DATE: Sunday, August 10, 1997               TAG: 9708100053

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B6   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JOHN-HENRY DOUCETTE, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   70 lines

GROUP LABORS TO ENLIST CITIZENS IN FIGHT TO CURB CRIME IN NEIGHBORHOODS A PICNIC SATURDAY WAS BOTH A THANK-YOU AND A REMINDER THERE IS MORE TO DO.

The head of the Neighborhood Crime Coalition called it making do with what we have.

Carl G. Meredith could have been talking about the city's movement to curb crime in its neighborhoods - which is taking all the effort concerned citizens can muster.

But on Saturday, Meredith meant the generator.

Meredith was fiddling with the lurching, ancient orange machine powering much of Saturday's National Night Out Against Crime picnic at Northside River Park.

The event brought together civic-minded folks from around the city, along with families drawn to the spectacle on the grass astride Tidewater Drive.

The stage shows ranged from the Navy's Atlantic Fleet Band to country cloggers to the ``Dragon Force'' karate fighters.

The day celebrated this year's efforts in the National Night Out program. The event, when folks are supposed to walk around their neighborhoods in an anti-crime show of force, was Tuesday.

Saturday was both a thank-you and a reminder that there is more to do.

``We want to keep 'em together so we're not all strangers in the dark,'' Meredith said.

Dale E. Stacey, an investigator with the Norfolk Police Department's gang squad, manned a table displaying a photo binder filled with examples of local gang graffiti.

There was a poster that showed a boy with a bloody chest. He was dead because of gang violence.

Richard J. Williams, 14, leafed through the photos of gang graffiti and stopped on a page.

``Oh,'' he said. ``This is from Ocean Air.''

``There are probably some from all over,'' Stacey said.

Williams said he knew a kid who is in with a gang. ``He used to go to church with us.''

A lot of people say they're gang members when they aren't, Stacey said. ``They say that to be popular.''

This is one of many reasons Norfolk police are trying to keep the gang situation under control.

Williams had an idea. He pointed to the hard-core anti-drug literature at Stacey's table.

``Some of the druggies and stuff should come up here and take a look at it so they can get out of it.''

Stacey knows better.

``This stuff is an incentive to parents to stay involved,'' he said. ``It's to encourage smaller children to stay away.''

Elliott and Debra Hatcher are successful people who want the best for their community.

Debra is tired of kids dying.

``They're going faster than they're being born, it seems.''

She has a 19-year-old son.

``My son attends funerals all the time. It's so sad. Children going to funerals more than their parents.''

The problem is, she said, people don't always come out when their neighborhoods attempt to face problems. They watch TV. They stay home. To keep the crime out, you need more than a generator. You need a nuclear reactor.

``One enemy we do have is the entertainment of television, the lack of challenge TV presents,'' Meredith said. ``You can just sit and let the world pass you by.''

But the strong core of people is there, he said. And as long as there is communication among neighbors and neighborhoods, Meredith said, the good guys have a shot at keeping ahead.

``It's events like we had today that try to bring people together,'' he said. KEYWORDS: CRIME FIGHTERS

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