A much smaller crowd than organizers had hoped for attended the Gilroy Community Forum at the MACSA Youth Gym on IOOF Avenue Friday night. The forum was organized as a direct response to the gang-related shooting of Jesse Silos last week.
Around 50 members of Gilroy’s east side community sat on the bleachers inside the gymnasium and listened as representatives from the City, local outreach programs and the Gilroy Unified School District spoke about the impact that gang recruitment and violence is having on Gilroy’s youth.
Christina Silos, mother of slain Gilroyan Jesse Silos, 30, was scheduled to speak at the event, but was unable to attend. Rebeca Armendariz, Jesse’s cousin, spoke for her.
“Her dreams for her son weren’t about juvenile hall and prison,” Armendariz said. “What she wanted for him was very different.”
The forum followed a similar pattern to the meeting held Wednesday evening at Eliot Elementary School. Mayor Don Gage, GUSD Board member Jaime Rosso and Community Solutions President Erin O’Brien all spoke of the need to strengthen community ties. Perhaps the most strident and passionate of the speakers was Councilman Peter Arellano. Switching between English and Spanish, he continued to hammer home his message.
“We all want peace,” Arellano asserted. “The peace starts today.”
Outreach workers from MACSA, Community Agency for Resources, Advocacy and Services (CARAS), Victory Outreach Church and California Youth Outreach all took their turns to educate the assembled parents about how gangs are trying to recruit local teens.
“Gangs are on Facebook and YouTube,” said MACSA’s David Madrid. “It’s all around us.”
As a police siren wailed in the streets outside responding to a call, Jesse Jimenez from Victory Outreach Church reinforced the idea of vigilance when it comes to safeguarding the community.
“Stop turning a blind eye,” he implored. “Recognize the signs.”
The end of the forum was set aside for audience question time. Once again – similar to what happened during Wednesday’s meeting at Eliot – dialogue shifted to the bashing of the Gilroy Police Department.
The list of complaints all revolved around a central theme: The east side and its problems aren’t a priority for GPD, residents argued.
“There are drug dealers in the alley behind my house,” said one woman. “What am I to do?”
The same woman then wanted to know why police don’t openly harass men who wear gang colors, gather in groups and loiter in east side neighborhood locales.
“Stop them, run their names, scare them off,” she demanded.
GPD Sgt. Joseph Deras reminded the woman that it isn’t against the law to stand around on the street.
This form of verbal sparring continued late into the night. After an hour or so, Sgt. Deras had heard enough.
“I haven’t heard a lot about what we’re getting right,” Deras said. “This is my city too, my kids go to school here.”
MACSA’s Madrid was quick to caution the parents about asking for police to swarm the streets on the east side.
“It’s a double-edged sword,” he said. “You get what you want, then we are overrun and oppressed.”
A combative Gage then weighed in on parents who were calling for a curfew on the streets.
“Can you imagine a curfew ordinance? People would be the first to complain,” Gage said. “Let’s cut the crap and start working together.”
As the meeting finished up and the smattering of families left the gym, one audience member still wasn’t convinced about the sincerity of the GPD.
“I think it’s BS,” said a woman named Sabrina, who would only give her first name. “The GPD are only here because they have to be.”
For a meeting that was supposed to be centered around community action, following a gruesome homicide that left east side residents shaken and unsettled, not much cropped up about how bridges would be built over troubled waters. Patty Pena, a Board member of CARAS was slightly disappointed by the low turnout, but undaunted by the task at hand.
“We can’t give up,” said Pena as she stood in the cold air outside the gym. “We have to make a change, little by little, child by child.”
