The impact two warring street gangs had on the city of Poughkeepsie was evident in 2012, said Dutchess County Assistant District Attorney Anthony Parisi.
“We were seeing basically a territorial dispute between these two gangs that involved significant violence,” he said, noting a significant increase in gun-related incidents six years ago. “The violence was taking place on the streets, during the day. There were innocent bystanders that were being injured.”
In August, 31 alleged members of the “Uptown” and “Downtown” gangs were indicted on charges ranging from firearms and drug possession to murder. The arrests were the product of a cooperative effort over the span of several years, between local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.
And though less than a year has passed, Police Chief Thomas Pape said he has already seen evidence pointing toward the positive impact the federal takedown has had on the city. Through the first six months of the year, the city was on pace to end 2018 with a reduction in violent crime arrests involving a firearm, according to statistics from city police.
And though less than a year has passed, Police Chief Thomas Pape said he has already seen evidence pointing toward the positive impact the federal takedown has had on the city. Through the first six months of the year, the city was on pace to end 2018 with a reduction in violent crime arrests involving a firearm, according to statistics from city police.
As of Friday, four of the accused gang members had entered guilty pleas, all to narcotics-related charges.
Some city residents, such as Ashley Saunders, said they have noticed a difference in neighborhoods.
“It used to be that I was too scared to take my two kids with me,” she said. “And now there are less gang members on the street, so I feel safer.”
Remaining vigilant
City police handled at least 34 total violent crime cases involving a firearm every year between 2012 and 2017, according to department statistics. In 2013, they handled 71 such cases, including 26 assaults and five murders.
Violent crimes counted in the statistics include murder and attempted murder, rape and attempted rape, assault, robbery and menacing.
Through the end of June, the city was on pace to finish the year with 28 violent crime cases involving a firearm. Three of the 14 cases so far have been assaults, six have been robberies and there was one murder investigation into the Jan. 27 shooting death of city resident Noel McClinton.
“I think that speaks a lot to the caliber of officers that are out there,” Pape said.
Despite the reduction thus far, Parisi noted arresting the alleged members of the Uptown and Downtown gangs does not end the possibility of gang violence.
“I will say obviously whenever you make a vacuum like this, where you take basically two large gangs off the street, there’s always a gang waiting to come in,” Parisi said. “But it takes time for them to develop, time for their structure to develop and frankly we know who they are right now. We will continue to do the work we do to prevent them from doing the same work these two gangs did.”
Pape said there will always be someone who wants to fill the void. SNUG, a proactive anti-gun violence outreach program that works directly with community members, has helped police discourage violence on an individual level, he said.
SNUG — “guns” spelled backwards — “treats gun violence like a disease by identifying its causes and interrupting its transmission,” according to its webpage.
“It’s our job to figure out who wants to fill the void and do some proactive policing on those people,” Pape said. “SNUG does that, they are the boots on the ground and they may have that information. They are talking to the people who may aspire to fill the void.”
Wislon Jean-Baptiste, a business owner who said he used to own a building near where LeBlanc was killed on the 300 block of Main Street, said one-to-one communication is a key.
“I’ve done my best to try and talk to the young people and tell them to go back to school and not be involved with drug crime,” he said. “They think because I own this place I was just lucky. No, I worked hard for this.”
Saunders, too, said she fears a recurrence of gang violence.
“I think we need organizations to keep them off the streets,” Saunders said.
Investigation ongoing
Pape previously said the Dec. 23, 2012 slaying of LeBlanc, 17, as helping to start the rash of violence.
Hamilton, Markell Green and Raheim Miller all face charges of racketeering conspiracy, murder in aid of racketeering activity and murder through the use of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence stemming from the killing. All three face the possibility of life in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. All have pleaded not guilty.
After 2012, Parisi said it became a priority for local police agencies and the district attorney’s office to look into the two gangs. Soon, state police; the FBI; the U.S. Marshals; and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were involved in the investigation, as well as the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
The Haylett killing was a key moment for the agencies, Parisi said.
“Although the investigation was well underway at that point in time in developing evidence in order to take these two gangs down,” he said, “really at that (point) is when the efforts were stepped up by all the partners.”
And, those efforts did not end when the indictments were announced on Aug. 17 last year, which Parisi noted “is not unusual.”
Parisi said each of the accused gang members “were interviewed and they were debriefed for the purposes of developing further information and intelligence as it related to these two gangs.” Through those interviews, “cooperators were developed, that potentially testified before the grand jury and, as a result, there was a superseding indictment.”
Pape noted the investigation still belongs to the city department, where evidence is hosted and where all levels of officials work through.
The scope of the cases, with more than 30 named in the indictments, is one reason why the initial investigation and the progress since August has taken the time it has, Parisi said. But, there have been developments, as well.
According to court documents, three alleged Downtown members, Rakee Johnson, Glorius Landrum and Kwamene Williams, all changed their pleas from not guilty to guilty in recent months. Alleged Uptown member Rashmi Ruparelia did the same on Wednesday. All pleaded guilty to narcotics conspiracy charges, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Each have scheduled dates to be sentenced in the next three months, according to court documents.
Following the superseding indictment, accused members of the Uptown gang were scheduled for an arraignment hearing Wednesday. An arraignment for the Downtown indictment is scheduled for Aug. 20.
Representatives of the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to be interviewed regarding the investigation, and local officials could not speak to specific aspects of the investigation as it is ongoing.
Parisi said local and federal agencies will continue to work together as the cases progress, with relationships that “have grown leaps and bounds.
“It’s really great to see how these police agencies work together, function together,” Parisi said, “towards a common goal.”
July 27, 2018 – Source: Poughkeepsie Journal