Friday, Sept. 5, 2003 | 8:37 a.m.
IF IT WALKS like a duck ... it is a gang.
I don't know which is more disturbing -- the news that there is a gang of middle-class white boys who batter their prey almost beyond recognition, or family members and friends who practically ignore their crimes in order to continue the fantasy that these "are good kids."
Assuming some or all of the 311 Boyz are convicted of what Sheriff Bill Young says are some of the "worst (crimes) he has seen," it is abundantly clear that we have trouble right here at home. And it appears to me that some of that trouble is a direct result of an attitude that condones (knowingly or not) these crimes rather than condemns them.
As long as gangs and their ugliness were relegated to the poorer, minority areas of our city, most middle-class Las Vegans contented themselves to feel sorry for the victims while staying far away from the areas in which those gangs preyed. Now it appears that the ugliness we have allowed ourselves to believe only exists "over there" is creeping up around us, and how we deal with that reality will tell us a lot about who we are.
It is far easier to blame poverty, joblessness and hopelessness for the crimes that these gangs commit. That is why so much effort has been directed toward after-school programs, job training and mentoring programs -- all efforts that show some promise in reducing gang growth -- even though the funding for such programs, regrettably, continues to get cut.
But the middle-class neighborhoods from which the 311 Boyz come do not share those characteristics. Supposedly, they come from good, two-parent homes in which education is stressed and good citizenship is demanded. That does not mesh with the crimes these boys are alleged to have committed nor the basis for the gang in the first place.
If it is true that 311 Boyz is code for a modern-day Ku Klux Klan drive, how can this be? I can understand poor, hopeless boys with too much time on their hands and drugs in their veins committing the kind of crimes for which gangs are known, but not young people who have been given all or most of the best life has to offer.
And while I feel sorry for the parents, many of whom are dumbfounded at the charges leveled against their boys, I can't help thinking that somewhere in the mix of mixed-up thinking are parents who have not taught their kids properly or who have missed or ignored signs of aberrant behavior until it is too late.
Simply asked, how can parents allow their kids to profess the ideals of the Klan in today's world? How do parents miss the telltale signs that surely must exist that would alert them to potential trouble? While some of the boys might, indeed, be "good kids," their friends obviously are not. Who policed those relationships?
I know it is easy to ask these questions after the fact and that every parent would wish that they would be unnecessary today, but the reality is that we are literally dealing with the kids next door. So if we don't get answers to these questions, we are dooming our kids to further violence. If not from the 311 Boyz then from the next gang in line.
I am certain that as time goes by we will learn more about their motivation and the environment that allowed such criminal behavior, but for now there is one telltale sign that screams for public outrage.
If you remember, during the Columbine investigation it was learned that the parents ignored or didn't even notice the criminal behavior that was taking place right under their noses. Actually, it was in their own basements that their kids plotted their heinous acts and the parents had not one clue.
Parents across the country were aghast. Why couldn't parents see the signs, they asked, which were right there in front of them? What did they need, a picture?
Well, with the 311 Boyz, that's exactly what some of these parents had. A picture. Actually, a videotape. And, according to one of the parents who had seen these beatings take place on his own television set, it wasn't until he saw his own boys taking part that he became alarmed.
Where was his sense of responsibility toward the victim, regardless of whether or not his own boys were involved? Where was his sense of responsibility to make sure that the criminals were brought to justice? What, pray tell, was he thinking? Could it be that just asking such questions makes a point that most of us wish were not the case?
Time will tell the truth about these boys. Until then, what we have is a gang -- however different it may be in terms of deadliness and purpose -- and all the ugliness that goes with it.
The major difference between this one and the others is the geography.
That's the good news. Because that difference -- right or wrong -- may be the key to getting something done.
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