As Summer Nears, Police Ramp Up Gang Watch
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It’s been nearly a year since a dozen teens stormed a Mountain View gas station and attacked a man—apparently because he was wearing a red shirt and cap in the wrong part of town.
Police think that was the city’s first territorial gang dispute. Some of the attackers had ties to the Crips gang, identified by the color blue. Red is the color of the rival Bloods.
“That was his only crime really: He was wearing a color they didn’t like,” deputy Anchorage police chief Ross Plummer said. “That’s what we’re trying to make sure doesn’t happen.”
Anchorage police, growing more familiar with the gangs, are taking members off the streets at higher rates, and prosecutors—both state and federal—are keeping them behind bars longer. Prevention programs to keep troubled kids out of the culture of violence are keeping some off the streets.
Since the Mountain View attack, high-profile gang shootings have been on the wane. But gang activity hasn’t. Police count at least 50 gang-related incidents this year, Plummer said, ranging from graffiti and drug deals to robberies, drive-by shootings and assaults.
{snip}
‘WARRING FACTIONS’ OF KIDS
Gangs here operate differently than their inner-city counterparts in places like Los Angeles, where they are often strictly divided across racial lines, have rigid membership rules of initiation and are fiercely territorial, Plummer said.
“We still don’t have any gang activity in the sense of what is in the Lower 48, where you have a small number of distinct gangs that are nationwide,” said Alan McKelvie, a researcher with the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Justice Center who has studied gangs in Anchorage. “We don’t have those up here. What’s up here is kind of warring factions of minority kids.”
{snip}
Anchorage gangs are often made up of youths who live in the same neighborhood, regardless of race, and they change allegiances and affiliations often. Some are initiated gang members who have moved north from Lower 48 cities, while others are locals who are trying to establish themselves, said patrol officer Scott Lofthouse, who works gang intelligence for police.
{snip}
FBI, POLICE BAND TOGETHER
The Safe Streets Task Force, a collaborative effort between police and the FBI, is one tool to combat gangs and street crime.
The task force, which first operated in Alaska between 1995 and 2002, was reactivated in 2006 to suppress gang activity following a resurgence in violence that summer and has made more than 30 arrests so far, said FBI Special Agent Eric Gonzalez.
“We’re really working in concert to combat gang violence here in Anchorage, and I think in the past couple of years we’ve seen some real inroads,” Gonzalez said.
On May 1, police plan to increase patrols in neighborhoods like Mountain View, Russian Jack and Muldoon where gangs have been known to operate and flourish. Similar efforts in the past two years have resulted in more busts and fewer gang members on the streets, Plummer said.
More cops on the streets should prevent gangs from getting out of control, he said.
“They’re slowly evolving as time goes on,” Plummer said. “If we don’t do something as a community to keep them from getting entrenched, then in 10, 15, 20 years, we could be looking at the same type of thing as LA gangs, entrenched gangs in neighborhoods that are really hard to deal with.”
Email James Halpin at jhalpin@adn.com.
(Posted on April 17, 2008)
Comments
There’s that word again, “youths”! The journalistic code word for groups of non-white criminals under the age of 40, whether they are in France, Denmark, or, apparently, Alaska.
Posted by Dave at 6:39 PM on April 17
This story seems to put to rest the nature vs nurture argument. Los Angeles and Anchorage are almost polar opposites in climate, yet gangs matriculate with the non-white population even in Anchorage.
Posted by Question Diversity at 6:43 PM on April 17
The whole time I’m reading this I’m wondering “Alaska? How’d these ‘minority’ kids get up there??”.
Which minorities?? What are they doing there?
I had considered moving to Alaska at one point, but it doesn’t sound like it would be a good idea after all.
Posted by kitty at 6:56 PM on April 17
Try to imagine growing up in Los Angeles, CA. The things I’ve seen. Why would any sane society want to subject their population to this is beyond me.
Posted by Unemployed WASP at 8:40 PM on April 17
Ex-Anchoragite here. Mountain View and Muldoon have been bad neighborhoods for a long time now. Russian Jack going bad is news to me. I’ve taught Jr. High near Mtn. View, and it seemed to be mostly black and hispanic back in 2002.
What seemed more significant to me was Service High being majority-minority now (posted on amren during the lamentably-named black history month this year). It’s in the middle of upscale white communities- will there be ‘white flight’ from there now as well, or will we see more of the Pasadena, California model? (In the Pasadena School District, private schools serve a third of all students, fleeing the public school system dominated by barbarians)
Posted by at 9:37 PM on April 17
Alaska has Vermont-style concealed carry laws - put a gun in your pocket and walk out the door LEGALLY.
I say shoot both sides if there is a gang-shootout; after all, if the gang-members did their due diligence in wearing the proper colors, there shouldn’t be a problem in “Identification Friend or Foe.”
Posted by at 10:03 PM on April 17
There’s a novel out that describes the US of the near future wherein hit squads are formed in cells all over the country, dedicated to terminating with extreme prejudice any and all criminals. (Can’t think of the title right now.) The members are comprised of citizens from various communities that are fed up with non-white gangs and crime.
Posted by Ranger at 12:05 AM on April 18
I carefully went through the whole original article and still don’t know what ethnic groups these “kids” are members of.
Posted by Reader-1 at 12:22 AM on April 18
The only ones I could identify in the article were Samoans. Also, Samoans have Crips and Bloods sets and identify with Blacks. During Hispanic - Black gangfights, Samoans always line up with the Blacks. Samoa is probably not that far from Alaska in a way. They are both on the Pacific Ocean. Just head north from Samoa or Hawaii and end up in Alaska. Sure would have been nice if they told us the race of these punks.
Posted by Robert Lindsay at 7:11 AM on April 18
Hey Ranger, if you think of the name of that novel would you please let me know. Thanks
Posted by Vancouver Steve at 10:47 AM on April 18
I think there’s too much of an obsession to blame every non-white crime on gang activity. I think the System has an incentive to hype up gangs, because there’s a big and growing gang mitigation industry that needs to be fed.
Many times, it’s just a matter of non-whites (esp. blacks and Hispanics) being themselves. Earlier this week in St. Louis, a US Postal Service letter carrier was shot (not killed) in an increasingly black part of the city. The victim’s relative thought it was gang initiation, but it turns out the suspect (black) had mental problems and was off his meds, and he just moved away from Chicago to live with his grandmother in St. Louis. He is also 23 years old, which would make him way too old to be a gang recruit.
As an aside, the city alderwoman that represents the area where the shooting happened (a white woman) blamed landlords, and wants them to do background checks to refuse rental to felons. If that proposal actually grew legs, then every three- four- and five-letter org with “black” in its name and their government allies would throw a fit — it would mean that a very high percentage of black men in this city would be homeless. Not only that, the grandmother was the tenant, and she’s an armed security guard ipso facto not a convicted felon. Her grandson stole her gun to use it in the crime.
Also, I think the PC establishment give Hispanics and (especially) blacks far more credit for organization and coordination than they deserve. Many violent crimes that appear to be a “gang” shooting aren’t really “gangs” in the classical sense, they’re just informal cliques. And the “formal” black gangs aren’t that cohesively organized, either.
Posted by Question Diversity at 3:17 PM on April 18
“If that proposal actually grew legs, then every three- four- and five-letter org with “black” in its name and their government allies would throw a fit — it would mean that a very high percentage of black men in this city would be homeless.”
Only before the winter. After the winter, Alaska would again be almost exclusively White.
You could even promote this as a “back to nature” movement for disadvantaged “yoofs.” I seem to remember a post here awhile back that inner-city hoodlums were missing the joys of communing with nature. And winter in Ft. Wainwright is certainly a unique experience; right, “Ex-Anchoragite?”
Posted by Wild Eyed Charlie at 3:52 PM on April 18
I didn’t think there would be too many blacks or Hispanics in Alaska. Does AmRen have any Alaskan readers? Maybe they can fill us in on the situation up there.
Posted by at 6:46 PM on April 18
In my neighbourhood here in the North of Melbourne, Australia. we have a bloods and crips probl3.3.
em with Polynesian kids.
The Pacific Islanders physically mature really early (to see a 120kg 12yo isn’t strange).
And they do not do well at academia offering a disruptive influence only, even with all the PC cultural pandering they recieve.
and they are traditional ,’big family’ people having 6-8 kids.
They will never be ‘fixed’.
Posted by Gen X White Man in Oz at 8:50 PM on April 18
*I carefully went through the whole article and still don’t know the ethnic group these “kids” are members of.*
In LA Crips and Bloods are Black gangs. It’s a little surprising to learn there would be that many in Anchorage, but another poster says the last time they were there suddenly numerous non-whites had cropped up in Mountain View in the last several years. But I guess that isn’t so surprising afterall. Is there any region in the country, that whites have fled to, where non-whites haven’t followed?
Posted by at 9:35 PM on April 18
I think that a lot of blacks and Hispanics living in Alaska, moved there due to the stgate’s oil-based economy starting with the Alaska Pipeline project in the 1970’s. They went where they thought they could get high-paying jobs. Then too, the USA has military bases in the state. Given that high percentages of non-Caucasian minorities are in the military, that’s another reason.
At the start of every college basketball season, the University of Alaska-Anchorage sponsors the “Great Alaskan Shootout” tournament. The makeup of the players on that squad are virtually the same as Georgetown or Michigan’s.
Posted by Soprano Fan at 11:42 AM on April 19
IIRC Wainwright is the cold-weather proving grounds for army equipment, but that’s up by North Pole (yes, there is a town of that name, near Fairbanks). As it stands, already large numbers of Anchorage’s ‘disadvantaged youth’ (IE juvenile delinquents who took a plea bargin) are shuffled into a military academy on Ft. Richardson. That has some of the coldest areas of Anchorage proper.
Posted by at 9:12 PM on April 19
Quote: “There’s a novel out that describes the US of the near future wherein hit squads are formed in cells all over the country, dedicated to terminating with extreme prejudice any and all criminals. (Can’t think of the title right now.) The members are comprised of citizens from various communities that are fed up with non-white gangs and crime.”
I’m not sure what book you’re talking about. But a book that you want to read is called “American Civil War 2, The Coming Breakup of America” by Thomas Chittum. It was written in 1996 and in some ways is a bit dated. But he generally hits the nail on the head. It can be found in PDF format here:
http://www.timebomb2000.com/misc/CWII.pdf
Posted by walt235 at 11:07 AM on April 20
Ranger at 12:05 AM: “Wet Work” by Christopher Buckley (William F. Buckley’s son) isn’t the book you’re looking for, but it might keep you happy until you find the right one. A man sets out to kill the drug dealers who sold his daughter her overdose. Fun read.
Posted by Schoolteacher at 8:23 PM on April 21