Gangs of Santa Barbara: There’s clearly a problem, but is there a solution?

Zac Estrada Rosales
Associate Editor

Timing is a funny thing isn’t it? It was no more than three weeks ago that I thought, “Yeah, there’s crime in Santa Barbara, but it’s not that bad compared to just about everywhere else.” I’m eating those words as we speak.

The events of February 1 change my view on the whole gang issue. Not that I suspect gangs were behind our break-in, but that there are some issues in Santa Barbara that aren’t being addressed that pertain to high school students. For almost a year now the majority of students have had it ingrained in their minds that there is definitely an increased gang presence in town. One dead teen behind Saks Fifth Avenue in broad daylight a year ago will do that. But stabbings that happen almost on a weekly basis and the sometimes shady characters lurking around on State Street are the start of a recipe for communal panic.

I’m stopping myself short of sounding like the News-Press’ gang gadfly Travis Armstrong, who lists off the problems on a weekly basis, who lambasts the wrong local leaders and never criticizes the ones who deserve it, ignoring the irony that after police officers won a hefty pay raise the crime rate goes up, and creates more pandemonium among the News-Press’ tens of readers.

Last spring, immediately following the first stabbing on State Street, I recall being completely confused by our school’s plan to tell all of its athletes in a quickly-assembled assembly to tell everyone to avoid the downtown area that weekend and let people know that we’re proud to be Dons, meaning that if we go walking around in clusters we should all wear clothing that said SBHS on it. Yeah, like I’m really going to do that.

There are two problems in this town, as much as they don’t want to hear it. The people giving the go-ahead to projects such as the teen center aren’t exactly in tune with the interests of the hooligans making life busy for the journalists and fun for Mr. Armstrong. So while the grown-ups are out of touch, the other problem at hand is the fact that the kids don’t want to follow. The teen center is a brilliant idea in theory, but the question remains: has it really caught on? I don’t think it’s really struck a chord with the kids who really don’t have a place to go and end up wandering the streets and getting into trouble.

During the city council elections last fall, I listened to all of the candidates and spoke with many of them. One in particular, Michelle Giddens, was most interested in pursuing the issue. And at her election party on the night results came in, she said even if she didn’t end up getting a seat on council, she’d work actively to crack down on the gang problem in Santa Barbara.

It’s not just those with political aspirations who want to help. At a community meeting I attended way back in June of last year, I saw countless parents, neighbors, and even children get up in front of government, business, and school leaders, and pour their hearts out over how they’ve seen people they knew as children stabbed on the street. Everyone wanted to know what they could do to prevent that from happening more than it already is now. No one had anything new.

There is one answer and it’s pretty simple: don’t join a gang. But that response is more convincing to some than it is to others.