County assesses gang efforts with summit

By Dominic Bonaiuto
03/01/2005


Community leaders say the key to stopping gangs from gaining a stronger foothold in Fairfax County is to provide enough after-school options for children to do something other than get sucked into a gang.

"No child grows up saying, 'When I grow up, I want to be in a gang and lead a life of crime.' So why does it happen? Because there isn't a choice,” said Gary McCollum, vice president and regional manager for Cox Northern Virginia.

He credited the influence of the Boys and Girls Club for keeping him out of trouble growing up in a tough Richmond neighborhood, noting there is only one such club in Fairfax.

McCollum kicked off last week's gang summit at the county government center by announcing that Cox is donating $1 million to start at least two more Boys and Girls Clubs and will invest another $2 million in gang prevention programming on the local cable network.

County Board Chairman Gerry Connolly (D), who identified gangs as a chief priority for the county last year and helped organize the summit, said he wants to open five or six Boys and Girls Clubs around the county, specifically mentioning Herndon and the Richmond Highway corridor.

He and McCollum said they would be lobbying other large employers in the county to help supply the money and mentors.

Local officials said they are making headway in containing the youth gang movement that jolted the public with a series of brutal attacks in the past year but acknowledged that their various activities within the government, faith, law enforcement, nonprofit, business and school communities must be better coordinated.

Although the number of gang-related crimes ticked up slightly last year, Fairfax County continues to have one of the lowest crime rates in the nation despite having one of the smallest police departments per capita.

Superintendent Jack Dale said there is virtually no community that is not infected with gang activity. He noted that the school system recently created an office to deal specifically with coordinating and expanding its after-school programs in hopes of “cutting off the pipeline for recruiting.”

But it was not until last year that the county launched a gang prevention council to take stock of all the uncoordinated efforts in the community.

The council used last week's summit to get feedback on a program it hopes to employ for linking and monitoring all those efforts. The model was developed by the U.S. Justice Department and proved successful in other large communities with similar gang problems.

Juan Pacheco, a former gang member turned youth mentor with Barrios Unidos, said the summit spurred some great ideas and discussion, but he warned participants not to lose sight of whom it is they are trying to help.

"We have anyone who knows anything about gang prevention here today, except the kids,” he said. "We need to invite them, engage them and ask them what it is they want to do.”

Jungin Ahn, an Edison High School senior who attended the summit, agreed, saying that is what prompted her to put together a group of older teens who travel to local elementary schools to talk with younger children about gangs and "making right choices," she said.

Ahn, who immigrated here with her family from South Korea three years ago, said she was faced with tough choices early on by peers who preyed on her isolation from not knowing the language, "asking me to do things that were not good for me," she said.

"I see kids capable of great things, but they can't speak the language and they throw away all those great skills to join a gang," she said.

Overcoming both the language and the cultural barriers within the minority community, where most of the gang activity has developed, is proving to be the toughest challenge, according to police Chief David Rohrer.

He said a distrust has developed on both sides of the line, whether it is an illegal immigrant fearful of being deported if they call authorities to report gang activity or residents fearful of any youth who skulks around wearing baggy pants and a ball cap.

Supervisor Dana Kauffman (D-Lee) said the intent of the summit was to shift people from “a climate of fear to a climate of engagement.”

Connolly agreed, noting no one person, program or community can fully address such a challenge that is gripping the entire region.

"We need to persuade the community that there is a lot you can do,” he said. “You need to be involved and not afraid."