BLOOMINGTON - They have their own colors, symbols, nicknames and graffiti. They have no affiliation with gangs in Chicago or St. Louis. | Agency's attempt to address gangs shorted by funding

They are responsible for an uptick in random attacks and intimidation in the Twin Cities during the past year, everything from pellet gun assaults to shaking down other children for money.

Police are calling the 100 or so youths in Bloomington-Normal "hybrid gangs."

While they lack the formal leadership, codes of ethics or drug sales typical among established adult gangs, a hybrid gang still "looks and smells like a street gang to citizens," Bloomington Police Crime Analyst Jack McQueen said.

And a rivalry between the two largest groups could make for "a heated summer," youth counselor Greg Patton warned.

"Two new gangs have crept into this community, and they're young and they're heavily recruiting," said Patton, youth program director for Bloomington's Western Avenue Community Center. "With the new organizations poppin', there could be some serious problems."

Began last year

Officers started seeing problems with the homegrown gangs in March 2007, McQueen said. A hybrid gang typically starts with a charismatic leader and a group of friends, he said. Other groups form, and fights erupt when a member has a conflict with someone else.

People started spotting these youths, typically from 12 to 17 years old, sporting the same color clothing, standing in the way of traffic on side streets, stealing bicycles and iPods from other youths and shaking down kids for money, McQueen said.

Some members of adult gangs also met with groups of the youths, gave them same-color shirts and mentored them on how to interact with the public, McQueen said. Four such men recently went to prison on unrelated charges, he said.

Department officials met with leaders of social service agencies and residents in neighborhoods where the groups loitered. They heard similar stories. People knew the homegrown gangs' names, and said their own children had been robbed or they personally had been blocked into their driveways by gang members who refused to let them out.

And the violence worsened in the summer, McQueen said.

"We had a fairly sustained string of street beatings, strong-armed robberies and assaults in various areas of Bloomington," McQueen said. The attackers yelled out their group names during some attacks, he said.

Juvenile calls up

Normal Police Officer Brian Williams said at least two of the hybrid gangs have established themselves in northwest Normal, particularly the 700 block of Orlando Avenue. Youths from Bloomington and Normal take buses to that area, where some members live, he said.

"What we're seeing is an increase in residential burglaries, definitely an increase in graffiti," Williams said. "Lots of fights are happening, typically with people in the same age group."

Patton said there have been fights at every house party in the last six months.

Bloomington's juvenile arrests went up 13 percent, from 183 in 2006 to 208 in 2007, according to department statistics. During the same time period, adult arrests dropped about one-quarter, from 2,048 to 1,554.

Calls to Bloomington police with complaints about juveniles also skyrocketed, from 342 in 2006 to 1,309 in 2007.

Bloomington Police Sgt. Clay Wheeler said he is concerned about "senseless batteries," in which random people were attacked for no real reason.

Look-alike guns

With the increased violence, officers also found more teens carrying look-alike handguns, primarily pellet guns, McQueen said. By August and September, "They started randomly assaulting people with these pellet guns, not just each other," he said.

Calls about the weapons increased from one or two weekly to two or three nightly for the 3 to 11 p.m. shift, McQueen said.

Bloomington Police Lt. Pete Avery said last summer a 12- or 14-year-old was pointing what looked like a Smith & Wesson 9 millimeter handgun at random people in the 700 block of West Market Street. He dropped the pellet gun behind a fence before officers caught up with and handcuffed him. Everybody on the barrel side of the gun thought it was real, Avery said.

Carl Fever, a crime analyst for BPD, said the look-alikes are often stolen or given as gifts. And Wheeler said parents of teens who own the pellet guns should think twice before allowing their children access to them.

"You pull a fake gun out, somebody might come back with a real gun," Wheeler said.

Wheeler said the greatest fear that most officers have is that a child will be injured because of a toy.

Cliques

Wheeler said the gangs have been particularly problematic in the Olde Towne neighborhood on Bloomington's near-west side. Patton said Normal's Orlando Avenue is probably the "hottest" area, but hangouts such as Bloomington's Friendship Park and parking lots along Market Street will be busy this summer.

Wheeler said some of the teenagers likely are involved just to pass the time, and others want to hang out with friends, show they are tough and seem important.

Travis Burns, another Western Avenue counselor, described the groups more as cliques than gangs. As they grew, harassment motivated others to join, Patton said.

"You're either going to be a part of it, or you're going to be a victim of it," Patton said.

A few small groups that formed last year did nothing more serious than write small amounts of graffiti, McQueen said. But one got the attention of the larger hybrids, drawing them into fights, he said.

"And we told them 'bad idea,'" McQueen said. "You now look and smell and taste like prey to these other groups."

But Patton said the new groups so far have avoided crossing the long-standing adult street gangs.

"They're not crossing those lines to fool with those gangs because they'll squash that in a second," Patton said.

Combating violence

And the activity also has stayed out of the classrooms. Bloomington High School Principal Tim Moore said he has heard about two groups fighting outside of school, but there have not been more fights inside BHS in the last year. But some students told faculty and staff they still plan to settle disagreements off-campus.

"Is our school safe? Absolutely," Moore said. "Are we proactive in preventing gangs and violence? Absolutely."

Assistant State's Attorney Aaron Hornsby, a juvenile court prosecutor, said he is aware of the new gang activity. But unlike what officers have said, he hasn't seen a related increase in the number of violent crime reports.

Hornsby has noticed more youths admitting gang membership, as well as an increase in burglary charges, particularly among groups of youths checking for unlocked car and home doors.

Patton said at-risk teens need something positive to do - particularly paid work. Mike Harrison, another youth counselor and a District 87 school board member, said that just hearing someone say, "Man, just think about it" could have prevented some attacks.

Wheeler said Bloomington officers will break up large gatherings and bring juveniles back to their parents, and officers can flood areas to make it uncomfortable for people committing crimes. Williams added that Normal officers have increased patrols and visibility in areas frequented by hybrid gang members and are working on rounding up those causing problems.

McQueen said this is not the first time the communities have dealt with the issues, and he is confident they will keep things in check.

"The sky is not falling," he said.

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Juvenile crime

- The number of group attack, or mob action, reports in Bloomington rose slightly, from 30 in 2006 to 36 in 2007, said Carl Fever, crime analyst for the Bloomington Police. But the number of juveniles arrested or identified as suspects jumped from 16 to 43 in the same time period.

- The city's aggravated battery reports involving juvenile attackers also rose from 43 in 2006 to 61 in 2007.

- Normal Police arrested or issued ordinance violations to juveniles 583 times in 2007, up from 531 in 2006. But officers made fewer juvenile arrests in connection with fights and batteries.

- In 2007, Bloomington police confiscated 15 look-alike pistols, such as BB or pellet guns that look like firearms. Seven of them were used in crimes such as firing them at people or illegally possessing them. That's up from seven confiscated in 2006, one of which was used in a crime. There have been four confiscated so far this year, with one used in a crime.

- Bloomington had nine juveniles arrested or suspected of unlawful use of weapons in 2007, up from four in 2006. Normal officers arrested four on similar charges in 2007 and none in 2006.