Zoe Pound Gang

About five years ago, Patrice, 19, joined the Crips for the reason that most teenage gang members do. His best friend was in it. “If one person is in it, then you’re all in it,” Patrice, then a Flatbush resident, said. “The people in your neighborhood have to be in it.” Patrice, who is known as “Blaze” already knew the Crips, a national gang with sets in many cities, that were in his neighborhood. His older brother was a Crip who robbed people. And he had a female cousin who was a Blood, the Crips’ main rival. After the required ceremonial six-minute fight with a Crip, to see how tough he was, Patrice became a gang member officially at age 14. “Gangs now are about making money,” Patrice said. “They see it’s useless to fight just for a color. So you just go about your business.” Motivation for joining gangs still exists, but the groups are less active now. In New York’s Haitian neighborhoods, many Haitian youngsters were part of the Crips, Bloods, Haitian Mafia and True Haitians, groups defined as gangs by law enforcement agencies. These Haitian-Americans said they had had enough disrespect, so they banded to defend themselves. Some combined their affiliations and are known as Haitian Mafia Crips and Haitian Mafia Bloods. Others, including Haitian residents, have a different view. They say teenagers who join gangs are weaklings who cannot stand up for themselves and who will hurt people to get what they want. Some researchers say that is a simplistic way to look at a complex issue that is the result of a variety of social policies. They say what these gang members often want are basic necessities like food and shelter that society denies them. What needs to change is the way that the police, schools, churches, and even their parents see them as criminals. They say programs to get them off the streets need to be developed. As many Haitian parents say when advising their children on picking friends, if one person is arrested and is wearing a gang’s colors, the whole gang comes under scrutiny. “Gangs are not about stealing and robbing, people hanging out causing trouble,” said Lexxus, a 20-year-old Flatbush Crip for about six years. “That’s what people make it seem, but it’s not like that. It’s an organization.” The way Patrice described their weekly meeting at a local park in Flatbush sounds like the way a corporate board meeting or church gathering might be run. Instead of suits and ties though, the local leader, or head, and the initiates wear blue outfits, usually denim, and tie blue, white or gray “flags” (bandannas) around their heads, on their wrists, or have them hanging out of the left pocket. This “head” would speak to the 50 to 100 youngsters standing or sitting around him about old and new business. They’d discuss who has a beef, decide when to fight the offender to “get respect,” as Patrice puts it; and talk about how to get money, either by selling guns and drugs, or by robbing people and stores. Some would just listen because they weren’t involved in criminal acts. They were there for fights with rivals or people who disrespected them. Staring at members and throwing up the hand signals are considered offensive. If a Crip walks by a group of Bloods and yells out “Blood Killer,” there would be trouble; and vice versa. And last but not least, each member would contribute money to the “pot,” which Patrice said went for things like buying guns. But Patrice, who attends a community college now, says those meetings were typical about five years ago. Meetings became less frequent, people moved out of the neighborhoods, like he did, or moved on to college and full-time jobs. Others who were dealing drugs, carrying weapons or robbing people and stores are either doing time in prison, on probation, or dead. When a new arrival from Haiti comes, someone in the neighborhood might take him under his wing to show him the ropes. They encourage each other to pursue positive things, and not to rob and steal, said Patrice. It’s not about status, having a nice car or even girls, although they do try to “bag” as many as they can. What it’s about is learning how to act, Lexxus said. “Gangs teach you that you could make it in life,” said Lexxus, who does odd jobs for a living. “You get mad love from people. When you walk down the street and people give you a pound, that’s respect. It’s about respect.” James “Miami” André said when he first came to Flatbush from Miami, it was a Crip friend who introduced him around. He eventually joined the gang, since he hung out with them anyway. During the eight months he was a regular member, the worse thing he ever had to do was buy beer and food for the other guys sometimes because he was working and they weren’t. He liked the feeling of brotherhood and, he said, “when you’re not working, it’s natural to just fall into hanging out.” When he got a security guard job, André said he hung out with them less and less, until they drifted away. “It wasn’t anything serious,” André, 22, said. He realized that, “Man can’t protect man. It’s up to God and staying cool is your protection.” Money is and has always been the “in” thing to get. A popular way to make money is by throwing parties. Occasions where rivals could reap revenge if necessary. Such was the case when William Jo, 28, was home one Saturday night last year. The 25th Street and Cortelyou Road resident was shot in the arm after a dispute escalated to guns being drawn. The two who argued were from different blocks with their own cliques, Jo said. He and several others were hurt by stray bullets. Not all gang members try to “get that money” legitimately. Instead of working at it, they take the easier, faster, and more dangerous way because that’s what they’ve seen growing up. Some of them are high school dropouts or employed as security guards, stock clerks, messengers, construction workers and other non-professional jobs, and think it’s fine to “make a little money off the streets” to supplement their regular jobs. “If members of an organization continue to belong to it knowing that there are people in it committing crimes, then their purpose [of defending themselves] is lost,” said John Moore, director of the National Youth Gang Center based in Tallahassee, Fla. “You have to ask yourself what the point is.” Dr. Jean-Claude Compas, a Haitian community activist, said the Haitian street gangs served their purpose as protectors and defenders, like immigrant groups such as the Irish, Italians and Puerto Ricans did in the 20th century to survive harassment as they adjusted to American life. But as individuals in the groups matured, some of them began committing crimes. He said there have been robberies in Flatbush, for example, where the attackers spoke Creole to their victims. “It’s not any different from any stage that other communities went through,” Compas said. “With Haitians, the first generation seems to be less prepared to face the challenges.” Haitian-Americans in their 20s say the gangs evolved out of their need to protect themselves from harassment by English-speaking peers. In the 1980s and early 1990s, most of them suffered from the stigma. A multitude of stereotypes came with the label “Haitian,” among them “boat people,” AIDS-carriers, and smelly. HBO once stood for “Haitian Body Odor.” Prior to the 1980s migration by boats, Haitians were taunted because they were foreign, dressed differently, ate their own foods, spoke little English, and were called “Frenchie” because they spoke French. “Back in the day, you got beat up just for saying you’re Haitian,” said William Jo, who told neighborhood kids he was from Canada when he first arrived from Haiti in the early 1980’s. “Now, you could walk around late [at night]. You’re proud to be Haitian.” In New Jersey, Massachusetts and Florida, similar groups arose out of the neighborhoods with a concentration of Haitians. But somewhere along the way, many of the defense mechanisms turned into criminal enterprises, activists say. South Florida’s Haitian gangs became infamous because they were vicious and involved in drug trafficking. Gangs like the Zoe Pound, Haitian Zulus, Haitian Terrorists, 82nd Street Boys, and Sabal Palm Boys once terrorized both Haitian and non-Haitian neighborhoods throughout the area. Some of their members traveled north to as far as Georgia before police curbed their activities. According to Commander Gary Eugene of the Miami Police Department, Bad Boyz II—the hit movie starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence released last month that featured Haitian gangs—boosted the Zoe Pound’s egos and have caused a surge in their activity. In Miami, many young thugs’ crime of choice is stealing cars. That too is connected to media images, Eugene said. Specifically, the release of Grand Theft Auto, Vice City—the video game set in Miami which features Haitian gangs in Little Haiti—has also contributed to the increase in car theft. “Back in the day, a 16-year-old wouldn’t spend no time in prison,” said Jo. “The system was easier. Streetwise, it was harder; it’s still rough, but it’s not as rough.” With legislation like New York State’s Rockefeller Drug Laws, which require harsh prison terms for the possession or sale of relatively small amounts of drugs, many youth are serving time for possessing small amounts of illegal drugs. New York City police now patrol the schools, making it easier to arrest students and put them through the criminal justice system. Of the nation’s 58,604,000 people aged 10 to 24, at least 770,000 are street gang members, the National Youth Gang Center reports. Most of them are in Los Angeles County, Los Angeles City and Chicago. The New York City and Miami police departments did not have the statistics for gangs in their cities immediately available. Moore said those two cities did not participate in the annual survey by the National Youth Gang Center, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Justice. Moore said gang activity had been stabilized nationwide, but there was an increase in large cities. He attributed the change to anti-gang resources being switched to counter-terrorism units, and to economic hardships. When people don’t have any money and times are rough, some turn to crime, he said. According to the Correctional Association of New York, a group that advocates for alternatives to prison, 5,044 juveniles—youngsters up to 16 years old—were admitted to New York City jails in 2002, an average of 418 going in and out daily. In 2001, New York State’s Office of Children and Family Services admitted 2,202 juveniles in New York State’s prisons. There were about 3,440 youngsters were imprisoned on any given day in state prisons in 2001. The downside of the neighborhood “families” is that some of their members ended up dead. Since a lot of the fighting took place around their schools, many students were expelled. Now in their 20s, some are working toward their high school equivalency diplomas or trying to enter college. Yet, the need for love, belonging and protection continues to motivate teenagers. Joining the Crips about nine months ago was a rational decision for John Pierre, 16. Others called him names and he got into fights, so he wanted to put a stop to it. Getting in was easy enough—all he had to do was fight another Crip, the ritual test they must all pass to be official. That day, their leader blessed his flag. “Ain’t nothin’ good [about being in a gang], it’s just about respect,” Pierre said. “They used to say I’m [afraid]. Now they can’t.” The only time Pierre fights now is when people “talk nonsense like F--- Crips,” he said. “If we have beef with other people, then we go fight.” Several groups have to take action in order to weed out the bad elements and plant new ideas that would direct the youth to better futures, experts say. Compas said many Haitian parents are so busy working several jobs that they do not make time for their children. They assume, wrongly, that their children will come home straight from school and stay in the house, but that is not the case. When parents do not spend time with their children or show interest in their lives, they go out in the streets looking for substitutes for that love and life lessons. Police Officer Jim Johnson, head of the 69th Precinct’s Explorers, a youth gang prevention program in Canarsie, said there are teenagers who pretend not to care about anything and those who actually don’t care. Since working with youngsters in 1998, he has seen those who do care break down only after they are arrested. “It’s not about the gang,” Officer Johnson said. “It’s about losing track of the child. It’s not what they’re running to, but what they’re running from.” “There’s a lot of anger because they are hurt—they don’t know how to deal with the world,” Johnson said. “[But] gangs understand your children.” Marcelin said the Haitian community organizations and parents have to understand gangs. Their behavior is a result of family issues and opportunities denied; other ethnicities do the same things, but the Haitian youth are simply more visible because they hang out in the streets, Marcelin said. Marcelin, whose report “Trends in Drug Use and Gang Activities Among Haitian Youth,” said the response to the violent youth gangs should be multi-pronged. Policymakers have to create guidelines that would affect schools, police, health, community organizations and other institutions in such a way that they would be better equipped to deal with children at risk. “It’s an issue for everybody, not just adolescents,” Marcelin said. “The agencies have to turn the data [on gangs] into activities for the kids.”