Sims’ front window and her side wall were spray-painted with the words “NK All Day.” Her beef, she says, is not with all Mexicans but only the gangbangers who are tagging her house. The same goes for Melinda Sims, who moved in next to her sister six weeks ago. She’s hoping the police can take care of the problem because, unlike her black neighbor who fled the area out of fear of her safety, she doesn’t intend to leave. Rochaun Keyes, who has lived on 206th Street for three years and has had her house tagged with the words “nigger killer,” makes a distinction between gang members and the rest of her Latino neighbors. “It’s about the gangs,” he said in Spanish.Įven some victims of 204th Street’s intimidation told me that they get along with most of their Mexican neighbors. Many, like 54-year-old Fausto Lopez, a maintenance man who’s only been in this country a year, will tell you they have little idea of what’s going on. You’ll see men fixing or cleaning their cars.

What I found is that most residents - of any background - try to keep their heads down, go about their business and get along with their neighbors.ĭuring the day, you’ll find mothers pushing strollers and children playing in frontyards. “Just because you move out doesn’t mean you have to move on,” he said, after cooling down and handing back my notes.įor several days last week I skulked around the working-class neighborhood, talking to as many people as I could. But minutes later, in response to similar questions, O’Gorman grabbed my notebook out of my hand and walked away. What, you ask, are two grown men who have decent jobs and don’t live in the area doing gangbanging? “It’s kind of weird, huh?” Torres said.

On Wednesday, the two men arrived on their “turf” in a work truck with the name of a large air-conditioning company painted on it.

Neither of the two men who agreed to speak for the gang - 32-year-old Jonathan O’Gorman (yes, his father is Irish) and 22-year-old Noe Torres (no, his father isn’t) - live in the neighborhood. Of its 100 documented members, only about 20 live in the 12-block sliver of the Harbor Gateway district they claim as their own. DON’T BE fooled by its name: The 204th Street gang, two of whose members have been arrested in connection with last month’s racially motivated slaying of 14-year-old Cheryl Green, is what you could call a commuter gang.

Tortilla flats gang