White gangs

By David De Rurange/KTVL.com

WHITE CITY, Ore. -- Ernest Drown has seen gang activity from Surenos and "white power" gangs in his neighborhood.

He gave News 10 some video and pictures of gang vandalism on fences, a playground, a boat and even on a parked ice cream truck.

However, Drown says not all the tags are coming from Latinos.

"The white power are actually making the tagging look like hispanic writing." he said. "They cause problems with some of the very very nice hispanic men that are just trying to get an education. They'll beat these kids into the ground, just for the color of their skin."

Drown contacted local and state authorities, but he doesn't think enough has been done to stop the vandalism, drug use and other crimes which he says occur almost daily in his neighborhood. It's unknown if white power gangs are exclusively connected.

Medford Police have officially documented four kinds of Caucasian gangs. Three of them are known to be white supremacists; namely the Nazi Low Riders, Peckerwood and European Kindred.  They can be identified by a swastika or two lightning bolts.

Drown has seen those types of tags, but he's also seen white kids make graffiti for predominantly Latino gangs, like the Varrio Dub Flats (VDF). According to the Medford Area Gang and Drug Enforcement team, it's common for Caucasion boys to be jumped into Hispanic gangs.
Sergeant Kevin Walruff said white supremacists account for less than one percent of gang activity in Jackson County.

"We know that some of them are out there and in some of those cases, they are corrections clients or parolees that have come out of prison. In order to survive in prison they've had to associate themselves with those types of groups. But we're not necessarily seeing that type of activity out in the public." Walruff said.

Whether or not white gang activity is happening in your neighborhood, Drown doesn't want his Hispanic friends to be blamed for something they didn't do.

"I hear hispanics, Mexicans did this. Mexicans did that. And it's not." Drown said.  "I have very honest Hispanic people that are called filthy names, and they don't do anything."
   
Drown will keep watching. He hopes you will, too.