By Michelle Bliss
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/whqr/local-whqr-802979.mp3
Wilmington, NC –
Starting this month, any gang-related crime in North Carolina will be charged as a felony, even if the crime itself is only a misdemeanor. The change is meant to crack down on criminal activity that initiates new gang members or retaliates against former members.
One group that's been waiting for the law to take effect is the Gang Resistance Unit for the Pender County Sheriff's Department. WHQR talked with them about how they're trying to keep kids as young as 11 years old out of rural gangs.
Every Monday, Pender County Deputy Stephen Bowen asks students like Alyssa Carter, a 7th grader at Penderlea School, about things like peer pressure to drink, do drugs, or join gangs.
"They know a lot about gangs and violence and guns that I would never thought they would have known. And they're actually telling me this stuff, and this is stuff that they see out there in the county. So, that's what I'm trying to combat."
Bowen is part of Pender County's Gang Resistance Unit, which includes three officers from the sheriff's department along with a school therapist.
Detective Sergeant Lazaro Ramos leads the unit and says their message is aimed at elementary and middle school kids.
"We believe that the younger kids are easier to target by gang members. At the same time, we believe that younger kids are easier for us to communicate with them they don't have a problem with authority yet."
There are more than 20 different gangs in Pender County, some with members as young as 11 years old.
They usually get in trouble for crimes like breaking and entering, drug-dealing, and gang-related graffiti, but Ramos says there have also been violent hazings and retaliations.
"We actually had a drive-by shooting in 2007. And then we had another serious assault a few months ago. Two Latino gangs, rivals an individual tried to run somebody over with a vehicle."
These gang-related offenses will now be treated as felonies in courtrooms across the state, even if the crimes themselves are only misdemeanors.
District Court Judge Rebecca Blackmore first heard about gangs in Pender County about 10 years ago, when she got a phone call from an elementary school principal in Rocky Point.
"That first call was because they had seen 'Brown Pride' on an elementary school child's notebook which was related to a Hispanic gang."
Since then, Blackmore says two rival Hispanic gangs, Nortenos 14 and Surenos 13, for north and south Mexico, have put down roots in Rocky Point's trailer park communities.
She says low income housing areas are fertile ground for gangs.
"I just know a lot of the ones I'm seeing coming into court, who turn out to be typically associated with Blood gangs, are from this same housing area in Burgaw. In any large housing area where a lot of people are grouped together and live close together, it's sort of a natural setting for these kinds of associations."
And for any kids who may be living in these trailer parks, Pender County's Gang Resistance Unit is fighting on the front lines, mentoring them at school each week with the hope that this jumble of 10, 11, and 12-year-olds will have the courage and persistence to say no.
Do you have insight or expertise on this topic? Please e-mail us, we'd like to hear from you. news@whqr.org.