GANGS REFLECT COMMUNITY ANGST

Bloodshed On Denver Streets

I've studied the academic side of violence with Dr. Del Elliott, but I've
also lived it on the streets of East Denver. During those years, my mother
abandoned us and my father was killed by a police officer. Pushed to the
edge, I spent my early adult years selling drugs, observing many forms of
violence and the gang culture firsthand. Yes, street violence is
increasing, but the reasons are much more complicated than most people
think. Youth violence did not arise overnight. It has been taking shape for
30 years and has roots not just in poverty but in a generation's fears that
things were never going to get better.

Let me retrace some history.

In 1967, FBI Chief J. Edgar Hoover implemented domestic
counter-intelligence programs to neutralize political dissent. As an
ethnic-studies major at the University of Colorado at Boulder, I learned
that COINTELPRO was designed to eliminate the rising influence of black
leaders and organizations.

The central targets were the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Student
Non-violent Coordinating Committee, the Student Christian Leadership
Conference and the Black Panthers, because of their progressive activities
in civil rights. As a result of the operation, FBI clones were planted
within each group to spy and cause disruption.

The Black Panthers were a national group committed to the liberation of
African-Americans, following the philosophy of Malcolm X, as described in
Walter Dean Myers' Malcolm X biography "By Any Means Necessary."

According to Malcolm X, African-Americans were no longer going to allow
whites in power to intimidate and brutalize us and keep us from obtaining
our liberation. We were prepared to fight back.

Ironically, it was this militancy that COINTELPRO agents used to stir up
trouble and mistrust among different factions of the Panthers. This led to
infighting and gave rise to the most dominant street gangs in history.

The Crips, Bloods, Vice Lords and Gangster Disciples were all former Black
Panther organizations turned against one another through COINTELPRO's
infiltration.

The name "Crips" is actually an acronym for California Revolutionaries in
Progress. The Gangster Disciples and the Bloods are both identified by
wearing red, black and green, the colors of the Black Nationalist Flag and
The Panthers.

Also contributing to the emergence of gangs and youth violence was the rise
of conservatism that accompanied President Ronald Reagan's administration
in the 1980s.

Reagonomics eliminated many of the social programs intended to help
non-whites bridge the gap in social, economic and political differences. As
a result, many "street" African-Americans in Denver - people who don't
identify with the status quo - became impoverished and desperate and turned
to criminal activities to survive.

Personally, my mother had lost her job and my brothers and I turned to
selling marijuana to survive.

The irony was that Reaganomics coincided with the beginnings of the crack
epidemic that would sweep Denver by 1986. Subsequently, the Crips and
Bloods emerged as organized street gangs.

Prior to 1986, there was no crack to speak of, nor were there Crips and
Bloods in Denver. The media began reporting on crackheads on the East Coast
and, in less than a year, we had crackheads in Denver.

That same year, I was unarmed and stabbed in the head, the back and side at
Falcon Park, the same park in which 16-year-old Xavier Walker was shot and
killed last month.

But the worst was yet to come. Los Angeles banned one of its most notorious
Crips, who then came to the Cole neighborhood northeast of downtown Denver
and started the Rollin 30s gang. Meanwhile, "Colors," a movie about rival
gang violence, ignited youths in Park Hill to emulate Bloods, and within
months a Blood from Omaha, Neb., settled in the Park Hill area,
exacerbating the situation.

With gang members in Denver and the crack epidemic spreading, the
foundations of Denver's current problem with youth and gang violence were born.

It was about this time that I dropped out of college to participate in the
illegal drug trade. I, too, was selling crack and became notorious on the
streets as one who helped spark the crack epidemic in Denver.

The media's glorification of youth and gang violence in music and film
contributed to the problem and, by 1993, Denver had become a war zone. The
label "summer of violence" was coined that year after a number of
individuals were killed in connection with gang and drug violence. It was
during this period that I was shot while selling crack in the North Lincoln
housing projects.

During that time, the Rev. Leon Kelly, who runs a gang-diversion program,
secured a gang truce between the Bloods and the Crips.

But violence erupted again in 1994, when a Compton Crip Rider was shot to
death in Five Points by a 13-year-old affiliated with the Tre-Tre Gansta
Crips. That homicide ignited a war between different factions of Crips in
Denver and a new round of street violence.

It was also the period in which I began making a transformation in my life.
I was arrested for possession, my children were abandoned by their mother -
who had become addicted to crack - and I realized that drugs and violence
were a cycle in my family that I wanted to end Today, I'm a single father
of five children; I've obtained a college degree with national honors; and
I have a new life.

In 1996, President Bill Clinton won a second term, and a new sense of hope
and trust rose among many African-Americans in Denver. Optimism reduced
hopelessness, since there were jobs and opportunities. The Clinton agenda
made many disenfranchised African-Americans from the streets feel somewhat
wanted.

But the Bloods took advantage of the infighting among Crips subsets and
began the process of trying to control the drug trade in Denver.
Ultimately, this resulted in indictments against Bloods in 1997 and 1998.
It was the first time the state used the Colorado Organized Crime Act on a
street gang.

After the indictments, violence on Denver streets declined significantly,
especially after the members of Rollin 30 Crips were indicted in 1999 on
racketeering charges.

When Democrat Al Gore lost the presidency in 2000, I was angry and more
cynical toward this government than I'd ever been. I'd seen the debates and
rallies and there was no way I could believe the results. The election
disappointed many African-Americans who had voted for the first time and
were a significant sector of the popular vote. They felt played, betrayed
and very insecure about the future with George W. Bush as president.

The Florida recount created a renewed lack of confidence in our government.
Gang violence started increasing again.

In addition, the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, brought forth the
fear of going to war, making many people from the streets believe that they
might as well "get theirs" before more chaos is realized under President Bush.

We've come full circle. The indictments of key gang leaders left the groups
without leadership on the streets. Those members who remained began
jockeying for leadership, contributing to the resurgence of street violence.

We now have a new generation of Crips and Bloods seeking to control the
streets of Denver with a post-Sept. 11 fatalism. In less than a month,
we've had two incidents in which police have come under fire from youths.
This is a result of a whole new generation that, lamentably, believes it
must gain respect through gang initiations of murder and mayhem.

So while authorities and the greater community have gone on thinking the
indictments helped temper street violence, there has been no quick-fix
solution. Unless something dramatic happens, the residents of Northeast
Denver should brace for a new era of bloodshed.

SIDEBAR

Risk factors for youth violence

INDIVIDUAL:

a.. History of early aggression

b.. Beliefs supportive of violence

c.. Engaging in antisocial behavior, such as setting fires and treating
animals cruelly

d.. Use of alcohol or other drugs

e.. Being a male

f.. Involvement in serious but not necessarily violent criminal behavior

g.. Bullying other children or being the target of bullies

FAMILY:

a.. Poor monitoring or supervision of children

b.. Exposure to violence in home

c.. Parental drug or alcohol abuse

d.. Poor emotional attachment to parents or caregivers

e.. Low family socioeconomic status or poverty

f.. Antisocial parents

PEER/SCHOOL:

a.. Association with peers engaged in high-risk or problem behavior

b.. Low commitment to school

c.. Academic failure

NEIGHBORHOOD/COMMUNITY:

a.. Poverty and diminished economic opportunity

b.. High levels of transiency and family disruption

c.. Exposure to violence

Source: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control