Gangs ongoing problem, ex-member says
By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published May 20, 2008 at 3:40 p.m.
Updated May 20, 2008 at 3:40 p.m.
If neglect, alienation, abuse and boredom spur teens into gangs, it's no wonder that gang membership in metro Denver is counted in the tens of thousands, a former gang member said today.
We have a community living in fear, up in arms and really upset," anti-gang crusader Terrance Roberts said. "We have children that are murdering one another.
"We have a significant amount of gang activity right now," and that's been exacerbated the past few days by the fatal shooting on Saturday of the co-founder of the Crips street gang, said Roberts, who runs Denver-based Prodigal Son Initiative. "It's like a cancer on our community."
The several organizations that try to give youths an alternative to gangs aren't keeping up with the fervor for revenge, Roberts and other anti-gang leaders say.
A spike in gang activity erupted in Denver's Cole-Whittier neighborhood in the aftermath of the gang-related killing of Denver Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams last year, Roberts said.
Right now, in the aftermath of the killing of Asberry, the flurry of violence and of fear has shifted to the Holly Square shopping center neighborhood in northeast Denver.
Even in periods of relative calm, "we still have kids leaving traumatized lives, not working, nobody giving them a chance," he said.
"It's always simmering, like a powder keg."
"It takes one little incident like a leader like Michael Asberry dying," he said.
This afternoon Aurora police announced they are confident that Asberry's murder wasn't gang related, that it was triggered by a personal dispute. That doesn't, however, close the book on whether the Holly Square fire was a misplaced act of revenge.
"Kids feel displaced from society" more so in 2008 than in most of the past 25 years, he said.
"Young men or women who've been traumatized their entire lives, abused, neglected, try to get involved with a lot of other kids like them.
"Once they get together they feel even more disenfranchised.
"They react and act out.
"Nobody gives them the time of day, nobody listens to a word they say," whether they're gang members or just look like they might be, Roberts said.
Whether they're officially in a gang or not, "if they're labeled with the gang-member tag, the community treats them like they're worse than sex offenders," Roberts said.
Every field trip, raft adventure or other structured activity cobbled together by several caring organizations runs right into words like "unemployment," "hopelessness" and "revenge," say anti-gang officials.
"We need to help these young men and women find jobs," Roberts said. "It doesn't make sense for 16- or 17-year-olds to be roaming the streets at 10 or 11 at night, when they should be coming home from work, going home and getting rest for the next morning."
"We need to stop acting like this problem is going away," Roberts said. "We have children that are murdering one another. We have a community living in fear, up in arms and really upset," Roberts said.
"We need to do what we can to give these kids the help they need."
"The problem never goes away, even if you don't see it on the surface," Roberts said. "It's like a cancer. A lot of people with cancer look healthy, but it spreads and you don't know what's going to happen."
The Denver Police Department says it no longer characterizes incidents as either gang-related or non-gang-related because it is so difficult to tell for sure.
An earlier look found that gang-related incidents climbed 87 percent in Denver between 2001 and 2006.
Denver Police estimate 12,000 to 13,000 active gang members. Roberts thinks it's 20,000.
Rev. Leon Kelly's group, Open Door Youth Gang Alternatives, lists 320 deaths of metro Denver youths — "Died Young, Died Violently" — between 2000 and 2006. The list hasn't been updated since then.
Don't just measure the deaths, Roberts implores Coloradans who might take just a cursory look at the gang problem.
"We're also dealing with kids incarcerated. caught with weapons, kids who should still be in high school, going to jail."
Roberts is a former gang member who spent time in prison, He says his turnaround started the day he finally heard Martin Luther King, Jr's. "I've Been to the Mountain Top" speech that seemed to foreshadow his death one day before he was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. in 1968.
"That really intrigued me, and led me to reading Gandhi, who was a big influence on Martin Luther King," Roberts said.
"I studied the Bible. I knew in my heart these were the kind of men I wanted to emulate," not people like rapper Tupac Shakur, who was exalted by many gang members after being fatally shot by apparent rival gang members in 1996.
"I didn't want to be a dead gang member. I wanted to be a peace maker and live a good life."
scanlon@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2897
Post your comment
Registration is required. Click here to create your free user account, or login below.
Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.
Featured
-
Denver turns 150
Read about the city's history, look at old photos and see a list of influential Denverites.
-
Mount Crushmore
Which four Broncos greats should be immortalized on Mount Crushmore? Vote here.
-
Winter Escapes
Your insider’s guide to the copious joys of the coolest season.
-
Rocky Multimedia
The news comes alive in our videos and slide shows. Catch up on what's happening today.
-
Weekend plans?
Figure out things to do this weekend with the help of our entertainment calendar.
-
Bronco Dean's rant
Listen to Bronco Dean's pregame rant on the Raiders.
-
Season To Share
The Post-News Season To Share campaign provides grants to area nonprofits.
-
The Rocky @ 150 Years
The Rocky was there when Colorado became a state in 1876. Read our coverage.
-
A Dozen on Denver
And the winner is... Robert Ziegler! See the whole fiction series by clicking here.
May 20, 2008
7:34 p.m.
Suggest removal
Fishbear writes:
These kids get discriminated against because they dress like gang members... if I put on a police officers uniform and walk around the vast majority of people would assume I'm a police officer, even though I'm not.
Also, parents should have more control of their children and our community should be addressing the causes, not the results.
May 20, 2008
9:32 p.m.
Suggest removal
dgarci1 writes:
Raise your hand if you think this life-style is a choice!!!! If you did you are an IDIOT!!! Look here, if you look at this problem and walk away with a simple solution seeping out of your silver-spoon fed mouth then save it. You didn't spend much time really trying to understand the problem. You have the ability to see the surface only and not the depth of what goes on. I work with kids in East Denver. I don't claim to have the answers but it makes me sick to read peoples obvious one-sided lack of understanding comments. Make your yearly donation to the local homeless shelter and shut up. Or don't make the donation........