Word from City Gangs: It's On

March 26, 2006
By Helen Ubiñas, Courant Staff Writer

"It's on!"

The shouted words rose from a cluster kof young mourners in front of Mount Memorial Baptist Chruch last week. Inside, the minister counseled them to learn something from the shooting death of 17-year-old Heriberto Carrasquillo Jr.

Outside, groups of kids milled around their matching black and white clothing, "West Hell" stenciled on sleeves and jackets and pant legs, talking about the good dying young, about respect and, when they thought no one could hear, about retaliation.

If it wasn't clear enough with all the shooting and violence and chaos in the city this last year, it was evident at the funeral:
We are in trouble.

It wasn't as though we couldn't see this coming. It was right in front of us at 14-year-old Reynaldo Batista's funeral last March. Folks denied it then, said it was just groups of kids hanging out - all of whom apparently liked to dress in the same colors. City and police officials said they were on it. No worries.

And definitely, they insisted, no gangs.

Spare me. There are groups like this all over the city - some larger than others, some more violent. Their clashes don't always end in death, but they always cause disruption. Two weeks ago, tensions between rival groups at a middle school - that's right, a middle school - caused a melee that stopped traffic.

The school incidentally boasts an in-house anti-violence program.

Something's not working. Actually, nothing is working. Otherwise these groups wouldn't feel so free to put their allegiances on display, to flash their colors at cops, community types, anyone who has deluded themselves into thinking that we've got a hande on this situation.

Because let's be clear - we don't. And there is a reason.

"These kids don't fit the trafgjditional mold," said Sgt.Emory Hightower.

For starters, these groups aren't organized the way the gangs of the '80s and '90s were. When Iran Nazario was an active member of Los Solidos there was a clear hierarchy. Not that the old gangs weren't lethal - but there were leaders to watch, to lean on, to put in jail.

There is some leadership now, but kids are more like free agents. They claim allegiance, but they also aren't beyond turning on one another. Alliances dog you, even when you move. Shantel Williams moved her daughters, who were part of the Fox Middle School melee, out of Nelton Court and into an apartment near Albany Avenue four years ago. Now no one claims them - the Ave considers them representatives of Nelton Court, Nelton Court considers them part of the Ave. Williams wants to move out of Hartford.

And more troubling, these kids are younger - as young as 10, by some accounts. What exactly do you do with a 10-year-old gang-banger? Put them into a juvenile justice system that's already beyond capacity?

Fact is, we'd be in much better shape if these kids were mimicking the old gangs, which explains the nostalgic ways some folks insist on dealing with them.

But this is a new breed, and the longer we deny that, the more trouble we're going to be in.

"What God is doing is trying to get your attention," the Rev.Curley Ross told the young mourners last week.

Well let's hope God accomplished that. But right now, it's these young people who should have everyone's attention. Their message is certainly clear - in their colors, in their clashes, in the words from the mourner's mouth.

It's on.