Posted on Tue, Jul. 18, 2006

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Gang activity ‘emerging,’ professor says

Weekend shooting example of way gangs work in S.C., he says

By ADAM BEAM

abeam@thestate.com

Saturday’s shooting death of a 19-year-old at a Lexington County flea market is an example of the emerging gang activity in South Carolina, a USC professor said Monday.

Half the law enforcement agencies in South Carolina say they have gang activity of varying degrees in their jurisdictions, according to an unpublished survey conducted by the University of South Carolina Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice.

The survey is due out later this year. Jeff Rojek, an assistant professor at USC and former Los Angles police officer who specializes in gang activity, described South Carolina as an “emerging” gang state characterized by “shifting environments.”

“The way in which they are formed, they don’t have the long history that some of these other cities has,” he said. “These conflicts, formations of groups, come and go over time. How they align themselves and how they interact is not fixed.”

The latest gang-related crime in the Columbia area happened Saturday at the Barnyard Flea Market on U.S. 1, when a 19-year-old West Columbia woman was shot five times by armor-piercing bullets from an AK-47. Sheriff James R. Metts said Sunday a consortium of gangs was involved, including the Bloods, Crips, Folks and GPAN.

But Rojek said it’s hard to determine whether South Carolina gangs have actual ties to national gangs or just use the names.

The survey results, which are still being edited, asked officials to name active gangs in their areas. Rojek said most of the responses were Bloods, Crips and Folk Nation — but that most agencies can’t prove national affiliations.

“It’s in our popular culture. Kids, young adults mimic this stuff,” he said.

But, he said, just because the groups are mimicking the gangs doesn’t mean they are less violent.

That violence at times has erupted in public places and hurt innocent bystanders. Since February, there have been eight shootings in public places in the Columbia area. In two, innocent bystanders were injured.

Some of those incidents are gang-related, others are not, officials say. In some instances, officials suspect gang ties but can’t prove it.

Still, law enforcement officials stress the incidents are not connected to some broader “gang war.”

Maj. John Allard, spokesman for the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department, said Saturday’s shooting was a chance encounter of rival gangs that erupted in the public eye, not a planned attack in a public place.

“You are dealing with teenagers and young adults. The most important thing is for parents to be very aware of what their children are doing,” Allard said.

South Carolina tracks gang activity on a statewide basis in two ways:

• The State Law Enforcement Division uses the Violent Gang and Terrorist Organization File, a database that tracks specific street gangs.

• SLED also gets information from local law enforcement agencies on gang-related crimes. It doesn’t track specific gangs, but it does give officials a sense of how much gang activity is out there.

Rojek said there is some support in the law enforcement community to overhaul the state’s system of tracking gang-related crime, but “it’s time, a lot of money and a lot of training.”

“Some agencies, maybe political officials, have to be convinced there is a gang problem,” Rojek said.

South Carolina has no statute defining gangs or punishment for gang-related crimes. At least 30 other states do, Rojek said, including stiffer penalties if prosecutors can prove the crime was gang-related.

Reach Beam at (803) 771-8405.