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Sunday, March 11, 2007

County Effort To Cut Gang Activity

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posted by Bob at Sunday, March 11, 2007

8 Comments:

Blogger Bob said...

County effort to cut gang activity has so-so results
Hennepin County sent court officers to homes of gang members on probation to work with them and their families.
By Mike Kaszuba and David Chanen, Star Tribune staff writers
Last update: March 10, 2007 – 6:10 PM

There were 32 gang members, many whose names were long familiar to police, and last spring Hennepin County began an intense effort to try to keep them from causing even more trouble.
For the most part, they were members of the Cash Money Boyz, Emerson Murder Boyz and the Young Thugs gangs, and largely operated in north Minneapolis.

The focus on them was noteworthy because it was one of the first extensive uses of a new plan to have court officers wearing distinctive vests and jackets visit the homes of gang members on probation and work with their families. The idea was to remind the gang members before they went out for the evening that their behavior could quickly land them back in jail.

In a sobering recent report, county officials addressed the success and failures of the nearly yearlong initiative. Of the 32, two were dead, including Jason Hatcher, 24, shot during a gunfight between the occupants of two cars in northeast Minneapolis. Another of the 32 was Taporius Paige, who was charged with leaning out a car window and firing the shots that killed Hatcher.

Still another was Vance Chatman, who was described by the county as having been under Drug Court supervision but who "has completed all conditions and appears to be doing well." Chatman, reached at his home, said he was unaware that he had been a target of the initiative. "I'm not a gang member, no -- nah, just a wannabe," he said.

Of the total, a dozen had been placed in state custody during the past year, but a few of them were now back on the street.

Six of the 32 were juveniles, and of that number, three were listed as possible success stories because they had stayed out of jail -- and stayed alive.

Although the 32 were selected because they were "significant players" in the gangs, said Craig Vos, a county adult probation manager, officials said they also watched a recurring phenomenon in which those who were jailed or died were quickly replaced by new gang members.

"It's not necessarily a story of success," Vos said of the initiative, which, among other things, has illustrated the growing involvement in crime problems by the state's most populous county.

While law enforcement officials say it's impossible to assess the direct effect of any crime initiative, this is known: Violent crime, which includes homicide, rape, assault and robbery, has decreased 22 percent in Minneapolis compared with the same time last year.

Mike DesMarias, a juvenile probation official who took part in the stepped-up supervision and made home visits, said the result was eye-opening. "We spoke with the parents or the grandparents," he said. "[They'd say], 'What do you mean he's in a gang? Tre Tre? What's that?' " (referring to the Tre Tre Crips gang). "Some of it was a lot of education going on."

He also said that "some of the mothers were doing crack seconds before us entering the house."

The targeting of the 32 gang members did not appear to have a high profile.

County Commissioner Mark Stenglein could barely recall Vos' presentation to the County Board three weeks afterward. "We have a lot of initiatives going," he said of the many, and sometimes overlapping, anticrime efforts by city, county and federal officials.

Several high-ranking Minneapolis police officials likewise said they were unfamiliar with the effort, and said it might have spun from one of their own initiatives. As part of one police effort last summer, they said, as many as 40 police officers focused on the Emerson Murder Boyz, Tre Tre Crips and 19 Block Dip Set gangs, which police had linked to nearly a dozen homicides and dozens more shootings and robberies.

Despite the special effort by senior county officials, some street-level probation officers said they were only vaguely aware of the emphasis and said much of the initiative simply highlighted what they do routinely. Keeping track of the estimated 30,000 individuals in Hennepin County who are under some type of probation supervision falls to 380 adult and juvenile probation officers.

1:50 PM  
Blogger Bob said...

Story continued-

Still, the initiative did make a mark. "I think it set a stage for how we now do our work," said Angie Isaacson, a county juvenile probation official.
As with anything involving neighborhoods where poverty and crime is generational, claiming any success is risky. Some probation officials said having a gang member show up for a meeting can be seen as a small victory.

The home visits, said Terri Hoy, a county adult probation supervisor, may or may not have helped. "[We'd visit and say] 'By the way, just to remember, you're on probation. ...We don't want you hanging out in the streets,' " she said.

"Did they pick up their gun and walk out the door after we left? You don't know," she said.

For some, such as 27-year-old Thomas Lamarr Kasterdell, the last year has been relatively benign. After he was charged with kicking and repeatedly punching a woman, his legal problems since then include failing to appear in court for a hearing and being arrested for driving on a suspended license.

For Larry Tavores Hatcher, 27, of north Minneapolis, the story was different -- and more tragic. He was charged in October with carrying a pistol without a permit and driving on a revoked license after police said they stopped his vehicle in north Minneapolis. According to a criminal complaint, they found a pistol tucked into a sock.

Last month, Hatcher was charged with second-degree murder after police found Ricardo Walker lying in a minivan in north Minneapolis with a gunshot wound to the head. A police complaint stated that, according to a witness, Hatcher was one of three men who confronted Walker and others at a bar and told them that "Cash Money [referring to their gang] had something for them and that they were going to get them."

Deanne Schultz, a nine-year county probation officer who works in north Minneapolis, sifted through a list of the 32 gang members last week. "[Jason] Hatcher was in Drug Court before he got killed," she said, pausing at his name. "Success, for that group, for some of them, it's getting them off probation alive. "It's small steps, and, boy, you enjoy them," Schultz said. "That's kind of a sad thing to say."


Mike Kaszuba • 612-673-4388

3:39 PM  
Blogger Bob said...

Folks, I know the streets WELL. NONE of this shit will have any impact what so ever on these young men or the violence on the street.

It's a waste of tax payers money.

BIG BROTHER WATCHING isn't addressing the social ills that got these young men into this life style. This initiative is merely an observation of trouble makers and isn't doing anything to provide these young men with the tools necessary to lead a good life. Talk is cheap!

Another thing. Most young men who are labeled gang members by the police are not even gang bangers.I believe the police willingness to label these young men gang bangers has something to do with obtaining federal moneys to fight crime.

MENTORING young men is the only solution to our social ills.I am not saying anything that EXPERTS don't already know. So I ask myself, why don't we use effective measures to address social ills?

I believe the answer is because if we did there would be fewer jobs in corrections, law enforcement, and the courts. To many peoples jobs would be threatened if we took REAL preventive measures in deterring crime. Crime has become big business for beaucrats.

3:41 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Now your starting to catch on Bob, The Buerocrats are slowly poisoning all of us with the very medicine they prescribe. They want to watch watch watch, while nothing ever gets any better. They're watcching downtowm Mpls with cameras, they're gonna start watching all the cars going through red lights, they wanna watch the gangs next, and that's the problem.....they just watch and do nothing!

3:42 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The gangs are coming an St Paul is snoozing!

6:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

comment 2:41 PM
Is right about the big money that flows with crime.
The shyster Lawyers wouldn't have clients, that pay $350.00 a hr. to be represented.
We wouldn't need as many judges, like 2:41 PM said we wouldn't need all the prisons and guards.
We wouldn't need all the cops.
What shows there are to many cops is, when they send a cops out with code inspectors.
Cop have nothing to do, there is not a shortage of police.

10:14 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The city council in St. Paul does not see a need to improve their police department, as they will not hire the police officers that are needed. The city council approved money for this, but Coleman decided to use this money on other things.

The people in charge in St. Paul do not see gang activity as a problem and they are slowly letting the Minneapolis gang problem come into St. Paul.

The mayor seems to feel it is more important to ban smoking in bars than dedicate resources towards building a strong police department.

Have any of you looked at your tax bills and where they are spending your money. Take Ramsey County West building. They have this nice building close to city hall. They just remodeled it. Now they are moving across the river (tax department) away from city hall. Not very accessible to the citizens I should say. If you look at the waste in government it is shocking. People do not get involved and change anything. They let the city council do as they please. The county board now wants a 25% raise. Why don't you just cut off my arm and take my first born while you are at it.

Taxed out in St. Paul

7:56 AM  
Blogger Squad said...

R.I.H Dooley G....... L's

12:06 AM  

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