Drive by Shootings:
· Watch for groups gathering or forming near your house. Gangs are usually unmistakable in the clothing they wear, but with increasing gang enhancement penalties, some try to avoid police detection by only wearing some articles of clothing that shows their "colors". Such as a blue bandanna, a red belt, etc. Tattoos and graffiti are big with gangs, usually 13 or 14, or XIV or X111, are signs of gang activity. There are so many branches and trickle-down gangs formed; it would be impossible to even try to name them all. Gangs can be any race, age, sex, or combination.
· If you see groups hanging out, especially if "tagging" starts to occur, (tagging means spray painting or marking walls, fences, etc. with gang logo), this is a dangerous start. The gang is "marking their turf" and your neighborhood becomes a battlefield if rival gangs come into the area.
· Keep an eye out for drug activity in your neighborhood. If you notice dealers starting to loiter on the street corners, or in front of a drug house, call the police. Once dealers become established in the area, they are hard to get rid of. The neighborhood also becomes the target of a hostile and often deadly takeover. Drug dealers are only after one thing. $M$O$N$E$Y$. And if your neighborhood is producing alot of sales, which translates into money, it becomes a prime target for drive-bys to claim the area.
· Call the police, form neighborhood watch groups, keep control of your neighborhood. Drug dealers and gangs will only gather where they are allowed to. We don’t expect you or your neighbors to move the groups on, or to confront the groups, that would be dangerous. Call the police; explain if you have suspected gang members gathering, or if you have drug dealing going on in front of your house. Report any weapons or drugs seen, and who is holding drugs or weapons, or where they are hidden. You can remain anonymous.
· Believe me, if the dealers or gangs have the police moving them along, or arresting them everytime they gather in your neighborhood, they will find somewhere else to gather. Somewhere people don’t care, where they can peddle their dope, shoot off their guns, gamble and drink in the streets. Somewhere where no one calls the police. The choice is yours. Gangs and drug dealing almost always invite shootings, violence, noise, fights and the decline of a once nice neighborhood.
· It’s never too late to take back your neighborhood, I see it all the time. When the pressure is on, the gangs and dealers move on to easier pickings.
· Contact your local Police Department or Sheriff’s Office for more information on neighborhood watch programs. A good neighborhood watch group with neighbors who care really does work. Besides, whose neighborhood is it? Yours, or the drug dealers from across town trying to set up shop? You CAN make the difference………
