Gangs and Youth Health in Hall County

Gainesville, Ga. –– A pack of boisterous kids bounds down the school bus steps, headed for the after-school program at the Hall County Boys and Girls Club. Rounding a corner, they come face-to-face with a burst of fresh, bright blue graffiti that was not on the white aluminum siding just 24 hours earlier.

“SUR 13” is emblazoned on the wall in lettering that stands almost six feet tall. Most children simply glance at the oddity and move on. But an older elementary-school student stops, stares, then says to no one in particular, “That’s bad.”

SUR 13 is the name of one of Hall County’s most notorious gangs, and this graffiti “tag” serves notice that the Boys and Girls Club is on their turf.

Jeremy, a sixth grader, shrugs off the gang sign. “I’m so used to it, it doesn’t even bother me anymore.”

Others seem slightly awestruck, romanticizing the thug life much as earlier generations thrilled to “The Godfather.”

“Some of them are my friends because I live in their territory,” said Manuel, a 14-year-old eighth grader.

Far from being glamorous, gang involvement is dangerous in ways most people rarely stop to consider. Going to jail is an obvious risk. But gang activity damages the health of a community’s young people in powerful and insidious ways. The average age of a Hall County gang member is 19, and the gang members are 96 percent male and four percent female, according to Lt. Scott Ware of the Hall County Sheriff’s office.

Homicide, vandalism, and intra-gang conflicts pose violent and obvious threats to health. Additional risks arise from the social aspects of gang life including drug use, initiation rituals involving fighting between males, sex that exploits women, and the transmission of disease through sex and drug use.

A decade ago, young people intimidated by gangs or pressured to join them had few allies. Today, community activists and Hall County law enforcement agencies have changed this dramatically.

There are 70 percent fewer gangs and gang members in Hall County today than there were in 1997, according to the Hall County Gang Task Force, with eight gangs still active in the area.

The Hall County Boys and Girls Club, now bearing the mark of SUR 13, is a major force in the local war against gangs. Their programs provide youths with “Opportunities to be recognized for doing things right,” said Joe Ethier, the chief professional officer at the Boys and Girls Club.

Progress has been made over the last decade, but there is more to be done. Kids who hang out at the club said that gangs were still very much a part of their lives; many said they have witnessed gang-related violence in their schools.

“This one boy got trampled in the hallway, they were stomping on his head like he was nothing,” said Ebony, a 16-year-old high-school junior. “It was Bloods and Crips, the dude from Bloods hit the dude from Crips, and so they jumped him.”

This is the standard scenario for a gang fight, except that it involves two nationally franchised gangs, the Crips and the Bloods. Most Hall County gangs are purely local, with no ties to national or international gangs.

Most gang violence involves violence between rival gangs or between fellow gang members, which makes its public health impact invisible to most Hall County residents.

In most gang initiations, an older member confirms new male gang members. Following that initiation ceremony, new members are forced to accept beatings or fight one another as a show of loyalty, according to Lt. Ware.

But beatings can easily prove fatal. Homicide is the second leading cause of death among 15 to 29 year olds in Georgia, second only to motor vehicle accidents, according to state health department data.

Violence is only one of the many risks associated with gangs. “Aside from bullet wounds, hepatitis, STDs, AIDS, the different health issues regarding drug, alcohol and tobacco use, obesity issues––their lifestyle is not necessarily conducive to health,” Ethier said about the local gangs.

Sexually transmitted diseases and hepatitis, like traumatic injury, frequently stem from initiation rites.

“Male members are beat in, female members are sexed in,” Lt. Ware said.

Young women who join gangs may be expected to have intercourse with one gang member ¬– or all of them – as part of their initiation.

“If you think about it, if you are a female, if you really want to be in a gang, you’re willing to do that, that shows that you have no self-value for yourself—you are obviously going through something to make you feel like you are not worth anything, that you are not important,” said Ebony, whose strong social ties and independence make her a hard target for gang recruiters.

Inside the club, instructors talked about risky drug use they have witnessed in nearby gangs.

“When they share needles it is a real health issue––hepatitis B and hepatitis C is really bad,” said Jason Pleasant, who leads graduation-coaching efforts at the Boys and Girls Club.

Kids too young to buy alcohol or tobacco seem to have no trouble putting their hands on illicit drugs, according to Lt. Ware. Alcohol, marijuana, and spray paint are the most commonly abused substances, he said.

“Juveniles with little access to alcohol often turn to huffing,” Ware said.

Gang members who “huff” spray aerosol paint into a plastic bag and inhale the vapors. Ideally this produces feelings of euphoria, but overdoing it can cause users to pass out, choke on vomit, permanently damage their lungs or even die of sudden cardiac arrest.

Despite the dangers associated with gangs, their lure remains powerful.

“Kids are like anyone else; they want to belong. If they don’t join a club, if they don’t have a family to go to, they are going to be a part of something, whether it is a gang or a Boy Scout troop of the Boys and Girls Club. They’re going to belong to something,” Ethier said.

Gang activity in Hall County reached a tragic peak in June of 2002, when four people were shot in a gang-related drive-by and two of them died. This galvanized the Hall County Gang Task Force.

“Since that time gang related crime has decreased significantly,” Lt. Ware said.

It didn’t hurt that the gang leader blamed for the 2002 shooting has since been jailed on an unrelated drug charge.

Ebony believes that the key to putting gangs out of business in her home county is to expand after-school options for teens.

“Maybe if we had more place like the Boys and Girls Club, where we can come to interact, they will see that there is a different way to go about doing things besides being in a gang,” Ebony said.