November 22, 1992

VIOLENT GANGS THRIVE ON SUBURBAN TURF

PAMELA FERDINAND Herald Staff Writer

When it comes to suburban gangs, Broward County is like an addict in denial.

Community-based programs dealing directly with gang members don't exist, despite a disturbing increase in the level of violence attributed to gangs. Prevention programs, such as DARE, primarily aim at drugs and alcohol, not gangs.

Many rehabilitation and recreation centers are infested with gang members, but few professionals are equipped to deal with them. And the number of gang unit police officers, who talk to the kids on a regular basis, has been cut in recent years due to budget constraints and complacence.

The lack of community response frustrates police, angers parents and scares residents.

"I don't want to become a hostage in my own city," said Matthew Rice, a 63-year-old who lives in Davie, which eliminated its four-person gang unit about two years ago. "I see the evidence, vicious criminal acts where they gang up and beat kids. And it's getting worse."

It's hard for many people to believe that gang violence -- stabbings, beatings, shootings -- erupts in the suburbs.

Yet, earlier this year, gang members shot and paralyzed 16- year-old Andre Gollett at a Hollywood community center and killed 18-year-old Ernesto Tapenes in a drive-by shooting on Hallandale Beach Boulevard in unincorporated Broward.

Last year, 100 gang members countywide were arrested 315 times, Fort Lauderdale police say. Violent crime accounted for 20 percent of those arrests. The emerging problem is so evident that a national gang expert, Dr. Ronald Huff, recently chose Broward as one of two sites for a federally funded gang research project.

The community's grandest attempt at addressing gangs emerged in October 1990 with the formation of the Broward County Delinquency and Gang Prevention Council.

A consortium of representatives, including police officers and social services administrators, the council does not deal directly with gang members or their parents.

Its budget totals $150,000. But nearly $140,000 of that pays the salaries of three staff members, said Hal Wiggin, the council's administrator. The rest covers operating costs.

The council primarily gathers information, including draft recommendations for a proposed comprehensive juvenile justice plan. They include: youth job training, a juvenile justice institute, nighttime programs and drop-in centers.

A board of directors will meet in December to review the ideas, Wiggin said.

With the lack of gang-related programs, it's often left to individuals, rather than organizations, to make a difference.

Parents of gang members who do turn to existing rehabilitation programs may end up disappointed. Or shocked.

Dawn Gerstler's 17-year-old son started a gang right under the noses of administrators at The Starting Place, a live-in rehabilitation program. During his stay, he formed The Room II Gang with three rival gang members after they won weekly awards for keeping their room exceptionally clean.

When a Broward Multi-Agency Gang Task Force was formed in the late 1980s, virtually every city designated at least one gang unit officer. Even though the problem has gotten worse, some cities with active gangs, such as Coral Springs and Plantation, rely on one officer each.

Sunrise detective Donald Cannon said the first contact with a gang member is the most difficult, because kids are reluctant to squeal on their peers.

"But I explain that we're going to deal with the level of respect," he said. "I say, 'If I ask you to do something, please do it. If you break the law, I'm going to arrest you. That's my job, it's nothing personal.' "

At the Boys and Girls Club of Broward County in Fort Lauderdale, director Jeff Nichols has also had some success in dealing one-on-one with gang kids.

Nichols attracted teenagers to the club by going out into neighborhoods. He talked and played basketball with kids, some of whom were gang members.

"Next thing we knew, we had guys in the club, lifting weights and getting involved in the basketball program," said Nichols. "Most of the time I try to tell them that there is a certain kind of gang that's not bad, and that's a friendship gang."

Alma Cortes, a former Miami gang detective, found gang members receptive to a drop-in center she ran that stayed open until 2 a.m. for weekend dances at the Pine Island Ridge Shopping Center in Davie. But the center was shut down in 1990 after its landlord received complaints about the crowds.

By and large, though, most organized arenas hold little appeal for the hard-core, violent kids who want to skirt adult supervision and spend much of their lives on the fringe of society.

Even other suburban teenagers with good intentions say they stick to their gangs out of inertia and boredom.

"I think I'm a somewhat decent person," says "Doctor Tac," adding at times he's tried to avoid Most Powerful Nation, the gang he belongs to. "But it gets boring because there's nothing to do."

A real gap exists, says Felix Cruz, the Broward School Board's youth gang liaison.

"The safety net is usually structured for those who would already get help easily," Cruz says. "Gang kids, because of the nature of why they're thrown out of school, usually don't get any support at all.

"In Broward, no one catches these kids."