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Small towns home to gangs, too
Small towns home to gangs, too
by Debra A. Golden, Wake Weekly Staff Writer
November 3, 2005
Gangs, formerly associated with larger cities like Los Angeles and New York City, are just about everywhere now -- including Wake Forest.
Police and school officials have noticed signs of gang activity including graffiti, or tagging, on personal effects and on buildings, and some damage to property.
The signs, so far, are subtle. In addition to the visual indications, parents or authority figures may hear young people talking about someone they know being in a gang.
"I do not see a lot of gang-related activity," said Hugh McLean, director of the Wake Forest Boys & Girls Club. "But I do hear (kids) talking about it in hearsay terms."
McLean attended a Community Forum on Gangs seminar Oct. 22 at the DuBois Center in Wake Forest. The meeting, the first of three throughout the county, was sponsored by Wake County Human Services and the Wake County Gang Prevention Partnership.
The thought of joining a gang can be alluring to certain young people, McLean said. Not everyone is a good student or an athlete. Students who don't feel like part of a group could get a "lot of recognition; that sense of belonging" from a gang, he said.
Teens have a natural tendency to hang out with certain friends, and there's nothing wrong with that, he continued. "There are lots of groups of kids. Gangs become gangs when they do illegal things."
Saturday's wasn't the only Wake Forest meeting to be held on gang awareness in recent days.
The Wake Forest-Rolesville PTA sponsored a gang-prevention seminar at the high school last Monday night, and similar meetings are scheduled at Wake Forest-Rolesville Middle and Heritage Middle schools.
The intent of the meetings, sponsors say, is to let parents know about the presence of gangs, what to look out for, and to help members of the community come up with strategies to make the town once again gang-free.
Bloods and Crips
Russ Smith, senior director of security for Wake County schools, gave parents an overview of gangs at the WF-R meeting last week.
Smith said gangs have been operating throughout Wake County for some time, but only now are becoming more noticeable.
There used to be three sets of Bloods in Wake County, he said. Now there are nearly 30. And the Bloods represent just one type of gang.
The Crips are another group police are seeing in parts of Wake County, including Wake Forest. WF-R High School Resource Officer Cindy Perry said the Crips are making their presence known in Wake Forest, along with a few Bloods. The Midnight Crew is starting to attract members, along with another gang called the MG (Mini Gangsters). Perry said she has heard Latin Kings are in the area, too, but she hasn't confirmed that.
While it's not against the law to belong to a gang, many gangs are involved in criminal activity, Smith said.
Increased gang activity in Wake County led school board members to adopt a gang policy in the spring, which defines a gang as a group of three or more people who have a common name, colors or identifying symbols, and participates in criminal acts.
Wake County students can be suspended or expelled for violating the gang policy.
Gang members are often involved in drug activity, use weapons and intimidate or assault others, Smith said.
Gang hierarchy often mimics military organizations, Smith said. He investigated one gang led by an OG (Original Gangster) and two generals and a lieutenant. The gang had "foot soldiers to carry out orders," Smith said.
Once established, gangs may claim an area as their territory -- "towns, subdivisions, streets, area codes -- you name it," Smith said.
When that happens, gangs will fight rival gangs for control.
Smith added that while a gang might be present in a particular school, teachers may not suspect anything because no rival gang members have made their presence known.
While the average age of gang members is 18, Smith said he knows of 9-year-olds who have been recruited in Wake County public schools.
Many of the younger kids will see relatives or older kids in gangs and ask to join up. "It's very glamorous for them," Smith said. Fortunately, it's easier to intervene and pull children out of gangs when they are younger, he said.
Gang presence
New gang members are often initiated into the group, Smith said. Males may be required to be "beat in," where gang members beat them up for a certain amount of time.
Or, they may be required to participate in an armed robbery or "an assault on an unsuspecting victim" before they become an official gang member, Smith said.
Female recruits may be required to be "sexed in," performing sexual acts with a certain number of gang members before they are accepted into a gang.
Smith tried to dispel some myths about gangs when he spoke to Wake Forest parents.
They include the belief that
gangs don't exist around here
gang members are mostly minorities
gang members are usually teens and young adults
gang members are not productive members of society.
Gangs are in Wake County, Smith said, and during the last year, most gang members he dealt with were Caucasian males.
Gang members aren't always teens and young adults, he said. Some gang members grow up and move on but retain their affiliation with the group and are still involved in gang activity.
Members of the public often believe that gangs are easily identifiable. Not any more, Smith said. Gang members like to keep their identities under wraps. "They do not want public attention drawn to them. They thrive here because of the lack of knowledge about their activities," he said.
Parents may also believe that only kids from certain neighborhoods join gangs, or that all gang members are males.
Gang members come from all walks of life, he said. Smith said he knows of a former middle school student body president who is now heavily involved in a gang.
Smith said parents on the lookout for gang activity should watch for warning signs, including
an extreme change in friends, clothing or behavior
an insistence on wearing a certain type or color of clothing or logo
jewelry with distinctive signs worn on one hand only
a reluctance to bring friends home or introduce parents to acquaintances
tattoos or body markings
unexplained bruises or cuts
using hand signals to communicate with friends
using coded messages in notebooks
using street language or slang
resistance to authority, and
new posters on their bedroom walls displaying grafitti or hand signs.
If a few of those changes are present, parents may not need to worry. "But if there are multiple (warning) signs," Smith said, "It's something that needs further looking into."
Signs of gang activity could include groups of teens, dressed exactly alike, hanging out on a street they don't live on, increased crime in the area and the presence of groups of people sporting bandanas, tattoos or brands on their skin.
At WF-R High, Officer Perry is seeking out students known to be involved in gang activity and warning them to keep it out of school. Students can be suspended for repeating gang-related activities after they have received a warning, she said.
Teens or preteens approached by gang members in their neighborhood should say they aren't interested, and then stay away from those who have gang affiliations, she said.
Early interactions with gang members are often non-threatening, she said, and that is the time to make a stand.
"If you tell them you're not interested, they'll usually leave you alone," she said.
Young people who are being intimidated by gang members should contact police, Perry said.
Depending on what is happening, victims may be able to file charges leading to the gang member's arrest, she said. Being afraid to come forward and talk about it will only make it worse, she said.
Stem the tide
Community leaders are working on a number of strategies to combat gangs in Wake Forest.
McLean said participants at Saturday's seminar talked about the need for community programs to serve teens. The Boys & Girls Club, which serves 863 local youth ages 6-18, closes each weekday at 8 p.m. On Saturdays, the club is only open until 3 in the afternoon.
Teens tend to congregate late in the evening and at night, particularly on weekends.
"On Friday or Saturday night do (teens) have a place to go to socialize?" McLean asked.
During the meeting, he said, members of his group talked about "what we could do to help in that kind of situation." They discussed the possibility of different community programs working together to create some programs for teens.
Participants seemed to find last month's Gang Partnership seminar helpful, said Sue Hince, parent of a 15-year-old and a social worker at WF-R Middle.
She said she became interested in gang prevention after she worked with a student who was trying to extricate himself from a gang.
Parents who Hince met at the workshop expressed interest in expanding social programs for area teens, "especially in the more rural parts of the community," she said. "The programs are not available when kids need them."
Wake Forest police are also trying to eradicate gangs in the area, Perry said. Several police officers have already attended seminars on dealing with gangs and are planning to start visiting homes of suspected gang members and talking to their parents.
Gibbie Harris, community health director for Wake County and a co-chair for the Wake County Gang Prevention Partnership, said the group will compile all comments from the three workshops and create a document to present to county commissioners in January.
The document will include information about "what we believe to be the problem in Wake County, the resources we have, the needs" and a look at other successful gang-prevention programs and recommendations, Harris said.
There is no easy solution when it comes to eliminating gangs, Harris said, but communities who pull together can keep gang activity from spreading.
"In reality, there isn't a fix-it. It's an ongoing issue we'll have to continue to address," she said.
Parents needing to report gang-related activities should contact the police or sheriff's department, or call the Wake County Gang Prevention Partnership Hotline number at 256-0919.
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Last Updated On: November 3, 2005
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