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News regarding gang activity, law enforcement initiatives in Las Cruces, Dona Ana County, NM and Otero County, NM. Seems up to date:
News regarding Las Cruces, NM and Dona Ana County area gang activity and law enforcement initiatives - Operation No Gangs (http://www.operationnogangs.org/dacnews.html - broken link)
There are gangs in Las Cruces and they can be a menace but they are no where close to being like the hardcore gangs out of Los Angeles or even Albuquerque. Your not going to be held captive in your homes like you would be in parts of L.A.
The biggest gang in Las Cruces is/was eastside but their original leader committed suicide years ago and they are not a big threat to anyone but themselves. I would say they are perpetrators of petty crimes ranging from graffiti to minor players in the drug trade. Occasionally there are gang members who commit murder but this can be measured on a yearly basis as opposed to a daily basis like some areas of our country.
Long ago El Paso had the worst gang problem in Texas but they (police, community leaders, schools) have really cleaned it up. El Paso is one of the safest cities in the Nation...Yes, I said Nation. Look at the stats...
Segundo Barrio (Varrio) would be the major gang out of El Paso and they are the real deal and have ties to the violence in Mexico.
I worked with many gang members in the area before I left. I also worked with gang members in Los Angeles and Phoenix. I worked for the Los Angeles County Office of Education and my job was to teach the SED (Severely Emotionally Disturbed) Class. This class was 95% hardcore gang members who were labeled Sped because of their behavioral problems.
When you see a lot of graffitti, then you know there are out-of-control gangs in an area. Iron bars on doors and windows is another sign that there are gangs.
The gangs tend to go after each other but usually leave innocent people alone. If you're an 18 year old or so kid, the gangs could cause you more problem if you're walking through "their" neighborhood but usually they leave other people alone. The gang problem doesn't affect everyone in Las Cruces too much, it's usually isolated to certain neighborhoods.
Recently just a little south of Las Cruces, a young man stopped into a rest area and there was a local gang laying in wait for anyone who pulled in. They killed him and stole his belongings. Unfortunately there are some gangs because of a very lax legal system - the killers in this case had been in trouble before for violence but were never given the punishment needed.
If I recall correctly, the three creeps who murdered the kid at the truck stop were arrested soon after, and are sitting in jail right now, someplace I think they'll be for a long, long time.
They all had previous offenses, and at least one had a case pending when they ambushed their victim.
It was an area just south of Las Cruces - truck drivers already know of the risks of some rest areas outside of Las Cruces because this wasn't the only incident, but this poor traveler didn't know - and I never knew before there was a problem and I have stopped at that rest area often, I wouldn't have thought twice about it even at night. It's disturbing too because this was a rest area between two close-together cities, a portion of interstate that is heavily traveled.
Ignoring the problem of gangs isn't a wise policy because when everyone pretends there is no problem, nothing gets done about the problem. I also read that the problem in New Mexico is that there are too few sheriffs and state troopers to patrol large areas which allow certain groups to do what they please, but that problem is more outside of city limits than inside city limits.
But like most places - gangs tend to be found in certain neighborhoods - and you can usually spot those neighborhoods by the iron bars and grates and graffitti. And the gangs usually do their drive-by shootings at other gangs and not randomly.
I wasn't planning on driving south past Las Cruces. Ever. Not even one block. All of it is too close to Texas.
I think that we can all agree that there isn't a city in this nation that does not have a gang presence. The OP suggested, after reading an article in the LC Sun News, that gangs are 'out of control here.'
If you look at what has been collected here: Gang-Related News Articles, it would appear that states like Wisconsin, Utah and many other states have greater problems with gangs than does New Mexico although the perception seems to be very different.
I would also mention that the article that I believe the OP was referencing is included. My takeaway from (re)reading it is that the LCPD is being very pro-active in addressing this problem and, as already noted, nowhere does the article suggest that the situation is 'out of control.'
Yes, I believe that young people in LC are at risk of being recruited, assaulted and otherwise negatively impacted by (wanna-be) gang members and parents/guardians have to be extremely vigilant regarding their children's associates, clothing choices, whereabouts and so forth.
However, for the average LC citizen who is not interested in dabbling in illegal drugs or any of the other behaviors that would increase one's chances of exposure, there is little risk when going about one's day-to-day business.
Thanks, so as a public school math teacher I won't be mistaken for a drug dealer when I drive in broad daylight into certain areas I hope not to have to look at housing in (hopefully the "low income" ones aren't like THAT the way they were in Brooklyn) and get profiled by the police, pulled over and searched; my car now says "I am the Math teacher" all over it to keep incidents of that down to a dull roar.
LAS CRUCES — An alleged member of the East Side Locos street gang will serve at least 10 years in prison for pointing a shotgun at an elderly couple and robbing them last fall outside a Las Cruces pharmacy. Guillermo Contreras III, 22, asked for mercy from 3rd Judicial District Judge Fernando R. Macias, saying that he was a new man who had recently been baptized, accepted Jesus and was now trying to overcome substance abuse addictions. "You knew what you were doing. You made these decisions," Macias said before sentencing Contreras to 13 1/2 years, with 10 years to serve and probation during the suspended portion of his sentence. On the night of Sept. 29, 2011, Contreras, who was driving a stolen vehicle, followed a 71-year-old man and his wife to the Walgreens store on West Picacho Avenue, prosecutors said. Contreras approached the couple, opened the passenger side door, pointed a gun in the woman's face and demanded money. Her husband grabbed the shotgun's barrel, and a brief struggle ensued, but the man's wife surrendered her cell phone and $17 in cash.
The 71-year-old male victim said Monday that the robbery lasted all of 30 seconds, but it prompted him to obtain a concealed weapons carry permit. He also never drives a vehicle with the doors unlocked, and is more aware of his surroundings.
Since his 2007 case, Orlando said Contreras had continued his affiliations with East Side Locos, as evidenced by recent tattoos.
I work in a public high school in southern NM, and I believe that a worse problem than the stereotypical idea of "gangs" is the connections that many of our young border-crossers have with the cartels in Mexico. I have many students who come and go across the border (illegally or not) for the holidays with their families in Mexico. Many of them smuggle things over AND back, including weapons, people, alcohol, and even seemingly innocuous things like Mexican candy or other things they simply want to buy and sell here in the states to make a profit. It IS real, and it is a problem. Many of my students make a very sweet profit doing it, and either don't know or don't care--or both--that they are sometimes dealing with some truly scary people. These kids are otherwise okay kids, they just drive a much nicer vehicle than most, and have A LOT of cash in hand. It is a way to make a living, easier and quicker than slaving in the fields, and is an acceptable form of untraceable income. There are plenty of news articles about the kids they catch; what is troubling to me is how many do it and DON'T get caught. ANd worse, those students of mine who leave for Mexico on Christmas break, and never come back, and no one knows what happened to them. But, hey, we gotta make a living somehow, right? (In fact, I remember smuggling lots of alcohol back from Mexico in my college days...)
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