Rap show denied in San Benito County because of suspected gang
influences held in Gilroy instead
After years of watching hardcore gangsters driven into their
community from the north, San Benito County officials returned the
dubious favor to Gilroy last Saturday night
Rap show denied in San Benito County because of suspected gang influences held in Gilroy instead
After years of watching hardcore gangsters driven into their community from the north, San Benito County officials returned the dubious favor to Gilroy last Saturday night.
A rap concert turned down by Bolado Park officials over fears of gang trouble moved to the Gaslighter Music Hall on Gilroy’s Monterey Street, where it turned violent over the weekend – another mercurial sign of the region’s growing gang problem.
“We had received some information that it was going to be more than a rap concert,” said Sheriff Curtis Hill. “It was going to be a prison gang having a summit, so that was of major concern to me.”
Hill strongly recommended in late October to the San Benito County Fair Board that the event organizers be denied a permit on grounds it might be used as a cover.
It turned out Hill was right. One person was slashed during a gang fight and police arrested four people after a group that Gilroy police described as “400 Norteños” packed the downtown event.
The stabbing is just one more reason Hill says he wants to sit down with San Benito County’s District Attorney-elect John Sarsfield and Hollister Chief of Police Bill Pierpoint to figure out ways to thwart gang activity.
Police personal shortages are no excuse to ignore gangs, he said. Resources must be found.
“Never ever tell anybody we don’t have the manpower to do that,” Hill said. “The discussion is going to be centered around increasing suppression activity.”
Hollister Councilman Robby Scattini said he is squarely behind Hill’s call for increasing gang and graffiti suppression. Scattini, a former county sheriff elected to the board in November, is separately working on his own proposal for a crackdown that he plans to submit to the city.
“This is one thing that gets my goat; I want to do something about this graffiti. I want to clean it up. It’s our town and I’ve got a lot of respect and I don’t want to see it all marked up,” he said of the marks gangs use to delineate territory. “We need to set an example through enforcement and education. I think coming into town seeing the way this town is marked up is disgraceful.”
The event Saturday night surprised Gilroy Police Officer Jim Gillio of the city’s anti-gang ACT squad, which is dedicated to gathering gang intelligence and suppressing activities. Gillio said he learned on Wednesday that two rap groups would be performing at the Gaslighter and that a few Norteños would likely be in the audience, nothing unusual for a town with seven or eight active street gangs.
“I didn’t really have a lot of red flags,” Gillio said.
Instead there were 11 musical acts that brought in alleged gangsters from all over the state. Two state parole agents, one from the California Youth Authority, teamed up with the GPD to search for parole violators and gang members with outstanding warrants.
“There had to be between 300 and 400 Norteños who came into town,” said Gillio.
The night’s first incident came around 10 p.m. when a club security guard was punched in the face during an altercation with several alleged gang members. The gang members fled the scene and the guard declined to file a report.
Among the other arrests was one for counterfeiting by an alleged Norteño who tried to pass a fake $20 bill at the club. An alleged Norteño was arrested outside the club for an outstanding warrant and another was arrested for a misdemeanor alcohol-related violation.
The party later moved to the Motel Six on Monterey Road, where police were called out two hours later.
“We received a call that there was some type of fight involving gang members and a subject with a handgun,” said Gilroy Sgt. John Sheedy.
Police found a 27-year-old Hayward man bleeding from a knife wound in the motel’s lobby. Despite blood covering his hands and a lower abdomen wound, the victim refused medical attention, Sheedy said. The victim told police a group of young Hispanic men had pulled up in a car and attacked him with baseball bats.
His wounds were inconsistent with his statement to police, said Gillio.
“He recalls a group of people getting out with bats and pipes,” Gillio said. “He was being pretty uncooperative.”
Sheedy said it was unclear whether the alleged Norteños were staying at the Motel Six. All of them had Gaslighter stamps on their hands, said Gillio.
Police found a loaded semiautomatic pistol hidden underneath a red bandana in the motel ground’s bushes. Norteños sport the color red. Robert Benavides, 25, allegedly hid the pistol after the gang fight and was arrested on a felony weapons charge.
Hill feels badly that he didn’t know the concert had been rescheduled elsewhere.
“I wished I would have known they were going to Gilroy, because I could have passed on the information we received,” Hill said. “We heard it from a Central Coast Task Force meeting. Information is knowledge. If you have it you can prepare for it. There’s a reason they chose small communities to do this stuff. They think the police don’t have the resources to be on top of the situation.”
