Is Charlotte Really Serious About Gangs? »
On one hand, you could say that perhaps they are. After all, they sure talk about gangs a lot. Or at least, with a lot of fanfare. For instance, an article in October 2003 (apparently no longer available online, sorry) talked about the gangs in Charlotte. Last month, the Charlotte police talked about gangs again. In today's paper, there on the front page, above the fold it was mentioned in big letters: Arrests made in gang crackdown. Sounds impressive, no?
If you've paid attention for any amount of time, then you likely know that Charlotte has some issues with gangs. That's never been in doubt. What I'm wondering is if they really take these issues seriously. Some time back, the transit center uptown had so many people hanging out on weekend nights that they were actually wanting to get rid of them. Not good news if you were one of the businesses that opened in the transit center (and they wonder why the uptown streets are so dead?).
So what's the story? Is Charlotte really serious about the gang problem? Is there even a gang problem?
I actually don't know the answer to the second question, but I can tell you that the answer to the first question is a resounding no. Just like most everything else, it's a way for everyone to make a whole bunch of noise, and hopefully you aren't paying enough attention to realize that absolutely none of it makes any sense at all.
Look at the transit center. The city decides that they want a nice covered place for buses to meet up, and they ask businesses to come in and open up for people to patronize while they wait. But when people actually start to hang out there, it's a problem - so they want them to go away. Hmm. That's a bit of a conflict, don't you think? I sure do. Maybe it's just the type of people who show up - but they'd never admit that, because it's racial profiling at best, and outright discrimination at worst.
So let's look at something more recent. Another incident at Eastland Mall, where young people of all ages hang out. Let's face it - the mall is a right of passage for many kids. But on one relatively innocent night, hundreds of them gather, and tempers heat up. A fight breaks out. Time for the powers that be to step in. It must be gang activity, and it must be stopped.
Okay, another example. Back at Eastland, and this fight actually escalates into a rolling shootout. I can go so far as to say that this is probably not your average teenage pastime. It's likely something a bit more serious. So let's look at gang activity. According to the front-page story, police said that gang members had shot at one another at least 10 times in the last four months. So the police knew that this sort of thing had happened at least 10 times, and they can't stop it? That seems like a problem.
Back to the front page. Let's see what they are saying. Right there in the seventh paragraph, it says "We have drawn a line in the sand and sent a message with this indictment....Gang activity will not be tolerated in our city." First off, these people are shooting at each other as they drive down the road. They don't care about indictments. But let's skip that and move ahead to what happened.
Apparently 100 police officers arrested 15 suspected gang members of the Hidden Valley Kings on drug-dealing charges. Word on the street is that these suspected gang members charged other drug dealers to deal drugs. A drug-dealing tax if you will. I actually think it's rather creative. But we'll skip that for now too.
Is 15 a lot? It doesn't sound like a lot. How many gang members are there in Charlotte? According to a 2003 report on gangs, the Hidden Valley Kings, at the time the largest known gang in Charlotte, had 125 known members, and it was suspected that that number was only about one-fourth of the actual number of members. In other words, almost four years ago, they suspected that one gang - the gang that these people belong to - had a suspected 600 members.
Do they think that it lost a bunch of members in that time? I don't. 15 of 600 isn't a lot. Figure it out and you're talking just 2.5% of the number from four years ago. From one gang. That's pathetic, and it's on the front page. The other numbers? Buried on page 11. So do you think Charlotte is really serious about gangs? It sure doesn't seem like it to me.
