Warr Acres Addition

Gangs 101 a great success!

Dec 11, 2008

Greetings everyone!
Turnout was great for Gangs 101 class, put on this evening by our Warr Acres Police Department. Perhaps 60 people turned out for this event! It went over 2 hours as there was so much information to share and so many good questions. It was a real eye-opener. Criminal gangs are here to stay in Warr Acres and the whole metro area.
For a very complete description of the gang situation, go to our neighborhood website, http://www.neighborhoodlink.com/wa/waa and click City of Warr Acres, then scroll down to Gangs 101, and click on Gang Unit in the text. Many thanks to Detective John Gray for teaching us!
Something from the class that is not included in the text: there are 5 criteria for determining if an individual is affiliated with a criminal gang, two of which are required to make the determination-I will paraphrase here.
1)Identifying tattoo, color of clothing article
2)Found participating with known gang members in criminal or delinquent activity
3)Police records indicating gang involvement
4)A reliable source identifying the individual as gang-affiliated
and 5) the person admits to being in a gang [this one is sufficient by itself].
Judging for the Outdoor Christmas Decoration Contest is complete! After much deliberation, we made the difficult choice to award Erik Love, 5932 NW 59th Court, as our winner. Not only does he have a very well-done lighting display, it is electronically coordinated with a sound system softly playing Christmas music. We also chose to recognize 10 Runners-Up with certificates, which will be arriving on their doorsteps soon. I encourage all of you to take a slow trip through the neighborhood with a carload and enjoy all the lighting displays!
Don't forget to warm up your singing voices, bundle up, and meet Saturday at 6pm for the Warr Acres City Christmas Tree Lighting! There will be cocoa, cookies, and singing of carols!
James