Anchorage Daily News

It's been nearly a year since a dozen teens stormed a Mountain View gas station and attacked a man -- apparently because he was wearing a red shirt and cap in the wrong part of town.

Click to enlarge

Anchorage Police Department deputy chief Ross Plummer

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Story tools

Comments

E-mail a friend

Print

Digg this

Seed Newsvine

Send link via AIM

Font size : A | A | A

Police think that was the city's first territorial gang dispute. Some of the attackers had ties to the Crips gang, identified by the color blue. Red is the color of the rival Bloods.

"That was his only crime really: He was wearing a color they didn't like," deputy Anchorage police chief Ross Plummer said. "That's what we're trying to make sure doesn't happen."

Anchorage police, growing more familiar with the gangs, are taking members off the streets at higher rates, and prosecutors -- both state and federal -- are keeping them behind bars longer. Prevention programs to keep troubled kids out of the culture of violence are keeping some off the streets.

Since the Mountain View attack, high-profile gang shootings have been on the wane. But gang activity hasn't. Police count at least 50 gang-related incidents this year, Plummer said, ranging from graffiti and drug deals to robberies, drive-by shootings and assaults.

With summer approaching again, police are ramping up efforts to watch the streets and respond. What can Anchorage expect?

"We're dealing with a lot of youth that make unrational decisions and are not afraid to use force, unfortunately," Plummer said. "There's going to be some incidents. We're not going to be able to stop all incidents, but we're hoping to keep it down."

'WARRING FACTIONS' OF KIDS

Gangs here operate differently than their inner-city counterparts in places like Los Angeles, where they are often strictly divided across racial lines, have rigid membership rules of initiation and are fiercely territorial, Plummer said.

"We still don't have any gang activity in the sense of what is in the Lower 48, where you have a small number of distinct gangs that are nationwide," said Alan McKelvie, a researcher with the University of Alaska Anchorage's Justice Center who has studied gangs in Anchorage. "We don't have those up here. What's up here is kind of warring factions of minority kids."

A report prepared by police late last year found 22 confirmed gangs in the city, with at least three more suspected of operating here. Police counted 150 validated gang members, with another 300 or more teens and young people suspected of being members. About 100 people were gang associates, the report said.

Those numbers suggest a significant increase in gang activity since a previous assessment in 2006, but police think it's instead a sign they're discovering gangs that have been operating under the radar.

Anchorage gangs are often made up of youths who live in the same neighborhood, regardless of race, and they change allegiances and affiliations often. Some are initiated gang members who have moved north from Lower 48 cities, while others are locals who are trying to establish themselves, said patrol officer Scott Lofthouse, who works gang intelligence for police.

"The wannabes are the ones that are out doing the crime and being violent because they're trying to get respect," Lofthouse said. "They can actually be more dangerous in some cases."

THE FEDS HELP OUT

Since February 2007, the city has employed two attorneys who are cross-designated as federal prosecutors with the goal of getting dangerous criminals off the streets. According to the results of the first year's effort, released in March, more than three dozen suspects have been indicted, with 22 already convicted and sentenced.

"Those are good numbers compared to what the state's been doing," said Julie Hasquet, municipal spokeswoman. "And that was part of the reason that we went to the feds; because they can act quicker and their penalties are stricter."

Neither prosecutors nor police will say exactly how many of the indicted individuals are associated with gangs, but Plummer said a good number were either gang members or associates.

Funding the positions, along with a legal assistant, costs about $380,000 each year, with the city providing $267,000 of that.

"The state system right now, in our opinion, is broke," Plummer said. "We arrest them and put them in on state charges and they're released -- even on serious crimes -- they're released on bail pending trial and they go back out and commit more serious crimes. Under the federal system that's not happening."

A list of 19 offenders prosecuted by the city-funded federal attorneys -- the most recent numbers available -- shows that they were sentenced to a total of 129 years in prison for the crimes they were convicted of in federal court. The same group had been sentenced to a total of 44 years in prison for their previous state offenses.

"Those numbers can be misleading," said special assistant U.S. attorney Erin White. "Some of their (convictions) in state court were for crimes like driving without a license. Obviously that's going to get less jail time than distributing a controlled substance."

JAIL WON'T SOLVE PROBLEM

Still, there are differences. Many of the defendants have numerous felony assault, drug and weapons convictions -- in Alaska and elsewhere -- for which they were sentenced to a handful of years or less.

State prosecutors and judges operate on a different playing field, said Anchorage District Attorney Adrienne Bachman. Alaska's Constitution mandates reasonable bail for the accused; the decision of whether a defendant should be released while awaiting trial is out of the hands of prosecutors, and often judges, she said. Sentence lengths depend on the crime and an individual's history, and comparing federal sentencing schemes to state sentences is "like comparing apples to oranges," she said.

The Anchorage district attorney's office handles more than 900 cases each year split up among 32 prosecutors, or roughly 30 cases each, Bachman said.

"They have the luxury of focusing on one type of crime," Bachman said of federal prosecutors. "They target offenders that are going to be facing stiffer penalties under the federal system. We don't have the same luxury of focus."

And just locking people up won't solve the problem, Bachman said. Without programs to prevent youths from becoming violent and to rehabilitate those that do, there is little hope of stemming gang crimes, she said.

"You can never reduce the risk to zero, but you can help them make better choices," Bachman said.

PRIDE CLUB NEEDS A HOME

That's where programs like Mao Tosi's Pride Club come in. Tosi, an East High graduate and former NFL player, formed it in fall 2006, following a brutal escalation in gang violence marked by drive-by gunfire and shoot-outs in mall parking lots.

"That was the peak of it, and it was so great for me to come in at a perfect time, when there was a need for after-school programs," he said.

But the club is now homeless.

"Accountability problems" -- lax controls on club members and a lack of attendance or membership records -- forced the Pride Club out of its East High meeting spot in February. A split with the nonprofit Communities in Schools, which supplied some funding, followed.

"But I've still got these kids," Tosi said. "That lets me know maybe they don't have anywhere else to go."

Since the eviction, Tosi's been holding meetings where he can, picking up kids in his car and toting them to places like the Fairview Recreation Center for basketball or just hanging out.

He hopes to get a permanent facility in Mountain View, though it's unclear when that might happen. Finding money for expenses is hard, let alone money to rent a meeting space.

"If we ain't got a space, we'll go outside and play," Tosi said. "I know that we are really on the verge of becoming what I want to become and what everyone wants us to become ... If there aren't a lot of opportunities for the youth, you're basically forcing them back out on the streets."

FBI, POLICE BAND TOGETHER

The Safe Streets Task Force, a collaborative effort between police and the FBI, is one tool to combat gangs and street crime.

The task force, which first operated in Alaska between 1995 and 2002, was reactivated in 2006 to suppress gang activity following a resurgence in violence that summer and has made more than 30 arrests so far, said FBI Special Agent Eric Gonzalez.

"We're really working in concert to combat gang violence here in Anchorage, and I think in the past couple of years we've seen some real inroads," Gonzalez said.

On May 1, police plan to increase patrols in neighborhoods like Mountain View, Russian Jack and Muldoon where gangs have been known to operate and flourish. Similar efforts in the past two years have resulted in more busts and fewer gang members on the streets, Plummer said.

More cops on the streets should prevent gangs from getting out of control, he said.

"They're slowly evolving as time goes on," Plummer said. "If we don't do something as a community to keep them from getting entrenched, then in 10, 15, 20 years, we could be looking at the same type of thing as LA gangs, entrenched gangs in neighborhoods that are really hard to deal with."

Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.