PotShot

Task force in second year of crime war
Lori Monsewicz | CantonRep.com | May 28, 2006

CANTON - A year ago, Capt. James Myers put together a team of police officers to tackle reports of increased gang activity in Canton, including carjackings, drive-by shootings and drug sales.

With summer approaching, the Gang Task Force is gearing up again, with some adjustments in approach, manpower and cooperation from other police efforts.

“Last year, while they were out in force, we did see an improvement,” said Randy Dyer, whose Gibbs Avenue NE neighborhood had seen a rash of crime carried out by kids whom residents called “gangbangers.”

“About 30 days after the original task force started, there was a definite quieter tone to the street. They did a good job and that initial push carried us through the summer.”

Myers said gang activity and the task force’s work slowed down over the winter.

Dyer said problems are picking up again, and the enforcement needs to, too.

“The arrests are not as publicized, and the people are getting a little bolder now,” he said. “People have a short memory. Things are getting back to normal, and the kids are starting to carry on again.”

Joining the Canton officers on the task force are agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Ohio Adult Parole Authority and other agencies.

When it began its initial two-month stint on May 2, 2005, the task force focused on street sweeps, picking up people on a long list of misdemeanor and felony charges. Some openly claimed gang affiliation — until learning of an Ohio law that provides for increased criminal penalties for gang members facing conviction.

Then, said Myers, his focus switched to raids on houses where police believed gang members were selling drugs.

That’s likely to be more of a focus this year, Myers said.

“We have a good hold on the street dealers, the 13- and 14-year-old kids who are selling drugs on the street,” said Myers. “We’re planning to do more search warrants on drug houses.”

Some new gangs, he said, have been added to the city’s original list of 19. A group calling itself “187,” reportedly named after the California penal code for murder, has set up in the near northwest and the task force continues to believe the internationally notorious MS-13 gang has a few tentacles in Canton.

And, Myers said, the Shorb Bloc Bloods in the city’s northwest neighborhoods have moved north, operating between 12th and 14th streets from Fulton Road to Shorb Avenue NW, he said.

MORE COOPERATION

This year, the task force also is working with the department’s vice unit, providing increased manpower and intelligence gathering.

For the first time in eight years — the department conducted a “john detail”; vice and task force officers conducted surveillance and arrested the men who pay prostitutes for sex.

But gangs and drug activity remain the focus of the task force.

A Kent State University study produced by the Institute for the Study and Prevention of Violence affirmed gangs in Stark County are a real problem, and the Stark County Citizens’ Council for Non-Violence in February formed a steering committee to address “intervention, suppression and prevention” of gangs.

Last month, the federal Office of National Drug Control Policy awarded a $300,000 grant to help fund the task force, a gang prosecutor, an Alliance anti-gang program and a program to help juvenile offenders resist the gang life when they leave lockups.

CURFEW and mixed successes

The money isn’t flowing yet. But Dyer said kids are on the move. He sees teenagers running up and down the streets into the early morning hours.

“Hopefully, a majority of them are good kids, just going from Point A to Point B,” he said. Still, “I would like to see them enforce the curfew a little more.”

The city curfew requires those under 18 to be off the streets by 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 12:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday.

Myers said the task force plans to enforce the curfew more stringently this year.

On the officers’ first Friday night last year, they ended up in a beauty shop basement about 10 p.m. with 30 to 40 teenagers who were smoking marijuana, shooting dice and gambling. The officers sent the kids home and returned to the streets, where they arrested seven people, including Kenevil Taylor, 31, whom police said was a primary crack cocaine supplier to the 33rd Street gang. But the grand jury found insufficient evidence to indict him at least twice, and prosecutors dropped charges at least three other times.

Two nights before the task force arrested Taylor, it arrested Quincy Stokes, 23, of 200 Monroe Ave. NE, whom Myers identified as a Rated R gang member. Jail records said Stokes had just sold crack cocaine to an undercover officer.

A month later, when FBI agents announced the arrests of nearly a dozen members of the Rated R gang accused of helping bring nearly 20 kilos of cocaine a month into the city, Stokes was charged with cocaine trafficking in Operation: Canton Clearance, which focused on middle- and upper-level dealers; he pleaded guilty to the drug charges and was sentenced to nearly a year in prison, according to court records.

GANG MEMBERSHIP DIFFICULT TO PROVE

When task force officers arrested Victwan Dorsey and Jesse James Gulley in May of last year, seizing 43 grams of crack cocaine, Dorsey’s attorney, Steve LoDico, confirmed Dorsey was affiliated with the Rated R gang “back in high school.” He insisted police couldn’t prove it now.

Gulley was convicted of drug possession and is serving a nine-year sentence. The felony drug charges against Dorsey were dropped. Prosecutors said they didn’t have enough evidence to convict him. Dorsey was arrested again in August. Again, the charges were dropped.

By the end of the task force’s initial two-month stint, officers had arrested 151 people citywide.

The 284 charges filed included more than 60 on unspecified warrants; 107 on drug charges and 10 on weapons violations.

THE REVIEWS

Several neighborhood rallies applauded the work of the task force last year.

Even some defense attorneys were pleased.

“The general public really has no idea of how difficult and dangerous that work is, and anybody that wants to live in a safe community should deeply appreciate their efforts,” said attorney Jeffrey Jakmides.

But other defense attorneys, and even some other police officers, complained the task force was putting together sloppy cases based on sweeps. The Rev. Warren P. Chavers of Deliverance Christian Church complained task force members were violating some residents’ civil rights, and Councilman Greg Hawk, D-1, called for dismantling the task force and re-establishing community policing.

Police union leaders protested the structure of the task force. Its officers were handpicked by Myers, and the union wanted its members to bid on the jobs based on seniority. The union won that argument.

The task force continues to get mixed reviews this year.

Residents of the Newton Avenue NW area applauded the john sweep.

But Sherrene Waller didn’t appreciate the officers’ visit to her front yard three weeks ago.

The officers shut down her front-yard cookout on 10th Street at Shorb Avenue NW where more than a dozen young men and women were gathered.

“It was a barbecue. Nobody was doing anything illegal,” said her daughter, Ashley Risby. “If you’re black and you wear a red shirt and got tattoos, then they think you’re in a gang. If you got a nice car, then they think you’re selling.”

Her mother agreed.

“What they’re doing is intimidating these kids,” Waller said.

Jakmides sees it differently. “Some of these gang members are the most violent, remorseless criminals in the state of Ohio and they need to be afraid of the Gang Task Force.”

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Carl Sagan Goodness Richard Dawkins Goodness