This is the hardest column I have ever had to write.
Last week, I received a call from a man whom I have known my entire life, and he was choking back tears as he told me that he had just received the news that his grandson was found earlier that morning shot to death, a victim of what the police believe was gang violence.
The boy had only hours earlier celebrated his 16th birthday with his family.
This murder was not covered in the local press because it did not occur in the CSRA, but in another Georgia city that is about the same size and makeup as Augusta.
While I am not going to identify the young man involved or speculate on the circumstances of the death, I will disclose that he came from a loving Christian family, and he was neither neglected and allowed to roam the streets, nor the child of privilege run amok. It appears that he simply made a fatal association on the school playground.
Yes, the school playground.
My job requires me to set aside my own emotions and simply deal in facts; the fact is, gang violence is getting worse, and both the victims and perpetrators are getting younger and younger.
Superior Court Judge Daniel Craig agrees with me that, absent the religious aspect, street gangs are cults. They prey upon the vulnerable and provide them with an alternative “family.” Before the initiation begins, grooming and brainwashing takes place.
These children are indoctrinated to view crime as having no more of a consequence than a playing a video game.
Social media is, for kids, an extension of the playground and a highly effective way for gangs to recruit and brainwash children.
According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, it is most often peer pressure that drives children into the maleficent arms of gangs. Naturally, a neglectful household will put a child more at risk, but it is the strong urge to fit in and be “cool” that becomes the determining factor.
The adult monsters that control the gangs use children to sell their drugs, steal weapons and other property much like Charles Manson used a a former homecoming queen to commit murder. They operate on the belief that compelling youngsters to commit crimes for them insulates them from prosecution and, generally speaking, if the child is caught, not only will they keep silent, but they will be back on the streets within days due to their juvenile status.
By the time teen gang members reach adulthood, they move up the ranks and become the groomers themselves.
The Georgia Gang Investigators Association reports that there are an estimated 71,000 validated gang members and over 1,500 suspected gang networks across the state. What is even more chilling is that 155 out of the 181 school districts have reported gang activity in their school systems and that includes elementary schools.
Let that sink in, gang activity is being reported in elementary schools.
Law enforcement and prosecutors have all the legal tools at their disposal to fight this menace. According to State Representative Jodi Lott, a new law went into effect on July 1, 2022 that increases the penalties for gang recruiters. The law allows for repeat juvenile offenders and juveniles caught recruiting to be sentenced as adults.
The new law also gives the state Attorney General’s Gang Prosecution Unit the ability to conduct what are known as concurrent prosecutions, that is, the office can become involved if the local district attorney fails to step up and prosecute.
In 1969, Los Angeles Police were well aware that Charles Manson ran a car theft ring and that he had a substantial cult following willing to act at his direction, but they failed to act. The result was a pile of dead innocent victims.
Locally, 21-year-old gang member Antoine Redfield was charged in a double homicide but never prosecuted, and the result was the death of 8-year-old Arbrie Anthony. The child was killed in a drive-by shooting in her neighborhood as she and other children were petting a horse.
Never, ever again do I want to have to console a grieving family over a senseless, preventable death and I pray that no one else ever has that experience.
I will be joining Judge Craig on the First Step radio program on WGAC (580 AM/95.1 FM) this Sunday to begin this much needed conversation, and I hope you will tune in and participate.
We must have this conversation, for the sake of our children.
Richmond County School Board Trustee Venus Cain probably said it best:
“Mamas and daddies, you’ve got to be the ones to ones to take your kids back from the streets or you are going to cry one way or the other. You are either going to be visiting them in jail or identifying their body in the morgue. One way or another, you’re going to cry,” Cain said.
Scott Hudson is the Senior Investigative Reporter and Editorial Page Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
