By Bill Cantwell
bcantwell@eagletribune.com
September 22, 2008 02:12 am HAVERHILL — In the summer of 2005, it was the talk of the city — street gangs and the fear they were putting into neighbors. Members of warring gangs were shooting bullets at each other in the Acre and Arlington Street neighborhoods. Police were finding handguns on teenagers hanging out on street corners. Neighborhood groups and church congregations demanded the city and Police Department take steps to keep inner-city streets safe. City leaders considered bringing in special state and federal agents to get the problem under control. Several men who were gang members were arrested and the problem eased up, police said. But, law enforcement officials say, it can pop up again in a growing city like Haverhill with a variety of inner-city neighborhoods. District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett has gotten $100,000 for Haverhill from the federal government to keep the gang problem in check. Half the money will go to police for equipment and to put more officers in areas where gangs are believed to operate. The other half will go to the Haverhill Community Violence Coalition, which works through anti-gang education and other methods to promote peace among young people. Lawrence and Lynn have also received $100,000 to be used in similar ways. Blodgett said police need the money for things like extra patrols in neighborhoods that have gang-related problems, but it is important that organizations like the city's Community Violence Coalition also receive money for their programs. "The rise in gun violence ... is something that must be addressed not only by law enforcement, but by organizations reaching out to help young people make the right choices in their lives,'' Blodgett said. Haverhill Deputy police Chief Donald Thompson said the city's gang problem has improved. "Compared to 2005, its certainly quieter," he said, explaining the Police Department has been sending extra patrols to places where groups of teenagers are known to hang out, to discourage them from forming gangs or joining established gangs. "It really is a patrol aimed at at-risk youth," he said. "They go out and patrol hot-spot locations. We get reports from neighborhoods that are experiencing problems." Some of those trouble spots are in the Mount Washington neighborhood, where this summer police put extra patrols to break up groups of teenagers hanging out on streets late at night. Vandalism and car breaks were up in some parts of that area. The patrols have continued as police received information that a gang fight was brewing in the Swasey Field area of Mount Washington. Thompson said the grant money will allow police to do more of those patrols, as well as increase the number of officers who visit schools to spread the anti-gang and anti-drug message. In the summer of 2005, city leaders debated bringing in agents from the FBI and federal Drug Enforcement Administration to break up the gangs. Then 14 people who local police said were involved in gangs were arrested in Haverhill in August and September. Police said the gangs were operating on lower Arlington Street and the nearby Acre neighborhood, areas traditionally known for street crime. Those arrests quelled the problem, but it picked up steam a short time later when two people were shot in what police called a gang-related incident on Hilldale Avenue. The Police Department then added extra patrols and working with Lawrence police in an anti-gang unit. The departments shared information because, they said, the same gangs were operating in the two cities. Police kept the pressure on gangs late last year. In December, FBI agents used a series of predawn raids in Haverhill to arrest people who police said were involved in a drug network with gang connections. Blodgett said the $100,000 grant will allow Haverhill to keep the pressure on. "The benefits are the increase in the police presence," he said, "and to get to the kids early and spread the message that gang life is no life."
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