Rutland can respond to urban crime threat

Illegal drug sales, especially marijuana, are on the rise. Underworld characters from cities in Massachusetts and New York are arrested and hauled before Vermont judges for drug-related crimes including sales, possession, theft and violence. A big-city urban street gang targets 14, 15 and 16 year-old youths, and Rutlanders are afraid.

This could be a chilling summary of recent events, but it is not. These events date from the mid-1990’s. Thirteen years ago this community was challenged as never before when it suddenly discovered that the urban street gang ‘Los Solidos’ had secretly established a ‘chapter’ in Rutland City.

Rutland was ill-prepared to respond. The plan was discovered following the arrest of a few well-know locals and a handful of unknown out-of-state gang members after a broad daylight street brawl over marijuana sales territory and local girlfriends. But the gang members were not unknown to federal and Massachusetts authorities. Once identified, excellent federal intelligence confirmed that the Solidos intended to colonize the community, starting exclusively with marijuana trafficking. But once established the Solidos invariably moved in crack cocaine and heroin.

As mayor, I had to respond, but how? I was raised in Rutland. The closest I had ever been to inner-city crime and violence had been watching The French Connection ten rows back at the Paramount. But I knew that what was happening in Rutland was in fact nothing new – it had happened in urban and suburban communities across the nation. So I got on the phone. I called the New England home turf of the Solidos, Holyoke and Springfield Massachusetts, Ludlow Massachusetts and Connecticut communities as well. I spoke with mayors and chiefs of police and I asked each of them three questions: When you learned that your community was a target what did you do? What was the result? And if you could do it all over again would you do the same thing?

To the first question there were two answers: “We handed the problem to the police and kept a lid on it to protect our image and avoid alarming the public” and, “We sounded the alarm, educated the public and mobilized the whole community.” In every case the ‘keep a lid on it’ approach had failed. In every case the ‘mobilize the community’ approach had succeeded. And in every case the advice was the same – don’t worry about Rutland’s short-term image, if you want to win this battle you have to get everyone involved.

With support from the Board of Aldermen and the Police Commission and a great deal of behind-the-scenes help from federal and regional law enforcement authorities, Police Chief Bob Holmes and I developed and implemented a two-pronged response.

First, we needed to educate parents, teachers, students, and anybody who would listen about the gang, their plans, indicators that a teen was involved and the pro-active things they could do to intervene. We identified teens potentially at-risk and mobilized community resources to fill their unmet needs. Dozens of programs were developed by dozens of organizations as diverse as the Salvation Army, Pond Hill Ranch and the Crossroads Arts Council. The Boys’ and Girls’ Club on Merchants Row is the successor of one such program. The region’s schools got together and organized training and programs for students, teachers and parents. The regional response was amazing, and all volunteers willing to help were encouraged.

The second front was to create a local police task force and literally shadow the gang. The ‘zero-tolerance’ policy quickly had the officers and gang members on a first-name basis. The near-constant scrutiny made it all but impossible for the members to litter, much less conduct their ‘business.’

These policies were controversial. I was publicly accused of bigotry, despite the fact that, notwithstanding their name, the Los Solidos were neither a racial nor ethnic gang – they accepted anybody. And the level of well-intentioned naiveté among adults in the region was startling. But it was the ‘it can’t happen here’ attitude that the gang planned to exploit.

In the end, the Los Solidos packed their bags and left, deciding that it was more profitable to conduct their business in another community; a community that paid little or no attention to their activities; a community that did not compete to reclaim its at-risk youth. And despite the controversy, Rutland’s response was nationally recognized as a model for rural communities.

Rutland now faces a new threat. The lessons learned in 1995 and 1996 could serve us well. But most importantly, Rutlanders should be confident that our community, working together, can meet today’s challenge.