Articles

Cobb unit combats growing gang trend

By DON PLUMMER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 12/05/04

The bandannas, tattoos and cryptic symbols spray-painted on buildings are subtle signs of gang activity easily missed by residents of Cobb County's manicured neighborhoods.

Many residents of Cobb have trouble accepting the idea that gangs are a problem in one of Georgia's most affluent counties, said Cobb police Anti-Gang Enforcement Officer Robby Ray.

But the presence of gangs has been increasing steadily in Cobb in recent years, and they are popping up in surprising places, according to Ray and other police and school officials.

"There are more gangs in south Cobb and Smyrna, but we now have gangs in east Cobb and north Cobb," Ray said. "In fact, there are gangs operating in just about every high school and middle school in the county."

Cobb County school police are in "daily communication" with the CAGE unit, school safety director James Arrowood said.

"My officers know the CAGE officers on a first-name basis." Arrowood said. "A lot of our involvement is to pass along what we learn from the student grapevine or about graffiti," often the first sign of gang activity.

Cobb by no means leads metro Atlanta in gang activity — that dubious distinction falls to Gwinnett County. Authorities there have identified 175 gangs with about 1,800 members. But Cobb's gang problem has increased in recent years. CAGE unit officers now monitor 26 gangs with more than 400 members, CAGE commander Lt. Steve Merrifield said.

While gang activity is widespread in Cobb schools, only a small percentage of Cobb's 103,000 students on the county's 101 campuses are active gang members, Arrowood said.

"Just because someone wears baggy pants doesn't mean they are in a gang," he said. "Ninety-eight percent are great kids, but its those 2 percent that we have to be careful of." Mostly, Arrowood said, his officers focus on trying to keep youths from "crossing that line from being a wannabe to being in a gang."

Dealing with gangs in schools is difficult because hard-core gang members are often indistinguishable from other students, said Preston Howard, discipline chief for the Marietta city school system.

"They are becoming very sophisticated," said Howard, who has been a Marietta administrator since 1997. "Hard-core gang members tend to avoid dressing in gang colors or marking their bodies with gang symbols — they leave that to younger members — because they know we will recognize those things as a sign of gang activity." CAGE officer Ray said he and the unit's 11 other officers are privy to a side of Cobb that is foreign to many who live in the county.

'The new Mafia'

Hispanic, Asian, black and white gangs in Cobb range from sophisticated "franchises" of national criminal organizations such as the Bloods and Crips to playground mobs that pop up like mushrooms and wither as quickly, Ray said. "Some are very well-organized, while others are a group of guys who hang out and get into trouble, then evaporate," he said.

National gang organizations such as the Latin Kings, headquartered in Chicago, have sent trusted lieutenants to Cobb to establish a "set," or chapter, Ray said. Other local franchises have been set up by gangs including 18th Street, Sureños 13 and Norteños 14, all violent Latino gangs from California, he said.

"They are the new Mafia," he said. "They are set up in the same way and pattern themselves after the Sicilian gangs." And like traditional Cosa Nostra operations, gangs engage in the full range of criminal enterprises, from extortion to prostitution and drug sales, according to Ray.

Last year, the CAGE unit was responsible for the arrests of 281 people who were charged with gang-related offenses. The unit was involved in six arrests for murder and 19 arrests for other violent crimes such as carjackings, drive-by shootings and aggravated assaults, Merrifield said.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, there are more than 750,000 gang members across the United States, and more than 15,000 of them are in Georgia. Ninety-five percent of hard-core gang members are high school dropouts, and most range in age from 12 to 24.

Gang violence is not just an urban problem or just a rural problem, nor is it just a problem for any one economic class. Gang violence is a community problem, according to one leading expert.

Gangs can provide a sense of belonging, security and, in many cases, economic opportunity through crime, said Carl Taylor, a Michigan State University professor who has written books on the subject.

"Many times the gang is everything society has failed to give them," Taylor said. "They've become a parental unit; they've become a sibling."

Gang officers have noted a change in the gangs that are most active in Cobb, Sgt. Stanley Wheeler said.

"When we first started the unit, the Sureños set [gang], called GTO because most of its members were from Guanajuato [state] in Mexico, was one of the most active," Wheeler said. "But now they are less active, and some of the more traditional black and white gangs, like the Crips, are increasing their activities."

Officers try to interact

Sixty-five percent of the gang members in Cobb are Hispanic or Latino, 15 percent are African-American or black, and the remaining 20 percent is made up of Caucasians and a smattering of Asians, according to Ray.

CAGE officers spend a lot of their time making contact with known members of gang groups in hopes of heading off violent crime.

"Interacting with gang members is tough, especially with Hispanic gangs whose members come from countries where the police aren't exactly trusted," Ray said. Much of the effort is one on one by officers who are assigned to specific high, middle and elementary schools.

"It's still shocking to me, but we're seeing elementary school students who are being recruited, so that's an area we also are working," Ray said. Much of that effort is focused on trying to steer younger siblings of existing gang members away from criminal activity.

Info sharing critical

Another chunk of time is invested in sharing the intelligence officers gain with school and juvenile authorities.

"It's a two-way street," Ray said. "We get a lot of information from beat officers who pass along information about signs of gang activity or graffiti."

Many times, gang members already have been seen in Juvenile Court and are well-known to probation officers, Ray said. "We couldn't do our job without the Juvenile Court probation officers," he said. "They often already know the people we're looking for."

Ford often puts his juvenile probationers to work painting over graffiti using supplies from the Graffiti Cover-up program, co-sponsored by Keep Cobb Beautiful, the local affiliate of the national Keep America Beautiful Network.

Gang crime in Cobb runs the spectrum from underage drinking to murder.

Earlier this month, five Hispanic juveniles pleaded guilty to murder after another Hispanic youth was killed during a drive-by shooting at a "skip [school] party" hosted by a rival gang, Ray said.

"Some of these gangs are involved in everything from prostitution to burglary to auto theft and rape," Ray said.

CAGE officers often work with the Cobb County Sheriff's Office's fugitive squad. Sheriff's Investigator Scott Terrill specializes in tracking gang members and other juveniles. Terrill said he and Ray often collaborate when seeking gang members with Juvenile Court records.

The face of gangs is changing with more and more female members, Ray said. Ninety-five percent of gang members nationwide are male, but female gangs are on the rise. "It used to be that they were considered property of gang members," he said. "Now we're seeing some [females] who are actually members."

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