For those of you who attended the Daily Herald mayoral debate earlier this week, I’m sure you had as good of a time as I did. Both of the candidates, in my opinion, did exceptionally well. Both had their hits and misses, but there is one aspect in Curtis’ material that I disagree with emphatically. The debate quickly touched upon the issue of gangs in our City, and Mr. Curtis was quick to start listing gangs who are currently present and active in our community. One of the gangs he rambled off with such ease was MS-13, a talking point which shows two facts about Mr. Curtis: he has his ‘facts’ mixed up about gang issues in Provo and he is trying to utilize fear in order to garner support for his campaign.
For those of you who heard Mr. Curtis talking about MS-13, you may find his information strangely familiar to a KSL news article written nearly two years ago. [1] But first, you may be wondering ‘what in the world is MS-13?’ Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, found its origins in southern California after refugees from a civil war in El Salvador ran to the United States for safety. Many of these young refugees quickly banded together in order to fight back attacks from other street gangs in the area, combining under the banner MS-13 which derives the name from La Mara (a notorious Salvadorian gang), Salvatruchas (peasant members of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front), and the ‘13’ was added to honor the symbol of the Mexican Mafia. [2] This gang is notorious for funding operations through killing-for-hire and heavy drug trafficking. The methods used to contain this notorious gang in El Salvador are so encompassing that they have a special prison to house only members of this gang. If you want to know more about this gang and the specific details of the ‘how’ and ‘why’ behind their operations, I suggest you following the [2] link and read the article. In general, the website www.knowgangs.com is a wonderful resource to anyone wanting to know more about specific gangs.
Now back to the subject at hand. Mr. Curtis seems to believe that Provo is now home to members of this notorious El Salvador-based gang. My question for Mr. Curtis is what evidence does he have that the police do not have? The same article Mr. Curtis plagiarized most of his ‘facts’ from stated that “the MS-13 gang hasn’t flexed its muscles much here [Utah] yet, but it may be recruiting members as young as 8 years old” (emphasis added). [1] What Mr. Curtis doesn’t seem to realize is when MS-13 is present in a community, you will know it. MS-13 is not engaged in petty theft, but their entire organization is focused around “very violent, high-profile criminal activity.” [1] Why high-profile criminal activity, like murder-for-hire or killing witnesses to crimes? Because, like most gangs, they realize that the media will, like a moth to the flame, come with their cameras and newspapers to do the publicity for them. Yet the only problem here is that Mr. Curtis is acting like the media, trying to give credibility to a notorious street gang that has none of the common signs of activity in our community.
Mr. Curtis may try to focus on the ‘fact’ that there has been graffiti spotted that says MS-13. Yet, if you are trying to convince the people of Provo that an incidence of graffiti means a gang is present and active, you are literally standing on a house of cards. It is true that graffiti is one of the lowest forms of gang activity, but the only problem with graffiti is that it is difficult to verify whether the graffiti is truly from associated members of the gang, or whether copycats are to blame. The same article that Mr. Curtis used for his information about MS-13 stated that “one of the unknowns is whether local gangsters who claim membership in MS-13 are really connected to a national or international hierarchy.” [1] Police officers are commonly presented with the problem of dealing with “wannabe” gangsters who are actually not affiliated with gang operations, but just try to look the part because it is ‘cool’ or provides street credibility. Because of this, it is difficult for police officers to pin down gang membership numbers throughout the State of Utah. In other words, just because graffiti is present doesn’t mean that the gang is.
Mr. Curtis might try to say that MS-13 is present in other areas of Utah, so they are here, too. This argument also falls flat, because we cannot compare Provo with other cities. The KSL article states that police have tracked MS-13 members in Park City, West Valley, Tooele, and Salt Lake City, but they gave no reference to the Provo/Orem area. Also, this article also stated that “no major crimes have been attributed” to MS-13 in the entire state of Utah. [1] Also, the danger behind trying to link Provo with areas like West Valley City and Tooele is that every community is different and cannot be compared to each other when we are speaking about an issue like gangs. Since gangs are literally a social issue, we cannot compare our perception of gang activity to another city’s gang activity. The people who make up a community frame the problems and ideals of that community, so what might be considered a problem in Provo may be just a nuisance in West Valley City.
If you are truly concerned about gangs in our neighborhoods, then you really shouldn’t be looking to someone who is trying to gain political office for the ‘facts’ about gangs. Al Valdez, the leading researcher into gang activity in the United States, has talked about the danger of politicians grandstanding ‘gang problems’ to the public. The media is the medium for the public to gain information, and when a politician states that there is a widespread problem of gang activity, the media will either run the story without checking the sources or they will consult the police for further information. However, even if the media goes to the police for information, the stories they will run will never be 100% accurate because they never have all the information that police officials have access to. It is not the job of the media to make a story completely accurate; journalists just need the story to be good enough to sell papers and grab people’s attention. In either situation, the entire story is not presented because only the police can give an accurate representation of gang activity in a community because that is their job. Don’t look towards a politician, the media, or your grandma to get accurate information about gangs because only the police are prepared to address issues as complex as gang activity.
Mr. Curtis is trying to appear and act as the sole authority of gang issues in the City of Provo. By openly proclaiming ‘problems’ to which he has neither authority nor facts, he is causing irreversible damage to the psyche of the Provo citizen. Mr. Curtis claims that a hallmark of his campaign is the safety of our community by stating that “instead of pretending [gangs are not] out there we need to deal with gangs head on.” [3] Is your idea of tackling this issue “head on,” by sensationalizing the presence of MS-13, something that is not even an issue in our community? Are you so paranoid that you believe one of the most notorious and violent gangs in the United States has found a new home in Provo, Utah, because of an article written nearly two years ago? Is your mind so diluted that when a Provo citizen stated to you, in confidence, “if you take away my piece of mind, I have nothing,” that you then parade around telling us that the West Side of Provo is a breeding ground for gang activity and the South Towne Center is filled with gang members? [3] How are your grandstanding, sensationalist comments about gangs helping the people of Provo feel safe? Unsubstantiated ‘facts’ about gangs are just as dangerous as true gang activity, Mr. Curtis, and to paraphrase upon the movie Field of Dreams: if you continue to build a pretense of MS-13 in our community, they will come.
[1] http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=2495499
[2] http://www.knowgangs.com/gang_resources/profiles/ms13/
[3] http://www.heraldextra.com/app/elections09/candidates/provo/mayor/
