HARRISBURG — While large, national gangs are present in the midstate, law enforcement officials are more concerned with local street gangs, a problem they believe residents can do quite a bit to help with.
State Sen. John Yudichak (left) and Rep. Lou Barletta (right) address a group of concerned residents and neighborhood groups at an anti-gang seminar Thursday evening in Harrisburg.
In an anti-gang seminar hosted Thursday night at Harrisburg Area Community College by U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Hazleton, and state Sen. John Yudichak, D-Luzerne County, a panel of police chiefs, district attorneys and other area experts addressed how residents can pitch in to help nip gang problems in the bud. By far the most important message was for residents to take ownership of their streets.
"You live there, you know what is normal," said Cpl. Gabe Olivera, who supervises the city's vice and narcotics unit. "That is when you should start calling in those tips, when you notice things that aren't normal. … Take ownership of your block and get others to take ownership."
While several national-level gangs — the Bloods, Crips, etc. — are active in the midstate, the main offenders are neighborhood groups that tend to form around specific blocks and small groups that identify themselves as members of a larger gang but aren't actually affiliated with them.
Of course, even these small or wannabe gangs present a serious threat to public safety.
"They may not all wear gang colors, but they are involved in criminal activities; selling drugs, they're shooting up the neighborhoods, they're committing home invasion robberies, they're robbing the stores,"said Dauphin County District Attorney Edward M. Marsico Jr. "... Neighborhood gangs "are more of what we're seeing in central Pennsylvania than what you might see in Compton, L.A."
The panelists also explained the strategies police use and the hurdles they face in addressing gangs. Borough, township and school supervisors are often reluctant to admit to problems in their communities.
Jonathan Duecker, a special agent from the Bureau of Narcotics Investigation and Drug Control in the attorney general's office, said what he calls the "willful ignorance" of gangs by many school and township officials is often the result of their organizations wishing to present themselves as a better economic or educational investment to residents and students. Regardless, the attitude is still harmful, he said.
"The way we get these 500 school districts onboard is to go out and knock them down one at a time," Duecker said, adding that police building relationships with students and youth gives them a better grasp of an area's gang issues.
Most of the discussion focused on what attracts youths to gangs and how the community can combat it.
"I'm struck every year by the statistics that I see that over 85 percent of the young people who are arrested each year in Dauphin County come from single-parent households," said Susquehanna Township police Chief Robert Martin in discussing how effective gangs are at recruiting youths.
Especially attractive to middle and high schoolers who fall prey to the often glamorous way in which these criminal groups are portrayed in the mainstream media, gangs are a problem that needs to be addressed in all aspects of life, including schools and youth programs.
Cumberland County District Attorney David Freed praised the work done by youth groups and neighborhood watches to keep youngsters away from gangs and to get organized on the streets, respectively.
Freed mentioned the recent response in Carlisle after an attack by several young men on an older resident over a parking space. Within weeks of the attack on Charles Petty, his neighbors held a brainstorming session to discuss the merits of forming a neighborhood watch and providing positive activities for teens and children.
"Go to you local township meetings, go to your council meetings," Freed told the audience. "Try to interact with the other groups involved in your community [because] we can only do so much."
A movement sponsored by Harrisburg police is working to encourage the formation of neighborhood watches and patrols, while interactive websites such as the Dauphin County Crime Watch portal provide other options for residents to provide tips to police or find out about arrests in their neighborhoods.
For additional information regarding upcoming meetings sponsored by Barletta and Yudichak's Operation Gang Up, residents can call the representatives' offices. Contact numbers are available on their websites.