FEDERAL AGENCIES TO HELP FIGHT VIOLENCE

Alliance Will Add Clout To Task Force's Effort To Prevent Gang
Activities

The upsurge in gang violence in Palm Beach County is like a nightmare
from 15 years ago when drive-by shootings were commonplace, officials
said.

So the county Violent Crimes Task Force has turned to the same remedy
it did in the 1990s: Federal prosecution, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said
Friday.

Local law enforcement and federal agencies -- including the FBI, the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Drug
Enforcement Administration -- have joined forces because criminals are
more likely to do time and more of it under federal guidelines,
Bradshaw said.

"You always try to bring state and federal law enforcement together
and use whatever advantages are available," said Dale Armstrong, ATF
resident agent in charge in West Palm Beach.

Working with federal agencies is nothing new for local departments,
but since the county task force was re-formed in April, its focus has
been on gangs, Bradshaw said.

"We're confident we're going to make an impact," he
said.

The New Year started off with bullets and blood, the same way 2006
ended.

On Christmas Eve, a simmering battle between rival gangs left one man
shot to death in the Boynton Beach Mall. On New Year's Day gunmen
drove down a residential street in Riviera Beach, fired at least 37
shots and killed an 8-month-old baby strapped in a car safety seat.

On Wednesday night, a deaf man was killed in a spray of bullets in
Belle Glade. His back turned to the masked gunmen, Ziatavian Griffin,
22, didn't hear everyone on the busy street scatter. Investigators
said he might not have been the target.

Bradshaw said that law enforcement will take a more proactive approach
to identify gang members and prevent crime, that the federal system
can impose stiffer jail sentences and fines and that witnesses are
protected from defendants until trial. This prevents witness
tampering, one of the most common tactics used by suspected gang
members to derail cases against them, he said.

"These people have no regard for life," Bradshaw said.

Anonymity helps, said Riviera Beach Assistant Chief David Harris.
Harris led the task force in 1991 for about nine months, making over
300 cases against suspected gang members; about 60 were drive-by
shooting cases, he said. All but one shooting case ended in
conviction, he said.

"The drive-bys just stopped," Harris said. "It was the federal
intervention that prosecuted these guys and kept them in jail."

Once people in the community took notice that criminals were staying
in jail, witnesses started coming forward, he said. Three months into
the collaborative effort one woman brought him six high-powered guns,
Harris said.

"'I was afraid my boyfriend was going to kill me. Now I know he's
going to jail so here's the weapons,'" he recalled her saying.

Anyone with information on gang activity should call Crime Stoppers at
800-458-8477.