• March 29, 2012

  • Al Valdez, social sciences lecturer, is quoted by KSL News Radio (Utah) March 28, 2012

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From KSL News Radio:
Unified police detective Ken Hansen, a law enforcement veteran and the person responsible for writing the grant in 1990 that started what would become the Salt Lake Area Gang Project, gave one of the keynote addresses.... Gangs today are more violent, more organized and are driven predominantly by money. Almost every time police make a raid on a gang house today, they find stolen checks and IDs inside, Hansen said. Another difference between 1990 and today is that 22 years ago, approximately 80 percent of documented gang members were juveniles. Today, Hansen said, that number is just 8 percent. But what's not clear is how much of that is due to actual decreasing numbers, and how much is due to younger gang members trying to stay more covert. While gang membership is aging, Hansen said younger gang members have not gone away.... University of California, Irvine professor Al Valdez, who delivered another keynote speech on West Coast Latino gangs, said the Hispanic gangs of California no longer require their members to get tattoos so they can blend in more with society. "It's all about money," Valdez said. "These kids don't present the same," Hansen added. "They don't have the presentation in terms of colors and so forth. A lot of them look like regular kids."

Video link available at:
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=960&sid=19771593&title=social-media-is-the-new-g...

 

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