GILROY
– Nearly 50 residents of East Eighth Street met with members of
the Gilroy Police Department Wednesday evening at Butcher Park not
just to discuss the recent rise in gang activity in their
neighborhood, but to do something about it.
GILROY – Nearly 50 residents of East Eighth Street met with members of the Gilroy Police Department Wednesday evening at Butcher Park not just to discuss the recent rise in gang activity in their neighborhood, but to do something about it.
“We’re learning what we can do about this and not just wait for the police to come around,” said Norma Cardoza, president of the East Eighth Street Neighborhood Association, who helped organize the meeting. “There are a lot of people here who want to help and clean up the neighborhood, but they are scared to call police on the gangs. Tonight we told them not to be afraid.”
Although the meeting was scheduled in November as part of an ongoing dialogue between residents of the neighborhood plagued by crime and the GPD, a lot of residents used the April 25 gang-related beating and stabbing in front of the Pacheco Pass Motel in their neighborhood as an example of recent criminal activity.
“But it’s not just the stabbing, there’s been a lot of gang fights lately that haven’t been reported to police,” said Cardoza, who has lived in the 400 block of East Eighth Street for 13 years. “If we don’t start changing things soon, it’s only going to get worse for the kids who are little now.”
On Wednesday night, five members of the GPD told the concerned citizens that it was their duty to be the police department’s eyes and ears in the area.
“We told them it’s got to be a partnership if they want things to improve,” said Rachel Muñoz, the GPD’s neighborhood resource officer who works closely with several low-income Gilroy neighborhoods. “They need to be proactive in keeping their eyes open and picking up the phone to report crime to us. We can’t have an officer on every corner.”
