DETECTIVE STEPHEN REED:“These are just kids. They don’t think about the consequences.” Experts say youths yearn for role models
Conference on gang activity focuses on community’s role
NIAGARA FALLS — “Find Your Voice –a Community Response to Gangs” started out strong Wednesday, with professionals meeting for a daylong conference.
But it ended up with a poor showing from the public in an open evening session in Niagara Falls High School.
Robyn L. Krueger, executive director of Community Missions and head of the Niagara County Juvenile Justice Task Force, said that 500 professionals met in 2002 in Batavia and then met again in 2004 to identify gang activity.
“The focus [this year] was on the community’s response and helping them find their voice and being a part of what’s happening in their various communities. If people don’t allow it to happen then gangs won’t have a place to be. They won’t go away, but let’s say as a community that we won’t tolerate it,” Krueger said.
Several members of the East Side Block Club, which includes 19th Street — identified as one of the “main corridors” for gang activity — were in attendance.
Niagara Falls Narcotics Detective Stephen Reed, who also works on counter-gang activity for the city, said there are 250 documented gang members throughout the city and 200 others that fit more loosely defined terms of gang member.
Under state criteria, Buffalo was identified as home to 420 gang members. Buffalo Police Officer Richard Woods said there more likely are 700 gang members in Buffalo.
Reed said there are gang members all over the city and girls are part of the equation. Police, he added, are more reluctant to search the girls, who carry weapons and drugs.
But Moses Robinson, of Rochester’s East Coast Gang Investigators Association, said that not all of these gang members are hard-core, with some just associated with gangs.
Woods said part of what they do is weeding out the “wannabes.”
“In affluent communities they would call them knuckleheads, or kids on the corner, but in the City of Buffalo they become gang members. We try to assist them so they make better choices,” Woods said.
He said the community must help build their self-esteem.
“Success is equated with materialistic goals and that’s why young people feel they have to sell drugs to be a success. Success to me is living a crime-free life,” Woods said.
Mark Smith, a member of the East Side Block Club, said he would like to see more funding allocated for a full-time officer at a 19th Street substation and Community Resource Center.
Woods told Smith that community involvement was also an important part of the puzzle and that police can’t do it alone.
Reed agreed: “These are just kids. They don’t think about the consequences. Parents, teachers, everyone in the community has to be a role model. Don’t just turn it over to police.”
“We try to save as many as we can, but sometimes [gangs] look good to these kids because they don’t realize that the dead end is jail or [death],” Robinson said.
A homicide in the city on Sept. 8 was tied to the local Bloods street gang and was blamed on a soured drug transaction. DeQuana M. White, 18, of North Avenue was charged with second-degree murder in connection with the shooting of 35-year-old Dorothy J. Banks.
Saladin Allah of Ninth Street attended Wednesday’s meeting with his three children and said that people are afraid of gang members.
Tibor Speck of Ferry Avenue said he walks the streets and sees the gangs “looking out for each other” — and unfortunately dealing in drugs.
“Some things I see here make me cry,” he said. “Sometimes I hate living in Niagara Falls, but I love living here, too.”
