By NC WANTED Staff

Posted: Feb 10, 2009
Updated: Feb 10, 2009

ALL COUNTIES — Gang activity has reached new heights in the United States. Federal agencies now estimate that there are over 1 million gang members nationally, supporting their criminal lifestyle any way they can: drugs, prostitution, human trafficking, robberies.

But local leaders see the growing problem as a call to action, an opportunity for communties to take back their neighborhoods from gang-related violence, to stand up and say, "we're not going to take it."

The Federal Bureau of Investigation released a report last week detailing gang activity in the United States, analyzing a problem that continues to migrate through the country, threatening communities both urban and rural.

The report analyzes the migration of gang populations from urban centers like New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles to smaller cities, suburbs and even rural areas. This trend has surprised many communities, who suddenly found gang activity in their neighborhoods despite the perception that gangs exist only in large cities.

North Carolina is one of the states seeing an influx of gang populations over the last five years. Specifically, our state, along with Georgia, is mentioned in the report for a significant increase in the MS 13 gang population.

MS 13 is an international gang that started among El Salvadorean and Honduran populations living in California and later migrated to Central America and across the United States. Although MS 13 is known for violent crime and drug trafficking, Capt. Mark Bridgeman of the Fayetteville Police Department says it is not the largest gang in North Carolina.

According to a study released by the Governor's Crime Commission last year, the Crips were the number one gang locally.

Bridgeman, who serves as president of the North Carolina Gang Investigators Association, characterized the challenges North Carolina law enforcement agencies face when targeting gang-related crime and how communities can do their part to clean up their neighborhoods and keep their children safe from gangs.

MS 13, he said, is not even the largest Hispanic gang in North Carolina. Sur 13 Surenos haa a much larger membership, but ultimately, Bridgeman said, there is one gang that matters more than all the others.

"I always maintain the worst gang in North Carolina – do you know what the worst gang in North Carolina is? – It’s the one in your backyard, the one that you have to deal with. So, that’s the one that’s really important, that’s the one that your local law enforcement is having to deal with or your kids are dealing with it at school or in neighborhoods or civic centers," he said.

NC Wanted aired a gang special last summer, highlighting the social forces that lead inner-city youth to gang life, but the problem is spreading into suburban and rural areas at a staggering rate.

The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction reported in December 2008 that 64 percent of high schools in North Carolina have a gang presence in their classrooms.

Bridgeman attributes that shift to law enforcement's gang suppression efforts, aided in part by 2008 legislation that better defines street gangs and stiffens penalties for gang-related crimes. In areas where local agencies do not have the resources or manpower to combat gang violence effectively, gangs are able to thrive.

Because gangs are highly mobile populations that may be in one city this week and a different city the next, law enforcement agencies have to work together, Bridgeman said.

And although projections show gang populations doubling in North Carolina in the next five years, Bridgeman told NC Wanted that there is hope, but it's going to take hard work and radical social change.

"We started out with the legislation, that’s really a key component. The other thing that’s happening is more and more people are becoming educated about gangs. You know, we’re not going to be able to legislate our way out of gangs, but we, as a society, have to make that determination that we’re not going to accept this," Bridgeman said.

"Until we band together as a community and say, 'no more' and 'stop the violence,' it’s going to continue. And it’s going to take really everyone doing this and it’s easier said than done."