OCEAN CITY – “It can’t happen here,” was a common misconception addressed at Monday afternoon’s Gang Recognition Training Session, with members of the community quickly learning that Ocean City is not immune from gang violence.
The Ocean City Police Department held a gang recognition and identification training session Monday and Tuesday this week, in an effort to educate local business owners and community members on gang activity. The training session is part of a string of proactive, community-based training initiatives that will be held this year in an effort to keep citizens informed on a variety of illegal activities and to help foster crime prevention in the resort town.
Trooper Greg Kies, a recently retired member of the Maryland State Police, used his 10 years of gang investigation experience to educate those present at the training session, providing a vast arsenal of gang information, facts, and personal experiences.
“This affects everyone. It would be unfair for me not to tell you the truth,” said Kies.
Kies applauded the Ocean City Police Department and the local community for taking a proactive role on the issue. While gangs are not a prevalent issue in the resort, they are affecting communities throughout the nation, the state of Maryland, the Eastern Shore and even Ocean City.
“I’m not Chicken Little, the sky is not raining gangsters, but there is not a county in this state that is gang free,” said Kies.
With gangs proliferating throughout the country and gang communication alarmingly efficient, Kies emphasized the importance of community awareness.
Kies defined a gang as, “a group of three or more individuals with a common name, symbol, manner of dress or other commonality who, as a group of individuals, engage in, or have engaged in, a pattern of criminal activity.” Currently, the average age ranges from 10 to 20 years old.
While it would seem the best and most obvious way to battle organized criminal activity would be prison time, it’s simply not the case.
“These prisons facilitate gang life,” said Kies.
Prison life often serves as a training ground for gang members, providing them with nothing but ample time to learn, get bigger and get better.
“Serving time” is viewed differently amongst gangs, said Kies, with members rising in the ranks for serving time for brutal crimes.
Kies identified media portrayals as a negative in the fight against gang activity. Movies, such as American Gangster or Scarface, often glorify gang life, said Kies. Music from rappers famed for their role in the Bloods and Crips, two common gangs across the nation, can be heard by all ages on television and radio. Video games, such as Grand Theft Auto, depict violence in the streets that is similar to real life street violence.
While many know how to separate the fantasy of media portrayals from the reality of life, many fail to face the fact that gangs are present in every community. Kies identified a few common misconceptions, held by business owners, politicians and residents in any town.
He said it’s not accurate to say, “We have a gang presence, not a gang problem; we have gang members, not gang crimes; we don’t have gangs here.”
Kies’s response to denial of gang life in Ocean City was simple.
“You’re a tourist town. They have conventions here just like we do, they just don’t have them in the Convention Center,” he said.
Gangs vary throughout the state of Maryland from the Bloods, which Kies noted as the biggest threat in Maryland currently, to the Mexican gang, Surenos, to neighborhood gangs. Outlaw motorcycle gangs exist as well; with motorcycle gangs dating back to the early 1950’s in the U.S. Pagans, Outlaws, Hell’s Angles and Bandido’s are four of the major motorcycle gangs that exist today.
So how does one recognize a gang or gang member?
“The first sign of trouble you’re going to see is graffiti,” said Kies.
Graffiti is used in a variety of ways, to show size and strength, to memorialize, or to warn or threaten, explained Kies, “no piece of graffiti is without meaning.”
Clothing is also an indicator, but Kies cautioned that clothing indicators frequently change amongst gangs. Colors and bandanas are strong indicators however. For example, a blue bandana worn on the left side is almost always a sign for the Crips.
Tattoos are used to make ones gang loyalty known, permanently. Tattoos on the knuckles, the inside of the arms, on the upper and lower lips, on hands and along the hairline are common. Other common indicators are the teardrop tattoo on the face, which, according to Kies, symbolizes the death of a fellow gang member. A filled-in tear drop shows revenge was taken.
Numbers are also a strong indicator, whether it’s through tattoos or graffiti. For example, the number 13 is a common indicator for the Mexican mafia with “M” standing as the 13th letter in the alphabet.
Recruiting techniques can also be identified and prevented within the community. According to Kies, elementary and middle schools and libraries are common recruiting grounds. “Skip parties”, similar to senior skip day, are often targeted as well.
Gang infection can even be found within the family, said Kies.
“For the first time in Maryland history, we’re seeing second generation gang members,” he said.
In western parts of the country like California, where many gangs originate, they’re seeing third and fourth generation gang members, said Kies.
Not even the military is immune to gang infiltration.
“There’s not a branch of the service that’s immune from gangs,” said Kies.
While gang statistics seem all gloom and doom, Kies explained that prevention is the best weapon for a community, urging community members to report suspicious activity to local law enforcement. Any caller can remain anonymous and information will not be given to suspects.
Kies explained that in a community such as Ocean City, where a large majority of the population is transient, it is not unlikely for gang members or gangs to pass through. With gang rivalries both prevalent and dangerous in Maryland, rival gangs within the town are one area that police hope to combat.
“We truly believe a well informed citizen or business owner is the best type of prevention we can have,” said Officer Mike Levy of the OCPD.