The Bloods, Crips, And Kids:
Gangs Stake Out Queens Turf

Peddling the chance to belong and be accepted while they tempt with the forbidden thrill of graffiti, New York City gangs are moving in on Queens’ intermediate and high schools in search of new life.

Gangs like the Bloods, Latin Kings, Crips, Los Vatos Locos, El Esquadron, the Mexican Boys, the Netas and the Zulu Nation are 2,500 members strong in Queens, according to police estimates.

Queens gang-busting cops told the Tribune that many young gang members are recruited while they are behind bars.

Board of Education officials have identified IS 61 in Corona, (bottom, left) Newtown High School in Elmhurst (Tribune cover) and Forest Hills High School (above) as three of the Queens schools hardest hit by gangs seeking to recruit students. Tribune Photos By Ira Cohen

New gang members are often affiliated with "graffiti gangs" and have been arrested for "tagging" and quality of life offenses, police said. The teen recruits are often spotted by hardened gang members on Riker’s Island who prey on youths that come from unstable family situations, police said.

Eager to fit in, the teens are easily educated by older gang members. Once back on the street, the recruits head back to school – not to get an education but to give other teens an education in the life of Gangland, Queens, police said.

Authorities point out that it makes no difference where your kids go to school. Shockingly, the gang recruits infiltrate schools in the best Queens neighborhoods – not just schools with notorious reputations.

And if you think the gangs recruit only in high schools, think again, police said. Gang "recruiters" are just as prevalent in junior high.

According to recent U.S. Department of Justice statistics, children 12 and up make up the group who often find it easiest to get a gun.

"Pre-teens and teenagers are very vulnerable to suggestion," said Justice Department spokesman Robert Hubert. "It leads them into problems, into taking risks," Hubert said.

More than one-third of New York City students were threatened with physical violence by other students during the 1998-99 school year, according to a recent federal and city study. About 21 percent of students asked admitted they carry a weapon into school – and on their way to and from school.

On Wednesday, March 8, two students at Franklin K. Lane High School were repeatedly stabbed by reputed gang members during a melee on a Jamaica subway platform. Investigators at the NYPD Intelligence Unit said that only one of four suspects arrested in the attack attended the Woodhaven school – and he is a former student.

The school was one of dozens listed by Schools Investigator Edward Stancik in a 1997 report as a "hot spot" of gang activity. Since that time, aggressive policing and improved security have greatly reduced the amount of gang activity at the school, officials said.

Police are utilizing a number of techniques to reach students and make them aware of the dangers of gang involvement.

One such method is a visit by police at the NYPD "GREAT" Unit (Gang Resistance, Education And Training).

The GREAT Program is similar to NYPD drug prevention programs. Members of the unit visit schools over a 10-week period, talking with students and offering them help with ways to say "no" to gang recruiters, police said.

Police cadets have also been joining classes at some city schools, posing as students to weed-out gang recruiters, sources said.

Queens police are continually infiltrating gang meetings in public spaces, often rounding-up dozens of members.

In one recent incident, police in Elmhurst broke up a membership meeting at a local playground, where members of the "Zulu Nation" were actively recruiting, speaking to a crowd of about 40 people while handing out gang membership applications and literature, police said.

The sweep netted 59 arrests – including the gang leader and "recording secretary." Twelve of the 59 people arrested were 15-years-old, police said.

The NYPD launched an all-out war on drug-peddling street gangs in May 1999, sending teams of NYPD "gang busters" onto the street.

Police officials said that by establishing the expanded, centralized squads, the department is now able to attack the gangs on all fronts, using all available resources.

The move took cops from gang units who formerly worked undercover independently and assigned them to one unit – a single "umbrella division" that operates within the NYPD Organized Crime Control Bureau.

Each borough (in Queens, Patrol Borough North and South) has a narcotics module, a detective squad and a unit of plain clothes cops who concentrate only on gang busting, police said. Each has at least two supervisors to oversee the unit.

Police officials said the "one quarterback, one coordinator" units have successfully uncovered new information on gangs, led to better information-sharing and an "all around smoother operation."

There are approximately 300 police officers in the centralized squad – but police officials said it’s not the number of cops that counts, it’s the results they achieve.

Narcotics cops assigned to the units focus on snaring gang members through buy-and-bust operations. The plainclothes cops target gang hangouts and street locations, officials said.

Police gangbusters are working with the FBI to buy drugs and guns from gang members – a move designed to allow police to arrest gang members on RICO (racketeering) charges and other tough federal statutes.

The cops are also working with precinct detectives in gang-related cases, officials said.

In a precedent-setting move, police in western Queens recently requested a Queens Supreme Court Judge permanently bar 21 suspected members of the Bloods gang from a 14-block area near the Queensborough Bridge in Long Island City.

Justice Arthur Lonschein granted the permanent 24-hour injunction on Friday, March 3, barring 15 women and six men from the specified area, police said.

The injunction marks the first time a New York State police department has utilized the courts to keep alleged gang members from even setting foot in a community.

The targeted area has long suffered from a plague of street prostitution. Police routinely arrest the scantily-clad hookers who line the streets, only to find them back on the street within hours.

Police made the move to prevent gang members from completely taking over street prostitution in the targeted area. Alarmed by a condition in Brooklyn’s 75th Precinct (on the Queens border), police in northern Queens decided to take steps to prevent gang members from moving-in on local pimps and taking over their "girls."

According to the NYPD, whether you call it a family, nation or association; whether you wear blue, red or green; whether you joined for protection, excitement or money, all gangs have one thing in common – criminal activity.

Gang members are at an estimated 88 percent greater risk for injury, prison, and early death that other juveniles.

A youth gang is an organized group of adolescents and young adults who participate in social, criminal and violent activity.

Street gangs have long been considered loosely organized thugs, engaged in petty thefts and drugs on a local level. But today’s street gangs are very different.

Gangs use children as young as 10-years-old because they know children under 13 receive a lesser penalty for convicted crime.

Teens become gang members through a variety of "rites" or an initiation process that may include participation in criminal activity, studying (and learning) the "Book of Knowledge" – a gang "bible," or by filing an "application" and paying dues.

There are also blood rituals and sexual rituals that recruits must pass to qualify for membership, police said.

According to police, parents should watch for:

• Changes in clothing
• Use of hand signs and signals – usually as an alternate form of communication
• Tattoos or branding of the body with distinctive designs, logos or names
• Withdrawal from family involvement
• Unexplained cash, material items, wearing a lot of jewelry or medallions
• Drug/alcohol use
• Abrupt changes in personality and behavior
• Prefers to use a nickname or street name
• Decline in grades at school
• Truancy – change of friends

Police recommend that parents and educators take the following steps with teens:

• Talk to your child or teenager. Discuss the consequences of being in a gang.
• Be a good listener to your child and help them develop their self esteem.
• Watch for negative influences, meet and greet friends and parents of friends.
• Communicate with them about their hopes and dreams as well as their fears and concerns.
• Be a role model.
• Discuss the importance of school and good grades. Emphasize good study habits.
• Establish rules and set limits. Be consistent and fair in punishment.
• Volunteer at your child’s school.
• Demand accountability for time spent, money and clothes.
• Spend quality time with your children.
• Show respect for your child’s feelings.

Many youths join gangs because they do not receive adequate family attention, police said. Many teens feel that gangs provide love, identity and status, and in turn, the teens develop loyalty to the gang.