What the hell happens to police chiefs when they become chiefs? Their brains leak out into the chair they're always in? The chief's statement here infuriates me. And this NEVER happened in this far north of New England before. Machete fights? Riot? In Nashua?
A meeting on gangs, violence and worried residents
By STEPHANIE HOOPER, Telegraph Staff
shooper@nashuatelegraph.comNASHUA Police Chief Donald Conley pursed his lips as he listened to a question from a Cross Street resident during a neighborhood crime watch meeting in French Hill on Tuesday night.
The day after gunshots were fired in her neighborhood, the woman didnt mince her words.
What I need to hear from you is what are you doing, she said. Bullets are flying now, and they are going into houses where kids are sleeping.
Bullets did fly this weekend, Conley replied, adding later, If I could put an officer on your corner, I would.
Gangs and police action were the main themes of the meeting held at the Police Athletic Center, on the corner of Lock and Whitney Streets. The center is just one block from where a fight between members of two gangs resulted in a hit-and-run accident, gunfire and a small riot with youths wielding bats, knives and machetes early Monday morning.
Conley, who planned to attend the neighborhood meeting weeks before the incident, answered a variety questions from the concerned people living in the neighborhood mainly how the incident occurred, what police were doing about gang crime and what they could do to help them.
I will commit to make sure we have people here, Conley told the crowd, adding that prosecution would be steadfast for terrorists of the citys neighborhoods.
Conley acknowledged that French Hill was experiencing serious problems with troublesome groups of people Some people call them gangs, we call them groups, he said but said police had their hands full with similar crime in other areas of the city, specifically the Crown Hill and Tree Streets areas.
The neighborhood of Amory and Bridge streets is also troublesome, he said.
There are a lot of difficult problems there that sometimes float up here, Conley said.
Conley said he was limited in the amount of focus the less-than-fully taffed department could devote to French Hill, therefore it was imperative that residents call and report trouble to dispatchers or the newly activated Crimeline.
We dont always get back to people right away, and sometimes there isnt enough information for us to act on it right away, he said. The more you give us, the better you are.
Some residents complained that when they did try to call the department, they were met with questions from dispatchers.
They say, Well what are they doing that is illegal? one woman said, adding that while the dispatcher probably has bigger fish to fry, calling the department is the residents only recourse.
You are right, we do prioritize, Conley told her before explaining that officers would be responding to calls for gang activity.
Suspicious, that is a great word to use, he said.
We will come and take action if we can, but at the very least they will see us.
Despite the short staff, the area has one officer, Mike Boulay, and an alternate, dedicated to duty in French Hill. They are complemented by regular patrols and officers in unmarked police cars.
A 28-year veteran of the department, Conley said, he has used his own private vehicle to check out certain problem areas in recent months.
Conley said he worked French Hill as both an undercover and uniformed officer when it was experiencing a crime wave in the 1980s.
A lot of the same issues were going on in the neighborhood then as we have now, he said.
Part of the problem, said some residents, stems from kids left without supervision because their parents are working two or more jobs.
Some of those children have filled their time with gang activity and are approaching other kids to joining gangs, residents said.
They are intimidating, one resident said. I am worried about the kids at risk.
Kurt Norris, director of operations of the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Nashua who attended the meeting, said the center has received federal grant money to target 50 area youths who are considered at risk for gang activity.
Ten youths, two from French Hill, have already been tapped for the program that pairs an adult mentor with an at-risk child, he said.
The more positive things a kid has to the do the less he will look toward the negative, he said.
Norris, who has been with the club for 19 years, said he has seen local gangs ebb and flow in the city throughout that time.
This last thing is the most serious we have seen with guns and everything, he said.
Recently, Norris said a gang expert affiliated with the national office of the Boys & Girls Club came to the city and examined the gang problem, coming to the same conclusion that police have previously stated gang activity is mostly local kids looking for status among their peers, rather than the more organized national gangs.
But that isnt necessarily a good thing, Norris said. National gangs are more concerned with making money and are apt to be more discreet.
The gangs we have here are more dangerous than the organized gangs because you dont know what they are going to do next to prove themselves, he said.
Because of the potential for violence, Conley urged residents not to approach troublesome groups in the neighborhood and to use the phone instead.
I am the chief of police, and I dont know if I would confront someone on my own, he said.
Keith Leavitt, head of the crime watch meeting, urged residents to communicate with each other as well as police in the effort to take their neighborhood back.
A lot of things are going on in the community and we are concerned as a group, Leavitt said. What we need to do is get to know each other. If we dont know who our neighbors are, we wont be able to network with each other to make our neighborhood safer.
They are not "groups". They are the Latin Kings, Folk Nation, and MS-13. They fight with MS-13's trademark machetes. THEY ARE GANGS! An earlier article, since omitted due to PCness, named some arrested suspects. Every one was a Mexican name. Immigration status was not mentioned, but highly suspect.
And if the police don't do something soon, people are armed, and they're going to deal with it themselves if there's a riot with people shooting at their house and the police aren't coming. They're going to shoot back.
Tancredo could take this state right now if he played it right. People are FURIOUS.
