'THUG LIFE'
Thug life can be short. Some gang members and their associates grow out of it, but some - like Fort Wayne homicide victims Contrell L. Brown, 18, and Randall D. Paris, 17, both gunned down in March 2008 - don't get to grow up. Brown's family said his death was the result of a feud between the gangs D-Boyz and the PAC.
Not calling them gangs didn't make them go away. Before the Fort Wayne gang unit was formed in July, police typically referred to gangs as "cliques," a term that conjures up images of the cool kids at high school more than a group of thugs terrorizing neighborhoods. Officials with the unit still refuse to identify Fort Wayne's gangs by name, saying publicity encourages them, and Allen County Prosecutor Karen Richards has said calling criminals gang members makes it harder to convict them because of the strict legal definition of a gang. Euphemisms, however, don't reduce gang violence.
Three disturbing images were confiscated from the cell phone of a Fort Wayne Community Schools student. In one, a young man cradles an assault rifle. In another, a youth holds a pistol, and in the third, three brandish guns in the parking lot of a Fort Wayne school. Two are believed to be members of a gang of Bosnian immigrants, the third a member of a local black street gang.
Listen to Evan Goodenow's interview on Northeast Indiana Public Radio, WBOI, 89.1-FM.
