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July 06, 2006
Everything You Wanted to Know About the Gangster Disciples But Were Afraid to Read About Elsewhere
Perhaps you did not take the time to read the Time Free Press’s three-day, nine-article investigation of gang activity in Chattanooga. That is why we did. So you can be lazy, yet still able to name-drop “Mike-Mike Daniels” at dinner parties.
Among the things we did not know before:
-- The attitudes Chattanooga’s police and politicians have taken toward gangs over the past decade have basically corresponded to the way Roy Schneider and the fat mayor approached the shark in Jaws. “Cops have always known there are gangs [here], and politicians have always denied it,” says Chattanooga Police Deputy Skip Vaughn.
-- While the recent Emma Wheeler Homes and East Lake shootings have apparently involved people affiliated with the Bloods and the Crips, the gang most prolific in the Hamilton County Jail is called the Gangster Disciples. (The jail has catalogued seven Disciples.)
-- The same night (April 29) that five fights broke out after showings of ATL and Ice Age: The Meltdown at Rave Motion Pictures, several hundred young people “dressed either in red or blue” rumbled in Coolidge Park. Earlier that day, two teenagers were injured by gunshots fired into a crowd at the Boys Club in East Lake. So maybe the whole thing had nothing to do with T.I. after all.
-- Residents of East Lake Courts are convinced that 20-year-old Michael “Mike-Mike” Daniels, the Skyline Bloods leader who allegedly ordered the first of last month’s killings (pictured at left), still wields influence from inside his jail cell. “He’s in jail, but he has a gang out there that is willing and ready,” says Robyn Griffin, a former resident.
-- Chattanooga Police Sgt. Alan Franks says that the recent wave of violence can be directly traced to the release of “Mike-Mike” from state prison within the past year.
-- On the positive side, a hip-hop duo has released a song called “Stop the Violence.” “They say gangster rap is causing kids to go bad,” says the record’s producer. “Then can positive hip-hop cause them to go good?”
Things we still would like to know:
-- Is it possible to identify gang members by their wardrobes? Police mention “red or blue” identifying colors – but they don’t say which insignia identify which gang affiliations. Franks says gang customs change daily, but he declines to tell reporters if he’s seen any long-term cultural identifiers.
-- What exactly does it mean to say that a guy living in Emma Wheeler Homes is a member of the Skyline Bloods, the Crips, or the Gangster Disciples? Jailers talk about “wannabe” gang members and “full gang members” – but full of what? Is there a meaningful connection between the Skyline Bloods and the national Blood movement? What ties them together, if anything? Is it simply a shared channel for distributing drugs?
-- Which leads to the next question: is Chattanooga’s gang activity a purely internal problem within poor, black communities, or a result of gangs in Atlanta (and elsewhere) making inroads here? Community leaders seem to suggest the former: “If city and county officials had spent a fraction of the money on technical training in the downtown area that has been spent for the waterfront development or other developments, the problem would have never gotten this bad,” says Hugh Reece, vice president of the Southeast Council of the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth. But while more jobs couldn’t hurt, will those opportunities be competing with mere local thugs, or a regional network?
That seems like the biggest question not being addressed by police, government officials or community leaders – or the Times Free Press – and it may be the one that most determines whether gang activity metastasizes here in coming months.
Media | By mesh | 04:17 PM
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