Pols say stores exploit teens' allegiance to gangs

By Tommy Hallissey

Some city council members want to ban merchandise that displays gang colors and symbols, but Councilman Oliver Koppell says that approach is extreme.

The City Council is mulling ways to fight back against the sale and marketing of clothing bearing gang symbols and colors in stores across the city, including at least one Marble Hill clothing store.

Hats made by manufacturers like the New Era Cap Company bearing bandanas with the colors of the Bloods and the Crips, two rival street gangs, raised politicians' ire in August. Now politicians like Leroy Comrie, a Democratic City Councilman from Queens, are saying they are still finding inappropriate materials in city stores - despite New Era's promise to withdraw the products - and they are planning hearings.

"Each day we read stories about gang initiation shootings, gang activity in our schools and youth involved in criminal enterprises. Its no wonder street gangs are on the rise - we live in a culture that blatantly glorifies street gangs in the name of profit," said Mr. Comrie in a statement.

A local survey of Northwest Bronx retailers, found a few items that might fit Mr. Comrie's bill. In the front window of City Jeans on West 225th Street a mannequin prominently displays a NYC hat with a crown on top, which some say is similar to a Latin Kings logo. There is also a similar hat in the back of the store.

If the City Council had its way these wares wouldn't be sold in city stores. Councilman Oliver Koppell warned his colleagues not to be too hasty.

"I think you have some problems here, some First Amendment problems," he said. "I'm not sure you can ban any symbols. To blame the symbol is a little bit extreme."

Professor Augie Aloia, of the Monroe College School of Criminal Justice, also said the City Council's proposed actions might run into some problems with civil libertarians concerned with First Amendment issues. "You'd be hard pressed legally to stop-them" from selling gang-colored clothing, he said.

Mr. Koppell suggested that it might be easier and more effective to ban the symbols in schools. According to Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, schools can be a hot bed of gang symbols. A survey she recently conducted found more than two-thirds of students noticed gang colors in their school, and respondents said that gangs are more prevalent today than in years past.

John F. Kennedy High School basketball player Austin Adopo said the politicians could do away with the gang colors so long as everyone was following the same rules. "They got the right to tell us anything … that's if they are going to do it," he said.

Mr. Adopo, who said he wasn't in a gang, wasn't too concerned about them. He said that members mostly create problems with each other.

He was skeptical that a ruling changing kids clothing could be a quick fix. After all, he said, students aren't allowed to wear hats in schools anyway. "Nowadays they don't look at the way you dress, it's the signs, who you chill with and the beads and the attitude."

Ron "Cook" Barrett, the Capital Region New York gang prevention coordinator, warned violence continues to be perpetrated over clothing. "We're seeing kids fight over shoelace patterns," he said. "We are seeing a lot of ignorance among athletic wear today."

Professor Aloia, a former NYPD officer, said a person simply wearing gang colors has little effect on the police profiling of a suspect. "Just because a guy is wearing gang colors does not necessitate you stop them under the stop and frisk law," he said. He scoffed at the City Council's view of the effect of gang colors on violence.

But personally, Mr. Aloia took issue with selling gang couture. "From a moralistic standpoint your going to put gang crap on a hat to make a buck, personally I think it is an outrage," said Mr. Aloia. Mr. Barrett agreed with the former police officer. "That's a wrong angle to take with the kids," said Mr. Barrett, who said he has seen groups of bloods going to buy red bandana hats.

But Mr. Aloia summed up the First Amendment issue with a succinct question, "If they are going to disallow stores from selling colored clothing, does that mean I can't wear it?"

This is part of the November 29, 2007 online edition of The Riverdale Press.

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