South Hill Hit By Rash Of Gang Graffiti

Spray-painted gang graffiti is popping up like spring buttercups throughout one of the South Hill’s sleepy, manicured residential neighborhoods.

The area from Perry west to Grand Boulevard and from 29th south to High Drive appears to be hardest hit. Angry, frightened residents have declared war.

“This is a wake-up call, and we’re prepared to fight,” says Paul, 43, who has lived on the South Hill all his life. “We want the message to get out that we have an absolute zero tolerance to gangs and we build this to a crescendo.”

Paul called me the other day with a strange offer: a tour of the most recent markings in his neighborhood. “You don’t tend to notice it unless you specifically look,” he says. “But once you start looking, you discover it’s all over the place.”

Graffiti appeared one night on a garage door, terrifying the elderly homeowners. You can see it on a wood fence. A brick wall. The side of a house. A bus stop is covered with the stuff.

Some jerk even sprayed his ignorance all over the side of a trailer parked in front of a home.

To most of us, the cryptic loops and swirls of black, blue and white look like gibberish. To gang members, however, the graffiti - they call it “tagging” - is a code. The number 187, for example, refers to the section of the California law dealing with homicide.

It’s designed to mark a territory “and create an atmosphere of fear,” says Spokane Police Chief Terry Mangan, who is taking the South Hill graffiti outbreak very seriously.

Some of the graffiti, he says, has been linked to the Crips, a violent California-based gang of crack peddlers. Part of it, he adds, is probably the work of young gang “wannabes.”

Gangs, and the violence and drugs they trade in, are sadly nothing new to lower-income, more crime-ridden sections of Spokane.

But, hey, this is the kinder, gentler South Hill.

This is a world of well-kept homes and retired folks and upper middle-class working people. People who, up until a few weeks ago, believed street punks were someone else’s trouble.

“We were totally naive,” concedes Chuck, 57, another resident. “But we’re also prepared to fight. I’m not about to be kicked around by a bunch of hoods.”

Chuck and his wife were driving home recently when they encountered a group of 20 gangbangers over age 21 who slowly were roaming the yards of his neighborhood.

What chilled Chuck was the way their eyes bore into him as they moved with quiet confidence. Three neighbors, including Chuck, dialed 911. But the intruders had vanished by the time police arrived.

None of the residents I spoke with wanted his name or address to appear in print for fear of putting his family in harm’s way.

Among them is a city police officer who lives on the same block as Chuck and Paul. He echoes the get-tough attitude of his neighbors:

“This is about decent people waging a war against the gangs to keep control of their neighborhood.”

Spokane police statistics show there have been 50 gang-related incidents reported since the first of the year.

But why are gangs interested in the South Hill?

Mangan’s not sure. He speculates that older members may be recruiting kids in affluent South Hill neighborhoods. Another of the chief’s theories is that if you want to deal drugs to kids with money, “the high school you go to is Ferris.”

South Hill residents don’t care about motivations. They just want the gangsters out.

To accomplish this, these more affluent citizens will have to emulate the actions of their poorer cousins in the West Central district.

That neighborhood was made safer when residents banded together, joined Block Watch programs and began cooperating with police.

“The message is that the South Hill isn’t available for gangs,” growls Paul. “We’re gunning for them. End of story.”

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Doug Clark The Spokesman-Review