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Gangbangers Aren't Boy Scouts: Resort Towns Should 'Be Prepared'

By Jill Adler
February 23, 2009

Look around. It all seems idyllic, the quaint historic homes and business facades. Friendly locals greeting you in the restaurants, bars, and ski resorts. The escape from the chaos and realism of the outside urban world feels complete on a ski vacation. Not so fast.

Park City, Utah, and Summit County where the Wasatch ski resort town is located, have experienced two gang-related homicides in the past five years; an armed robbery of an ice cream shop in the Redstone development in 2007; a stabbing in 2006 by a 17-year-old female gang member; at least one rape case attributed to gangsters at a hotel; and, gang-related graffiti behind Smith's Market this past Christmas.

That sounds dramatic on its surface, though that's just two aggravated crimes in four years. The problem lies deeper, as Det. Andrew Burton from the Summit County Sheriff's office in Park City, Utah, explained it last week to The Industry Report.

"We have had indicators that suggest gang involvement has increased in the last two years," he says. Burton, a veteran of Salt Lake's metro gang task force, was brought up to Park City four years ago to monitor the gang situation in the small resort town just 30 minutes east of Salt Lake.

Incidences of smaller crimes like graffiti, drug dealing, and theft are up. Despite Park City's playground image, it may be time to start locking doors and windows.

An investigative report in the Salt Lake Tribune claims there are now 120 documented gang members from 20 gangs, with ties to Summit County. Another 60 people have been tagged as "persons of interest." That's up nine fold from a year ago. Further, 75 percent are predominately Latino, with many coming from California. "Their families move here for employment," says Burton.

Summit County sheriffs have implemented a gang enforcement project to investigate, gather intelligence, and suppress possible gang activity in an effort to address this growing concern. The task force also will educate rural areas like Summit County that aren't used to dealing with gang problems. They'd love to have a chat with Park City's ski resorts (Park City Mountain Resort, The Canyons, and Deer Valley Resort).

"The resorts feel like they don't have much of a problem and they don't," he says. "But, when it's a struggle to fill positions, especially at ski resorts, you may not know who's walking through your door.

"Fifty percent of Park City's gang members live in Salt Lake City and have jobs in Park City or Summit County," said Burton. "They take construction jobs or resort jobs or have friends up here." Burton says some gang members work in the tourism industry as hotel shuttle drivers to make drug sales easier. The opportunity to sell drugs to visitors and wealthy residents while they vacation has lured so-called gangbangers into Summit County.

Burton confirmed at least two gang members, identified in Park City as drug dealers, definitely work at the ski resorts. "Visitors can afford to come here for a week or two and they can afford to buy drugs," he said.

The sheriff's office needs concrete information of wrongdoing before they could approach these gang members or the resort despite the potential for trouble.

"Our cases most often deal with gang members after they leave the bar or a convenience store [rather than a ski area]," he says. So now, you can't help but notice gang officers at concerts and bars along Park City's historic Main Street.

They're on the lookout for red or blue shoelaces, colored bandanas in jean pockets, drawings of the number 13 or a "juggalo" (blank-faced man with a hatchet) on backpacks, notches shaved into their eyebrows, or three dots drawn on the hand between the thumb and index finger. These are just some of the signs gang specialists point out to educators, parents, and community groups.

Burton has helped create suppression patrols to focus on events where gang members hang out. Most event venues are right on Main Street and popular with tourists. "They find bars more interesting than a resort, where they don't fit in." But speaking with resort personnel remains a good idea.

"Ski resorts should consider training their career employees, managers, and supervisors," Burton says. The areas need to be educated to identify unsavory employment applicants or customers. "We haven't experienced any gang-related issues but I'm sure [a seminar from Burton] would be something we would consider," said Deer Valley Resort's Coleen Reardon. "If they want to approach us, that would be awesome."

Burton says they hadn't considered a formalized "chat" with the resorts to date as there have been no gang-related crimes there.

Resorts closest to metropolitan cities can attest life isn't all cotton candy and fairy dust. Places like Park City Mountain Resort and Squaw Valley Resort, Calif., routinely experience their share of thefts every season as unidentified "guests" walk away with gear that doesn't belong to them. But it's not necessarily gang-related. Train guests to lock up or check their skis, problem solved; no harm done, though it's not quite that easy.

What It Means: The Park City concern might well be a wake up call for other resort towns and their nearby communities. There are some urban realities families on skiing holidays don't expect to find in the mountains.

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Comments

	Ya don't suppose that these gangs have anything to do with illegal aliens do you? You get what you pay for, cheap labor has it's price.
	Posted by: Vince Dunsworth | February 23, 2009 03:18 PM