Citing a rash of youth violence and the drive-by shooting death of a 14-year-old boy, a D.C. Council member on Tuesday proposed expanding the police department’s Hispanic gang unit to also combat black gangs.
D.C. Council Member Jim Graham, in a letter sent to Mayor Adrian Fenty and Police Chief Cathy Lanier, said that there had been only one Hispanic gang-related death sincethe D.C. police department formed its Gang Intervention Partnership four years ago.
Graham said the model should be used to combat violence committed by the black street crews.
“We’re being ravaged. We’re in the midst of gang warfare,” Graham told The Examiner. “[The gang unit] is a tool that we have that we know has been successful.”
The gang unit combines strong enforcement with intelligence gathering and has been a model for police departments around the country, Graham said. He called for expanding the unit by at least one detective and three uniformed D.C. police officers. He estimated the expansion would cost about $1 million.
In Ward 1, police are dealing with as many as 10 crews within a few blocks of one another, according to police intelligence. Young people are killing, shooting and stabbing one another almost daily, Graham said.
Although the crews of black youth operate differently from Latino gangs like MS-13, with proper resources the D.C. unit could help prevent the violence that grows out of arguments among the crews, the council member said.
D.C. police already have a unit that targets black crews east of the Anacostia River, and the department is looking at expanding the initiative to other city neighborhoods, said Metropolitan Police Department spokeswoman Traci Hughes.
D.C. police use the term “crews” instead of “gangs” because the groups are small and unorganized, unlike known gangs like the Bloods and the Crips, Hughes said.
Columbia Heights and the surrounding neighborhoods have been the sites of a number of fatal shooting involving teenagers. A 15-year-old was killed nearly two weeks ago during a drive-by at the corner of 14th and U streets in Northwest. Two months ago, the brother of “The Wire” actor Anwan Glover was shot and killed at 14th and Girard streets. And in June, 13-year-old Terry Cutchin was killed by a stray bullet, aday after a teenage girl was shot on the same block.
