For the first time in 12 years, city-wide meetings to discuss gang activity in Eugene occurred this week. Officers from the Eugene Police Department, various youth mentoring groups and community members met in the Eugene Public Library’s Singer room on Saturday and Tuesday to come up with ideas to decrease gang activity. The meetings helped prepare the police and community for a gang symposium in October.

Steve Smith, a Santa Clara neighborhood resident, started to notice increasing amounts of graffiti in his neighborhood. He began researching gangs in the area and found that statistics were not sufficient.
“It’s not easy enough to get statistics and information about the matter,” Smith said. “We haven’t had a good analysis of the gang members who are all around us, so we don’t know who we’re looking for.”
According to Jen McCulley, EPD spokesperson, there are not a lot of statistics about gang-related violence because it’s a topic that has recently reemerged.
Although graffiti has increased around campus, gang activity hasn’t been as prevalent. The last press release about gang-related activity close to campus came on April 22, 2011. EPD was concerned about five potentially gang-related assaults, according to the release. Gang members were seen prowling the neighborhood and entering parties, where unsuspecting victims were attacked. The department asked that students assaulted would come forward to assist EPD in catching the gang. Five of the gang members were caught, said Greg Harvey, an EPD detective.
“I would say that the gang activity comes and goes around campus,” Harvey said. “There are a lot of factors that go into it — what time of year it is, what’s going on that day, things like that.”
Harvey also noted that hot spots, nightclubs and events attract gangs, such as the West Side Piru criminal street gang or the South Side Playboy Sureno Trece gang, to the area. @@http://nwgangs.com/oregon-gangs.html This seems legitimate …@@
“We’re focusing on them (the gangs in Eugene) tremendously,” Harvey said. “What makes it easier is for us to be able to see what bigger cities, like Portland, have done to control their gang activity.”
The most recent problem Harvey has noticed is gang members looking to start fights. They have prowled the streets and purposely bumped into walkers, Harvey said, waiting for a fight to be initiated.
“Be respectful — don’t try to be macho and say something wrong to disrespect them because respect is huge to them,” Harvey said. He explained that many of the gangs come from out of town and see Eugene as a hotspot. “The best way to avoid confrontation is to always be aware of your surroundings and try to travel in groups.”
Kelly McIver, Department of Public Safety spokesperson, said that the University’s gang presence is not as active as in other areas of Eugene. @@http://uoregon.edu/findpeople/person/Kelly*McIver@@
“It seems that we have been fortunate in not having a lot of gang activity on campus,” McIver said. “The incidents have been limited and few and far between.”
McIver said DPS is working closely with EPD to pool resources and cross-training in order to suppress the growing gang activity.
“Students tend to be in a bubble a little bit, which is good because they are trying to grow and learn and shouldn’t be too distracted with outside things,” McIver said. “But it’s important that students know about their surroundings as well.”