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Workshop: Gang Violence Is Here Now

by Bill Kossler
June 11, 2009 — Dozens of organized gangs, many considering themselves local affiliates of well-known stateside gangs, are operating throughout the territory's public schools and are the source of many shootings, knifings, mass fights in schools, beatings and premeditated murders.
At a workshop on gang violence hosted by Lutheran Social Service's Teen Line Wednesday, V.I. Education Department School Safety Officer LaVelle Campbell made this claim, backing it up with photo after photo after photo of gang graffiti from every public high school, junior high and even some elementary schools in the Virgin Islands. Campbell showed pictures of bathroom stalls, hallway walls and school desks emblazoned with slogans, symbols, boasts of past and future murders.
He presented photos of dozens of student book bags, confiscated from local schools, covered in symbols and slogans, convincingly explaining their complex gang related meanings; notebooks covered in signs, poems about murder, slogans and threats to other gangs; photo after photo of people showing gang colors in public, some while dealing on the street in Charlotte Amalie, others while getting involved in school fights, and others just loitering.
"We are trying to get the message out to the public before (gang violence) gets ahead of us," Campbell said. "We are already behind the eight ball on gangs, in part because so many here are in denial about it."
Campbell asked that no specific schools, neighborhoods, gangs, gang colors or graffiti be mentioned because the gang members are students, do go online and follow their own exploits closely, taking pride in any sign of their importance. But there are gangs chapters for specific neighborhoods all over the Virgin Islands, with different symbols for groups operating not just in every major housing project and in blighted neighborhoods, but in solidly working class and middle class neighborhoods too. Additionally, several gangs are specifically for Puerto Ricans and some are Dominican, he said.
Often, graffiti is overlooked as trivial, but needs to be taken seriously.
"We may take a little writing on the corner of a desk for granted, thinking it doesn't mean anything," Campbell said. "But all the time the students know what it means and will not sit at the desk."
The gangs target members of rival gangs, or often enough, people who just live in the same neighborhood as a rival gang, for beatings or worse. They "guard" their territory, targeting anyone who enters their neighborhood who is from a neighborhood perceived as belonging to a rival gang.
"When Housing, Parks and Recreations tries to put together a baseball league, they find some players won't show up when the team is playing in certain neighborhoods," he said. "That's because the players know they will be targets if they go into those neighborhoods."
Campbell told stories of students as young as third grade who have gang symbols on their books and bags and know who the prominent gang members are. Girls are not immune by any means, and most gangs have what amount to female affiliates; groups with nihilistic slogans like "real girls ride to die."
He showed multiple examples of recent mass beatings at area schools, videotaped by cell phone and uploaded to YouTube, saying the number of students involved in fights has skyrocketed, going from less than 80 two years ago to more than 140 last year.
"This isn't 70 one-on-one fights," he said. "It is more like 15 against six, eight against four, five against one. It is numbers like that which tell you we have an issue … Those are organized activities. How could 15 individuals, just out of the blue, decide to jump eight individuals without some organizing structure? They are not all in the same class at school. It takes some structure to organize something like that."
What does he feel we can do? Covering up the graffiti quickly is important.
"You need to read it, record it by taking a picture, then remove it," he said. "Removing the signs kills the lift they get. It kills their momentum."
Better enforcement of school dress codes is important too, he said. Baggy clothes are not just fashion but are used to hide knives, guns and other weapons, and to cover up gang colors and signs they will show when no teachers are looking. Strict enforcement also gives students cover to wear proper uniforms too.
Catching those involved in violence is critical, he said.
"When there is a killing and no one is caught it empowers them," he said. "They think they are the ones in charge. And so do their friends."
Many students involved in mass fights or even in more serious offenses like knife attacks, end up back on the street because there is no good place to put them, especially on St. Thomas, he said.
"We need a YRC (Youth Rehabilitation Center) on St. Thomas, not just on St. Croix," he said. St. Croix youthful offenders are more likely to be sent to YRC than those on St. Thomas because of the added onus of moving the offender off-island. A St. Croix youth might spend some time in YRC for being caught with a knife or gun, whereas a St. Thomas youth may simply be signed out to his or her parents unless he actually used the weapon, he said.
Replacing 10-day suspensions with in-school and after-school detention would help, he believes.
"You can't give a 10-day suspension," he said. "They want that. They know they can use the free credit recovery program and do the same class in the summer in six weeks. In their minds they're winning."
The most important thing though is to face the challenge directly and not deny the problem exists, Campbell said.

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