Shopkeepers, customers support Suffolk anti-gang plan

Along a commercial stretch of Straight Path in Wyandanch, people pop in and out of a cluster of stores, sometimes pushing their way past groups of young men hanging out on the sidewalk.

People stop in at a Chinese eatery for takeout food. Others get their hair cut at the barber shop down the street or cash paychecks at the M & A bodega.

Some shopkeepers say young men who hang out just outside the bodega - some with brightly colored beads around their necks - belong to the Bloods street gang and intimidate their customers.

And some of the customers who patronize the stores agree. They would not give their full names.

One woman who said she lives in Wyandanch was buying takeout and shook her head.

"They pick fights," she said. "They want you to buy drugs from them."

Danny, manager of a fast-food store, said he calls the police regularly about fights outside his window. He said Suffolk's planned injunction to keep gang members from congregating is a good idea.

"Back in March, there was a shooting right in our parking lot," Danny said. "Our business goes down every time there is a shooting."

Another shopkeeper pointed to a young man in a gray, hooded sweatshirt who, he said, deals drugs openly.

Across the street, a young man who gave his name as Tony zipped up on a bike. He wore a sweatshirt with an imprint of a skeleton on it and blue beads. He said he is 30 and drives taxis.

Tony said he's not a gang member and meets his friends at the bodega.

"We eat here, drink here and chill," Tony said. "If we go in a park, the police ask us what we're doing up here. They come there and harass us."

A woman entering the bodega said she approves of Suffolk's planned injunction. "I think that's great," she said. "I lost my sister to a shooting."