Reply #5: Newburgh's gang members: Jobless, hopeless and young [View All]

[mdmc]

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100418/NEWS/4180319

City cops say one gang or another claims every street, every corner in downtown Newburgh. A teen gangster's killing in January followed by back-to-back gang-related homicides in March focused local, state and national attention on a problem that was years in the making.

FBI agents began speaking out at city meetings. Politicians all the way to the federal level took a renewed interest in Newburgh. The U.S. attorney general promised to send a top official for an in-person assessment.

Along with the killings, city police blame the gangs for shootings, machete attacks and the never-ending drug trade. Responding to gang violence has become a near-daily exercise in reaction and containment.

It starts early with the schools' staggered dismissals. Cops know from experience that if they let the early-dismissal students hang on the corners, the arrival of the second wave of kids can kick off giant brawls between gang members or gang members and unaffiliated kids. The fight on Wednesday at South and Dubois first began on the other side of Downing Park, when clusters of teens began to swell near Robinson Avenue. It reignited at South and Liberty streets minutes later.