The Kern County Sheriff’s Department Gang Unit started up in 1989.? Since then, they have been working the Kern County fair every year.? Their responsibilities are to try to prevent gang related incidents.
Lieutenant Bart Camps is in charge of the sheriff’s department at the fair. He stated that Gang Unit is effective 365 days a year, not just at the fair. They usually patrol in sheriff’s cars, sometimes in unmarked vehicles.?
According to Camps, Gang Unit came about because gangs were beginning to develop in Kern County. They needed special expertise to deal with these criminal ailments.
“Officers are specially trained in the recognition of gang members and the practices,” Camps said. They focus on gang-related crimes and are responsible for targeting gangs who are causing problems.
The reason they are required as fair?personnel, according to Senior Deputy of Gang Unit?Lauro Cantu, is because people from all over Kern County show up to this event.? Being such a popular event, rival gang members often encounter each other.
On Sept. 18, Cantu reported?stopping eight to 10 fights.? The large amount of people makes breaking up a fight a difficult task.? “You’re ultimately surrounded by hundreds of people,”?Cantu said about the mindset of officers while breaking up a fight. “You don’t know who they are or what their intentions are.”
When an act of violence takes place, Cantu gives an account of the procedure that is followed to try to intervene.? “The biggest thing we try to do,” Cantu said, “is get the main people who are involved out of the area.”? This is for the safety of the surrounding people and the sheriffs.
While some people who attended the fair reported seeing no violence, others saw fights that?went unnoticed by sheriffs and police officers.
Jennifer Facio, 23,?said she attended the fair on Wednesday as well as Friday and saw no violence.?? Facio said that she didn’t notice Gang Unit on both of her visits.? She described the fair being more pleasant than her previous visits, “Bakersfield has tamed down since I was in high school.”?
Nancy Rivera, 22, had a different account of the fair.? On Saturday, Sept. 18, she saw two girls standing in line arguing after one girl confronted the other.? The girl who incited the argument began punching the other girl until she fell to the ground.? After she fell, the girl continued to beat her while she was on the ground.?
Rivera said the girl being beaten eventually got up and began running away.? The other girl and?a group of her friends began chasing her through crowds of people.? “I was trying to look for a cop. They were by the games standing around.” Rivera explained that, by the time she saw them, it was too late.