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Home > All News > 2008 News
Pastors give insight into gang problemVINELAND, NJ -- Criminal street gang activity in Cumberland County appears to be tamped down compared to a year ago, according to some pastors with reason to know. The pressure isn't enough to get rid of the problem, though. A problem once concentrated in the most urban, rundown areas is now networked and diversified, the Rev. Charles Wilkins said Wednesday night. "There are no more safe neighborhoods to run to," said Wilkins, pastor of Bethel AME Church in Millville. Wilkins' remarks came at a gang awareness conference at Cumberland County College's Luciano Conference Center. He was one of four pastors forming a panel that talked about what their churches were seeing and handled audience questions. County Prosecutor Ronald J. Casella and the United States Attorney General's Office sponsored the event. It was the fourth conference here in as many years. This time, the community perspective on gangs was the theme. Wilkins said Cumberland's economy and social demographics impose limits on what can be done. "My first belief is that sometimes the common mistake throughout our country has been too little, too late," Wilkins said. "We sometimes believe that we can throw money at whatever the problem or the issue is. The reality of it is that when a young person reaches their teens, many times it is too late. Our belief, our philosophy is that we should reach out to the entire family, not just the young people." Other pastors included David Ennis of In His Presence Worship Center, also in Millville, Albert Morgan of Union Baptist Church in Bridgeton and Baron McCoy of Word of Life Christian Worship Center in Vineland. McCoy is a Vineland police officer and coordinates the department's chaplain mentoring program for youths. The program offers young offenders a chance to avoid the criminal justice process if they, their family and their victim agree. McCoy stressed that gangs work because they take the place of families. "So if you take the gang away from the juvenile, you have to replace it with something else," he said. Ennis added, "We can help by remembering people are human." Ennis also said schools need a no tolerance attitude for bullying, saying the behavior leads to worse things. The Prosecutor's Office had 90 individual pre-registrations for the meeting. At least 70 people attended, among them Vineland Police Chief Timothy Codispoti and county Sheriff-elect Robert Austino. News Topics | Surenos | Home | Research | History | Blood Gangs | Crip Gangs | People | Gallery | Blog | |