Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 30, 1990 TAG: 9004300423
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B4 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium
More than 30 gangs have been identified, many with names like the Raiders, the Painkillers, the Lake Taylor Posse and the Pepsi Boys. Not only are they committing more crimes, especially burglaries, car thefts and assaults, but the crimes are becoming more violent.
Youth gangs are more widespread in Norfolk than in other Hampton Roads cities primarily because of the number of low-income neighborhoods, police said.
But Roland Park is a middle-class neighborhood, unused to the siege mentality plaguing residents in Norfolk's poorer sections, where crime is a more common part of daily life.
Lately, the 1950-era community of tract houses has been beset by two youth gangs, composed of teen-agers who live in and outside the neighborhood. Police have made several arrests over the last couple of weeks, charging young adults and youths with burglaries, car theft and vandalism.
Police know of at least two gangs.
To join the Phila Mafia, a prospective member must endure a beating by four current members. "He has to show he can take it," said burglary investigator R.L. Jackson.
A second gang is the Mestizos, Spanish for "people of mixed blood." Mestizos members told police they formed the gang after failing the Phila Mafia's initiation.
On April 4 and 5, residents watched as 20 youths from outside Roland Park got off a bus, beat and kicked a neighborhood youth and chased him back to his home.
"It was unbelievable - I'd never seen anything like it in this neighborhood before," said Kathy Niece, a resident who witnessed the attacks. She is coordinating a drive to start a block security program.
"For two days straight, the bus driver let the kids off . . . and the fight would start. People who live down the street [near the victim] said the kids beat on his house with sticks and their fists, threatening to break in," Niece said.
Niece and other neighbors didn't know what caused the beatings. But they believe the incident was related to the presence of the gangs.
Now, after a year of escalating crime and violence, they are organizing a block watch program and civic league and are talking with police. Yet the greatest obstacle is overcoming their own complacency and fear, residents said.
"Nothing can be done unless we get off our butts and do something," said Cindy Johnson, a block watch coordinator. "People are just going to have to stop being afraid."
From January to April, there were seven break-ins in Roland Park, as many as occurred in all of 1989, Niece said. Thieves broke into cars parked on the streets and took cellular phones and stereo systems.
"Once, some of us saw a bunch of them walking down the street, all carrying baseball bats," Johnson said. "Used to, you'd think they were just going to play ball. But now, you know, you worry."
by CNB