Gang activity is widespread in county

Georgia Smith, a crime prevention specialist with the Chesterfield Police Department, says there are about 40 gangs in the county. Lisa Billings/Chesterfield Observer Gangs are in most middle and high schools in Chesterfield County. That was the unsettling takeaway from a seminar on gang awareness and prevention held last week in Ettrick.

“The biggest problem with gangs is denial,” said Georgia Smith, a crime prevention specialist with the Chesterfield County Police Department, speaking to a crowd of 18 citizens at the Ettrick Community Center. “We don’t want to see it, we don’t want to say it, we don’t want to know it’s here, but it is, and we have to be careful not to judge a school based on the neighborhood it’s in or what communities feed into it.”

Smith and Ray Hedrick of the Chesterfield County Sheriff’s Office presented the free two-hour seminar on behalf of Chesterfield TRIAD, a statewide network of public-safety and older-adult organizations that works to enhance the quality of life for and reduce crime against senior citizens. The presentation aimed to create an honest picture of gang activity in Chesterfield County.

Chesterfield County currently has about 40 gangs, according to Smith, including local factions of Crips and Bloods, as well as “homegrown” street gangs like Petersburg’s Third Ward Gang, which may impact the southern end of Chesterfield. Gang members are predominantly males between the ages of 12 and 24, though the county is seeing more cases in elementary schools. While many factors may lead a young person into gang life, including limited access to good jobs, plenty of free time and a lack of positive social activities, Hedrick says the biggest risk factor is the lack of a strong support system at home.

“Most gang members are proud of being in a gang because they don’t see it as a bad thing,” said Hedrick, who has been working in gang prevention for two of his 10 years with the sheriff’s office. “They see it as their family.”

Hedrick said it’s important for caregivers to engage their children in supervised activities and to become involved in their education. Even more critical, they should get to know their children’s friends and parents.

“You can teach your kids great values and set a positive example,” he said, “but it’s not so much what they’re doing individually; it’s the influences around them.”

Smith showed screen shots from MySpace and Facebook pages with young people throwing hand signals and posing with guns and drugs.

“It’s there for everyone to see,” she said. “Sometimes it’s [a parent’s] job to be the watchdog.”

She said each group has its own defining set of hand signs, colors and symbols – a five-point star for the Crips and a six-point star for the Bloods, for example – that often show up in graffiti on walls and sidewalks. They use graffiti as a way of stamping their territory or showing their presence. Smith said the presence of multiple indicators – a child wanting to wear a single color only, acquiring new tattoos, speaking with hand signals – can suggest gang membership, but she cautions against jumping to conclusions.

“Don’t take it at face value,” she said. “A kid wearing baggy pants and a white shirt – that’s just a style, whether we like it or not.”

The county works hard to keep gang activity out of schools, prohibiting students from displaying gang colors or using hand signals and trying to provide a way out for confirmed members.

“People think they’re underachievers, but they’re bright children in our academic world,” said Smith. “They speak a whole different language of signals, symbols and signs. They have a very bright future ahead of them if we get to them soon enough.”

When the Chesterfield Observer asked the school system about gangs in its schools, Tim Bullis, director of community relations, responded, “Among the many positive results from the 2008 Chesterfield County Citizen Satisfaction Survey was the 96.4 percent of respondents who said they felt safe or very safe in county schools. As many realize, schools are a reflection of the community they serve. Therefore, issues affecting children in the community can also [make] their way into the school setting. We are fortunate to have a strong partner in our local police department, which has provided school division employees with preventative measures such as information-sharing and training that have helped keep our schools safe.”

Seminar attendees appreciated the informative, if sobering, presentation.

“I’ve lived in the same house for 34 years, and the area is changing,” said Susan Cook, who attended the seminar with her husband, a retired police officer. “I have friends and neighbors who think we don’t have a problem, but I think we need to be more aware. I feel more assurance that [the county’s law enforcement agencies] are doing something about it. Even if people are ignoring it, they’re not.”

The program was the latest educational offering from TRIAD, which presents quarterly lectures for concerned citizens at varying locales around the county. Previous presentations have dealt with identity theft, personal safety and frauds and scams.

“We do everything possible to make our seniors feel comfortable and safe in their community,” said David Zeheb, a crime prevention officer with the Chesterfield Police Department. “For this particular seminar, awareness is the biggest thing. We should always be aware of what’s going in our neighborhood and our community.”

Zeheb said county residents should report suspected gang activity to 318-8699. Learn more at the National Youth Gang Center’s Web site at www.iir.com/nygc.