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Myspace“The baddest of the bad.” That’s how Santa Barbara officials portray 30 people named in the city’s gang injunction, but news of the civil document has been met with varied community response and concerns about its constitutionality, necessity, and thoroughness. Authorities see it as a tool to prevent gang members from congregating and veterans from recruiting. Those who question the filing say officials are already sufficiently armed with laws — like gang terms and conditions for probation and parole — to keep the most hardened criminals in check.
Over the course of the last four weeks, after the identities of injunction targets were released in mid-March, The Independent has reviewed court records and spoken with police, attorneys, residents, and some of those actually listed to get an idea of who these people are and how “bad” they really are.
Of the 30, 16 are behind bars (eight in state prison and eight in county jail); a handful are not in jail or prison but can be considered violent people with serious records; three have no criminal records as adults; and another handful have only ever faced limited charges such as petty theft, DUI, or drug possession. Lt. Paul McCaffrey, spokesperson for the Police Department, said the city wouldn’t be releasing any more material until its next court filing in the coming weeks, but that the department had “a lot more information on each person than what was filed.”
While all those named in the injunction are adults, it seems much of the activity for which they are being blamed occurred when they were juveniles, which also seems to follow recent trends that much of the gang activity is carried out by younger people. Some on the list can only be described as serious, repeat offenders, but others — if they have any adult record at all — are years removed from the criminal charges against them. Of course, adult criminal records only paint a portion of the picture, and juvenile records are unavailable to the public.
For many individuals, finding themselves within the gang injunction brings up a past they’re trying to move on from. Several of these people met with The Independent to talk about life on the list. They didn’t want their names used for fear of losing job opportunities and suffering potential harassment from authorities.
One young man has not been arrested for more than two years, and aside from one gang-related event, has no other violent marks on his record. “It’s just old stuff,” he said last week. “What about the good things we’ve been doing now?” He is now in his second semester at Santa Barbara City College, studying underwater welding, and working with high school students as a peer advisor. He’s paying his rent and his bills, supporting himself while he gets an education. “My punishment was already served,” he said. “I’m staying away from what I have to stay away from.”
“Communities are divided because of the gang injunction, and now specific families are divided,” said Jacqueline Inda, who works with at-risk youth in town. “When you do these things, they’re literally tearing families apart.”
One engaged couple with two children, who were both named in the injunction paperwork (he has had a series of drug-related charges, the latest coming in early 2009, and she has only one from 2008) are afraid they won’t be able to be together in public parks or other designated “safety zones.” “We’re focused on our family,” said the 20-year-old woman, who is a ninth-generation Santa Barbaran. “We don’t have time for anything else. We’re just trying to get by.” Because they are both on the list, the two don’t know if they can even be around one another, creating a difficult situation for raising their two children. The two are both looking for work and are currently living in transitional housing. “Communities are divided because of the gang injunction, and now specific families are divided,” said Jacqueline Inda, who works with at-risk youth in town. “When you do these things, they’re literally tearing families apart.”
McCaffrey, however, cautioned that the whole story may not be out yet. “What they say may be well and good, but we come across situations where it leads us to believe they’re still members of the gangs,” McCaffrey said. Monikers, tattoos, self-admissions, and gang-related arrests are all criteria for making the list, said Senior Deputy DA Hilary Dozer. “Sometimes they also have convictions, but that’s not the only part of the analysis,” he explained.
Another three people — in addition to the five The Independent met with — have been featured in videos posted on YouTube by Youth Cinemedia, a program that works with at-risk youth and teaches them about filming and producing. Bryan Carreno, a 21-year-old in one of the videos, is also a student at Santa Barbara City College. He has had two minor alcohol-related incidents on his adult record, and another where he and his brother got into a fight on Christmas morning. “Why me out of all people?” he asked in the video. “Never in my life have I been charged with a gang-related crime. What did I do to deserve this kind of punishment?”
Emmanuel Padron was also featured. He has no adult record. In the video, he said he works full-time and is off probation. “I haven’t even been active. I haven’t done anything, for like three or four years,” Padron said. Including Padron, there are three people with no adult criminal records. But he still shows up in the injunction filing, which states he’s made admissions of his gang membership and has been arrested for gang-related crimes.
Some of the more serious offenders in prison include people like Omar Ramos, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence after pleading in 2009 to an attempted-murder charge for a gang-related attack. Or Edgar Cordova, 25, who is in the midst of his second stint in prison, having previously served time for an involvement in a 2003 drive-by shooting. He is currently serving a three-year, eight-month sentence for burglary, along with an admitted prior strike.
Christian Botello, 30, is in the middle of a four-year state prison term after being sentenced in 2008 for domestic violence along with probation violations, including burglary. Stacy Ibarra, 22, is currently serving a seven-year, eight-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to second-degree robbery and dissuading a witness. Another, Pedro Garcia, is still serving a federal prison sentence related to Operation Gator Roll.
Roy Sarabia, 20, threatened the father of a friend when he confronted Sarabia and Daniel Flores about jumping his son into a gang. Sarabia, according to police, told the man his family was not safe and he was going to stab him. Sarabia was eventually sentenced in 2009 to four years in state prison and forced to register as a gang member. At sentencing, the judge commented that almost every month in 2004, 2005, and 2007, he had been in trouble for one reason or another.
Another eight are in County Jail, either awaiting sentencing or trial, some on very serious charges. Ruben Mize, 19, is perhaps the most notorious of the bunch and on his way to prison, awaiting sentencing on murder and two attempted-murder convictions. His total exposure is upward of 60 years. Three others in jail — Michael Cardenas, Miguel Parra, and Jonathon Alonzo — are facing murder charges with gang enhancements. Cardenas, along with Augustin Cruz, 20, is facing charges of robbery and two counts of assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injuries, with gang enhancements, for a 2009 attack.
Marcos Ramos is in jail awaiting trial on charges of drug possession and possession of a handgun by a convicted felon, and Michael Rodriguez, 30, is facing a charge of battery with serious bodily injury. He has previously been convicted of four different felonies, three of them drug related.
While not everyone on the list has been served, more than half have, and 30-day responses are close to their due date. Many of these people, however, have no money for civil attorneys. The Public Defender’s office is still looking into what involvement it may take, as time ticks down to a July hearing in front of Judge James Brown.
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Comments
Really? These folks are on the list for a reason. I hope that they ARE trying to make a change, but many of these longtime "SB families" are generations deep in this "stuff". I hate to say it, but many names are not on this list that I could actually list. And in SB terms I am relatively new. I hope that this injunction has several effects: 1) Make some of these folks think more about their actions, 2) get some of the real "bad seeds" off the streets and lessen their "power" over young kids in our community (so sad really), 3) make them realize that their idea of "gangs" are nothing compared with the big cities across the nation. I'd love to see these folks dropped in Compton, Chicago, NYC, Atlanta or Boston -we'd never hear from them again!!!! On a personal note... Go paint on your parents "house"! Love to see what their "dad" would do if they did.... Probably what we'd all like to do to them when we see the tagging around town!
NEgirl (anonymous profile)
April 14, 2011 at 9:53 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Gang Psychosis is embedded in the culture. It is a problem that is clearly evident in certain racial groups and must be addressed by the whole of society. When families claim that they are unfairly targeted this is a clear case of denial, that the problem is social and they are protecting their own. Gangs are a disease, serve no purpose other than perpetuate the machismo stereotype and should be dealt with by the harshest measures available. From gangs it leads to corruption in the community, extortion, drug violence, racketeering and if what is happening in Mexico does not scare you to death than you do not understand the depth of this problem. First it's the grafitti, then the neighborhood presence with the turf wars that follow. I say send them all to the Pen if they are even loosely affiliated, these are urban terrorists!
contactjohn (anonymous profile)
April 15, 2011 at 1:22 a.m. (Suggest removal)
According to you, street gangs are the reason Mexico is in such bad shape? Huh, and here I thought it was our lame drug policy and laws.
AZ2SB (anonymous profile)
April 15, 2011 at 12:55 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Gotta agree with points made by both commenters in NEgirl & Contactjohn. The gangpunk lifestyle is embedded generationally yet still remains a choice. One can choose NOT to become involved. I applaud those who make that decision as it will invariably keep them from every gangpunk's future: PRISON.
So long as prison is seen as vacation time, a rite of passage, a symbol of status, it in itself will not have the deterrent effect we would like for it to have.
For the easily led and willing sheep among you, Google the word GRANFALLOON. Then read Iron John by Robert Bly.
Looking to meaningless groups for affiliative rites of passage will never fill what is missing in people who feel the need to join gangs.
Only by obtaining knowledge of the factors involved in the social pathology of this phenomenon followed by informed and rigorous alternative action provides one a chance to veer away from a well-trod destructive path and the opportunity to break the cycle.
Knowledge shall set you free.
Draxor (anonymous profile)
April 15, 2011 at 12:57 p.m. (Suggest removal)
What I'm about to say will be seen as diplomacy, and probably anger everyone anyway.
You cannot bring in the least educated segement of a society--any society--then feed them the lie that it's ok not to assimilate into our culture, learn our laws etc, and not have a disasterous effect.
We keep doing the same thing over and over thinking we are going to get different results. We have two countries that border us, one whose economy is as good if not better than ours so there is no "push" factor hence you don't see hundreds of thousands of people coming in here from there and the ones that do speak our language and are not impovereshed. The other country is an oligarchy run by an increadibly wealthy elite who are eager to export their poor discontented masses so that they won't revolt againt the regime down there that people on both sides of the immigration issue--from the most hard-core Reconquistas to the most extreme anti-immigrant factions agree is corrupt hence from Mexico there is a huge "push" factor.
Up here, there are the Big Business types on the Right which couldn't care less about the working-class or the middle-class. These people have the "I've got mine and I want what you have too" mentality. On the far Left there are the race-baiters who continually harp on how racist America is and that we owe it to the Mexican people to let them all in and that the rest of us need to "shut up and get used to it because it's going to happen anyway.
California is already overcrowded and overpriced yet the politicians want even more impovershed people coming in here. Instead of telling Mexico's government to take care of their people and quit adding people to an already sinking lifeboat, our politicians endlessly appease the aforementioned corrupt government while people keep supporting these politicians.
The children of these immigrants are effectively raised by the schools, which are not adequate substitutes for the parents who are used as expandible cogs in the cheap labor Ponzi Scheme that has been sold as being good for our economy. The argument "they do the work Americans simply won't do" (an actual quote by G.W. Bush) is bogus. Americans have always done that work but businesses don't want to hire American citizens because they will expect reasonable work conditions at a living wage. As these American-raised kids grow up in their feral enviroment, they turn to gangs, and the "cadena perpetua" (endless cycle) continues as more and more people get on the already sinking lifeboat.
If the emphasis were about Mexico fixing its country, then positive change would occur, but I'm not holding my breath as our two governments continue this practice which is making life miserable for people on both sides of the border while the unwashed masses in the U.S. fixate on their arguments about whether they want Palin or Obama in 2012.
billclausen (anonymous profile)
April 15, 2011 at 7:39 p.m. (Suggest removal)
fist off all i see is negative comments here how come i dont hear no one speaking about new resolutions to level down the violence in our city in a smart way thats not going to affect FAMILIES, EDUCATION AND MONEY all this money being wasted on the gang injunction can be used for programs for kids at risk lets keep them occupied !!
and this is coming from one of the members on that gang injunction list and one of them who spoke on this article!!!
killuminati (anonymous profile)
April 18, 2011 at 12:55 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The reason why is because no politicians, prosecutors, or law enforcement get paid if they start helping people do positive things with their lives. Job security, why mess with it?
AZ2SB (anonymous profile)
April 18, 2011 at 3:24 p.m. (Suggest removal)
the gang injunction IS a new resolution to lower violence. the whole idea is to make the gangbangers choose between gang membership or their education and family.
your choice. why is it taking you so long to choose?
if enough of you make the smart decision, then you got nothing to worry about. you have to cut the cord sometime, otherwise you and the next generation will stay in the same vicious circle.
this is a big deal. especially for your kids. you need to walk the walk killuminati.
lawdy (anonymous profile)
April 18, 2011 at 5:14 p.m. (Suggest removal)