Gangs: One of Their Own

has a small number of gang members in its student population, but that doesn’t mean the school isn’t challenged with organized youth troublemakers.

Cpl. Mike Rudinski, of the Hyattsville Police Department, is the school’s resource officer and an expert on gangs.

“[I’m] not doing this —it doesn’t,” he said. “It’s not [specific] to this area. Not one ethnicity, not one community. This is young people and the stuff they go through.”

Rudinski spoke March 22 at the second of two city-sponsored forums for residents to become familiar with gang activity in the area.

While certain gang names are well known to locals, Patch is withholding their titles because gangs tend to earn traction when their names are displayed by media, Rudinski said.

Gangs are now recruiting at middle and elementary schools, he said. Generally, youth join gangs for love, discipline, identity, recognition and belonging. But Rudinski said he thinks gang membership is mostly about protection.

According to most local youth, bullying and gang recruitment starts about sixth-grade, he said. Kids who are bullied tend to join together and might start picking on the people who bullied them. Those groups often give themselves a name and morph into gangs.

Gang recruitment tends to center around subterfuge, seduction, obligation and coersion. At Northwestern, the student population represents 30 countries and 60 different languages. Immigrants often get sucked into gangs because they end up “owning” the gang for providing things like clothing and identity, Rudinski said.

The “glamorous lifestyle” that gang members live also tends to serve as a vortex for gang recruitment. But it’s not just about rap music, Rudinski, who is also a deejay, said.

Many gangs are represented in sports and in the United States military, he said. In the 90s, gangs were the most popular form of alternative lifestyle for youth.

Northwestern’s gang issues began around 2002.

Showing their true colors

Traditionally, gangs wear clothing or a portion of clothing that matches—like a certain color. But they also tend to wear jewelry, tattoos, and shoes that define their gang status.

Once authorities began linking certain colors with gangs, the tactic shifted and some gang members started using religious symbols as their mode of identification.

In 2003, local gang members started wearing shirts with the Virgin Mary on them because authorities prohibited their gang color from school attire.

But schools cannot prohibit students from wearing clothing that is a requirement of the students’ religious practices. Nowadays, gang members often wear Muslim religious attire as their outer identification, Rudinski said.

Local students interviewed said school uniforms are unsafe because they may end up wearing the color of a certain gang, he said. That could pose a problem for students, especially as they walk home from school. Many students change their clothes immediately after school and stuff their uniforms into their lockers, Rudinski said.

What you can do

Rudinski suggests a number of things parents can do to help their children dodge gang affiliation:

• Listen;

• Develop their self-esteem;

• Meet their friends and other parents;

• Talk about their hopes and concerns;

• Require accountability for their time and money;

• Encourage good study habits; and

• Show respect for their feelings.

It’s also vital that parents be good role models for their children, he said. Some parents Rudinski interacts with don’t see the problem with their child being in a gang and are often gang members themselves.

The Department of Justice offers a parents’ quick reference guide with much of this information.