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Not just a city problem: Gang activity increases in Harrisburg’s suburbs

Patriot-News - 3/5/2020

Gang activity in Dauphin and Cumberland counties doesn’t observe municipal boundaries.

No gangs call Susquehanna Township home, but police say the municipality has been seeing increased gang activity, connected with Harrisburg’s street gangs. And Steelton police say they have identified, for the first time, a gang based in the borough.

Farther from Harrisburg, the borough of Carlisle is not battling street gangs, but the quiet presence of nationally-affiliated gangs such as the Bloods and Crips, whose leaders come from cities such as Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York.

Carlisle police Cpl. Jeffrey Kurtz said officers at times have seen members of larger, nationally-affiliated gangs move to the borough and recruit local young people to form a “set” to sell drugs. Right now the borough is aware of one such set with five to 10 members.

The new “sets” strategically don’t make waves in the borough, Kurtz said. Police don’t hear gang names or see graffiti or other obvious signs of gang activity.

"They don’t boldly identify as Blood or Crip, and they don’t run around together like that, because it would draw law enforcement attention, Kurtz said. “When they’re down here selling crack, cocaine, heroin or whatever, they’re fully aware if they try to start rivalries and fights, that they’re going to get our attention.”

In some of the more criminally-sophisticated local “sets," the leaders switch out, working in the borough only four or five months and then moving on to a different area.

They do that to try to stay ahead of the law, Kurtz said.

When a big-city gang leader comes to the borough, the person often uses that image to gain clout, Kurtz said. Whereas the person may have been a low-level gang member in their big city, when they come to the borough, they become a “bigger fish” in the smaller pond. They often try to flaunt that tough-guy persona to draw in young “soldiers” and attract the attention of women, he said.

“They’ll also use that to intimidate local users,” he said.

A few years back, a high-ranking member of the Bloods gang was operating in Carlisle, Kurtz said, and other Blood members who wanted to come to Carlisle to sell drugs had to abide by his rules, even though they were in a different set, Kurtz said.

“We knew we had Blood sets coming in from New Jersey and New York, but they still had to pay allegiance to this guy,” he said. “He settled all disputes...What he said was final."

If a dispute required some sort of retaliation, it would be discreet and targeted, Kurtz said, unlike some of the wild daylight shootings seen in Harrisburg, such as a shootout last week that left 74 shell casings in a neighborhood.

“They were very careful not to let internal disputes draw our attention,” he said.

When police crack down on gang leaders in Carlisle, the time the suspects spend in jail can have an unintended consequence of helping their recruiting efforts “from a rich ground of potential associates,” Kurtz said.

“They can build relationships, alliances and enemies while behind bars. They establish future trade partners.”

Kurtz said he could not think of any recent shootings or homicides in the borough that stemmed from gang activity. There have not been any home invasion robberies either, but Kurtz said it’s hard to know whether that means it’s not happening, or that victims simply aren’t reporting the crimes because of an illegal drug angle.

“Thankfully, the average citizen is not affected by this other than through the normal crime patterns,” Kurtz said. “We’re not seeing a big push or big problems.”

Police officers who work in Cumberland County meet monthly with other agencies to share crime information, and meet quarterly with state police. Gang information can be shared at those meetings, or through the relationships those meetings have created among officers from different agencies.

“We try to share information quickly,” Kurtz said. “We like to keep everyone informed.”

Whereas gangs used to be mostly confined to a specific geographic area, technology advances and better mobility means gang members now can live anywhere. Some people who associated with gangs in a city can move into a suburb and maintain their connection, police said.

Susquehanna Township police said most of the gang activity they see extends from Harrisburg into the township.

“The frequency has increased over the last several years, but that is within Dauphin County as a whole,” said Susquehanna Township Detective Darryl Brown. “Unlike the national gangs, our local gangs do not necessarily follow logo and colors, but they do flash the hand signs.”

Drug sales are ingrained in the gang culture, Brown said, and some members join primarily to make money. But young people also join gangs for a sense of belonging, excitement, acceptance, and a sense of protection/security from the gangs, Brown said.

Upper Allen Police Chief James Adams said he was not aware of any gangs operating in the township. But he noted that gang activity from the city affects most Central Pennsylvania municipalities.

“While we will not deny that we at times interact with a single gang member and/or a wanna-be gang member, there has been nothing to suggest true gang-related activity,” he said, “especially to the level that I understand the cities are dealing with on a regular basis.”

In Steelton, police say they have identified one gang based in the borough that has 20 to 25 members.

“It’s kids who have been in trouble before, who met others,” said Detective Sgt. Bill Schaub. “Some live in Steelton or Swatara or Susquehanna Township. And they all come together through the common area of being arrested/detained.”

In Schaub’s 22-year career, he said he previously hadn’t seen any such gang “strongholds.”

“Before, they were all loosely affiliated,” he said. “They’d changed names and gangs every four to five weeks. It’s not like the stronghold we’re seeing now. That’s relatively new to the borough. I can’t say they’re taking root, but they are more developed than in the past.”

There haven’t been any gang-related shootings in Steelton, Schaub said. Instead, gang members mostly participate in crimes of opportunity, he said.

Swatara Township police Cpl. Isaac Levine said gangs aren’t exclusive to any municipality, not the city nor any township.

“There are a distinct number of gangs,” he said, while declining to provide a number. “Suffice it to say, they are here.”

Gangs never really “go away,” Levine said. Instead, they may simply change their name.

The members are mostly “kids,” who may change gangs due to ever-changing loyalty, he said.

Youths who claim gang membership fight a lot in school, he said. Their crimes on the street mostly involve drugs, guns and stolen vehicles.

While city gangs, and those in Carlisle, often focus on drug-dealing, Levine said his experience with gang members shows they are focusing on guns and stealing cars.

“They all sell drugs, but it’s more for themselves, not for the gang to make money,” he said. “They are selling a lot of heroin. But they also do a lot of property crimes, a lot of stolen cars and guns. That’s their big thing. If you offered them $300 or a stolen car to roll around in, a lot of them would take the car. It’s a pride thing.”

The potential for violence and drug and property crimes are the biggest concern to Brown, of Susquehanna Township. There are a large number of cases getting referred to county investigators that “are a direct result of this gang activity,” he said.

“The other concern," he said, "is the age range for the gang activity is very wide, and it is disheartening to see juveniles at such a young age exposing themselves to that lifestyle that could have permanent or long lasting effects that jeopardize their futures.”

READ: Gangs of Harrisburg: Police battle daytime shootings linked to shadowy conflicts

READ: Harrisburg gangs linked to 15 shootings, 130+ bullets, 16 arrests in last year

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