After the April 10 gang-related shooting at Arrowhead Mall that left one youth dead and four others wounded, Muskogee Police Chief Rex Eskridge said in a May 24 city council meeting that “he would rate Muskogee at a 50 on a scale of 0-115 assessing whether the city has a gang problem,” according to the Phoenix.[1] (I tried to listen to all of Chief Eskridge's "testimony" on the city's web site but the first 25 minutes of audio is missing, which encompassess all of Chief Esdridge's testimony.)
The scale is called a “Gang Assessment Tool” which has been available from the National School Safety Center
Here’s the rating scale:
- 0-20 points—No problem
- 25-45 points—Emerging problems
- 50-65 points—You have problems
- 70 + points—There are serious problems
- At 50+ points = a need exists to develop a gang prevention intervention program.
So how did Chief Eskridge arrive at those 50 points? In response to an Open Records Act request in which I asked to see all the documentation corresponding to Chief Eskridge’s “50 point” rating, the city’s response was: “According to Chief Eskridge, there was no specific statistical data upon which he relied, rather the assignment of the score of ‘50’ was based on his years of experience with the Muskogee Police Department.”
A better response from Chief Eskridge would have been: “Mr. Mayor, City Manager, members of the City Council, I have not had the opportunity to have my staff conduct a proper and thorough search of our records in specific response to these 13 questions from the Gang Assessment Tool. I would much rather refrain from providing anything at this time other than a thoroughly researched response to this critical issue of gangs. However, I believe that within 60 days, I can provide an accurate response to this assessment tool and from there the city can use that data to develop an appropriate response to this issue that plagues America
(Of course the real issue here is the integrity of Chief Eskdridge's statement to begin with, which will be addressed in another posting.)
So let’s take a look at the 13 questions in the gang assessment tool.
1. Is there graffiti on or near your neighborhood or community? (5 points)
2. Is the graffiti crossed out? (10 points)
3. Do the young people in your community wear colors, jewelry, clothing, flash hand signs, or display other behaviors that may be gang related? (10 points)
4. Are drugs available in or near your community? (10 points)
5. Was there a significant increase in the number of physical; confrontations within the past 12 months in or near your community? (5 points)
6. Is there an increasing presence of weapons in your community? (5 points)
7. Are beepers, pagers, cellular phones used by the young people of your community? (10 points)
8. Has there been a “drive by” shooting in or around your community? (15 points)
9. Have you had a “show-by” display of weapons in or around your community? (10 points)
10. Is the truancy rate and/or daytime burglaries in your community increasing? (5 points)
11. Have racial incidents increased in your community? (5 points)
12. Is there a history of gangs in your community? (10 points)
13. Is there an increasing presence of “informal social groups” with the unusual names that have words like kings, disciples, queens, posse, crew? (15 points)
So how many points did you score? The point is that it doesn’t matter. Only an organization like the Muskogee Police Department (MPD) and Muskogee Public Schools can truly provide the accurate data needed to reflect gang reality in Muskogee
The MPD has publicly acknowledged a gang problem since at least 1995 which is documented in the U.S. Department of Justice’s 1995 National Youth Gang Survey. The MPD is listed as one of the “City Law Enforcement Agencies Reporting Gangs.” [2]
And since Eskridge became Chief of Police in 1996, the Muskogee Police Department also appeared in both the 1997 and 1999-2001 National Youth Gang Survey’s “City Law Enforcement Agencies Reporting Gangs.”[3]
In the “The Federal Gang Violence Act of 1996,” Muskogee , Stillwater , Ardmore , Lawton , Tulsa and Oklahoma City are identified as six of the 118 U.S. cities the “Bloods” and “Crips” gangs have invaded.[4]
The Tulsa Police Department estimates that there are “5,000 people who are either gang members or have ties to street gangs” live in the Tulsa area.[6] (The reason why I state this fact is that if Tulsa Police Department can provide that estimate, why can't, or won't, MPD?)
A DEA news release dated October 10, 2007 entitled, “Operation Six-Killer Nets 90 Arrests in Oklahoma ,” names one of the street gangs in Muskogee as the “107 Hoover Crips” and also named the “Bloods” in Okmulgee County
The Oklahoma Gang Investigators Association reports that the largest gang in Okmulgee , Muskogee and Bartlesville is the Hoover Crips and specifically mentions the 107 Hoover Crips.[8]
At the memorial for 17-year-old Jerrod Reed, a victim of the Arrowhead Mall gang shooting, District Attorney Larry Moore acknowledged that Muskogee has had gang problems even before the gang shooting. Yet for the 10-years Chief Eskridge has been Chief of Police, he has not held, as far as I can determine, a public meeting addressing the presence of gangs in Muskogee before the Arrowhead Mall shooting.
More evidence that there are gangs in Muskogee is reflected in the numerous policies of the parent’s handbook for Muskogee Public Schools.
“The following decorations and/or designs imprinted upon or attached to the body or clothing is prohibited: symbols, mottoes, words or acronyms that convey . . . gang-related . . . messages,” 7th-8th grade center handbook and high school handbook.
The Muskogee Phoenix reported on June 16, 2009 school board member John Barton was concerned that looser dress codes would allow students to wear gang colors. The article then quoted board member Stacey Alexander as saying, “They (students) still wear gang colors in their shoe laces.”[9]
And in an August 2010 city sponsored meeting in regards to residents’ concerns, Derryl Venter, Muskogee Public Schools assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, “expressed concern about gang signs and graffiti.”[10]
So, city manager, what’s the plan? When are you going to tell the city council what really is going on in Muskogee about gangs? When do we find out what colors we need to be aware of that could possibly be associated with gangs? How about hand signs? What does their graffiti look like so we, as citizens, can recognize when our neighborhoods have been invaded?
Do citizens know how to identify whether graffiti is gang related or not? Does the city photograph all graffiti before scrubbing it clean (which is greatly appreciated)? Does the average citizen know how to distinguish whether hand signs are gang related? When graffiti is identified as gang related, is the location and which gang the symbol belongs to recorded for intelligence and tracking purposes?
We want to help you but we can’t unless you tell us what’s going on and how we can help. Will you do that for us? In 2007 Tulsa began a program called, “The Confidential Reliable Citizens Program” which trained volunteers to recognize and report gang-related crime with minimal risk of retaliation.[11] Any reason why Muskogee can’t implement a similar program?
Finally, city officials won’t respond with any degree of forthrightness to any appeal from the public demanding to know the true status of gangs in Muskogee until citizens get mad, show up at city council meetings and demand action and information. And if the death of a teenager during a gang-related shooting spree at a shopping mall doesn’t make your blood boil, then maybe we don’t deserve to know what’s really going on in Muskogee, Oklahoma after all.
[1]“Assessment says city has gang problem,” by Liz McMahan, Muskogee Daily Phoenix, May 24, 2010
[3]“1997 National Youth Gang Survey”, p. 56, and “1999-2001 National Youth Gang Survey,” p. 64, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. While there are summaries of National Youth Gang Survey’s after 2001, I could find no such surveys available “in toto” on the Internet although summaries were available.
[6] Tulsa World, 11/23/2008, “Police say nearly 5,000 in Tulsa
[9] “School board suspends dress code, may restrict piercings,” by Cathy Spaulding, Muskogee Daily Phoenix, June 16, 2009
[10] “Residents express concerns (sic),” by Cathy Spaulding, Muskogee Daily Phoenix, August 6, 2010
[11] “Volunteers target gangs,” by David Schulte, Tulsa World, June 20, 2008
No comments:
Post a Comment