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School crimes: Gang activity examined

The Jonesboro Sun - 2/19/2018

Editor's note: This is the third installment in a Sun series exploring crime at schools, including drug charges and the two primary causes for fights, bullying and gang-related activity. The Sun will also explore school and police response to incidents and how they are being remedied.

JONESBORO - Gang activity has always been a rumor in Jonesboro, and inside the schools the signs appear like a whisper in the wind.

During the past several years, the mention of gangs in Jonesboro is usually met with a scoff or dismissive denial. It's usually a comment reserved to crime in other cities, but schools seem keenly aware of the issue.

"There are gangs here," said Lewis Davis, the district supervisor of the Craighead County Juvenile Department.

Where did they come from?

According to a Sun investigation, which spanned Jonesboro Police Department reports from 2013 to 2017, the first true reference of gang activity was in 2014 when a 15-year-old student was suspended and arrested at MacArthur Junior High for participating in "gang-related activity."

In the years since then, reports started to paint a clearer picture, which included gang names being attached to police narratives.

Police begin to speak about gang signs and threats being uttered at a school resources officer and a student being attacked in class after "dissing the Gangsta Disciples," at the Success Academy.

A 14-year-old girl told police she was scared her home was going to be shot up by a 16-year-old boy who claimed to be a member of "GD" after an argument turned violent.

Two 16-year-olds pleaded guilty to robbing an 18-year-old autistic man who told police he was robbed by two members of the "Crips" gang outside the Health, Wellness and Environmental Studies building.

Davis said the gangs here aren't exactly the traditional "Bloods" or "Crips" type gangs, but more of hybrid.

"There are more like offshoots of those types of gangs," Davis said. "They take their history and rules and make it their own. I mean you can get anything online and get the history of any gang."

Unlike many in Jonesboro, Davis has a different definition of what can be considered a gang.

"If you and your group of friends decided to attack someone together because they slighted you, then I consider you a gang," Davis said. "If you are engaging in criminal activity with the same group of people, then I think you classified yourself as a gang whether you have given yourself a name or not."

Then how does someone determine if an incident is just a case of "kids being kids" or truly organized gang activity? Davis said it has to be determined case by case.

"If it's one particular group that keeps committing these crimes, then it's time to do something," Davis said.

Davis said his department has the option to use law Arkansas Code: 5-74-108 to deal with gangs if necessary.

The law states any person who violates any provision of Arkansas law that is a crime of violence while acting in concert with two or more other persons is subject to enhanced penalties. Upon conviction the classification and penalty range can be increased by one classification.

"This means it can push a misdemeanor charge to a felony," Davis said.

Davis said it has been at least a year since the department has been forced to use the enhancement.

Gangs in schools

Davis said the "gang-related activity" that students can get in trouble for at school can be various things.

"It could be drawing gang symbols, doing gang signs or even commenting about being in a gang," Davis said. "That all will get you in trouble."

Junior high is where you will see the beginnings phases of kids starting to choose their group or gang, and it will run all way up to high school, Davis said.

Students in gangs have become rare over the last few years at school, Annie Camp Junior High Principal Reginald Murphy said, although he said he does not doubt it still goes on more secretly outside of school.

For the most part, students who get involved with gangs are often isolated, Murphy said.

"Kids want to be a part of something," Murphy said. "... Every now and then, there are the kids who slip through the cracks, and they want that acceptance and love, and sometimes those organizations have that false sense of 'we love and care about you,' and the kids gravitate toward that. They want to be part of something."

In the past, fights between rival gangs would happen more often in the school, but Davis said it has calmed down over the past couple of years because of fear of punishment.

"They might jump them at the park or something like that, but it doesn't happen on school grounds that much," Davis said.

In the past, students would wear obvious colors to school with certain colored accessories like bandanas that would reveal their affiliation, and schools would observe the habit and report the probability that their child was affiliated with gang activity to the student's parents, Murphy said.

However, the fad of wearing "colors" is fading away to a more stylistic approach, Davis said.

"These hybrid gangs may wear hoodies or things like that with their name on it or something like that," Davis said.

How gangs are dealt with

Davis said these "hybrid gangs" will come and go with time.

"One falls off and another will grow in its place," Davis said.

In larger cities, gangs are known to claim one area of the city and make it their own for decades, but that isn't really the case in Jonesboro.

"A few areas might claim that, but not a large group," Davis said. "That is the way it has been around here."

Davis said he isn't sure if gang activity will increase or decrease in the future because it's too unpredictable.

"We could have someone move in from one of these major cities and cultivate something and make it into a true organized gang that we normally associate with Crips, Bloods and Disciples," Davis said. "We just don't know."

Until then, school officials like Murphy continue to attempt to prevent the rise of gangs by making students feel included.

"We want to make sure they know the dangers of associating with the gangs," Murphy said. "We don't have any rehabilitation program for gang members, but we want to be proactive and nip it in the bud prior to an incident. ... I encourage all of my kids to be a part of extracurricular activities, anything. I think every kid is going to be a part of something, and we want them to be productive."