Technology helps gangs go hi-tech
DAYTON — Obvious signs of criminal street gangs aren't so obvious anymore: The shaved eyebrow. The rolled up sleeve. The graffiti. The colors. Forget about all of that. Those giveaways aren't always there.Gang communication has gone high tech, according to those on the front lines who are fighting the influence of gangs in Dayton.
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Johnny Vance, a probation officer with Montgomery County Juvenile Court Probation Services, has seen many wrinkles in gang culture in the 18 years he's been with the county.
He now supervises 35 to 40 probationers between the ages 12 and 17.
Gang members, like the rest of us, have gone online. They text message and hang out on social networking Web sites.
A recent random check of one popular social networking Web site by Dayton Daily News reporters turned up many juvenile clients trading information about parties and drugs.
Vance recalls that youngsters were stunned to learn probation officers knew what they were up to — treading on what they thought was their exclusive virtual turf.
Years ago, once the law had figured out elaborate gang alphabets and ornate graffiti, gangs knew it was time to shift methods.
"Kids knew they had to change and they did," Vance said.
He estimates 25 or so genuinely criminal gang groups with hundreds of members operate in Montgomery County. He says youngsters recruited into the gang life exhibit the "5 H's:
Helpless — a lack of self-esteem;
Hopeless — a feeling of no future;
Hungry — a need for nurturing and attention;
Homeless — no steady place to call home; and
Hugless — no love and affection in their life.
"We need to get to the dynamic of the kid behind the gang-banging," he said, "the core of the kid."
Coming out of the woodwork
It's a breakdown in communication within the family that leads to youngsters getting into the gang life, Vance said.
"While Junior is text messaging on MySpace, Mom has no idea because she is not communicating with him," Vance said.
The sheriff's office has created a reporting form — the Threat Group Identifier — that officers will require inmates to fill out.
"When I grew up, we didn't have this mass communication," said Michael Ford, 53, a 1970s-era Dayton gang member who turned his life around by turning his back on the gang life.
"Now, with cell phones, you can have a group together in 15 minutes. They come out of the woodwork."
From gang member to a lifesaver
Ford, who has been shot and bears scars from his youth that include a long and jagged knife wound, served time in prison.
After his release, he earned a degree in nursing from Wright State University and is now working to save lives. He's a nurse manager at the VA Medical Center and president of the Dayton Black Nurses Association.
"This is the last thing people thought I'd do," he said. "To patch your life together after you tear it apart is hell. It took a lot to make this change."
He has spoken at area schools and been active with community groups to dissuade youth from crime.
Ford tells kids that the successful rappers' music video images of stacks of cash and drug dealing are phony ones.
The successful ones are businessmen, not gangsters primed for the prison yard.
Ford also tells youngsters to not be afraid of being called "geeks" because they get good grades. A geek he knew in school has a new name now: boss.
"They need to find something in themselves, and not something in a group," he said. "College is the way to a means."
It's also a false idea that
to go to college you have to be "super smart." Said Ford: "It takes effort. That's all it is."
'Krunked for Life'
At Central State University, "Krunked for Life" youth empowerment program director Jimmy Cunningham hopes lessons about persistence sink in among the 25 young males he works with. (Krunked, in hip-hop slang, means "real good.")
The federally funded afternoon program, which meets Monday through Thursday, is pitched in a way that appeals to its target audience of ninth- and 10th-graders.
It works with them for three years and has skill-development sessions in rapping, disc jockeying, graffiti art and business development.
There are lessons in conflict resolution, anger management and language arts, too.
Cunningham worked in Little Rock, Ark., at a time when street gang activity there exploded.
"What I see here in the Dayton area is not in that extreme mode," he said. "But I know there is a gang presence in the area. I saw communities in denial about the presence of gangs. If a community doesn't accept the dynamics of what is occurring, out of nowhere, they look up and all of a sudden they have a huge problem."