Reflecting further on the gangs issue

Here's my  Sunday column, which refers to our front-page stories here and here.

Still reeling from the gang stories today?

Let's chill together here for a few minutes.

 First, let's acknowledge the obvious: Just because you didn't know about the depth of the problem doesn't mean it wasn't there all along. So nothing has changed but your perception. 

 Then let me get this off my chest. I've  known more about this than I've said for a while. The recent surge in violence spurred me to try to explain it, and I found the right sources at the right time to do that. 

But plenty of people have told me that we could have told the story sooner. Here's how Calhoun County Prosecutor John Hallacy put it:

"I won't point a finger at the newspaper, but to a certain extent it is representative of the community. And when I read your article actually naming the gangs and putting the acronyms in the paper, I thought, 'That's the first time I ever read that in the newspaper.' One could say, 'Why haven't you told us?' The flip side would be — were you willing to listen?"

I didn't feel like I was off the hook when he said that. I wished that I'd delved deeper into the specifics of the gang issue when we did our "Violence: A Cycle of Neglect" series last year.

So here we are. Instead of just a bunch of random acts of shooting, many of them are MOB vs. CMB. Money Over Bitches vs. Cash Money Ballers. Yep, Ballers. I got it wrong a couple of columns ago.

Rather than thinking of them as a bunch of thug wannabes, we have to realize it's more that they're organized and taking orders from above.

Know this: Some guys are gonna go to prison. And I'm sorry to say it, but some guys probably are gonna go to Oak Hill. But some guys are gonna go to the Advocates and find out Dana Berkes is straight-up honest and will do anything she can to help them. They'll be the ones we celebrate.

I asked Hallacy a hard question when we sat down to talk about all this on Wednesday, and it took him a long time to answer.

The question was, "How should people think about all this after they've read these stories?"

When he started talking, he spoke with more passion than I've ever heard from him. Here's what he said:

"This may surprise some people, and it may stir some paranoia. Again, this is a good place to live. It is. You can highlight all the bad things about any place in the world and there are always more good people than bad. A lot more. A lot more good people than bad.

"And there are a lot of good people who are already and have been working on this issue and are dedicated to not just alleviating this issue, but helping the people with kids who are involved in it.

"So don't walk away from this article thinking that everything is bad and we're all going to hell in a hand basket, 'cause that's not true.

"Now, are there issues of grave concern? Yes, there are, but there's nothing that a good solid community like this cannot overcome.

"This is a wakeup call, but I think it's a wakeup call that's been long coming."

CRANKY BOB

Double homicide on Territorial. The trial of Detective LaVern Brann's accused killer about to start. Unemployment's up. It's cold outside. The Christmas bills are here. Now the gang problem is worse than you thought.

Catching the next stagecoach out of town?

Hold your horses, there, pardner.

Nothing is over until we say it is.

John Mellencamp's line "Suck it up and tough it out and do the best you can" has been running through my mind the last couple of days, but that's not what I'm really thinking.

I'm really thinking that the grindingly difficult times are when people realize how strong they can be — how much inner fortitude they can muster to not just survive, but to find a way to make things better for themselves and those around them.

Maybe we're in for a time like that around here. Maybe we'll all learn something like that about ourselves. Maybe we'll never be the same again.