Diversity comes to Dixie.
Middle Tennessee’s gangs are no longer just graffiti-spraying juvenile delinquents.
Theyare armed and dangerous criminal enterprises that recruit young peoplewith the allure of fast money, street status and a sense of belonging —even if the group they join may get them killed or sent to prison.
“Peopledon’t understand there are drive-by shootings going on inMurfreesboro,” said Ed Yarbrough, U.S. attorney for the Middle Districtof Tennessee. “There are witness-elimination killings happening at(the) Hickory Hollow Mall (area). We’ve got this mindset that suburbanareas don’t have a gang problem, but we need to wake up to the factthat they do and drive them out.”
As in Tennessee, gang activity has spiked nationwide.
Nearly800,000 gang members and 27,000 gangs operate across the 50 states, aJustice Department survey shows. Some estimates have the figure at 2million gang members.While there are no statewide numbers, gangs are present in most of thestate’s 95 counties, including many communities in the Nashville area,a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation report says. Police have identified5,000 gang members in Davidson County. Murfreesboro estimates 400 to500. Columbia has 200.