Societal scourge

Fighting gangs

How quickly any scourge to society can spread, my friends. It wasn't 15 or so years back that police in the Washington-Benton County corridor (my Ozarkopolis) were denying signs of gang activity in the major cities.

So I can't help but compare that with the news story earlier this month headlined "Springdale Police expand gang education program," putting the program into fifth- and seventh-grade classrooms.

While the population in that town steadily swelled, so has the number of less desirables from gang-riddled states and cities, and the negative influences they and others bring to bear on youth, especially those without parents or disaffected for any number of reasons.

Lifelong friend Steve Nawojczyk of Little Rock gained a measure of richly deserved national exposure when HBO featured him prominently in 1994 in its revealing documentary Gang War: Bangin' in Little Rock about the proliferation of gangs and gang culture. And that was 21 years ago. The phenomenon is certainly nothing new to Arkansas.

Yet it's something Northwest Arkansas is having to live and deal with today in a serious way.

Too often, it doesn't take much to recruit members. When I was living in Evanston, Ill., and reporting for the Chicago Sun-Times, our 12-year-old sixth-grade son Brandon, about to enter junior high, came to me one evening with deep concern on his face.

"Dad, some boys at the junior high that I've played basketball with have told me to join their gang when I get there. I don't want to. But they said if I didn't I'd be beat up every day until I did. I know they meant it and I don't know what to do."

I put myself in Brandon's place and realized his predicament. What does a parent do when faced with such an issue? Call the parents of these gang members and complain? Accompany him to school every day for the rest of his junior high years, and maybe into high school? Go lecture the boys myself?

As fortune would have it, sleaze publisher Rupert Murdoch suddenly bought the Sun-Times from Marshall Field in the early 1980s and most newsroom veterans bailed out in search of credible newspapers elsewhere. At the invitation of publisher Walter Hussman, I returned to my native Arkansas to do investigative reporting for the state's WEHCO Media newspapers, which meant Brandon thankfully never had to face that tough choice.

My point applies to every child entering junior high (and sometimes earlier) across various parts of Arkansas. Parents need to ask their children questions about gangs. It's a sad state of affairs here in the once gang-free Ozarks, yet it is reality.

The news account by reporter Brenda Bernet says the gang education curriculum in the Springdale School District is the same as that being taught by some 13,000 police in schools across the country.

Officers began to teach the Gang Resistance Education and Training program in at least four schools a couple of weeks ago, Capt. Ron Hritz said.

Springdale Chief Mike Peters has explained to a meeting of parents and community members how his department approaches policing gangs, including adding more school resource officers, actively monitoring social media and expanding the anti-gang education program. Plus, school district policy now permits administrators to discipline students for gang-related activity on social media and even away from school grounds.

The need has become tragically obvious. Springdale police have investigated four shootings this year described as gang-related, with some involving teens. Two died in March and April, and in June a boy on a bicycle was injured. The most recent was during the first week of school in August near Springdale High School. The accused shooter and 16-year-old victim were both Springdale High students, police said.

Bernet also reported that 17 officers are now assigned as school resource officers across the school district, which pays part of their salary. The remainder is funded through a federal grant program by the U.S. Department of Justice. Hritz applied for the grant in May 2014, and the three-year grant of $563,094 allowed the department to add seven more school resource officers. The department must maintain those positions for at least an additional year after the grant expires.

Grant-funded officers are required to spend 75 percent of their time on school grounds, and the remainder in neighborhoods.

Wisdom and common sense dictate that police, educators and parents in every Arkansas city and town pay close attention to what's happening when it involves this form of cancer to deeply impressionable youthful minds and spirits.

This gang infection can and does spread quickly into the most seemingly innocent of our communities. It only takes one or two rootless thugs and their strong-arm recruiting tactics to light the fire and apply pressures to susceptible children.

I, a father and grandpa, know firsthand.

------------v------------

Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected].

Editorial on 10/11/2015

Upcoming Events