86 percent of city killings gang-related; police plead for help
| Saturday, Jul 18 2009 12:00 PM
Last Updated Saturday, Jul 18 2009 12:00 PM
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In this file photo, Bakersfield police investigate the apparent homicide of an elderly couple in a house on Durham Court in southwest Bakersfield. Lt. Hajir Nuriddin (with phone) and Sgt. Joe Aldana, Bakersfield police detectives, wait for the arrival of crime scene units to help in the investigation.
Bakersfield Police Lt. Hajir Nuriddin is worried.
You can see it on her face and on the faces of Capt. Joe Bianco and Sgt. Joe Aldona as the trio gathers in the basement of police headquarters.
Gang-related shootings in Bakersfield have spiked in the first half of this year, Nuriddin says. And to make matters worse, witnesses, street-level informants, and even anonymous tip lines have fallen all but silent.
"Has our city become desensitized by the violence that is occurring right in front of our eyes?" Nuriddin asks.
"It's disturbing," Bianco adds. "We've gotten help in the past, but it seems this year, we're not getting that help."
Total homicides within the Bakersfield city limits are not on track to set any records in 2009. What concerns police is this: Of the 14 killings in the BPD's jurisdiction so far this year, 12 -- about 86 percent -- are gang-connected.
And gangland murders are often harder to solve. Just one-quarter of the gang-related killings this year have resulted in criminal charges, according to police. Of last year's seven gang-related homicides, just two have been cleared by police.
Yet in 2007, police solved 100 percent of gang-related homicides.
This disturbing trend -- if indeed it is a trend -- is not necessarily reflected in unincorporated areas of Kern County. Of the 19 homicides so far this year under the jurisdiction of the Sheriff's Department, fewer than half have been connected to gangs, according to the department.
Sgt. Aldana, of the BPD's Robbery-Homicide Division, sees the city's problem at the street level and the human level. Too often, he says, he has encountered a possible witness, only to be told, "I heard it, but I'm not going to say anything more."
One woman he encountered at a shooting scene earlier this year told her daughter not to say anything to police, Aldana says.
"That's what we're up against," Aldana says. "We go door to door ... two blocks in each direction," he says.
And too often they come back with nothing.
This year, these crimes have mostly boiled down to young black men killing young black men, Nuriddin says, shaking her head in frustration.
Nuriddin understands that some witnesses are afraid to come forward. But that doesn't explain the lack of anonymous tips on the department's confidential tip line at 325-GANG.
She also acknowledges the longstanding gulf that has existed between minority communities and law enforcement.
But when neighborhoods are turned into war zones by thugs, when innocent people at a family reunion are killed or wounded by gun-toting cowards, things have to change.
"We're asking for the community's help," Nuriddin says. "I think criminals look for communities that don't care, communities they're pretty confident won't report."
Wesley Davis Jr., whose 16-year-old son, Wendale Davis, was killed in a drive-by shooting three years ago, says the current state of affairs is a local and national emergency.
Davis says he would like to see a heavier police presence in areas where gang activity is concentrated. And if that means more black residents being pulled over, so be it.
"I think there needs to be more pressure applied by police," he says. "Some may be surprised to hear me say that."
Davis has been meeting regularly with a growing group of men -- some with former gang ties -- to talk about ways to end the killing.
"It's not necessarily racial profiling," he says of an increased police pressure. "But when police see two or three young men in a car, wearing white T's, looking thugish, pull 'em over.
"Even if it's my own sons -- or me. Pull me over," he says. "It'll take five minutes."
On the subject of motivating more members of the black community to give information to police, Davis is not immediately optimistic.
"I don't think that's going to happen," he says.
"But people are tired," he adds, his voice softening. "People are weary of the killing."
