Gang members hit Ellsworth Drive for the flicks and food, but the public library is where they raise hell, says one gang-busting cop.
“Libraries have become some focal point of [gang] activity,” Ofcr Cory Brodzinski, of the MoCo PD, told Silver Spring’s neighborhoods committee Monday night.
The big attraction: Free access to the Internet, where gangstas can hook up through social networking sites like MySpace. Gang bangers with the Crips, Bloods and MS-13 are all over the net, flashing signs and showing off their ink on YouTube and other free services.
Things can get dicey when the library’s computers aren’t readily available. For example, a fight rocked the Long Branch public library this summer while rival gang members waited outside to use the computers, Brodzinski recounted. However, gang activity at the local libraries has cooled since then.
Along Ellsworth Drive, most players are there for the food and movies, Brodzinski said. In the last three years, he could recall only one gang-related arrest in the Downtown Silver Spring shopping center.
In that case, a Gaithersburg gangsta allegedly swiped a pair of eye glasses from a dining table in front of Potbelly Sandwich Works. Undercover cops working the area immediately arrested the suspect.
Read 
What the hell are they building now? Learn more from 
Boxed wines and rosés are back in vogue. Just ask The Penguin's sommeliers.
*gasp*
I’m finding it hard to believe that with a headline like “Gangs stake claim along information superhighway”, there was no mention of any significant “gang-related” violence or arrests.
While I sat at the edge of my seat waiting to read some juicy article about a robbery, maybe even a rival gang battle, I instead saw nothing but a “gang-related” arrest that was as petty as a pair of eye glasses (wait a minute–not even sunglasses?) being “swiped”.
Back in my days, one arrest and one fight in three years was considered note-worthy and rather impressive for an area that attracts teens and young adults.
I appreciate your comments, PBE.
Yeah, the downtown Silver Spring area isn’t southcentral L.A. In fact, according to Ofcr Brodzinski, most of the gang activity in this immediate area goes down in Takoma/Langley, White Oak and Castle Blvd. Prince George’s county also has a big gang problem.
However, MySpace is crawling with gang bangers, with a few from Montgomery County. Other gangs maintain websites on free servers like Tripod, and YouTube is like a rogues’ gallery of thugs. Players aren’t shy when it comes to throwing a gang sign, especially if it can be broadcast via the worldwide web.
In the state of Maryland (probably any state, I’d guess), gang affiliation is not illegal. One can’t be arrested simply for running with a gang, whether in person or online. Arrests go down only when a recognized crime (theft, assault, extortion, etc) occurs.
Ofcr Brodzinski did mention a few busts in the Takoma/Langley area, mostly for gun possession. (And by “gun”, I mean “cache of assault rifles”.) A string of car break-ins is also being pinned on gangs.
And let’s not forget the scrap outside the Long Branch library as rival gangs waited to surf the net. Maybe it’s not Tupac vs Biggie, but the absurdity — the stupidity — of rumbling outside the library over web time is noteworthy, I believe.
I have a local gangbanger story that will raise the hair on the back of your necks. A few months ago the missus and I returned home around 11:30 p.m., Saturday night. I glanced out my upstairs window and was amazed to see a bunch of young Hispanic guys, I’d guess in their mid- to late teens, marching up Springvale Road from the direction of the library on Ellsworth, towards Pershing Drive. Almost every one of these guys was carrying a 2 by 4, or other club. They kept coming and coming; there were easily a dozen of them. They looked like a small army.
I called the cops. For the next hour or so, we heard sirens all the place.