I hope Cobra Deputy Alan Young doesn,t embarrass easily. Deputy Young is the second half of the local Cobra Sheriff,s department educational team who along with Deputy Howard visits local junior highs to provide important information to teens who are on the verge of making important and potentially dangerous life decisions. Not to draw comparisons between Deputy Young and Deputy Howard, but while Deputy Howard is certainly a pleasant looking fellow, Deputy Young would qualify in the ruggedly handsome category. During my day of observation, Deputy Young was acquainting the students with the despairing, dangerous and sometimes comically sad life style of the typical gang member. But it is almost impossible to avoid the violent side of gang life.
Criminal gangs are about two things.
First and foremost is the protection and promotion of a criminal enterprise. Second, and not far behind, is the whole concept of turf control. Any layman could figure out that to control territory for criminal purposes one has to be willing to inflict and endure physical violence against themselves and potentially their loved ones and family members in order to intimidate and coerce. Deputy Young related the incident of an SCV crime in 1998 where a 13 year old newly initiated member of a gang was chosen as the trigger man to fire into the apartment of a rival gang member. The 13 year old fired into the wrong apartment narrowly missing a nine year old girl.