All agree it’s hard to say if drug crimes and drive-by shootings are gang-related.
Are there gangs in Columbia? The answer seems to lie in definitions.
Increased drive-by shootings, cocaine sales and gang symbols graffiti in public places are evidence of gang-related activity in Columbia.
That’s the view of Dennis Haymon, a former drug dealer and founder of Healthy Options for Personal Excellence, or H.O.P.E, a gang intervention and prevention program in St. Louis. Haymon led a seminar Wednesday at the Youth Empowerment Zone at the Parkade Center. About 20 people attended.
Lorenzo Lawson, executive director of the Youth Empowerment Zone, a program for at-risk youth in Columbia, said that he and Harmon have been talking about gang activity in Columbia since 2005.
“In Columbia, there are (gang) elements here on a smaller scale,” Lawson said.
Drug trafficking and sales are organized here, he said. And people from larger cities like Kansas City and St. Louis often recruit here, setting up drug sales.
But once-telling indicators — like one pants leg rolled up, a cap cocked in a certain direction depending on affiliation and color-coded clothing — have changed. Sometimes, a signal can be an oversized white T-shirt with “bling bling,” or huge dangling jewelry, — a style increasingly seen in some rap videos, Lawson said.
Part of the challenge of identifying gangs here or anywhere else, Lawson said, is that gang members “prize anonymity,” and have evolved to avoid detection by law enforcement.
For Columbia Police Chief Randy Boehm, the question of whether Columbia has gangs is “complicated.”
Boehm said there has been an increase in drive-by shootings in the last few years, but he did not have numbers immediately available.
“Some of the drive-by shootings are drug-related,” he said. “But is that gang-related? I don’t know the answer to that.”
Based on the “technical” definition of a gang — a group of people who work together to commit crimes — there are gangs, Boehm said.
But these groups are not as organized as gangs in larger cities, such as the notorious Crips Gang in Los Angeles.
“It is really hard to actually wrap your arms around what we really have,” he said.
Joseph Carr, an associate minister at Second Baptist Church in Columbia, who attended the seminar, said when compared with larger cities, it is hard to take the idea of gangs in Columbia seriously. So, he said, he was surprised by Haymon’s assertions.
“When you say there are gangs in Columbia, that throws me for a loop,” said Carr, who was a gang member in Chicago during the 1960s.
But for Bill Thompson, president of the Douglass Coalition, the comparisons miss the mark.
“I think a lot of people are naive about what a gang really is,” he said. “Even if you don’t have an affiliation, you can still be a gang.”
Some of the seminar’s participants said they had seen some of the signs that Haymon told them to become more aware of to combat youth participation in gangs.
Erick Hornbeck, 22, a volunteer coordinator at the Intersection, a First Ward youth center that hosts an after-school program for children and teenagers, said that he has heard youth say, “What’s up, cuz?” a greeting used by the Crips.
But these youth, Hornbeck said, could be “representing” — emulating what they see in popular culture — and may not yet be full-fledged gang members.
For example, part of this “representing” could be repeating lyrics from rapper Snoop Dogg’s songs, which have mentioned his Crip affiliation in his music.
No matter how they are defined, knowing that gangs exist in Columbia is not enough, Haymon said.
“Knowledge with aim is power,” he said. “Try to hit the target, hit the mark, get a purpose with it.”
Haymon said that youth who join gangs gain the sense of family they’re often not getting at home. He said that after-school groups and other activities can help at-risk youth who might consider joining gangs.
Linda Green, partnership director at Youth Empowerment Zone, said that even when such programs exist, there is a disparity in access.
“There are some kids that have a lot of access, and some don’t,” Greene said. “I don’t know that we have enough safe places.”
Some of Columbia’s “safe places” are only open until 5 or 6 p.m. and are not open on the weekends.
“We have a huge hole in our safety net here,” she said.
The three-day seminar will end today. The public is invited to attend from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.