Gang Violence Increases During Holiday Season

By Sofia M., an 8th grader at Hoover School

Traditionally, the holidays are a festive time of merriment when families reunite and celebrate time together. However, when family festivities involve extended family members, it opens the doors for more violence.

Sometimes half the family is Norteños and the other half is Sureños. This gang rivalry often divides families.

They literally split the household, with one gang on one side of the house and the other on the opposite of the house.

If tensions are high enough, a simple facial expression can ignite a fight.

In particular, the Virgin Mary’s birthday is an important celebration: all of the community walks together from Hoover School to St. Anthony’s Church in North Fair Oaks in the wee hours of the morning.

There are booths where you can buy food such as tamales, posole, conchas, and chocolate milk. They also sell roses and candles where you can put them on Virgin Mary’s picture.

Yet amidst all this celebration, gang members also file into the church to honor the Virgin Mary.

After merely being in the same place, the gang members will still possess the anger while they head to school. They hold onto it until they get home, when the violence erupts.

Some gang members even have a meeting at someone’s house to plan their attacks, pre-meditated murder.

On December 12, 2009, the Virgin Mary's birthday, there was a shooting in the apartment complex around Middlefield and Chestnut around 8 p.m.

According to a friend who lives in the complex, a man was shot in front of his doorstep while his family was in the house. It was said to be gang-related, according to the police. 

The family was more upset because this is a very special day and having a family member get shot is even more sad.

On December 16, 2010, Police arrested two Norteño gan­­g members who were chasing another person with a knife drawn, according to a Patch article.

On December 13, 2011, suspects got out of a tan or gold four-door car on the 800 block of Brewster Avenue at about 4:35 p.m. and stabbed a 19-year-old victim multiple times in the abdomen before fleeing, according to the Redwood City police.

During the holiday season, there should be more police officers patrolling for any violence that might be going on all over Redwood City. Gang violence isn’t limited to just one specific area, but parks in the afternoon tend to be the meeting places for gang activity.

Editor’s Note: Sofia M. is a student at Hoover School and pat of the Spark mentor program. She is a tutuee of Associate Regional Editor, Stacie Chan's.