A 16-year-old immigrant was walking his ill father to San Francisco General Hospital on July 31, when a group of young men, dressed all in blue, approached and formed a menacing circle.
"What do you claim? Where are you from?" asked one of the young men.
"Mexico -- what do you mean?" the youth said. As he left, the men shot him in the back, a bullet ripping through his kidney.
Police say such scenes of violent gangs preying on innocent victims have risen in the Mission in the past two months. In response, police have more than doubled the Latin gang unit from three officers to seven.
It is common knowledge that the Mission, from about 21st Street toward Daly City, is the red-wearing domain of the Latin-derived Norteño gang, cops say. And that from 21st up to 16th Street, blue reigns supreme on solid Sureño gang turf. The two gangs have duked it out for years over dope deals and petty grudges.
But where once gang members settled disputes with fists, they are increasingly picking up knives and guns and picking innocent, often Latino, targets -- sometimes simply based on what color they are wearing, said Lt. John Murphy, SFPD Gang Taskforce.
"They walk up and say, 'What [gang] do you claim?' It doesn't matter what the answer is, the victim gets the hell kicked out of them. If I walked through the Mission and I was a kid, I would wear all khaki," said Murphy. "If you are crazy enough to wear blue on one side or red on the other, you are just asking for it."
The increase in Latino gang violence comes as The City struggles to tackle a growing homicide rate. Many of the murders have been attributed to gang violence among several factions, including Latino and black gangs, from various city neighborhoods.
Police say a 22-year-old man was shot in the arm by a group of Sureños at the corner of 16th and Valencia streets on Aug. 9, just for wearing red.
A youth with no gang arrests to his name was sporting some red clothes as he stood on a bus stopped at 18th and Mission on July 15, when a group wearing blue on the street started an argument with him. The gang members stormed the bus and stabbed him.
A 17-year-old walking along 25th and Alabama streets with a friend on the same day intervened in an argument among a group of men flashing their red gang colors. A gang member shot him in the stomach. On July 8, a group of men donning red accosted a homeless man walking westbound on 24th Street and hit him in the head with a baseball bat. Investigations are ongoing into all the incidents.
Many of the perpetrators are actually wannabe gang members as young as 12 years old, drunk on malt liquor and keen to earn a reputation for toughness, said Rudy Valentino, a gang prevention counselor with United Playaz, at the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center.
He said The City needed to take the kids on field trips to prison to show them where they are headed if they continue their lifestyle.
"A lot of them grew up being beat up, so they go out and inflict some of the pain they have on themselves to other people because no one's listening to them."
The violence is bad for business, said Gloria Fong, who owns the Lawrence Bakery Café at 19th and Mission streets.
"Sometimes the customers are scared to come in because most of the time the kids are standing outside," Fong said.
Julie Orellana, a former Sureño member turned social worker, said youths from single-parent families weren't getting enough supervision and services.
Her organization, Greater Mission Consortium, has been hit by city budget cuts and had to reduce its summer day trips out of The City.
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thats some fucked up ass shit, some of these youngsters need to check themselves
"What do you claim? Where are you from?" asked one of the young men.
"Mexico -- what do you mean?" the youth said. As he left, the men shot him in the back, a bullet ripping through his kidney.
Police say such scenes of violent gangs preying on innocent victims have risen in the Mission in the past two months. In response, police have more than doubled the Latin gang unit from three officers to seven.
It is common knowledge that the Mission, from about 21st Street toward Daly City, is the red-wearing domain of the Latin-derived Norteño gang, cops say. And that from 21st up to 16th Street, blue reigns supreme on solid Sureño gang turf. The two gangs have duked it out for years over dope deals and petty grudges.
But where once gang members settled disputes with fists, they are increasingly picking up knives and guns and picking innocent, often Latino, targets -- sometimes simply based on what color they are wearing, said Lt. John Murphy, SFPD Gang Taskforce.
"They walk up and say, 'What [gang] do you claim?' It doesn't matter what the answer is, the victim gets the hell kicked out of them. If I walked through the Mission and I was a kid, I would wear all khaki," said Murphy. "If you are crazy enough to wear blue on one side or red on the other, you are just asking for it."
The increase in Latino gang violence comes as The City struggles to tackle a growing homicide rate. Many of the murders have been attributed to gang violence among several factions, including Latino and black gangs, from various city neighborhoods.
Police say a 22-year-old man was shot in the arm by a group of Sureños at the corner of 16th and Valencia streets on Aug. 9, just for wearing red.
A youth with no gang arrests to his name was sporting some red clothes as he stood on a bus stopped at 18th and Mission on July 15, when a group wearing blue on the street started an argument with him. The gang members stormed the bus and stabbed him.
A 17-year-old walking along 25th and Alabama streets with a friend on the same day intervened in an argument among a group of men flashing their red gang colors. A gang member shot him in the stomach. On July 8, a group of men donning red accosted a homeless man walking westbound on 24th Street and hit him in the head with a baseball bat. Investigations are ongoing into all the incidents.
Many of the perpetrators are actually wannabe gang members as young as 12 years old, drunk on malt liquor and keen to earn a reputation for toughness, said Rudy Valentino, a gang prevention counselor with United Playaz, at the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center.
He said The City needed to take the kids on field trips to prison to show them where they are headed if they continue their lifestyle.
"A lot of them grew up being beat up, so they go out and inflict some of the pain they have on themselves to other people because no one's listening to them."
The violence is bad for business, said Gloria Fong, who owns the Lawrence Bakery Café at 19th and Mission streets.
"Sometimes the customers are scared to come in because most of the time the kids are standing outside," Fong said.
Julie Orellana, a former Sureño member turned social worker, said youths from single-parent families weren't getting enough supervision and services.
Her organization, Greater Mission Consortium, has been hit by city budget cuts and had to reduce its summer day trips out of The City.
_______________
thats some fucked up ass shit, some of these youngsters need to check themselves
