Many in the law enforcement community admit that they don’t have all the resources and knowledge to effectively crackdown on criminal street gang activity—which is rapidly spreading across the Commonwealth.
During its second annual “Nuts and Bolts” training, the Attorney General’s office used information obtained during a recent gang leader’s trial to help provide those tools.
In recent years, talk of gang activity referred to “MS-13” in Northern Virginia, but now gang recruitment statewide is synonymous with the name “Latin Kings.” The arrest and trial of member Sergio Salcedo taught law enforcement about the group’s colors, gang signs, and tattoos—and that gangs now use technology and social media for recruitment. And while many people migrated from the once-popular Myspace to Facebook, gangs began using the less scrutinized Myspace. Attorney General Ken Cucinnelli told attendees that they must learn how to process a case effectively and ALSO how to dry up gang recruitment.
“Obviously you heard me talking about prevention as well and once they learn about the scope of the threat they’re dealing with and so forth, you know a lot of law enforcement folks–some of these folks will end up as school resource officers and other things. And so we know they’ll find their way into prevention positions and we want to give them those tools too, which is why they’re in there now watching the Big Lie,” he said.
The “Big Lie” is a training video for students and others in which gang members explain their top lies to recruit kids. It’s especially effective in helping divert young girls from human trafficking.
Virginia Public Radio 