DESIGNER LABELS

It's not illegal to be a gang member. The US Constitution guarantees everyone the right to freedom of association and this association is the essence of gang membership. Gangs have their own distinct culture, adopt particular modes of dress, and use signs, symbols and code words to identify their members. This is also true of many other fraternal organizations but if being a Blood or a Crip was per se illegal, membership in the Rotary Club could also be banned. It's somewhat ironic that street gangs as social entities receive the same protections as any civic organization.

This is not to say that the Rotary Club is a subversive or criminal organization. On the contrary, clubs like these, work for the benefit of society as a whole. Urban street gangs, engaging in criminal activities do not. The operative phrase, of course is "engaging in criminal activities" so that an organization's focus and its members' activities can be suppressed by law enforcement. But first, the police need to have means of distinguishing gang bangers from Rotarians.

How do they do it?

Jimmy G hears through the grapevine that some detectives want to talk to him about a recent homicide. He knows he's not involved so  he does the right thing and reports to the local precinct to see if he can be of assistance. When he gets there, several detectives from the Gang Investigation Unit sit down with Jimmy G in an interview room and read him the Miranda Warning. The detectives begin to ask the standard pedigree questions: "Full Name", "Address", "DOB", "SSN" which Jimmy politely answers. Nothing Jimmy says can get him into trouble until they get to the part about "Marks, Scars and Tattoos."  Jimmy G has a number of tattoos.

Many law enforcement agencies use checklists to identify gang members. This is useful in a correctional setting because classification officers can identify members of "Security Threat Groups"  to determine custody levels or to place gang members in separate housing units in a attempt to ward off potential conflicts. (For more information on gang classification in prisons, see:

A Jailhouse Lawyer’s Manual,  Columbia Human Rights Law Review 8th Edition 2009 http://www3.law.columbia.edu/hrlr/JLM/Chapter_31.pdf )

Among the indicators police use to determine if someone is involved with a gang are:

Display of Colors (clothing including sneakers, hats, beads  and bandanas)

Photographs of a Suspect Posing with Known Gang Members

Associating with Known Gang Members

Flashing Gang Signs (usually in photographs but also observed in surveillances)

Making Gang Related Graffiti

Voluntary Admission of Gang Affiliation

Gang Tattoos or Markings (scars or burns)

Any two of these indicators  recorded by law enforcement can result in someone being identified as a known gang member. The individual will be associated with this label for as long as he or she has contact with the justice system. For the hard core gangster, this may be a plus but no for someone with only peripheral gang involvement.

The Constitution guarantees the right against self-incrimination in a custodial interview and a request to admit to having certain marks, scars or tattoos should not fall into this forbidden area of inquiry. However, in Jimmy G's case, the answer to this identification question can become an admission against his own interest and there is not much that either he or his lawyer can do about it. The consequences of this label can be quite substantial: Increased scrutiny of one's daily activities, exposure to enhanced penalties if charged with a gang related crime and more severe treatment by correctional authoities if convicted and sent to prison.

GANGS 101

If you want to learn about urban street gangs there are many, many ways to get this information. Cable channels like NATGEOTV and Discovery devote a huge chunk of their programming dollars to this subject with documentary-style shows that cover most of the major street gangs and profile some of the more prominent gang members; often including commentary from OG's (Original Gangsters, a/k/a senior or founding gang members).

There is a wealth of information on the Internet. Type a few key words relating to street gangs into the search engine of your choice and within seconds, you'll have access to more information than you can digest in a month. Please note, I'm not endorsing any of the web sites which appear in this post. They are included for illustrative purposes only.
This information runs the gamut from law enforcement websites USDOJ Office of Justice Programs and US Bureau of Justice Assistance which publish treatises such as the Gang Prosecution Manual and Urban Street Gang Enforcement (here are the  links):

http://www.nationalgangcenter.gov/Content/Documents/Gang-Prosecution-Manual.pdf   https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/161845.pdf 

to informational websites aimed at providing general knowledge of gang culture and gang prevention

http://www.gangsorus.com/
http://www.gangpreventionservices.org/
http://www.great-online.org/

When you consider all of the "authoritative" Internet data, as well as everything relating to gangs posted on social networking, video sharing sites and personal web pages; it possible to get a very good idea of what gang history, culture and organization is all about.  To be sure, intimate knowledge of gang life is granted only to a privileged few but in many ways urban street gangs are more transparent than organizations like the Masons or the Elks.

So why is it that the various "gang investigator associations" restrict general membership to law enforcement, probation, corrections and prosecutors? Why is that defense investigators can't join these groups and receive the same training? What is the big secret?

I think the big secret is that by limiting this "gang training" to law enforcement and associated professions, a police "gang expert" who is "certified" is assumed to be more credible than a defense witness testifying in the same subject area but based his or her own area of gang expertise. In the DOJ Gang Prosecution Manual's section on "Gang Expert Qualification",  two of the qualifiers relate to membership in a gang investigator's association.

Interestingly, it appears that many of the other qualifiers listed in this section also apply to the defense, especially for an investigator who has had substantial contact working with gang members. Anyone familiar with the story of graduate student, Sudhir Venkatesh, currenty a sociology professor at Columbia University will realize that working closely with gang members in any capacity can build expertise on gang life.

For those of you not familiar with this story, the short version is that while he was working on a study of race, poverty and crime, Venkatesh was held captive by a gang for two days. He was not harmed and eventually developed a rapport with the leader of the gang, giving him unprecedented access to the gang's inner workings. A longer version of the story can be found in Freakonomics by Levitt and Dubner in the chapter entitled Why Do Drug Dealers Live With Their Mothers?

The question of "who is an expert?" may become moot in the not too distant future. I've heard from some gang detectives that in certain jurisdictions, law enforcement investigators are beginning to eschew the notion that someone is a "certified gang expert," because the nature of the urban street gang is constantly in a state of flux. Gang identifiers (like colors or signs) change as gangs evolve, adapt to changes in the community, merge, regroup or dissolve. The expert title is becoming too difficult to maintain.

In the end, it's important to understand the basic Who, What, Why and How of urban street gangs, if for no other reason than it may help us to better communicate with the client accused of a gang related crime.

Tales of a Public Defender Investigator

Tales of a Public Defender Investigator

This lovely young lady pictured here was one of more than 300 NDIA members in attendance at the NDIA 2012 Regional Conference in Atlanta last month.

NDIA National Conference Highlights

Many people are afraid of guns. I say this not to begin a Second Amendment debate but to raise the point that in our line of work, having a fear of guns is counterproductive. We're going to be assigned to homicide, assault, robbery and felon-in-possession cases; any of which may involve a firearm.

In my opinion, firearms represent a means to an end, i.e. they are instruments designed to deploy deadly force. It is up to the user to deploy this force under justifiable circumstances. When these circumstances are called inwto question, defense investigators are called into action. It is essential to develop a healthy RESPECT for firearms.

Even though many of the cases we work on as defense investigators do involve guns, many of us are not familiar with these weapons. It's nothing to be ashamed of. Unless you've served in the military, worked in law enforcement or just enjoy target shooting, you've probably never ever deen "up close and personal" with a firearm. This can put you at a real disadvantage when you have to investigate one of these cases. 

To help meet this need, the National Defender Investigator Association conference planners offered some practical experience in the conference agenda by including a seminar entitled "Hands-on Introduction to Firearms", taught by Philip Crumbacker, a Certified Firearms Instructor. In a previous life, Phil was an ESU team member who knows what it's like to rappel from a heilcopter hovering at an altitude of 200 feet.

Phil was kind enough to come down to Georgia and bring numerous firearms including pistols, (my personal favorite was the Glock Model 23) rifles and of course the shotgun shown here. He explained how the various weapons worked and how to handle them safely. Phil also brought dummy ammunition and gave the students ample time to examine his aresnal. The session was so popular, it was offered  both days of the conference.