Community Anger Intensifies City Goes After Gangs

Will the ultimate holocaust which has long been predicted erupt in the City of Detroit? This could very well be the case if something isn't done very quickly to stem the rising tide of gang crimes committed by young people who seem to have thrown all caution to the winds.
While many of the gang members are described as school dropouts with poor reading and math ability, they apparently know more about the laws than a great many citizens. Some gangs are well aware that juvenile laws are more lenient than those dealing with adults. They know that many juvenile felons have been released by police and the courts with just a slap on the wrist.
No records of juvenile crimes were kept, allowing delinquents to get away with one crime after another. Gang members say their groups have an age limit of 17 years for membership, but actually the real leaders are those 18 and over-allegedly no longer who teach and direct their younger counterparts.
Several persons close to the gang picture observed that committing serious crimes is "a kind of orgy" to those young people, who have a joyful time when they make the front pages of newspapers and capture much of the attention via the tube.
It is obvious that the youth gangs believe ..

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Community Anger Intensifies
City Goes After Gangs

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.. that nothing can happen to them. They feel they have terrorized the community into submission and tell the police, "You can't do anything to me, man, I'm a juvenile."
Obviously bouyed by the feeling of being untouchable, about ten youths- girls included- went after bigger game the day after Mayor Young announced that he would launch a war on gangs.
At 4:15 a.m., Saturday, July 24, they broke a huge plate-glass window with tire irons in the downtown First National Building on Woodward Avenue and vandalized Rose Jewelers, fleeing with thousands of dollars worth of rings, watches and cheap plastic earrings.
That escapade was followed by the more daring robbery of Wright-Kay Jewelers, also downtown, in broad daylight while all the stores were open and doing business.
Those reckless acts, proceeded by a rash of looting and robberies downtown, including a rampage of assaults, purse-snatching and robberies during the International Freedom Festival's fireworks display on the riverfront, prompted several merchants to heed the urging of the Central Business District Association (CBDA) to mobilize.
The CBDA advised that the merchants raise funds to hire laid-off police officers to patrol downtown businesses. Some have termed this operation the merchants "private posse," but many people say they welcome it, including Mayor Coleman Young and Police Chief Philip Tannian.
Likewise, many citizens who have heretofore been opposed to the formation of vigilantes are now not only giving their approval but are willing to join in the vigilante action.
A further demonstration of the growing mood of the community was evidenced by the wide-spread applause given Rev. Stanley Pichard, pastor of the Twenty-First Street Church of God in Christ, and church deacons for beating the hell out of one of three thugs who robbed church members.
According to reports, two men and a woman entered the eastside church Sunday and ordered the people to put their money into plastic bags. When they went to the front to collect the loot, Rev. Pichard grabbed the leader and took his gun. The deacons beat him up and held him 'til police arrived. Meanwhile, the other two, taken by surprise when their leader was captured, fled with about $385. Apparently, they had not run into that kind of reception in a church before.
Another example of community indignation was loud and clear when the news was reported that 15-year-old Rosalind Brown was fatally shot and Janice Perkins, 16, was wounded when several men, allegedly gang members, entered the westside Chessmate disco on Livernois Ave. about 3:25 a.m. Sunday morning, Aug. 1,and fired shots into the crowd.
Just about everybody who commented on that incident asked the same question: "What was a 15-year-old girl doing away from home at that hour?"
Outbursts of anger came from many areas of the community over the recent shooting of three police officers-one fatally. Citizen response was positive when Judge Michael Connor sentenced two men, age 22 and 17, to life imprisonment. A third youth, age 18, was sentenced to 15-40 years after he pleaded guilty to the robbery and rape of a 19-year old Windsor woman that the trio abducted on the John Lodge freeway last February.
Mayor Young, in outlining the details of his get-tough policy July 30, said: "It is essential that we rid our streets of the terror of youthful gangs. We do not intend to surrender the streets of the city."
He said the police gang squad had been tripled and a juvenile center will be set up on Grand River and Rosa Park Blvd. (formerly 12th Street) as a processing center for youths arrested. Moreover, he announced a coordinated effort with the city by the State Social Services Department and Juvenile Court to get the violent gangs off the streets.
Juvenile Court Judge James H. Lincoln, who has long complained about not having authority to send juvenile criminals to youth training centers, said he has been promised by State Social Services Director John Dempsey that they will review the past policy of allowing social workers to decide if young offenders should be returned to the streets. Most often those social workers release them, even though the judge has asked that they be held.
One example of this - and there are many- involves a youth caught committing a robbery in a school cafeteria and found guilty in juvenile court. He was back in the same school within a few days after his arrest.
Part of Young's program calls for fingerprinting and photographing youths arrested for their first felony, as opposed to past practices.
This, of course, will require court action. Enforcement of the city's curfew ordinance is another part, and the parents of any youth picked up by police twice for violating the curfew will be charged with a misdemeanor. This course of action, Judge Lincoln and many others agree, is long overdue. "This society was built on parental control and I would advise all the parents of Detroit to see that their children obey the curfew ordinance," Judge Lincoln said.
Appearing on WXYZ-TV's Spotlight program last Sunday, Lincoln said many people tell juveniles that it's not their fault when they commit crimes. "That's like telling them it's all right to rip off. They should tell juveniles that they should be responsible," Lincoln said.
Rev. Jesse Jackson, Director of Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity), a Chicago-based organization, has for some time been conducting a campaign to get black people to revive the family structure, which has been a key factor in black survival. He took off the kid gloves during a speech to students at Martin Luther King High School earlier this year. He blasted the attitudes of many students and told them that they had to be accountable.
Jackson was quoted in a Sunday Free Press article by Judith Serrin as urging parents to "keep your children at home from 7 to 9 to study, and get them into bed by 10." He advocates that the city should provide physical training directors in city parks and tell the children, "We want you out getting your bodies healthy for this struggle for independence."
Most people want moral authority, Jackson said, adding that "What we must do for our young people is challenge them to put hope in their brains rather than dope in their veins."
A number of citizens on the city's east side say youth crime has grown so big because some police officers turn their backs to it. Police know who the criminals are, they maintain, but they don't try to stop the crimes and don 't arrest the gang members, gaining a perverse pleasure from watching black youth prey upon the black community.
It is strongly believed around the community that there are many white policemen who are still angry about Mayor Young's election and won't budge as long as the crimes are "black-on-black."
While there appears to be some validity to these charges, it is also clearly apparent that parents have defaulted in raising their children, and the community has not done its part either. Moreover, the school system has not enforced the mandatory 16-year-old school attendance requirement. Permissiveness certainly contributes greatly to crime.
As of Aug. 3, there were 449 homicides, nine more than the same time in 1974, when.. 

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Gangs

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..Detroit was given the infamous title of "Murder City USA." In July of this year 85 people were murdered, and during the first five days of this month eleven persons were killed.
From Jan. 1 to Aug. 5, there have been 11,227 robbery reports, 1,010 more than the 10,217 reported in 1974. And although B & E's and rapes are down from last year, 28 rapes were reported in the first five days of August, as opposed to 17 the same time last year. While youths didn't commit all of these crimes, they contributed greatly to the atmosphere which makes them possible.
State Representative Steven Stopcinski, a former police officer, is introducing a bill that is aimed at waiving juvenile status to try a youth who commits a felony crime as an adult. Several other states including California have already begun acting on lowering the age limit for juveniles to be tried as adults in felony cases.
According to several legislators, Stopcinski's bill has gained much support and has a good chance for adoption.
Many people in the community will welcome such a law, but the matter could be taken care of by the people. When parents and the community are negligent their problems will certainly be taken out of their hands, and they may rue the day that they didn't take care of business as they should have.