by NC WANTED Staff

Posted: Aug 7, 2008
Updated: Aug 10, 2008

ALL COUNTIES — Programming Note:  Sunday night on FOX 50 after the show Rewind, NC WANTED will air an encore presentation of "Growing Up Hard."   The episode investigates street gangs involved in the recent surge in Raleigh's gang-related crimes. 

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Gang violence has increasingly become a regular topic of news coverage over the past few weeks, with frequent shootings, a now infamous melee at Triangle Town Center, a shooting on the campus of N.C. State and a brawl at a popular Capital Boulevard nightclub.

If the headlines give the appearance that gang activity is on the rise, hard figures bear that impression out: a 2008 assessment noted about 14,500 gang members in NC, and that number could grow to 48,000 in the next five years.

Law enforcement response to the recent news events has been swift, with Raleigh’s police chief announcing the city has a “significant” problem and the Department of Justice promising the full prosecutorial force of the federal government against gang members. Groundbreaking new legislation was recently signed into law that defines street gangs and toughens penalties for gang-related crimes.

But will these efforts stem the tide of violence?

This Saturday, NC WANTED hits the streets in search of an answer to that question. We talked to people eager to discuss what’s going on behind the bloodshed and arrests, from kids in the neighborhood to the grown-ups trying to save them from a life of crime.

We also talked to law enforcement and a gang prosecutor in Durham, and both are quick to say that gangs are a problem society won’t be able to arrest itself out of. “A lot of people are afraid,” said Stormy Ellis, an assistant district attorney for Durham County. “It’s kind of like a pack mentality. So you might be afraid of the wolf, but you’re also afraid of the pack. So even if you take that one wolf out, you still have the rest of the pack there in that area. So, we’re not just dealing with one individual who commits a crime.”

Ms. Ellis’ point could be illustrated by Thursday’s statement by NC State campus police that the shooting last month was ordered by an inmate at the Wake County Jail.

To top it off, convictions are particularly difficult to get when dealing with gang-related crimes, Ms. Ellis said, because of the pervasive environment of intimidation and fear, which gang members create, and on which they thrive.

So what makes someone choose to be in a gang?

“What led them there could be any number of things,” said Hank Smith, who works with at-risk youth at the John Avery Boys & Girls Club in Durham. “I mean, a lot of times the media will point to one thing, ‘oh, well it was this, it was that, it was that,’ when in reality, it’s a number of different things. Poverty, lack of family structure, uh, lack of positive role models, the feeling that you can live in a consequence-free environment.

“If you grew up in a neighborhood where crime was the norm, you wouldn’t know any different, you know? Or if nobody told you, ‘this is bad,’ then you wouldn’t necessarily know one way or the other.”

Mr. Smith wasn’t the only person NC Wanted interviewed who pointed to a breakdown in societal values and, quite simply, the family.

“I’ll say this 100 times, that kids do not automatically choose to be in gangs and do negative activity,” said Martina Dunford, who heads up an alternative school, New Horizons, for kids who aren’t in public school. “That’s a learned behavior. That baby that just came out of his mother’s womb is blank. He knows absolutely nothing. Everything that he is exposed to that’s put into him is who he ultimately becomes.”

Ms. Dunford, as well as other community activists, is skeptical anyone will be able to stop the uptick in gang violence without addressing a number of underlying issues – the drug problem, poverty and under-education.

In the meantime, they will work to save that one child from a life of incarceration and possibly, death.

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Growing Up Hard

(Recently, NC WANTED sat down with three teenagers in Durham to talk about their experiences growing up in neighborhoods where gang violence is a part of everyday life. They spoke candidly about their experiences, and their interviews will be featured in a July episode about gangs in North Carolina. In order to ensure their frankness and protect their safety, the names of the youth have been changed.)

Nikki was in the eighth grade the first time she was shot at. It was a Friday night and she was at a party with her friend when someone drove by and opened fire. The bullet hit her friend, who was taken to the hospital and eventually recovered. She tells the story in a matter-of-fact sort of way, with less dramatic flourishes and facial expression than one would expect of a 17-year-old girl recounting a recent trip to the mall. Violence is a way of life.

Alan was around 10 years old the first time he was shot at. He was minding his own business when a group of men drove up to him and some friends and, after a brief exchange, started firing. He also is 17, but talks like an old man, world-weary and cynical of the vices that drive some to profit and others to suffering. He says he sees opportunities – college, a job and a family – beyond the neighborhood, rife with drug use and poverty. Addiction is a way of life.

Mario remembers living at MacDougal Terrace. At points, he said, weeks would pass where gunshots rang out every night. He was never scared and got used to it, a strange sort of urban symphony. He has family and friends who are gang members but as for himself, he never sought to link his self-worth to a color or a flag. Things may have been intense for a while but as he’s gotten older, he’s gotten better at making his own decisions and being his own man. Gangs are a way of life.

All three said that eight out of 10 people they know are affiliated with gangs in some fashion. It’s what they see; it’s what they know, and each says they know better and feel sad for the people who become consumed by that lifestyle.

They do not speak of the violence they’ve seen with sadness but each feels it is wrong. Nikki has a 2-year-old and she says she’s nervous for him but sees a way out. She wants to go to college but she doesn’t know yet what she wants to be when she grows up. She’s never seen the ocean.

The two men each own a gun. Both stop short of saying one would be stupid not to have one, but both indicated they would use it if they had to. Mario did some time at the county jail when he was 16 and knew when he got out he didn’t want to go back. He’s hoping to graduate high school in a year.

All three talk of gunfire, murder and jail as if it’s a universally accepted truth; all three say they wish they didn’t have to see it, that they don’t want it to be a part of their lives.

It’s not a new problem and involves very basic human drives – the drive to belong, the drive to have material wealth, the will to power.

The ‘have-nots’ have always hated the ‘haves.’ And within the ‘have-nots,’ groups of people have always hated other groups of people and committed violence to further their goal or rectify some perceived slight. But the current gang problem bears the burden of other current social ills – the gun trade, the drug problem, a feeling of social inequality that is both blunted and augmented by a pervasive media – which creates a unique and critical problem with which law enforcement, prosecutors and the community at large struggles to deal.

Much money has been put into the effort, most recently in the form of a $2.5 million grant to Raleigh-Durham, which takes effect this month, and although it will take years to quantify what recent grant money has done to alleviate the problem, recent statistics indicate crime is on the rise. Prosecutors are hopeful pending legislation will make it easier to define a gang member and gang crimes, thereby toughening penalties. The issue is a frequent talking point for politicians.

But for now, the courts are crowded and the streets are violent, and gangs continue to fill an ominous void in some children’s lives.
In July, NC Wanted will take an in-depth look at the gang problem across the state and will talk to community activists, law enforcement, prosecutors and youth about what they see.

If you have information on gang activity, call NC WANTED toll free at 1.866.43.WANTED (1.866.439.2683) or click on "Report a Tip" Your identity can be kept confidential.