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By Jay King
HOMETOWN NEWS
[Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series of articles in which Hometown News is taking a comprehensive look at the problem of gangs and gang-related crimes in Spartanburg County.]
With the proliferation of gangs in the Upstate and in Spartanburg County, many in law enforcement who focus on the problem say it is a miracle of no small proportions that more innocent citizens aren’t caught in the middle of gang violence.
The roots of the gang problem are varied, but one of the most common threads among youths who are attracted to them is the presence of an unstable or nonexistent home life that fails to give children a sense of security and belonging. To get that, an increasing number of young people are turning to gangs, whether of the home-grown variety or by affiliating with more widely known national gangs.
Capt. Roger Owens with the State Law Enforcement Division says gangs are a growing problem across South Carolina and pose a very real threat to public safety. The pervasiveness of gangs across the state is one of the main reasons SLED is devoting a half-dozen full-time investigators to combat the problem, Owens says.
There’s no county in our state that’s not affected by gang activity,” Owens says. “One of the main things we do here at SLED is train local agencies on what to look for in identifying gangs.”
One of the most alarming trends in the past few years is the success with which gangs penetrated the state’s schools, especially South Carolina middle schools.
Owens says the most recent data indicating increased gang activity is schools is an area of great concern for both SLED and local law enforcement agencies He adds that because of this trend and the overall increase in gang activity statewide, it is more important than ever for all of the state’s law enforcement agencies to work together to combat the gang epidemic.
Deputy Nick Hullinger with the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office says that one of the areas of real concern for law enforcement is gang violence. Owens adds that such violence is impossible to predict because it is so random and spontaneous, usually contingent on members from different gangs clashing during a chance encounter. Hullinger says such outbreaks of violence are the type of threat to public safety that could easily involve innocent bystanders getting caught in the crossfire.
In recent years there have been clashes put down to gangs at local theaters and malls, businesses, schools and on Upstate roads. In fact, there’s really no place that’s completely free from the threat of an outbreak in gang-related violence.
Reggie Spurgeon, a detective and gang investigator with Spartanburg Public Safety, says such local neighborhood-based gangs like the Converse Street gang, the Duncan Park gang, Victoria Gardens gang and a host of others tend to pose more of a threat to the general public because they are generally more concerned with defending their territory from real or perceived threats and lack the generally restraining influence of the profit motive.
Hullinger says in many respects the national gangs like the Bloods and Crips, Folk Nation, MS13 and the Latin Kings, among many others, are criminal business enterprises that generally avoid public confrontations and outbreaks of widespread violence like those seen in other parts of the country that experienced inter-gang warfare. He adds that such groups try to stay off the radar of law enforcement most of the time.
Owens says that one of the chief initiatives SLED is working on related to the gang problem is identifying and trying to shut down or cripple the most dangerous gangs. To that end, SLED actively seeks collaborative efforts with both local and federal agencies, and Owens says this has produced commendable results so far.
Owens also says keeping accurate intelligence information about gangs, their members and crimes is vital to combating their spreading influence. Another tool SLED brings to this battle is a gang database that’s been up and running for a little over a month.
Owens says the most common crimes associated with gang members are simple assaults as in fights or brawls between gang members. He adds that another common crime is burglary and larceny, due in no small part to the fact that many gangs use the theft of private property as a way to initiate new gang members.
Owens and Hullinger say that among gang members there is also a trend in drug and weapons charges and that increasingly gang members are being charged with serious felonies like assault and battery with intent to kill and even murder. Owens adds that statistically most gang-related crimes occur on weekends, many times late at night or in the early hours of the morning. He says paying attention to such trends will help state and local agencies more effectively utilize their limited resources to achieve the most results.
Statewide, Owens says more resources are being devoted to combating gangs because law enforcement agencies are realizing the magnitude of the problem and the threat the problem poses to the safety of the general public.
“You can suppress and pour resources into fighting gang crimes, but you can’t eliminate it,” Owens says.
Owens, Hullinger and Spurgeon all say that the only way to make any kind of impact on the growing gang problem requires a ready acknowledgment that there is in fact a gang problem in Spartanburg County and across the state and to thereby allocate resources accordingly
“It’s really the combined efforts of local, state and federal agencies that are proving to have the most success,” Owens says.
[Note: in the final installment in this series, Hometown News will look at successful strategies communities and law enforcement agencies have employed to curb the proliferation of gangs and gang-related crimes.]
jking@hometown-news.com
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