Scary new realities of gang violence
When the disintegration of the traditional street gang structure is actually viewed as a bad thing, well, that’s a decidedly ominous development.
But such seems to be the case, as detailed in staff writer Alva James-Johnson’s weekend report. Gang violence is becoming less organized, more diffuse, less bound by any semblance of moral limits even by the perverse standards of criminal “codes.”
In a sense, and on a more localized scale, it seems to present the same kinds of challenges as a nation fighting terror cells instead of armies or other organized and identifiable threats. The enemy is as deadly or deadlier, but harder to spot.
It’s relatively easy to be philosophical and detached about a social pathology like gang violence when you aren’t personally victimized by it, or in a life situation that leaves you constantly terrified of it. It’s also easy to “solve” the gang problem — just as it is to know exactly how to “fight” a war — from the comfort and safety of an armchair, or a chat board. The people actually dealing with it have none of those … luxuries, for want of a better word.
Of the dozen homicides recorded in Columbus as of this writing, most seem to have at least some connection to gang activity. Mayor and public safety chief Teresa Tomlinson said that while these killings aren’t officially designated as gang related, some of the people involved “self-identify themselves as being associated with a gang.”
A revealing picture of the problem is the fact that a suspect in the recent Double Churches killing was attacked in the Muscogee County Jail by 15 other inmates: “The reach of the people he’s involved with is pretty wide,” said Sheriff John Darr.
Sgt. Roderick Graham, who heads the Criminal Intelligence Unit of the Columbus PD, said the gang structure is “evolving and changing … no longer do you see 15 kids walking through the neighborhood with the same colors on like you did in the ’80s.”
Antonio Carter, a minister, ex-convict and self-described former dabbler in Columbus gang culture, talked about the prevalence of violence in popular and media culture — an observation that, while unarguably accurate, might be viewed as an excuse if he didn’t take it to its inexorable conclusion: “I don’t think they really understand the ramifications; what’s actually going to happen after you commit this murder … murder is almost seen like a badge of honor in our community these days.”
Carter learned in time, as others have learned far too late — for themselves and their victims — that there never has been and never will be any “honor” in the reckless violence of armed goons whose indifference to human life, including the collateral casualties that are the inevitable consequence of that indifference and that recklessness, is a societal pestilence.
Whether popular culture provokes violence or just reflects it, or whether the two are mutually self-reinforcing, is perhaps a useful debate. But it’s not of much immediate help to those confronting the grisly reality of blood in the streets, and those desperately trying to prevent it.
This story was originally published June 27, 2016 at 6:03 PM with the headline "Scary new realities of gang violence."