Interview Write-ups

Prepared by: Jonathan Alvarez


I interviewed Officer Phil Welsh on April 10th, this interview occurred at a grocery store in San Francisco. It was actually at my job, I have known the officer for a couple years, when I asked him to do the interview he was glad to help me with it. Officer Welsh went to UC Berkeley and then went on to be an officer for the San Francisco Police Department. He has served on the force for several years and has encountered many situations with gang members while on the field. I learned a lot from officer Welsh, but mainly that it is not totally gang member’s faults that they live that life style. Although it is possible for them to steer away from that path on their own, it is hard with the environment they are raised in and all the peer pressure.

Officer Welsh was extremely kind and helpful. He received me with a smile on his face and was serious throughout the interview. He expressed himself thoroughly and I saw his intellectual side. I could not have asked to have interviewed anyone with a better attitude and politeness.

I expected to learn that people in gangs are not entirely to blame for their participation in gangs. It can highly be blamed to the environment they were raised in and lack of supervision by their parents. People like this can escape that lifestyle if shown the better way out. That is why people need to take action to help those of us that are less fortunate to see the clear path to a better life.

What surprised me was that Officer Welsh had no hatred or dislike of gang members. I thought he would definitely have some sort of disgust or hatred instead of remorse and sorrow. I truly saw another side of him. Although they tended to cause a lot of problems for him he still felt that the needed help and that they did not know any better. It is different when a person was raised properly and they do bad things, they know what they did wrong where as most gang members don’t have as much of a conscience.

Overall I was highly impressed and satisfied with the interview it went as well as I hoped it would and even better. I learned a lot and was able to confirm my opinion with another person whom has a lot of experience with this topic. This interview gave me a bigger perspective on life in general and how many people have a soft side even though they might not show it.


Prepared by: Dario Bortolotto

The person that I interviewed was Officer Steve Vega of the Millbrae Police Department. Mr. Vega has been a part of the force for over 20 years and has spent most of his time working the night shifts and into the early mornings. He has experienced much low key gang activity especially pertaining to older men in gangs. Mr. Vega has dealt with drug deals, disturbing the peace, assault, and vandalism charges. Mr. Vega explained that it starts with the lack of jobs and high numbers of high school dropouts. Mr. Vega told us that most of the people involved in gangs do not have a college degree and many also don’t even have a high school degree. The interview took place at Mr. Vegas’s house in Belmont on April 10, 2010.

Mr. Vega was very polite and willing to answer any questions that he prepared for us. He was a friendly man who seemed to have a lot of passion with helping the community and trying to inspire us to find something that we were passionate about and try to make a difference in the community. Mr. Vega loves to work with kids because he has 2 of his own and believes that being a role model is a little thing that he can do to pass on his knowledge and dedication of his field. I was really glad I choose Mr. Vega for the interview.

I expected to learn that gang member’s do not have a high level of education and that they are usually dropouts. I also learned that gang member’s come from a life of little money anda family that had trouble staying together are having a sense of stability. I knew that people join gangs because they are seeking a sense of family and that they have little or no money and have no other way to survive in the world except join a gang and receive money that way which is very sad.

What surprised me was that some kids have no choice to enter a gang. Mr. Vega told me that some kids have to enter a gang that all family members who are male have entered and even if they don’t want to they are forced. I found this interesting because I thought that people had a choice to enter gangs because they believed in violence and wanted to have all the drugs they could have. I could not imagine being forced into a gang because my family made me. I think this is very sad and shows that not all gang members are truly evil.

My overall impression of the interview was very positive. Mr. Vega was very in intelligent and really seemed into the interview. He had a lot of experience with young gang members, but made me realize that not all gang members are evil, some are forced into gangs. I was very happy I chose Mr. Vega to conduct the interview with and I encourage any other student to talk to him if they have any questions about gangs.