It hasn’t been an easy month for the gangs of Santa Cruz. The SCPD has enlisted the help of federal agencies, including ICE, to combat increasing gang violence, and this week, two men were arrested in connection with the murder of 16-year-old Tyler Tenorio last October. Now, police fear, some gang members are pushing back, distributing fliers calling for “hood unity” in the face of “neo-Nazi gangs,” as the police and federal agents are referred to.
It hasn’t been an easy month for the gangs of Santa Cruz. The SCPD has enlisted the help of federal agencies, including ICE, to combat increasing gang violence, and this week, two men were arrested in connection with the murder of 16-year-old Tyler Tenorio last October. Now, police fear, some gang members are pushing back, distributing fliers calling for “hood unity” in the face of “neo-Nazi gangs,” as the police and federal agents are referred to. Under the headline “No snitching. No collaboration,” the fliers call for resistance against this “common enemy.” The fliers appeared in an apartment complex just feet away from where Tenorio was murdered.
The SCPD is “sick and tired” of the pushback they are receiving from a small but vocal core of gang supporters in the community. Spokesman Zach Friend says the force is “trying to go out there and build partnerships and save lives.” He says that the fliers are intended to intimidate the police and community members who have spoken out against gangs.
On the other hand, some community organizations, including Barridos Unidos, are critical of the SCPD’s strategies and call on the police to consider other options. “I think more prevention programs would be a good way to go about it, maybe funding more money into prevention programs,” said one local resident.
Police are still investigating who is behind the fliers, noting that they appear well researched and written, and not your typical gang fare. Some have even implied that Barridos Unidos itself was behind them as an expression of its frustration over the SCPD’s collaboration with ICE. Barrios Director Daniel Alejandrez denies this, saying, “We wouldn’t put anything out there like that … negative flyers don’t help the community.”
There is, however, hostility between Barridos Unidos and the local police. Earlier this month, Santa Cruz Deputy Police Chief Rick Martinez announced that the SCPD had stopped working with the organization because it was not doing enough to curtail gang violence. Read more at KSBW, Fox35 and Santa Cruz Sentinel.
