Bahamas: More than 20,000 young people involved in gangs

'20,000' in street gangs
By NOELLE NICOLLS
Tribune Staff Reporter
nnicolls@tribunemedia.net:


THE gang problem in the Bahamas affects more than 20,000 young people, according to a Bahamian gang expert, and the number is on the rise.

Pastor Carlos Reid is set to release an updated gang list this week, a document produced by the community-based non-profit Youth Against Violence, which he leads. The list details the schools and communities that are "contaminated" with gangs.

Ridgeland Park and the Grove are two communities featured on the list. They are said to have gangs that are involved in "wars" and "cross rivalry", according to St Cecelia Member of Parliament Cynthia "Mother" Pratt, who recently sounded the alarm.

She claims both communities are engaged in an endless spree of retaliations that are affecting the community.

Pastor Reid said the Grove has several gangs on the list, including the Grove Boys. He said the Jungalist gang occupies Ridgeland Park.

The gang listing was first brought out in 1997. It was last updated in 2002, when more than 50 gangs were listed. It has grown since then.

"A lot of the killings we have seen this year are retaliation killings. When someone gets killed, you are not just getting rid of that person, because that person is attached to an immediate family and an extended family, the gang. The mentality is, when you kill one of us, in most cases we have to take one of your own," said Pastor Reid..

"Almost every community has a feud going on with a different community. We have not properly addressed the issue of gangs. We have allowed situations to breed, and a lot of the people in the position to make a difference don't have a clue about what is going on," he said.

Poinciana Drive is still known as "the Gaza Strip", according to Pastor Reid. It is the meeting ground of four different gang territories (Gun Dogs, Pond Boys, Rebellions and Nike Boys), and four different schools (CC Sweeting, HO Nash, TA Thompson and CR Walker).

The Balliou Hill playing fields is known as the "killing fields", according to Pastor Reid, who said, "every day there is a fight going on out there".

"Let us look at Government High School. When you have to walk through Yellow Elder, where the Hornets are, if you are a Rebellion they know and you are getting it," said Pastor Reid.

Once a student lives in a certain area, they are automatically assumed to be in a "particular click". A GHS student said there was a fight in school yesterday because of gangs. The fight was sparked because a student from the Grove "trespassed" in Rebellion territory.

"Take CI Gibson. The Hoyas from Kemp Road believe they own that school, so as far as they are concerned, no one else is supposed to be in that school," said Pastor Fox.

However, students from the Fox Hill Dogs, Nassau Village Rebellions and the Mad Ass from Wulff Road all go to the same school.

"Now think about this. If you know someone wants to chap you up and kill you, do you really think you can focus on your school work. The only thing you are thinking about is how am I going to get out of here after school," he said.

Pastor Reid is certified in gang prevention and intervention skills by the National Gang and Crime Research Centre of the United States of America.

He is also the lead pastor at the Hope Centre Ministries, which runs several youth outreach programmes, including a suspension programme.

The Hope Centre and Youth Against Violence are hosting a Conflict Resolution and Manger Management Seminar this week, where they plan to release the updated gang listing.

Minister Keith Grey, also a certified gang prevention and intervention specialist, is one of the presenters at the seminar. He was one of the founders of the Rebellion Raiders.

Pastor Keith said the Rebellion gang is still the largest gang in the Bahamas. Its members boast of having 14 segments across the island, from Elizabeth Estates to Carmichael, Road.

It was started in the early 1980s "to rebel against the Syndicates, which was one of the earliest gangs formed that had some structure", said Pastor Reid.

"The same things they formed to rebel against, they started doing, so the other gangs started coming up to rebel against the Rebellions," he said.

Bahamian gangs are not constituted in the same way as American gangs, or Jamaican gangs. Pastor Reid said American gangs are "more organised crime gangs", and Jamaican gangs are "political gangs".

Organised crime gangs are often underground organisations that run the entire community, including housing projects, businesses and politicians.

"It doesn't mean we don't have gangs. We basically have youth gangs. The problem is, America started off just as we did and we don't want to get where America is," said Pastor Reid.

"We are seeing the formation of these groups really to protect themselves. To be honest, in the Bahamas, just being by yourself is a risk.

"Most of the youth gangs they will mess with you just because they see you walking by yourself and you might have something on you that they want: watch, chain, shoes," he said.

September 29, 2010

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