Since the start of the year, there has been an average of a shooting a day in Santa Ana — a trend that local police are determined to reverse.
It’s nothing like the 1990s, when there were 78 homicides in a single year, The Orange County Register reported Tuesday. Still, five people have been killed, an unknown number injured and an officer wounded. Some call it a spasm. Police call it an anomaly and are determined to snuff out, according to the newspaper.
A Register examination found no single reason for the bloodshed and no simple solution. Interviews with law enforcement, academics, public officials and residents suggest some shared theories: More relaxed laws put more criminals on the streets, while a recession-reduced city budget put higher pressure on a smaller police force.
The Register review also points to a rise in intergang tensions, more young guns wanting to prove themselves and citizens dropping their guard after years of declining crime in an area where an estimated 4,500 gang members live mean peace is hard won and can be fleeting.
Police Chief Carlos Rojas calls it “an almost perfect storm,” according to The Register.
Gang life is woven into the tapestry of this 150-year-old city, according to the newspaper. Most of the the recent shootings have been deemed gang-related by police. Many adolescents consider it a rite of passage to be jumped into a gang.
But deeper economic and social currents also run through Santa Ana, according to The Register. More than three-fourths of the city’s population is Latino, many of them undocumented. About the same percentage don’t speak English at home. Nearly a quarter of the population lives below the poverty line. To make rent, several families may crowd into a one-room apartment.
—City News Service