June 16, 2007

Picture: Witness, 34 Year Old Reggie Hight, poses in front of where Thursday night’s shooting of 18 year old “Cameron” occurred.As I drive in to the Crane Street Parking Lot on Saturday afternoon, the drivers in two cars watch, and then pull away. A young man on a bicycle turns up beside my car, looking eagerly in to the window, but as I exit from my car, he realizes that I am not whom he was expected, and he turns suddenly, and disappears. A couple of other young men saunter away, but deliberately so, to observe from a distance.

I approach the bathrooms as a young man, dressed all in black, walks towards and enters the Men’s Room. He exits only seconds later, and I approach, introduce myself, and ask if I can interview him about the shooting and Gang activity in general. 34 year old Reggie Hight, agrees, but holds up his fingers rubbing them together, and says “but you know the drill…you gotta pay”.

I explain to him that that is illegal, and then correct myself, and say “Not illegal, unethical, because I am reporting for RomeNewsWire.com., and I have to get this voluntarily”.

He agrees, but he tells me that I have to get him a copy of the picture . We strike a deal.

I ask Reggie if he lives in the area, and he points toward the far end of the Complex, up the hill, “I stay up there”.

I ask if he witnessed the shooting, and he gets very animated, “Oh yeah, man, I seen it all go down”.

As he explains, I learn that a group of young men were “just horsing ”, as Reggie puts it. Apparently, one of the young men got angry, and came to the parking lot, got a gun, and went back and shot “Cameron”, no last name. According to Reggie and others, Cameron is paralyzed, now. “But it wasn’t no thang”. Later I learn from several young men, who refuse to give their names or allow pictures, that they were there, but they didn’t see anything. They think it was an accident, but again, they stress that they did not see it go down.

I ask Reggie if Cameron was a member of The Pimp Squad Click”, the hybrid gang identified by Cpt. Dobbins, Patrolman Haney and Sheriff Burkhalter, as the Black gang operating in the area. Reggie says he does not know if Cameron was a member…“Maybe” he continues. When I ask if the Pimp Squad Click gang is operating in the area, like Law Enforcement says, he shrugs his shoulders. Then he explains, “They do, but they is Weak“. I explain that I am an old white woman, and am not sure what that means, and he says, “you know…like in Atlanta, they serious. They put a bullet in yo head, and call the police and brag about it. Not these guys…They weak”.

I ask if the Pimp Squad Click sell drugs, and he laughs. “Come on, you tell me. You tell me. We all know they do”. His tone has suddenly taken on a very serious inflection, and for the first time, he looks me squarely in the eyes.

I ask him about the Hispanic gangs, and he looks at me uncomprehending for a few seconds, and then poses, “Oh, you mean them Mexicans that stay over there?”, pointing in the direction of South Rome. We talk about how serious they are, and he acknowledges that he has heard. “I hear they kill you fast”, adding quickly, “But only if you buy drugs from them and…I finish the sentence, “You don’t pay”. He laughs, and nods his head.

Another young man on a bike approaches us, “Hey Reggie”. I ask if he knows anything about the gangs, and Reggie is quick to protect him. “NO, he a good kid”. I ask if Reggie can “Throw Signs”, the slang expression for the very Gang-Specific Sign Language used for silent communication. He is adamant, “No, no, no, NO MAN, that’s Gang Stuff, No I don’t be messing with that”.

We begin to walk back to the parking lot and shelter area, and I notice that some folks are gathering. I ask him if his talking to me will cause him problems. “Naw, they don’t be messing with me, they know better.”

We part ways, and I approach two formidable looking young men, and introduce myself, as they size me up. I gather from their looks and tone that they do not like my being there, and are not impressed with this little white woman. I try to boost my “Street Cred”, (LOL), and explain that I own a Public Corruption Research Firm, and that usually I am going after crooked politicians and public officials. They are still not impressed.

I ask if I can talk to them about the shooting the other night, and the gangs in the area, and they both jump in insisting that there are no gangs in this area. “Even Hispanic? I ask. “Yeah, over there”, and pointing, as Reggie did, towards South Rome, “but not here”, one points down to the ground with both hands, indicating the immediate area.

“What about the Pimp Squad Click? I ask, and they both erupt in to laughter. “Man you been listening to them Red Neck cops around here. Pimp Squad Click be Rappa T’s Label. You know Rappa T from Atlanta?”

I admit that I have seen his billboards in downtown Atlanta.

“That’s all that is”. A woman in the back yard next to Crane Street is calling one of the young men. At first he ignores her, but her yelling gets more insistent, and she finally screams, “______, I know you hear me”. We stop only long enough for him to respond, and then we start to talk again, but only briefly, about which gangs operate at Crane Street, and what their colors are. The Bloods wear Red and the Crips wear blue, and that’s all I am going to find at Crane Street, apparently, according to the two.

They both start getting noticeably agitated, and suggest that I should go on, as thumping, pounding RAP music thunders from a slowly approaching, beautifully restored car. This reporter admits that she does know her cars, but would say it was a General Motors model, perhaps from the seventies, beautifully refitted, and painted an unmistakable Turquoise color. The driver slides in to the space next to mine, smoking one of those cigars with an ivory, or perhaps plastic, tip, like the Tiparillos which used to advertise on television in the 1960’s. (Cigars.. Cigarettes…Tiparillo’s?)

His windows are down, and so I lean over and introduce myself, and for the third time that day, explain, quickly, that I am usually investigating crooked cops and public officials, but that I am writing a series of articles for RomeNewsWire.com about gangs. He is trying to ignore me, and as he closes his door, he asks, “What do you want to talk to me about?” “The shooting the other night,” I respond, “and Gangs”. I have met him around on his side of the car by now, and he looks down at the ground, and says, “I don’t nothing about all that. They ain’t no gangs around here.”

Other young men are gathering, and staying back, keeping their distance, but silently observing. I notice that this car owner, whom I will call “ANY”, for the letters on his License Plate, is wearing the color of the “Bloods”. I explain that I had attended a Gang Seminar the other night, and that I learned that different gang members wear specific colors, and work pants cut off below the knees, just like he is wearing, and he rolls his eyes. I reach up to his head, and continue, “But the dead giveaway is the black hair net like you are wearing”.

He laughs, but there is no mirth in his laughter, as he turns away from me and walks towards the others, keeping his head to the ground. “I don’t know about any Gang Banging around here”. I call out to him and ask if I can take his picture, and he growls that there will not be any pictures. As I glance at the others gathered waiting for him, one of them catches my eyes, and gives a slight nod, which I take as my cue to leave.

As I am climbing in to my car, Mr. “ANY” yells out to me, without looking at me, that I need to be investigating that crooked cop who is always harassing them there. I back out of my space, as slowly as my racing heart will allow, and note the License Plate Number of his Turquoise Beauty, and exit from Crane Street Park. ###

The locations include:

1) West Side Shopping Center

2) A Warehouse off of Shorter Avenue, flanked on three sides by Sycamore, Samson and Lamar Streets

3) The corner of Shorter Avenue and Sycamore Street

4) World Hi-Fi Buys on Shorter

5) A Warehouse next to the Boys’ and Girls’ Club

“Kings” (aka Latin Kings) based in New York - also look for actual pictures of crowns.“M” - 13^th letter of the alphabet, and stands for Mexican Mafia, (aka La Emme).

“13” relates a gang, or gives props to Mexican Mafia, (aka La Emme)“MS 13” - (aka Mara Salvatrucha 13) This gang developed out of the Salvadorian illegal immigrant population based in Los Angeles, whose original members had been peasant guerilla fighters in El Salvador, in the 1980’s . Mara is slang for gang, and Salvatrucha refers to those members of the Farabundo Mariti National Liberation Front. The “13” was added to show allegiance to the Mexican Mafia, as sworn enemies of all black gangs.

“SUR 13”, (aka Surenos 13) - Literally translated, Surenos means “Southsider” or “Southerner”, and specifically refers to the Hispanic gangs which originated on the Southside of Los Angeles. The “13” is added to pay homage to the Mexican Mafia, and is actually the training ground for the Mexican Mafia. While the “SUR 13” located in the Nashville-Atlanta-Miami corridor is lead by illegal immigrants from both Mexico and Guatemala, they employ local good old Georgia Boys, taking advantage of the long standing racial divide between whites and blacks in the South. Often the white members of the “Sur 13” are sons and daughters of former KKK members. “TEK”- a) Reference to the 9mm semi-automatic pistol used by the gang artistb) Reference to a Denver Street Gang, “Lo-Tek”

c) When used to graffiti over the existing graffiti of a rival gang, it is a derogatory term for

persons too poor to posses their own transportation, again, throwing back to Denver.

“JO” - Jacking Off, as in masturbating. This is used as an insult either to law enforcement in the area, or,to insult the establishment on which it is drawn/painted. It is also used to invade another gang’s territory, insulting what belongs to the rival gang.

“STC” - Shit Too Cool, or Shit Too “Crunk” - overly excited, possibly “tweeking” or bouncing on meth “SMURF” - Secret Military Underground Right-wing Force (aka cops or police, and their snitches). When used in graffiti, it it is a warning to other gang bangers that the cops are staking out or watching the area. When used in conversation, referencing someone, it means they are snitches for the cops.According to Sheriff Tim Burkhalter, businesses should discourage “Tagging”, the process of claiming and marking territory with Graffiti, by painting over any graffiti which appears on their property site.

3. A Gang Member generally has inadequate family structure, frequently coming from single parent homes, and/or a family situation where the adult figure condones or supports the activity because of the financial benefit to the family.

4. Frequently a victim of physical and/or sexual abuse and parent brutality

5. Middle to lower economic background

6. Has had negative male role models

7. Territorial Activities are confined to close proximity of residence or gang’s turf

8. Antisocial, aggressive, hostile behavior

9. Gang Members are generally Cowards, hence their proclivity to hunt in packs, preying on the weak and defenseless. They attack in the dark, from moving vehicles, in a gang, and from hidden blinds in doorway or wooded, secluded areas.

Gang Related Clothing and Accessories:While it is a stereotypical characterization that gay men love to accessorize, it is a true fact and practice for male Gang Members to accessorize and color coordinate. While much of the gang type clothing has become popular in non-gang culture, (white, oversized T-shirt creased in the middle, oversized starched or creased Levi’s, and any pants worn low on the hip, sagging and dragging the ground, baseball caps worn backwards on the head), there are several dead giveaways:

Hair: Use of hair nets by males who are not in the food or restaurant industry, or hair combed straight back, with a tail or braid at the base of the neck.

Clothing: Work type pants, cut off under the knee and worn with knee high socks, oversized pinstripe imitation baseball shirts, and unfastened overalls are typical. Oversized wool plaid shirts and Le Tigre-type shirts not tucked in to the pants are favorite gang apparel, and Gang members are partial to sweatshirts and jerseys which read “Kings” or “Raiders”.

Accessories: Accessories are carefully color coordinated to display Gang Colors, such as tennis shoes and hat. Additionally, they may wear a black stretch belt with chrome or silver belt buckle sporting Gang initials, and they frequently wear a woven cross or rosary, around the neck.

Colors: Most prevalent Gang Colors are Black, Silver and White, and so drab color schemes carefully coordinated will be a Red Flag as to Gang Membership. One final screaming signal that a person is a member of a gan, is the display of a common bandanna, over the shoulder, or tucked in to the pants, front or back. But like Capt Dobbins, and Officer Haney made clear, “This is not your granddad’s bandanna that he blows his nose with”. Indeed, Gang bandannas are carefully folded and pressed, and the colors and the manner of folding indicate position in a particular gang”.

Do not think that careful dress to indicate gang affiliation is limited to male members. Female members also wear the dark or drab clothing to identify them with a particular gang. As with the males, sweatshirts and jerseys with “Kings”, or “Raiders”, are popular, as are oversized white T’s. And for the fashion conscience female gang-banger, dark jackets with cursive or Old English script are vogue. Again, unfastened overall’s, oversized plaid shirts, stretch belt buckle with gang initials and Le Tigre-type shirts worn un-tucked.

It is critical that parents, educators and community leaders become familiar with gang colors, dress and art, so that early intervention can save our children. Gangs recruit at early ages, and in Rome area Middle Schools, law enforcement are already encountering significant gang affiliation, through wearing of colors, symbols and art. Across this nation, incidences of murder by children under the age of ten, who are already gang members, are on the rise.

Location, Location, Location - Gangs have learned that small suburban and rural communities pose less resistance to their enterprises, than large urban settings. Smaller communities have been caught off guard because often these communities do not have budgets to educate their law enforcement, or because the communities are resistant to the notion that this sort of thing could happen in their midst. But even in Rome, where local and federal law enforcement have been a actively cooperating for more than a decade to fight gang activity, the local SUR 13, an Hispanic gang, has been very successful in recruiting white men and women, who some would call red necks, to sell drugs, and engage in intimidation and murder.Quoting from the actual 29 man indictment issued by the Federal Grand Jury here in Rome, in July of 2005, page 2, A.1. “The Enterprise” - At all times relevant to this Indictment, there existed within the Northern District of Georgia and elsewhere, a criminal organization whose members and associates engaged in acts of violence, including murder, attempted murder, trafficking in controlled substances, kidnapping, extortion, arson and transporting and harboring illegal aliens, and which operated principally in the Cedartown, Esom Hill and Rome areas of Georgia, and the Borden Springs area of Alabama.”

Gangs are real, and they are here in Rome, Georgia. As Floyd County Sheriff Tim Burkhalter says, “Education is our best defense”.

###

Part I, Gangs - Georgia Gang Task Force Seminar:Teresa Watson

June 13, 2007

“Gangs don’t like attention”. With these words, Sheriff Burkhalter opened the Public Meeting on Gang Education held Wednesday evening at the Forum. Instructors included Georgia Gang Investigation Task Force members Cpt. Greg Dobbins, of the Floyd County Police Department, and Patrolman First Class Sterling Haney of the Rome City Police Department.

In this relaxed and open setting, the three tag teamed as they educated the small group of citizens about the top gangs operating in the Rome-Floyd County area. While the “Crips“ and the “Bloods” operate marginally here, the primary, and most vicious gangs are the Hispanic Gangs, “MS-13”, “Latin Kings” and “Sur 13”, the later being of most concern as it is gaining dominance in the area.

“Sur” is short for “Surenos” or “Southsiders” or “Southerners”. The number “13” represents the 13^th letter of the alphabet, “M”, which stands for the Mexican Mafia, aka “La Eme”. This gang originated in Los Angeles and Southern California, hence the name “Southerners”, which translates perfectly to the Deep South, both literally and figuratively.

And, Cpt. Dobbins noted this analogy: The Sur 13 is to the Mexican Mafia as the Masons are to the Shiner’s. Sur 13 is like a training ground for the Mexican Mafia. Members of Sur 13 may act as enforcers for the Mexican Mafia, and the hardest of members will eventually graduate in to the Mexican Mafia.

A common misconception about the Hispanic Gangs is that all members are Hispanic. But of the 30 man Federal Indictment issued here in Rome, Georgia in July of 2005, a Sur 13 Gang, close to half had typical Anglo-Saxon names - good old boys, (and girls) born and raised here in Georgia. “The Hispanics Gangs have essentially made slaves out of these people”.

A fourth gang is operating in the Rome area, the Black “Pimp Squad Click”. This hybrid spin-off can be seen hanging out in local parks, selling and smoking pot. In fact, local rapper “Young Gangsta” has produced a CD in which he “throws down his love to the Pimp Squad”.

And while the president, or chiefs, of the major gangs are generally serving life sentences in prison, they rule with an iron fist through out the nation. Encrypted messages are passed in Ancient Egyptian , Ancient Aztec Hieroglyphics’, and in the case of White Supremacist gangs, Old Norse. Even Bible verses are used, with gang members trained in how to count particular letters in a particular verse, to decode the message.

Dobbins, Haney and Burkhalter covered topics during the session from Gang Indicators and Identifiers, to the various forms of communication, both verbal and silent, including Gang Slang, Gang Attire, Tattoos, and “Tagging”, the act of marking a gang territory with graffiti, much the same way an animal marks its territory with scent. Another form of silent communication is “Stacking”, also called “throwing signs” and is the use of Gang Sign Language.

But there is hope. Floyd County Schools are becoming educated, and have passed “Zero Tolerance” for Gang Colors and Art. And according to Officer Haney, the Rome City Schools act pretty quickly when they recognize the colors, language and art, too. And there are some counties and municipalities in Georgia which have passed special Gang Ordinances, similar to RICO statutes, which allow a city to take possession of property belonging to landlords who have rented to gangs, even if the landlord has no part in the criminal activity. However, this has not yet been tested in the higher courts, yet.

There was too much to cover in one evening, but these teams are willing to hit the road for any organization or small group, church, or anyone who will listen. As Sheriff Burkhalter kept stressing, “Education is the key to defeating these gangs”.

To set up a presentation, call the Floyd County Sheriff’s Department, at 706-291-4111.

###