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Sunday, 07/23/06

Nashville gang life draws thousands
Mall shooting brings attention, but cops say it's far from warfare

By KATE HOWARD
Staff Writer


Nashville has several thousand members in nine street gangs that go by names such as the Bloods, Crips, Asian Pride, Brown Pride and MS-13. Some deal drugs and get in fights with each other. All throw gang signs. And some of them go home to single mothers in the suburbs.

Nashville's gangs are less organized, less violent and less territorial than their counterparts in Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston, police said. They have been here at least 20 years, but they have not reached the level of the corporate-like enterprises that exist in major gang cities.

Last weekend's shooting in the polished corridors of Opry Mills mall was believed to be gang-related and brought to the forefront a problem that had so far manifested itself in lower-income neighborhoods in southeast and north Nashville.

This year, gang investigators have confirmed that one homicide and at least two attempted homicides were gang-related. Last year, about 70 violent crimes reported in Metro were attributed to conflicts between street gangs, including two homicides, 44 assaults, five weapons charges and six reported incidents of intimidation.

Almost all the victims were gang members or gang-affiliated. Police also documented almost 150 incidents of gang graffiti last year on homes and businesses across Davidson County. But despite the visible signs of gang presence and increasing acts of violence, police say Nashville's gangs are far from escalating to full-scale warfare.

"We don't see the gangs linked to national criminal enterprises," Metro Police Chief Ronal Serpas said. "We don't believe someone from Chicago is calling the shots in Nashville.... but we see (the gang problem) as an insidious disease on the lives of our young people."

In Los Angeles, the territories of many neighborhoods are so well marked that a wrong turn could get a rival gangster killed. Here, the territories are fluid and police say the criminal acts are more individual offenses than organized crime.

But police say that there are still many members who are so serious about gang life that their strongest loyalty goes not to their biological families, but to their gang families.

"What would you do to protect your family?" asked Capt. Andy Garrett, commander of the Metro police's central precinct who tracked Metro's gangs as a South precinct officer nearly a decade before there was a gang unit. "Would you lie, steal, shoot and kill? A lot of these kids give up their real family."

Some members rank higher than others, but detectives say it's rare for a Nashville gang to have a countywide leader. The gang's members live in suburbs and housing projects, from downtown Nashville to outlying counties, and police say they don't always fit the stereotype.

"These are not just inner-city project kids," said Stuart Magness, a Metro Juvenile Court gang probation officer. "I have middle- and even upper-class kids that are caught up in this."

Police: Few 'hard-core' locally

Nashville's gang members are not part of an organized group of criminals roaming the streets and robbing victims, police say. They're typically teenagers that join a gang for protection or a sense of belonging, often get into minor drug-dealing and mostly fight against one another.

"There's a huge misconception that gang members all live in the projects," said detective Gerry Hyder of Metro's gang unit. "But we see a lot of kids who have single mothers desperately trying to raise them."

They're often armed with weapons, including baseball bats, brass knuckles and, sometimes, guns. Police say most of their crimes are against rival gangs. Crime statistics show that the most likely crimes committed by gang members here are vandalism — spray painting walls or homes to mark their territory — or assault, usually stemming from fights.

A commonly used definition for a gang is an allegiance of people with a common purpose who also commit crimes. There are no laws against being in a gang, so being a gang member is not a criminal offense in itself. Gang experts say that almost 80 percent of all cities with at least 50,000 people have gang problems, so a majority of Americans live in or near areas with youth gangs.

The overall number of law enforcement agencies who reported gangs in their cities and towns grew tenfold between the 1970s and 1990s, according to U.S. Department of Justice reports. Nationally, agencies have reported to the Justice Department that their gang growth seems to be leveling off.

Every time a Metro police officer meets someone they can confirm to be a gang member, that person's basic information is entered into a gang member registry. Police have confirmed that at least 1,500 active gang members live in Metro, but the real number is estimated to be at least twice that. For every hard-core gang member, Sgt. Gary Kemper of the gang unit says, you have four or five associate members that probably haven't been caught yet.

False-claimers, who like the lifestyle, the music and the clothes but are not true members can cause as much trouble as actual gang members, police and school officials said.

The Police Department also tracks members of white supremacy groups, domestic terror organizations or motorcycle gangs if they come across them because they could all threaten public safety, Kemper said.

Gang culture imported

Police say much of Nashville's gang culture has been imported from the gang wars of California.

The widely publicized feud between the Bloods and Crips of South Central Los Angeles in the 1990s led to the growth of those gangs across the U.S.. A Department of Justice report on gangs said that by 1994, more than 1,100 gangs nationwide had taken Crips or Bloods as part of their names.

Davidson County has four largely black gangs. They include the Bloods, Crips, 6 Deuce and the Gangster Disciples.

There are three Hispanic gangs in the area, including Brown Pride, Surreno 13 and MS-13.

Also present are the Asian Pride Gang and a Kurdish group called Kurdish Pride.

White gang members have been found in local sets of the Bloods, Crips and Asian Pride Gang.

Some of the gangs belong to national alliances of gangs, known as the People's Nation and the Folk Nation.

For example, Nashville's Bloods are considered a part of the People's Nation and have an association with the Asian Pride Gang, considered a People's Nation gang and a Blood set.

Traditionally, any People's Nation gangs are enemies of Folk Nation gangs such as the Crips or the Gangster Disciples. But here, members of rival gangs often grew up together. Especially in a school setting, Kemper said, it's not unusual to see a kid with a blue flag shake hands with a classmate all in red.

Although the Bloods should traditionally be the enemy of the Gangster Disciples, they've always co-existed peacefully in Nashville, Kemper said, while the Gangster Disciples' relationship with the local Crips, a fellow Folk Nation gang, has been rocky.

Police say the Gangster Disciples was once one of Nashville's most organized gangs when it was focused in the John Henry Hale public housing development.

When the north Nashville housing project was knocked down through a Hope VI grant that rebuilds public housing with a mix of homes, the gang members were dispersed and the organization dismantled. Gangster Disciples can now be found throughout much of Davidson County, police said.

Allies, rivalries often blurred

The Crips have at least six different active sets, and for the most part, the senior members of the Crips and Bloods have declared a truce with each other, Kemper said. But occasionally, a Crip or Blood attacks a member of his own gang.

Blood member Sammie Kinnard was shot and killed in October in a Dickerson Pike gas station. William Howard, who police said was also a Blood, was arrested.

The Bloods, Crips and Gangster Disciples are all predominantly black, police say. But while the Bloods and Crips are more likely to admit members of other races, the Gangster Disciples almost never admit nonblack members, as a matter of philosophy.

In ethnic gangs such as MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, heritage is even more important because members must be from Honduras or El Salvador. MS-13 has been wreaking relative havoc on the Washington, D.C., and Virginia areas. Metro police say their numbers here are so small that they haven't been perceived as a high threat.

"Most of these guys have jobs, and they just bang on the weekends," Kemper said.

MS-13 originated in Central America and its members tend to be in their 20s and 30s, older than most gang members. Police say they rarely carry the dark-blue bandanna that's considered the "flag." If rival Mexicans don't know them by sight, Kemper said, the tattoos on their faces, neck or arms usually give them away.

Members of the MS-13 also tend to look down on Mexicans, police say, so the Brown Pride street gang in Nashville has become a particular rival of theirs. Brown Pride's membership is much larger than MS-13, police say, but no central leadership exists among their different neighborhood sets.

"A Brown Pride member in Antioch probably will not know a Brown Pride member in Madison," Hyder of the gang unit said.

But the Brown Pride gang's biggest enemy is the Surreno 13, a Mexican gang that originated in Southern California.

"We hardly ever see violence that is just because two gangs hate each other except between Brown Pride and Sur 13," Kemper said.

Both gangs have expanded rapidly in the past five or six years, fueled in part by the growth of the Hispanic community here. Kemper estimates that while most MS-13 members are illegal immigrants, about 70 percent of the Sur 13 and Brown Pride members are American-born or legal U.S. residents.

Gangs throughout Davidson

While gang members can be found in neighborhoods from low-income housing developments to upper-class subdivisions, Metro police detectives say there are several places they're more likely to hang out.

A large contingent of the Bloods can be found in the Salem Town neighborhoods and along Garfield Street in north Nashville. Police say the Crips are concentrated in the Cheatham housing development and the surrounding north Nashville neighborhoods, as well as Buchanan Street and parts of Bordeaux. The 6 Deuce, a set of the Bloods, is mainly in east Nashville near the James A. Cayce Homes along Shelby Avenue, between Fifth and Eighth avenues north.

The Hispanic, Kurdish and Asian gangs are all found in south Nashville, for the most part. Sub-streets of Nolensville Road on either side to Antioch can be considered Brown Pride and Sur 13 territory, police say.

Brown Pride also has many members who live north of Nashville in Madison and other mostly Mexican communities, police said.

MS-13 can be found near the 800 block of Murfreesboro Road, south of downtown Nashville.

The Kurdish Pride Gang and the Asian Pride Gang's only rivalries seem to stem from geography, police say. The Kurdish and Asian populations had large communities in south Nashville off Nolensville Road that have become heavily Hispanic. As the gangs felt they were being pushed out, they developed enemies within the Hispanic gangs, police said.

The Asian Pride gang is primarily on Lutie Street off Nolensville Road, in Woodbine. The Kurdish Pride Gang hangs out in the Paragon Mills area, southeast of downtown.

Colors, 'flags' signal identity

Gangs typically use a colored bandanna, or "flag," to show their gang membership. They are often tucked in a pocket, hung from a car rearview mirror or concealed to be pulled out, police said.

The Bloods, 6 Deuce and Asian Pride Gang all wear red. The Crips, MS-13 and Surreno 13 wear blue. Gangster Disciples wear black. Kurdish Pride members wear yellow.

Several gangs that are considered separate entities often wear the same color because they're "sets," or cliques of the same gang. The Salem Town Bloods, 6 Deuce and the Asian Pride Gang are all considered Blood sets and wear red. The Asian gang is made up of mostly Asians, police say, but they also have many members of other races. The Salem Town Bloods and 6 Deuce are almost all black males but have some white and female members, police say.

Aside from the colors, the style of clothing can help identify a gang.

For example, Sur 13 members favor Los Angeles-themed clothing and occasionally wear long belts that hang down to the ground.

The gangs also have distinct hand signals that let each other know what group they represent. Sometimes, police say, gang members will use the colors or hand signal of a rival gang in a way it wasn't intended to signal disrespect.

Police caution that people should not assume that just because a teen of an ethnic group is wearing a particular color, the individual is a gang member. A more reliable indicator, police say, is a group of people, dressed in a known gang color in an area known for gang activity.

Most local gangs small-time

National gang experts do not consider Nashville's gang problem very serious, compared to some other U.S. cities.

While Nashville's gangs are less sophisticated than most major cities, police say you shouldn't discount that some of their members are criminals, if only petty ones.

The majority of crimes deemed to be gang-related in Metro last year were non-violent offenses such as graffiti, drugs or weapon-possession charges, according to police data.

To be gang-related, it's not enough for the perpetrator and victim to both be gang members. A crime must fit very specific criteria, Kemper said.

"The crime and motive need to be directly related to a person's gang affiliation to be considered gang-related," Kemper said.

In other words, if a gang member punches someone from a rival gang but the argument was about a girl that assault would not be categorized as gang-related, but if he was punched for his gang membership, it would. At least 70 violent incidents ranging from simple assault to homicide fit into that category last year.

Javier Magallanes, 17, a member of the Brown Pride gang, was shot and killed on the Mexican holiday of Cinco de Mayo on May 5, 2005. Police believe the person who shot him during an outdoor party at a Nolensville Road restaurant was Juan Carlos Mendez, a Sur-13 member. A warrant was issued for Mendez, but he hasn't been found.

Many nonfatal shootings between gang members are "cleared by exception," meaning victims or witnesses refuse to cooperate. Many victims involved in the gang world refuse to testify or file reports with police, detectives say.

"When they refuse to talk, it's not out of fear of retaliation," Kemper said. "You're considered a snitch when you talk to cops. You're supposed to handle it yourself."

There are no statistics available to show how often gang members commit crimes against nongang members. But Magness, the probation officer whose only cases involve hard-core gang members, says most of the youth he works with have drug or weapon-related charges.

Magness carries about 20 cases at a time, less than most of his colleagues.

His cases are assigned to him by a five-person committee of court officials, who evaluate gang-affiliated offenders and determine whether they'd benefit from strict monitoring.

He meets with each juvenile three to four times a week, performing curfew checks or making sure they are going to school. If a teenager isn't home by curfew, Magness files a probation violation. If they don't come home all night, he gets an arrest order.

"It's a lot more intense than your usual juvenile probation," Magness said. "The true kids who are in gangs have no fear, no care. They're brainwashed to what they see on TV, the lifestyle they see on rap videos."

A solution, according to community activist Earl Jordan, is replacing the gangster ideals with jobs so gang members don't feel like they need to hustle.

"If the city of Nashville really wants to make something positive of this, companies have to step forward with jobs for people who may have felonies," Jordan said. "The police may want to lock them up, but before that we need to try to help these young brothers and sisters." •

A Metro police officer takes information from two juveniles who claim to be members of SWAT (Straightway Ave. Thugs) during a stop. (GEORGE WALKER IV / THE TENNESSEAN)
Metro Police Chief Ronal Serpas

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Graphic: A look at the gangs of Nashville



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7/18/2006: Police add Opry Mills to gang watch list
7/18/2006: Nashville's gangs are transient, police say
7/17/2006: Shooting in mall blamed on gangs
5/26/2006: Gang gun ended mom's happiest day, police say
5/5/2006: Undercover cops no longer on patrol



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Watching for gang involvement
The most important action parents can take to combat the false glamour of the gangster lifestyle, experts say, is to pay attention. U.S. Department of Justice experts suggest parents look for signs that their child:

• has withdrawn from the family, stays out late without giving a reason and has dropping grades
• seems to favor one particular color in clothing and accessories
• has unexplained cash or possessions
• carries a weapon or has been in trouble with the police
• has tattoos or drawings on his walls or notebooks that look like gang symbolism

Source: The U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

Kate Howard can be reached at 726-8968 or kahoward@tennessean.com.