While police say gang truces recently have helped slow gang violence in other counties, Ventura County law enforcement officials say they are not seeing any similar peace-making efforts locally.
Gang members and police say there has been no attempt to hammer out a peace pact among rival gangs in this county.
And unlike some parts of Los Angeles and Orange counties where bloodshed has decelerated since gang truces have been imposed, Ventura County has experienced an outbreak of gang-related shootings and assaults in recent months, authorities say.
Gang truces "haven't had any impact locally," said Deputy Dist. Atty. Kim Gibbons who prosecutes major gang cases. "If anything, gang violence has been on the increase in Ventura County."
Because of the relatively low level of gang activity here, police and some gang members say such peace treaties are needed less in Ventura County than in other counties. Nevertheless, police and community workers say they welcome all efforts to reduce gang warfare.
But gang members from Ventura to Santa Paula say they hold out little hope of ever hammering out peace treaties with their sworn rivals.
"We ain't going to get along with nobody," said Daffie, a 16-year-old Ventura gang member. "There will always be gang-banging. It's the way I was brought up since I was a little kid."
Added a south Oxnard gang member: "We hate them and they hate us. That's just the way it is."
That's what gang members in other areas used to say. But over the years, as gang violence escalated and the carnage mounted, hated rivals began fashioning inner-city peace accords.
Early last year, the United Gangs Council organized a peace treaty among Orange County gangs that helped stem bloodshed in some areas.
And following the Los Angeles riots in April of last year, Crips and Bloods forged a truce that resulted in a dramatic reduction in gang killings in South-Central Los Angeles.
Most recently, the Mexican Mafia prison gang has ordered thousands of Latino gang members to put a stop to drive-by shootings or face the syndicate's deadly wrath.
But while the edict has helped bring peace to some of Los Angeles' most violent barrios, gang members and community workers say it apparently has had little impact in Ventura County.
"I haven't heard anything like that here," a Santa Paula gang member said. "From what I know, nothing has changed."
