(KMOV)- News 4’s ongoing series A Shared St. Louis is focusing on the role of race in crime and justice. News 4's Craig Cheatham headed to a local community where the population is more than half Hispanic. There, he found gangs are sparking racial tension.

In the gang graffiti covered neighborhood of State Park, broad shouldered, heavily scarred dogs are on guard, and so are many of the people who live in this unincorporated community near Fairmont City, Illinois.

John Basden and many other whites blame the Hispanic families moving into the neighborhood, especially the young gang members who spray paint gang symbols and messages.

Two blocks away, at Mike Stanley's home, the message is clear with a confederate flag hung outside his home.

Yecenia Osanco says white thugs have terrorized her family.

The neighborhood is patrolled by St. Clair County Deputies who monitor increasing gang activity, including the graffiti by Hispanic and White gangs.

In a Mexican restaurant and market on the outskirts of State Park, owner Jesse Hernandez has built a successful business.

Owner Hernandez says he was repeatedly harassed when he arrived in St. Louis nearly two decades ago.

But this college-educated veteran of the American military stayed. Like many people he appreciated the low cost of living and higher wages. He started a family and built a business that keeps growing.

When his restaurant was spray painted by Hispanic and White gangs, he got rid of it.

Despite the arrival of hard-working Hispanic families who are not involved in crime, many Whites in State Park focus on the ones who are in gangs.

In the neighborhood, where everybody shares the burden of poverty, the youngest are the ones who appear to lead by example: especially among those who fail to understand what they see, hear, and say.