Street Roots • May 6-12, 2016
Special Report
Page 4
Why they did it
Youths doing time for gang violence talk about their paths and
B what might prevent other kids from following in their footsteps
Luis is a gang-
involved youth
serving a five-year and
10 month sentence for
an armed robbery he
committed when he was
16 vears old.
B
BY EMILY GREEN
■
STAFF WRITER
ortland is about to enter a second consecutive summer filled with what’s predicted to be a record
breaking level of gang shootings, homicides and violence.
The gunmen are getting younger and younger, and the violence increasingly senseless, according
HB to those who work with current and formerly incarcerated gang members in the Portland-metro area.
Media reports related to gang violence often highlight the perspectives of victims’ families, the
police and those trying to find a pathway to the end of a problem that’s only been ramping up in
recent years, with each shooting making way for retaliation.
The perspective of those who pull the trigger is seldom explored.
Who are they? What happened to them before they found themselves with a weapon
v.
in hand, not caring about the consequences of taking another human being’s life?
'
Street Roots sat down with young adults serving lengthy sentences in
Oregon Youth Authority correctional facilities for crimes ranging from armed
robbery to murder, and asked them these questions. All the youths are
either gang members or deeply gang-involved.
1HHB|IIt is not our intention to glamorize this violence, to ignore the
victims and their grieving families, or to excuse the actions
taken by the perpetrators interviewed for this story. It is
simply an attempt to understand how they got here, and what
could have been done to stop it
These are their stories, in their words;
P
STREET ROOTS SPECIAL REPORT: Pages 4-5 & 7-9
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LUIS
AGE 23
We met with Luis at MacLaren Youth
Correctional Facility in Woodbum, where he is
serving a five-year, Khnonth sentence for
second-degree armed robbery. Luis is not his
real name. Luis’ parents and many of his
older relatives were gang members, but he said
he never officially joined a gang himself.
“I was born at OHSU hospital, on the hill.
I have a young mom. She was 15 when she
had me. She moved to California, so my
grandma raised me.”
Luis’s grandmother was first-generation
American of Mexican descent. He said living
with her had its ups and downs.
“She was old school - I mean not like
strict, but she tried to give me the best life
she could, and I respect her for it, but it just
wasn’t for me.
“She’s a woman, not a male figure, but I
figured it out. I grew up fast. Just because of
the environment I was in family-wise. My
dad went to prison when I was 6, and a lot
of my uncles and everyone got locked up
when I was young, for gang stuff.”
Luis said he looked up to an uncle who was
in his life until he was about 9 yeas old, but
now that uncle is serving a 21year prison
sentence.
Luis was moved around frequently
throughout his childhood. Sometimes he stayed
with his mother after she moved back from
California, other times, with his aunt, but
usually his grandmother. He often switched
schools either because he moved or because he
------ ON CHILDHOOD
was expelled for fighting. It wasn’t until after
he was incarcerated that he took any interest
in school.
When Luis was in fifth grade, his dad got
out of prison, and he went to live with him for
a couple of years.
“He was in and out of prison a lot. He’s
from California, South Central and San
Fernando Valley.
“Growing up, my dad would tell me, ‘You
got to be a man. You gotta do stuff on your
own. You can’t depend on grandma.’ I
Ipoked up to him, so I thought, ‘Yeah, you’re
right.’ Anything he said I took to heart. It
was my dad.”
TREI HERNANDEZ
AGE 21
We also met with Trei at MacLaren Youth
Correctional Facility. He came to the interview
sporting a fresh black eye. It was from a gang
fight, he said. Heis a member of the Gangster
Disciples.
“I grew up pretty much all over the place,
from Texas to Oregon and California, born
in Oregon at Emanuel hospital. (Northeast)
Seventh and Dekum was where I went to
elementary school.
“It wasn’t the best childhood, you know, I
didn’t - how do I say this? It wasn’t like we
went without, but we didn’t have enough to
survive. We had to get it how we lived.
“I grew up with my mom. My pops died
at a young age, so he was never in my life. I
was 5 (when he died), but he was in and out.
I got tons'of siblings from his side, so you
can only imagine what that means: He was a
arry Bradshaw is a probation and
parole officer with Oregon Youth
*
Authority wtio has supervised gang
members post incarceration for more
than two decades.
\
■
"I have youth that have hide, and
yon see stuff that they post online
where they have them ail dressed
down in the gang colors throwing
np gang signs."
I
He said breaking that generational
cycle is a real challenge.
'
"I’ve been around long enough
now, where I have kids of kids I
had when I started that are com
ing onto probation, and it’s really
sad to see that."
player! He had all the ladies. He was a good
dude though.
“My mom worked at Jack in the Crack (he
laughs), Jack in the Box, here in Portland,
right off MLK and Lombard. She worked
there for a long time, secured herself a little
manager position, but that still wasn’t
enough. We had a lot of kids living at the
crib. Me and like 12 other kids, all my little
cousins and uncles and aunties, it was a
pretty big house.
“I was the man of the house. I was paying
bills since the age of 14. Oldest out of all my
siblings. It wasn’t like I had to do this; it was
an option, but I wanted to because it was my
mom. I loved my mom to death.
“She took care of us, she fed us, she
knew how to cook her ass off, she’d breathe,
eat, shit, sleep, work - that’s all she did.”
. He said he never connected with any of his
teachers.
“I never gavé them that satisfaction;
Never cared for school. Why be in school
when I can be making money? Even as a
very little kid, mamá had to pick me up from
the principal’s office. I was seeking
attention. I was a bad kid.”
JOSEFINA
AGE 20
Josefina is serving her sentence at Oak
Creek Youth Correctional Facility in Albany,
an all-girls facility. She joined a gang shortly
before her arrest, and had been gang-involved
for some time leading up to it,
“I was born and raised in Northeast
Portland. My.family - we’re kind of tight,
but we weren’t really close. It was the
struggles we went through growing up - we
came together.
“We’d be homeless for a couple weeks at
a time. We usually got kicked out because
my brother would throw parties at the
house or terrorize the neighbors. We’d live
in our van or live with friends, but it wasn’t
for that long, but long enough to know how
it feels to be homeless. Or my mom
wouldn’t have enough money for the bills
and our water would get shut off - or our
electricity. Stuff like that, and living in
Northeast Portland growing up, there was a
lot of gang violence, especially in the area
See YOUTHS, page 5