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The head of the sheriff's gang unit sees ominous signs in shopping plaza vandalism.
By AMY HERDY
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 5, 2000
UNIVERSITY NORTH -- To the untrained eye, it looks like the doodling of bored schoolchildren.
To criminal street gang investigator Jose Morales, the jumble of words and symbols found recently on a shopping center building signals that trouble could be afoot.
"This is one of the first I've seen where somebody knew what they were doing," Morales said of the blue and black spray-painted graffiti that included drawings of stars, a pyramid and pitchforks.
"This shows there's an influence of Chicago gangs down here."
Morales, head of the Hillsborough sheriff's gang unit, said the graffiti, found at University Plaza on Fletcher Avenue, was the work of a Folk Nation gang member or members, and complex in its message.
"They combined the five-point star with the pyramid, and broke it in half," he said. "They also did a five, upside down and crossed out. That's triple disrespect" to a rival gang affiliation known as People Nation, he said.
The drawings also included a six-point star, one of the symbols of Folk Nation, as well as pitchforks, drawn right-side up, which is a sign of Folk respect.
Morales said the graffiti was a heads-up for his unit to keep a close eye on the University of South Florida area for gang activity.
"It alerts me there are people out there who have Chicago-based knowledge," he said. That's where Folk Nation gangs originated and where authorities battle serious gang problems that include extensive criminal activity.
But merely seeing graffiti was not a cause for alarm, Morales said.
"Normally, graffiti is just going to alert us that a criminal street gang is in the area. That's the way they announce themselves," he said.
"Whatever they're into -- narcotics, or property crimes -- that will be up for us to figure out later on."
Morales asks people who spot what they believe to be gang-related graffiti to call the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office at (813) 247-8743.
-- Amy Herdy can be reached at (813) 226-3474 or herdy@sptimes.com.