EARLY INTERVENTION BEST WAY TO STOP YOUTH FROM JOINING GANGS: EXPERTS

Investing In Communities, Offering Alternatives Key To Eliminating
Street Crime, Forum Told

By the time young men involved in gangs begin to face charges in
court, it is usually far too late.

Early intervention and diversion are key to preventing young people
from joining street gangs, according to speakers at a community forum
last night at the Jim Durrell Recreation Complex on Walkley Road.

"The criminal justice system doesn't have the answers to gang
problems," said Walter Devenz, an assistant Crown attorney who
regularly prosecutes gang crime.

Trials force victims to relive their trauma, witnesses are justifiably
fearful of testifying and acquittals are too common, Mr. Devenz said.

A three-week trial and the police work that goes into prosecuting a
gang member cost in the "hundreds of thousands of dollars," he added.
Usually no one comes away happy.

Ottawa police say they have identified 600 people in the city
associated with gangs. The typical profile is male, between 17 and 23
years old, and about as likely to have been born in Canada as in
another country.

Around 15 per cent of the street-gang membership being tracked are
considered core members involved in gang-related crime, including drug
dealing, prostitution, robberies, assaults, home invasions and the
relatively recent problem of home takeovers.

The Ottawa police guns and gangs unit tracks them all.

"We know they're armed, either with firearms or with edged weapons,"
said Staff Sgt. Mike Callaghan, a veteran of the guns and gangs unit.

And he is all too familiar with the "dirty triangle" that he says
fuels street-gang activity: drugs, guns and the sexual exploitation of
youth.

"Recently, we've had 14-year-old girls in Ottawa who have been
solicited by gang members to become prostitutes," Staff Sgt. Callaghan
said.

And he said the only way to ensure that young people--male and female
- -- are not hooked by the allure of street gangs is to educate and
intervene early and to offer alternatives to the sense of belonging
that comes with membership in a gang.

"It works. There's no question it works."

Alternatively, to focus almost exclusively on police enforcement,
clearly doesn't work, as evidenced in many American inner cities, said
Michael Chettleburgh, author of the 2007 book Young Thugs, which
paints a portrait of Canadian street gangs.

The youth gang expert explained that the United States has spent a
trillion dollars over the last 25 years in the war on gangs and drugs,
with little to show for it.

To cut off the head of the serpent is not enough, he said. And Ottawa
police "don't believe that you can arrest your way out of the problem.
You need to invest in communities," Mr. Chettleburgh explained.

He added that it is important not to overstate the gang problem in
Ottawa.

"The gang issue is serious," he said. "But it is not out of
control."

It doesn't compare to the "ethnic genocide" that we see in some
Canadian cities and in certain Toronto communities, he added.

With around 600 gang members, Ottawa has 0.53 gang members per 1,000
people. That compares with 1.44 in Toronto and 4.32 in Winnipeg, he
said.

Although Ottawa has 15-19 active street gangs, the situation boils
down to two major forces: the Bloods and the Crips.

The Bloods operate in the west-end of the old city of Ottawa in the
community housing complexes in and around Carling Avenue, stretching
from Pinecrest Road to Bayshore Drive and Woodridge Crescent.

The Crips gangs are largely based in the south and east end of the
inner suburbs of Ottawa.