Parents Can Help Stunt Gang Growth, Expert Says Talk To Kids, Look For Signs, Detective Advises Audience

In a yellow room with Raggedy Ann dolls on a shelf and the cow jumping over the moon painted on the wall, a class of 80 learned new vocabulary words.

“Cluckers” are crack addicts. “Taggers” spray-paint graffiti. “Fence sitters” are gang associates.

About 80 parents hung onto every word spoken by Spokane sheriff’s detective Rick Van Leuven on Tuesday night at South Pines Elementary in the Valley.

It was a crash course on how to protect families and neighborhoods from gangs.

For the past couple of years, Van Leuven’s been a one-man show. As the sole sheriff’s detective assigned full time to combatting gangs, he’s given the same two-hour lecture at least 50 times at almost every school in the county.

Van Leuven works closely with city gang detectives sharing information, trying to eradicate the county’s growing problem.

Parents gasped when Van Leuven told them about 600 known gang members live in the Spokane area, some of whom can make $50,000 to $90,000 per month dealing crack cocaine. The joint city-county effort is tracking 89 gangs in the county, he said.

Only 10 to 15 percent of the 600 are “hardcore,” he said. The rest are associates. Most of the hardcore members came here from California and the Midwest because Spokane has a reputation for being easy on gangs, he said.

Van Leuven showed parents the hand signs a child could get killed for flashing and the combinations of letters and numbers youths paint everywhere to instill fear.

Gang names and their symbols shouldn’t be printed in the newspaper, he warned, because it only serves as a badge of honor for the members.

A large case standing on a nearby table was filled with intimidation - a foot long jaggededged knife, brass knuckles and several guns.

These are the weapons kids carry these days, Van Leuven said. They don’t fight with their fists anymore.

Panic crept into the parents’ voices when they asked questions. Why can’t the police do more? Why can’t these kids be locked up? What can be done?

Van Leuven urged people to get involved. Know your child’s friends, their families and your neighbors, he said. Get involved with a SCOPE (Sheriff’s Community Oriented Policing Effort) substation. Report all incidents of gang graffiti to the sheriff’s department. Don’t be afraid.

“I’m not telling you to make you paranoid,” he said. “But we’re just touching the tip of the iceberg. If you really want to know what’s going on,” he added, “sit down and ask the kids.”