Anti-gang police alone can't curb violence

Lenny Tucker of Brentwood was skeptical as he listened to County Executive Steve Bellone in a parking lot outside a Huntington Station church on Tuesday.

Tucker, president of the Brentwood Association of Concerned Citizens, was there to hear Bellone's plans for fighting gangs in a community that has similarities -- and also key differences -- from Tucker's own.

Bellone announced that he had redeployed the county's 39 anti-gang officers to the seven police precincts. Tucker said he agrees that every precinct should have a gang-crime unit, rather than relying on one centralized team to chase cases around Suffolk County.

But the retired New York City corrections inspector says an administrative change won't be enough for such a large problem.

"I need to withhold judgment for now," he said.

Tucker's community leadership -- and his skepticism of any promise to curb gang activity -- is hard won.

In 2009, a group of suspected gang members sprayed gunfire across the lawn of Tucker's home during his son's birthday party, killing Christopher Hamilton, 15, one of his son's friends.

It was not until Monday -- more than two years and a Federal Bureau of Investigation probe later -- that an indictment against a suspect in the case was unsealed.

"Think about that," Tucker said. "For two years, I've had to walk through a crime scene every time I leave my house, while the guys who shot into my front yard walked around the community."

The suspect in Hamilton's slaying, Jose Alvarenga, 22, of Brentwood, was one of five alleged MS-13 street gang members indicted on federal charges including murder. He has pleaded not guilty.

Hamilton was one of 11 people, including a toddler and a 67-year-old man slain in a bodega burglary, killed in suspected gang-related violence in Brentwood and Central Islip that year.

In March 2010, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) asked the FBI to help, a move supported by then-County Executive Steve Levy. But the Brentwood community was already working to organize its own response to the violence.

Tucker, along with Hamilton's mother, Erica Boynton, and other community members pulled together to clean graffiti and organize neighborhood watches. Representatives from the community also began to meet monthly with Levy.

It's an effort that, in turn, energized other community groups including the Brentwood Gardens Civic Association to fight gangs.

To the community's credit, the effort has not ceased: Boynton and the other community groups were among those represented at a recent meeting about a proposal to create a state gang registry.

But as Bellone himself stated during remarks on the change in police policy, there are differences between communities -- even those sharing a gang problem.

One key difference between Huntington Station and Brentwood is how each community has responded to gang-related violence. In Brentwood, they organized -- across racial, economic and neighborhood lines -- pulling residents, the school district and elected officials into the mix. In Huntington Station, there was no such sustained effort.

Could that be changing?

In November, three teens were injured by gunfire -- on a Sunday afternoon in broad daylight near a parish gym where other teens were playing basketball.

The town, residents, police, community and religious leaders began organizing an anti-gang effort. It's a seed that must grow into an all-out grassroots effort.

"Any community needs the support of police," Tucker said. "But it's up to the people who live there to decide. Are we going to let them have our streets? Or are we going to work it together to get them back?"