Signs of Gang Life
By Elizabeth Billips Associate Editor

This "gang diary" was seized from a Magnolia Acres apartment three years ago. It contains special codes as well an an oath.

Tennis shoes on telephone wires. Graffiti. Armed robberies. Burglaries. Shootings.

They're outward signs of a culture that youth leaders say is bubbling beneath Burke County's surface.

"It's coming," Lt. Scott Peebles said, holding up a photo of graffiti sprawled across the side of a Waynesboro business. "Wannabes are gonnabes, eventually."

The Richmond County officer spent Thursday morning at Briarwood Apartments, discussing gang recognition and prevention with a small group that included ministers, police officers and housing authority employees.

"Our single biggest failure in Augusta was not listening to our officers," he said. "We kind of closed our eyes to what they were seeing on the street."

Juvenile Justice Department probation officer Wendell Smith knows a thing or two about the streets here.

The names of those wannabe gangs roll off his tongue as easy as his ABCs.

Angel Boys, Gutta, 50 Boys, 21 Love, War Angels, P.O.P.

According to Lt. Peebles, graffiti like this is associated with gang activity.

He calls the groups "smaller cousins" of the big city gangs - throngs of boys anxious for affiliation, but lacking in organization and funding.

"Some of our youth have gone to YDC (Richmond County Youth Detention Center) and made connections with kids from gangs in Augusta, Atlanta, Savannah

and even New York," he said. "They come back intrigued with how they carry themselves, learning gang signs and practicing gang lingo."

Though the names change, these groups are nothing new in Burke County.

At a county-wide Teens, Let's Talk forum in 2001, local youth stood up to say they were being pressured to join gangs; and three years ago, GBI special agent Charles Kicklighter seized a "gang bible" from a Magnolia Acres apartment.

The 19-page handwritten book catalogued gang signs and numbers, including a special alphabet with symbols, like a pitchfork, for each letter.

"It's basically a guide to being a gang member," Agent Kicklighter said, alluding to pages describing the importance of money, knowledge and power, as well as Biblical references to King David and Sheba.

Smith said he's seen kids write out entire excerpts from gang bibles. "They're required to memorize it word for word," he said.

Though Smith hasn't had a juvenile court case with gang undertones in about six months, the indicators have been there in the fairly recent past.

"Eventually, it's going to get to the point where it's not controllable," he said. "We're putting a Band-aid on the issues instead of addressing them."

In Augusta, things did reach that point before they began getting better again. Now, deputies keep constant tabs on five to six fullfledged gangs and 40-50 smaller groups, in part through paid informants.

They also look for the outward signs, like the "23"s the Tobacco Road gang members display on their jerseys or the camo worn by a gang on the east side.

"The fourteen-, fifteen- and sixteen-year-olds are the ones who scare officers the most," Lt. Peebles said, noting that members typically join up around the age of 14 and stay into their mid 20s. "They have no concept of consequences or the future. They're like baby snakes ... they let all their venom out when they bite you."

In the more organized gangs, youngest members are generally street level dope dealers, he said, while the older teens lean toward burglary and armed robbery. The adult members are often involved in chop shops for stolen vehicles.

While Lt. Peebles doesn't have any answers to wiping out would-be gangs in Burke County, he thinks community programs may help starve them out, one future member at a time.

"Who's watching our children?" he asks, describing 5-

year-olds in Augusta who pedal the projects on bicycles and blow whistles to warn drug dealers of approaching patrol cars. "These kids are running the streets, and the gangs are taking them in and giving them protection, food, money, whatever they need. The kids love them ... they idolize them."

Rose Alexander, the manager at Briarwood Apartments said she believes much of the criminal activity in Burke County is a by-product of its welfare culture.

"How do you want something better for someone who doesn't want it for themselves?" she asked. "It's not about 'no hope' - it's about not doing anything. These people will spend their last dime getting their nails done or $50 on their child's shoes, then go to DFACS with a sob story. It's about milking the government."

Deena Sams, executive director for Burke Community Partnership (BCP) says that regardless of its origin, an overwhelming lack of parental supervision is fueling the problem.

At a recent Future Force meeting, about 30 Burke County

youth talked with her about out-of-control teens and the problems they're creating for other teens who want more for themselves.

"Just ask the kids, and they'll tell you there are gangs around here," Sams said, listing four off the top of her head. "They also say the ones who are getting into trouble aren't afraid of law enforcement and aren't afraid of going to court. They're telling us we need to toughen up on sentencing."

Both Smith and Sams have been working through BCP to get "Positive Teen Scene" off of the ground at Davis Park.

The center, which will resemble the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, is designed to serve 100 teens, ages 11-19, through after-school programs, structured social time and abstinence education.

While it won't solve the problem, law enforcement officers are hopeful it will help.

"The biggest thing you can do as a community is develop programs to take children in, encircle them and protect them." Lt. Peebles said. "The gangs understand the value of our youth ... it's too bad we don't."