Imagine in this day and age you’re an eleven or twelve year old walking to the park with his friends, and you get stopped by San Diego police, questioned, and ultimately added to the CalGang database without your knowledge. All based on the most minor of things that people do every day.
First off, let me explain what the CalGang database is. It’s basically a statewide depository of local community members who police have determined are a gang member or associate, and being on that list harms you in multiple ways in the future. To get put in the database all you need to do is fit two points on their checklist.
Take myself for example. I was put into the CalGang database while in middle school for wearing a blue Chargers shirt. I was in a well-known Crip area. And one of my friends had been to juvenile hall before and was already documented. So just for me being a football fan, and living where I had no choice to live, and hanging with my friend, got me documented as a gang member.
After the stop and field interview I went on about my life, not giving it a second thought. I ended up going to juvenile hall a few years later. And when I was released at 17, that’s when I found out about being a documented gang member. Upon release I was told I had “gang conditions.” That meant I would violate probation if I was caught in the vicinity of any other documented gang members. I also couldn’t go to any of the stores or parks in my neighborhood. So basically I couldn’t go outside, or talk to anyone I grew up with. Other people have been prevented from seeing their own family members.
When people critique the criminalization of entire communities, this is what they’re talking about. The database is just another tool for putting black and brown people in jail for longer sentences. Get arrested and thanks to the gang designation it carries an additional ten years on top of whatever you were arrested for. That’s known as a “gang enhancement.” For example, if you get arrested for burglary, which carries three years, you’re now serving 13. When I was in prison, I ran into a lot of folks who had already completed their base term (the charge that sent them to prison) and were still there because of the enhancement time. And they all had years left on their sentence.
Once you’re in the database, you’re there until 65 years old. Whenever you get pulled over by law enforcement, the gang designation comes up making the interaction that much more stressful.
The CalGang database is racist and ineffective. I’ve literally met white gang members from Skinhead gangs, and not one of them has ever got a gang enhancement. I researched all
gang cases from the last 10 years in San Diego and there were only three white people on there. And all three were from black or Hispanic gangs. The San Diego police Gang Suppression Unit doesn’t even acknowledge any white gangs in Santee or Lakeside.
And don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that I want white folks from Santee to receive gang enhancements. I’m saying that any gang documentation should be illegal, period, based on how they enter people into the database. Stopping minors doing a field interview, without letting the parents know, then entering the names into a statewide database, as though they were in the same category as terrorists, should be illegal. We need to shed light on this situation. Do not let your children fall victim!
Michael Whyte, Jr., works on police accountability for Pillars of the Community