About every month, at least one validated Halifax County gang member is released from prison and sent home, state Department of Correction records show.
For Captain Jay Burch of the Halifax County Sheriff’s Office, these records fuel concern.
“On a common sense side, it says those being released into society, that’s the gangs we’re having problems with,” Burch said today. “With the gang training we’ve went through, we see our streets echo what’s happening in the jails.”
Burch began compiling this data to better understand the gang problem facing the area. “There’s big drama with some law enforcement who say we do or do not have a gang problem. The biggest dispute in law enforcement is we really don’t have law enforcement trained well enough to verify people as gang members.”
The state Department of Correction does, however, and the agency has been documenting inmate involvement since 2008.
This year, 11 validated gang members from Halifax County were released from prison. They include one member of the Aryan Brotherhood, several members of the United Blood Nation and one Five Percenter.
Last year, 16 gang members were released and include members of the Folk Nation, the Latin Kings, Five Percenters, a Crip and the United Blood Nation.
In 2008, when the department began documenting, six validated gang members from Halifax County were released. They include four Bloods, one Crip and a Five Percenter.
They were incarcerated for various crimes, including attempted murder, assaults, break-ins, drug sales and sexual assaults and molestations.
That gangs are having an influence in the area can be seen through graffiti and even a third grade drawing Burch saw and pulled from a wall at a county school.
The crayon drawing shows two Bloods killing a Crip beneath a sunny sky with two blue clouds — representing Crips — crying.
The drawing also shows a house labeled the Blood House and includes other Blood code with the number 48, a reference to Highway 48. The 100 percent beside a five pointed star means 100 percent Blood.
“The teacher wrote a comment on it saying it was very good,” Burch said. “The principal gave me permission to take it off.”
The picture is part of the gang problem, Burch said. “It’s what they’re seeing at home. For an elementary school kid to understand, and I’m not a self-proclaimed gang expert, this kid knows what’s going on.”
While many may say gangs in the Roanoke Valley are wannabes, Burch believes the wannabes are more dangerous to law enforcement and the public. “Educated gang members know when to stop so they won’t draw law enforcement attention. The wannabes don’t.”
Deputy Chief Adam Bondarek of the Roanoke Rapids Police Department said the drawing by the third grader did not surprise him. “After 16 years of police work, nothing does.”
The police department, Bondarek said, recognized the potential for a gang problem more than two years ago. “We took the appropriate steps by getting people training and honing our skills.”
The police department uses investigative techniques, tracking, monitoring and cataloging.
During investigations the police department has recovered confidential gang education materials, which Bondarek declined to elaborate on. “We don’t want to put out any knowledge on that stuff, especially in cases of someone on the edge of deciding what to do (about joining).”
One thing Bondarek sees is that in areas where potential gang activity is monitored, the crime rate is down.
Bondarek believes it is just not the gang members coming from prison recruiting. “Whether they come from penitentiaries, out of town or out of state, like any gang member they’re trying to spread gang knowledge.”
Gangs by location
Littleton: Insane Gangster Disciples and Folk Nation
Scotland Neck: Five Percenters and the Bad Boys System
Roanoke Rapids: Bloods and Crips
Enfield: MS 13s — seasonal — The Fam and United Blood Nation
Weldon: Bloods and Crips
Hollister: Bloods and The White Oak Boys
