotics. More arrests were expected.
The gang had been active at the apartment complex for several years, but officers had only made sporadic arrests in the area, Lieutenant Tom Brewer said. Investigators did not know of the severity of the problem until recently, when residents came forward, complaining on hotlines and at community meetings.
San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright 1995, San Jose Mercury News
September 14, 1995
Section: Local
S.J. POLICE RAID GANG STRONGHOLD TASK FORCE: OFFICERS SEIZE GUNS, ARREST 19 AT THE MONTE ALBAN PROJECT ON SANTEE DRIVE.
RAOUL V. MOWATT, Mercury News Staff Writer
In a major move to end a gang's choke-hold on a troubled San Jose neighborhood, 135 police, probation and parole officers raided a Santee Drive-area housing project early Wednesday and arrested 19 people on narcotics, firearms and parole violations.
Police said they succeeded in Operation Reclamation, their bid to end the gang's power to beat up residents and brandish weapons, brazenly sell drugs day and night and prevent members of opposing gangs from entering the complex in the 1300 block of Santee.
Anti-gang tactics
The raid, one of the city's largest in years, was the latest anti-gang tactic officials have brought to central San Jose - and an approach they say they might use in other gang-plagued neighborhoods.
''Through this investigation, we're delivering a very strong message to anyone who attempts to intimidate residents of the city so that they can conduct illegal activities,'' Police Chief Lou Cobarruviaz said at a news conference. ''This is the kind of thing that we're not going to allow in the city of San Jose.''
Three-month investigation
Authorities said the 7 a.m. raid on a dozen apartments in the Monte Alban federally subsidized complex capped a three-month undercover investigation sparked by complaints to Project Crackdown, one of the city's most prominent anti-crime efforts.
Officials described it as a triumph for community policing, a philosophy in which residents, police and other government agencies band together to fight crime.
No one was injured, and only minor property damage resulted from the raids, police and complex managers said.
Residents of the 192-unit complex had reactions ranging from joy over an operation they said was long overdue to skepticism about its lasting effects to outrage that friends were arrested.
''The cops just came in, a whole army of them, like in the movies,'' said Michael Reyes, 22. ''They had it planned perfect, real early and everything.'' Reyes added that he was concerned that rival gang members might fill the vacuum.
Just a beginning
But police and representatives of the San Francisco-based John Stewart Co., which owns the complex, promised that the raids and seizures were just a beginning.
Among items officers confiscated were a .44-caliber Magnum revolver with a telescopic sight, a scrapbook filled with pictures of gang members posing with weapons and a brown jacket with the gang's name on the back.
The gang came to the attention of authorities about four years ago when members attacked someone at a Cinco de Mayo event. It has since become one of San Jose's most violent Norteno groups, said police detective Daniel Fino, whose legwork provided the foundation of the operation.
Grew up in complex
Most of its estimated 25 to 30 members have lived at the complex all their lives. Although precise figures on incidents involving them were not immediately available, the group has squared off with members of nearby Sureno gangs, sometimes bringing the conflicts back to Monte Alban.
Police said the group shielded itself from harm by enlisting children as lookouts and a secretary in the apartment manager's office to hide the scope of its activities.
The woman, who was neither identified nor arrested, told residents to contact her rather than police with complaints about gang activity, police said. Instead of giving the information to authorities, police said, she helped gang members retaliate by telling them who had complained.
One of many attempts
The raids follow several other attempts to quash gang activity nearby. They include Weed and Seed, a federally funded program to root out crime and provide job training, parenting classes and other social services. The city also obtained an injunction to prevent gang members in two other neighborhoods from a wide range of activities, but it will not seek a third injunction until the state Supreme Court decides its legality.
Lt. Tom Brewer said police would step up patrols in the area, good news for residents who want increased protection. The complex may take other security measures, including hiring off-duty police officers as guards, said Mari Tustin, vice president of the Stewart Co.
''It was about time somebody did something,'' said a 57-year-old resident who did not want his name used. ''I'm tired of looking at the same thing all the time. Everybody's drinking, everybody's doing drugs, and nobody's doing anything about them.''
Some were angry
A 20-year-old woman who said she used to belong to the gang was depressed and angry over the raids. Instead of concentrating on Sureno rivals, she said, police were harassing people whose main crime was just hanging around.
For others, such as Rocio Gomez, the effort wasn't enough. A janitor who is paying less than $200 for her three-bedroom apartment, she already has sent her 17-year-old son to Nevada to keep him away from gang members. A shooting and fight that broke out while her 2-year-old was playing outside convinced her to not leave her children outside unless she is there.
Gomez, 34, said she plans to move out as soon as she can afford it.
''When I moved here, it was different,'' she said. ''The kids here were quiet. . . . (Now) it's a big circle. It's the same problems, over and over again.'' N
San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright 1995, San Jose Mercury News
September 13, 1995
Section: Local
POLICE RAID TARGETS S.J. GANG SANTEE DRIVE: ARRESTS STRIKE BACK AT TAKEOVER OF MONTE ALBAN HOUSING PROJECT.
CATHIE CALVERT, Mercury News Staff Writer
In a major move to eradicate the alleged gang takeover of a housing project in the troubled Santee Drive area, federal and state agents joined more than than 100 San Jose police in an early morning raid today.
Law enforcement's target was the Monte Alban Apartments at 1324 Santee Drive in central San Jose , where residents of the large complex lived in fear of the Barrio Monte Alban . The gang had established a stronghold on the low-income housing project, said Sgt. Bob Beams.
At least a dozen arrests were made on assorted charges, including illegal possession of narcotics and firearms, he said.
Confiscated weapons included a .44-magnum revolver with a telescopic sight taken from ''one of the gang leaders,'' Beams said.
''We're trying to send out a loud and clear message that gang activity in San Jose will not be permitted or tolerated'' and that an environment will be created at the Monte Alban Apartments ''so people can safely raise their children,'' Beams said.
He said the streeet gang ''had taken over the Monte Alban complex and carried out a campaign of harrasment, threats, physical violence and intidation against complex residents.''
Information supplied to police since their investigation began in June showed that the gang ''controlled access to the complex to keep out rival gangs, sold narcotics and used narcotics openly in the complex,'' Beams said.
''The gang used small children to act as lookouts and to hide weapons. It recruited gang members to move into the apartments to establish a command center,'' he said.
''The people we talked to in the complex were afraid to let their children play outside. They told of gunfire between gang members breaking out, and having to run out and pull children inside,'' Beams said.
''People said they were threatened with hand guns. People were talking about fights, shootings, things that went on throughout the night. One particular courtyard was used for noisy partying with drugs, with music blasting through the night,'' he said.
''Intimidating hard-working residents who are trying to maintain the quality of their lives will not be tolerated by the police department, the mayor, the council - by this city,'' said Dick de la Rosa, gang policy manager for Mayor Susan Hammer.
''This morning, (at the apartment complex) a lady told me that kids were in the play yard when gang members fired seven or eight rounds in front of the little kids. Fortunately, no one was shot,'' he said.
Beams said residents were afraid to call police.
Today's action, he said, was a result of the confidence officers have won from residents over the past several months.
''This goes to the heart of comunity policing: the police department working with the community to rid their areas of crime,'' Beams said.
Today's raid, based on search and arrest warrants for several apartments, was among the largest in recent years, Beams said.
Approximately 135 San Jose officers, including those from the Narcotic Enforcement Team, violent crime and narcotics units and patrol officers, were joined by about 20 officers from other agencies, including the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the district attorney's office and adult and juvenile probation departments, Beams said.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development, the federal agency that oversees the housing project, also was involved, he said. N
