E. C. Police Department Gang and Drug Awareness
WARNING SIGNS FOR PARENTS & TEACHERS
If a child you know exhibits any of the following signs or behaviors, that child may be at risk for or already involved in gang activities. Many more children are "gang wannabe's" than are actually involved in gangs, but many wanna-be's do actually drift into gang activities, including criminal behavior, to try to win approval of gang members.
WARNING SIGNS TO WATCH FOR INCLUDE:
Sudden poor academic performance.
Non-involvement with school.
Relatives are or have been gang members.
Using a nickname or attaching a prefix.
Using gang GRAFFITI on book covers, folders.
Suddenly purchasing or wanting clothing all of one color
(especially blue or red).
Wearing sagging pants down to the hips.
Wearing an excessive amount of gold jewelry.
Using hand signals (gang signs).
Sudden change in friends.
Suddenly argumentative.
Desiring too much privacy.
Developing sudden rebellious attitude with parents and teachers.
Starting to show signs of tobacco, alcohol or drug use.
Having friends who use tobacco, alcohol or drugs.
Sudden affluence (money, clothing, etc.)
Sudden negative police contact.
Excessive disciplinary referrals.
REMEDIES FOR PARENTS & TEACHERS
How can you keep your child from becoming interested in gangs? If a child shows signs of being interested in gangs, what can parents or teachers do to re-channel the child's interests? Below are some suggestions:
Set Clear Standards and Stick to Them
Be a Responsible Model For Your Child
Communicate Honestly
Understand Their Feelings
Pay Attention to Your Child and Listen
Pay Attention to Your Child's Friends
Pay Attention To School Grades
Find Out What the School Policy is on Gangs & Drugs
Meet and Talk With Your Child's Friends
Get Involved with Your School Talk To Teachers
Get Involved With Your Local Police Establish Block Parent and Crime Prevention Programs in Your Neighborhood (COP, Neighborhood Watch)
Most Important:
Spend Time with Your Child and Provide Your Child with After-School Activities.
So They Will Not Have Too Much Idle Time To Spend With Gangs.
Good Reference Links:
Talking with Kids About Drugs
Don’t put off talking to your children about alcohol and other drugs. As early as fourth grade, kids worry about pressures to try drugs. School programs alone aren’t enough. Parents must become involved, but most parents aren’t sure how to tell their children about drugs. Open communication is one of the most effective tools you can use in helping your child avoid drug use. Talking freely and really listening shows children that they mean a great deal to you.
What do you say?
Tell them that you love them and you want them to be healthy and happy.
Say you do not find alcohol and other illegal drugs acceptable.
Many parents never state this simple principle. Explain how this use hurts people.
Physical harm - for example, AIDS, slowed growth, impaired coordination, accidents.
Emotional harm - sense of not belonging, isolation, paranoia.
Educational harm - difficulties remembering and paying attention.
Discuss the legal issues. A conviction for a drug offense can lead to time in prison or cost someone a job, driver’s license, or college loan.
Talk about positive, drug-free alternatives, and how you can explore them together. Some ideas include sports, reading, movies, bike rides, hikes, camping, cooking, games, and concerts. Involve your kids’ friends.
How do you say it?
Calmly and openly - don’t exaggerate. The facts speak for themselves.
Face to face - exchange information and try to understand each other’s point of view. Be an active listener and let your child talk about fears and concerns. Don’t interrupt and don’t preach. Through "teachable moments" - in contrast to a formal lecture, use a variety of situations - television news, TV dramas, books, newspaper.
Establish an ongoing conversation rather than giving a one-time speech. Remember that you set the example. Avoid contradictions between your words and your actions. And don’t use illegal drugs, period!
Be creative! You and your child might act out various situation in which one person tries to pressure another to take a drug. Figure out two or three ways to handle each situation and talk about which works best. Exchange ideas with other parents.
How can I tell if a child is using drugs?
Identifying illegal drug use may help prevent further abuse.
Possible signs include:
Change in moods - more irritable, secretive, withdrawn, overly sensitive, inappropriately angry, euphoric.
Less responsible - late coming home, late for school or class, dishonest.
Changing friends or changing lifestyles - new interests, unexplained cash.
Physical deterioration - difficulty in concentration, loss of coordination, loss of weight, unhealthy appearance.
Why do kids use drugs?
Young people say they turn to alcohol and other drugs for one or more of the following reasons:
To do what their friends are doing
To escape pain in their lives
To fit in
Boredom
For fun
Curiosity
To take risks
Take A Stand
Educate yourself about the facts surrounding alcohol and other drug use. You will lose credibility with your child if your information is not correct. Establish clear family rules against drug use and enforce them consistently.
Develop your parenting skills through seminars, networking with other parents, reading, counseling, and support groups. Work with other parents to set community standards - you don’t raise a child alone.
Volunteer at schools, youth centers, Boys & Girls Clubs, or other activities in your community.
For More Information
State and local government drug use prevention, intervention, and treatment agencies.
State and local law enforcement agencies. Private drug use treatment service listed in the telephone book Yellow Pages.
Gang Structure
The following information is taken from the manual "Comprehensive Community Reanimation Process" published by Urban Dynamics, Inc. While the document presented here is by no means complete, it does offer a good grounding in contemporary gang phenomenon. Those interested in obtaining a complete copy of the manual may do so by contacting UDI at (708) 385-0066.
All gangs have identifiable levels of membership. These levels of membership indicate status within a gang and acts as the organizational maintenance systems. There are actually six levels of gang structure.
1. Leadership:
The leader(s) of a gang determines at what level of criminal activity the gang will function. Characteristics of the leader(s) are reflected in the day to day activities of the gang. The leader is all powerful.
2. Hard Core:
The hard core gang members are usually the older gang members, the individuals who are culturally and criminally enmeshed in the gang and are at risk of being so for life. Most violent gang activity emanates from the hard core gang members. Hard core gang members usually make up about 10% of gang membership.
3. Associate:
The associate gang member has usually made a personal commitment to the gang culture and is dedicated to achieving the level of recognition needed to attain hard core status.
4. Fringe:
The fringe gang member is still able to function outside of the gang structure and has not made a commitment to a life in the criminal gang culture. This type of member drifts in and out of the gang and seems to lack direction.
5. Wannabe's:
Wannabe's are not actually gang members. They are youth who view the gang as an exciting place to be, a place where they could become "somebody". Wanna-bes may emulate gang dress, graffiti, hand signs, and other gang cultural symbols, and they may associate with known gang members, but they have not yet been excepted into the gang.
Cliques:
Very seldom is the gang at full strength. Exceptions to this, of course, would be times of conflict or possibly at social functions. What is most often seen as "the gang" is usually a clique from within the larger gang. The clique is a group of associate, fringe, and often, wanna-be gang members who gravitate around one or more of the hard core gang members. This somewhat resembles a gang within a gang.
Gang Recruitment Techniques
The needs and/or purpose of a gang as well as the particular situation determines the methods/techniques that will be used to recruit new members into the gang. The following categories of gang recruitment are fairly common, but the sophistication of the gang will certainly dictate how sophisticated the recruitment techniques will be implemented.
Seduction:
For a long time gangs have used this technique to recruit new members. They create glorified myths about the gang that are very attractive to young recruits, and very often these myths become the foundation for young aspirations.
Gangs are glorified myths that are very attractive to young recruits...
The most powerful of these trappings, however, are the promise of money, sex, and glamour. The symbols of the gang (the graffiti, hand signs, colors, tattoos, etc.) create a visual attraction for young people, they realize that with these symbols they are part of something organized and powerful. Parties are also very useful ways for recruiters to seduce young people into the gang. At the party they have fun, get high, and believe the rhetoric they are bombarded with.
Subterfuge:
Subterfuge is a misrepresentation of what the gang really is and what it stands for. Recruiters use lies and schemes to convince the youth that it really isn't a gang, it's a club or it is really a group of close friends that have to protect themselves against a powerful enemy. Another tact taken by recruiters is to identify latchkey and other kids who may not have a good family life and convince them that they aren't loved and that the club is there for them, the "club" will love them.
Obligation:
Often gang members will do a favor or make a loan of something to a prospective recruit and demand that they give loyalty as payback. Often, these favors come in the form of protection. Girls are sometimes used to promote that sense of obligation.
Coercion:
Forced recruitment is an age old technique, used most often by large gangs in chronic gang cities. This technique is used most often during times of gang conflict, or when there is a need to generate dues money. Coercion is usually accomplished by threats, but physical beatings are used as well. There have been many deaths as a result of individuals refusing to join the gang. Coercion can mean that a family member is threatened as well.
Self Recruitment:
For many reasons, youth will make contact with gang members and ask to join the gang. The reasons are many and not always because the individual sees the gang as glamorous. The reason may be one of necessity, money, protection etc.. The reasons may be a combination of all of the trappings mentioned above. The range of reasons for a youth to join a gang is very wide and does not always mean that he has joined the gang openheartedly.
All of the recruitment strategies listed above can be elaborated on. Training is available to communities that can provide valuable information about gang recruitment and what can be done about it.
The Gang as a Criminal Enterprise
Of the many issues that gangs of the 90's have addressed, in their own fashion, the one that has, and will continue to have, the most impact on the American Community, is the expansion of gang enterprise. Not only is gang enterprise an increasingly acceptable means of illegal income, it is also another profound statement of counter-rejection by young people to the larger society.
According to national statistics, about 95% of hard core gang members are high school drop-outs. It is said by these gang members that school cannot prepare them to survive in this society. Many of the schools they attend have a "0" academic level. They know that four years of high school will not prepare them for college, which means that the job market will not be open to them on a competitive level. In essence, they have created a system of education and a system
of employment that is much more responsive to their needs.
About 95% of hard core gang members are high school drop outs...
While much attention has been given to the association of street gangs with drugs, there has been little public discussion of the economics of this association. In the past, those street gangs that depended upon crime as a source of income were limited to the traditional methods of extortion, robbery and burglary as a means of providing that income. Because of the opportunistic nature of such crimes, coupled with the risk of personal injury and/or being sent to jail, many of the gang members could be lured away from the gang by positive alternatives such as: a chance to learn a skill and obtain gainful employment.
The availability of cocaine and the ease with which it can be converted to "crack" has changed the route through which the gang obtains its income and as a direct result, the nature of the gangs response of offers of positive alternatives. By way of illustration, consider the following:
On an initial investment of $2,500.00 worth of cocaine and using two readily available household chemicals, $10,000.00 worth of "crack" can be produced. In areas of high demand it is not unusual for a gang to "turn over" (increase the profit on) its initial investment by a factor of four. Therefore, the $10,000.00 worth of crack becomes $40,000.00 by the end of the day.
Typically the gang will employ one person to collect the money for the drugs, one person to deliver the drug to the buyer and two look outs/security men. Their pay can be as low as $50.00 per day each. Often a percentage is offered to the team for sales over a certain amount per day.
If the $200.00 per day cost of the team is deducted, the profit for the day would be $29,800.00. That's tax free money and continues seven days a week, three hundred and sixty five days a year.
In light of these facts, it becomes clearer why gangs resort to violence in disputes over the best sales areas and why the mere offer of a job at minimum wage does not readily deter a youth from this profitable enterprise.
Gang enterprise, justified through the gang system of values, incorporated into the gang structure, and embraced by the gang as an acceptable economic foundation for the gang society, will prove to be a monumental challenge for communities determined to eliminate the gang phenomenon.