Facing a sharp increase in graffiti incidents in recent weeks,
Morgan Hill police arrested two alleged Sureno gang members in the
process of tagging brick walls behind a local retail store.
Facing a sharp increase in graffiti incidents in recent weeks, Morgan Hill police arrested two alleged Sureno gang members in the process of tagging brick walls behind a local retail store.
A citizen called police Friday afternoon to report the act of vandalism in progress at the Dollar Tree store at 16975 Monterey Road, according to Morgan Hill police Sgt. Jerry Neumayer. When officers arrived they saw two teenage males leaving the scene, and upon questioning found spray paint cans and other unspecified graffiti paraphernalia including a wax pencil, in their vehicle.
The teens – Jose Gomez, 18 and a 17-year-old male – were arrested on suspicion of felony vandalism, conspiracy and possession of graffiti paraphernalia, Neumayer said. The estimated cost of the damage they caused to the building exceeded $1,500.
Police said the suspects painted “X3” and “LPS” on the building, monikers referring to southern street gangs.
Authorities and residents in and around Morgan Hill have noticed a significant rise in similar incidents the last two months, and police welcome concerned citizens’ assistance in cleaning up the blight.
While not all graffiti is tied to organized street crime, gang tags represent a gang’s claim of a street or neighborhood as their territory. Sometimes, more tags could mean new gang members just moved into town, or a challenge to violence among rival affiliations.
“There’s no question that once graffiti is observed, the sooner we can get it cleaned up, the better – especially if it’s gang graffiti that can just lead to other acts of violence by gang members,” Morgan Hill interim police Chief Dan Ortega said.
Other tags noticed by residents and police in recent weeks include “XIV” and “Norte,” which depict northern gangs and rivals to the Sureno or southern gangs in the area.
Ortega added the more recent offenders are not necessarily local gang members. “Where the graffiti seems to be appearing, mostly on the outskirts, it may be a matter of gangsters from other areas scrambling through our city.”
And many of the recent incidents have occurred in unincorporated areas around town.
Diane McHenry, a resident of Sheila Avenue in the hills west of Morgan Hill, has noticed repeated incidents of apparently gang related tagging, notably on concrete bridges on West Middle Avenue, Sycamore Avenue, and at the intersection of West Edmundson and Oak Glen avenues. McHenry has seen street signs south of town “loaded with tags” – on Highland Avenue, Santa Teresa Boulevard and Watsonville Road.
She is concerned about the unsightly appearance of the blight, which she has also seen scribbled on private property along U.S. 101. McHenry is willing to volunteer to help police with the removal or clean-up of the graffiti, and suggested establishing a neighborhood program similar to organized roadside litter removal efforts.
“They tag the bridges, the freeways, barns, road signs, everything,” McHenry said. “They’re just coming into our neighborhoods, and I don’t like to see them winning. It makes me so angry to see it. I understand (police) budget cuts, but we can’t let (the taggers) win.”
Law enforcement agencies plagued with budget cuts and reduced staff in recent years can’t always keep up with the graffiti workload, which consists of painting over or cleaning the vandalized property and investigating consistencies in tags seen throughout the area.
Morgan Hill police and the sheriff’s office welcome the volunteer assistance, and Morgan Hill Sgt. Jerry Neumayer said the city could provide paint and clean-up supplies to residents.
“If people are willing to volunteer their time so we can provide paint and materials, that would help us out greatly because we’re short-staffed,” Neumayer said.
Although the rise in graffiti incidents – which are prosecuted as vandalism when suspects can be pinned down – is difficult to quantify, Neumayer said it has been “significant.”
“I’ve been following up on more graffiti than I ever have in the past,” Neumayer said.
The sheriff’s office, which patrols unincorporated areas in South County, sees a similar trend.
“We have noticed a surge in graffiti, and we are taking reports from property owners so we can document the events as well as identify the monikers from these taggers – so we can build a case when people have tagged multiple sites with the same moniker,” sheriff’s Lt. Ed Wise said.
Two main types of graffiti can be found in western urban areas, according to police. One category is perpetrated by graffitists who tag for tagging’s sake – as a form of illegal street art or a single person spreading his or her own tag around town, without cooperation from or support for an organized gang.
The other category consists of gang related tags which indicate an aggressive and organized effort to publicize a street gang’s presence, and possibly to intimidate or threaten others. Both forms of vandalism use high-profile public and private properties as canvases, and Wise said “the majority” of recent tagging in South County is gang-related.
“Typically what they’ll do is put up some sort of identifier to their gang, in several areas (on a street or neighborhood), so other gang members will know not to enter that area,” Wise said. He added that opposing gang members sometimes challenge rivals by crossing out a tag and replacing it with their own. “That tends to escalate our gang fights and interactions.”
Wise added that the sheriff’s office also needs volunteers to help with graffiti abatement.
Authorities in South County routinely track gang members and residents who are affiliated with street gangs as part of their regular operations. Ortega said Gilroy has seen a “flare-up” of gang violence recently, but he couldn’t draw a definite connection to recent tagging.
About 100 Hispanic street gang members live in Morgan Hill, Neumayer said. Less than 10 of those are registered as gang members with criminal records, in accordance with court requirements. Another dozen or so outlaw motorcycle gang members also live in Morgan Hill.
The city employs a part-time graffiti abatement officer, Ron Nelson, who removes and conceals graffiti on public property, and works with private property owners who are graffiti victims.
Also, the MHPD’s community resource unit, which was first deployed in October, contains a detective, one of whose responsibilities is to investigate graffiti incidents, Neumayer said.
Residents who wish to report graffiti incidents or assist in its removal may call the Morgan Hill Police Department at (408) 779-2101, or the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office at (408) 299-2311.
