After President Donald Trump singled out the El Salvadoran gang MS-13 on Long Island in his State of the Union speech on January 30, U.S. Representative Lee Zeldin last week sounded a clarion call, and Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy Sini stepped up measures to crack down on gang-related violence.Last Tuesday, February 6, Mr. Zeldin met with the president, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, and assorted members of Congress and law enforcement to discuss ways to combat MS-13. “From the vicious machete attack of four young men in Central Islip, to the childhood best friends brutally murdered by MS-13 in Brentwood, our community has witnessed the indiscriminate brutality of MS-13 firsthand,” Mr. Zeldin said in a press release. “Every level of government has a role to play in combating the rise of MS-13, and we must crack down on the aspects of our nation’s broken immigration system and other policies that have allowed MS-13 and other gangs to take hold in our communities and stay there.”The day after, the Suffolk County district attorney’s office announced a new gang initiative, a unit made up of attorneys and investigators that is devoted to prosecuting gang-related crime in Suffolk County. The unit will work with law enforcement authorities on local, state and federal levels, and will be housed under the Enhanced Prosecution Bureau. The presence of MS-13 and other gangs is “substantial but not significant” in Southampton Town, according to Police Chief Steven Skrynecki. He said that despite the relatively low level of gang-related criminal activity here, the police force is keeping a close eye on it due to the more intense violence plaguing parts of Long Island to the west. His point: There are, in fact, reasons to believe MS-13 and other gangs have members who are in Southampton Town. But their numbers are small, as is their relative impact so far. But there are exceptions. Specifically, Chief Skrynecki said a prostitution ring in Hampton Bays that was busted in July was gang-related, with graffiti and other signs found in the home indicating an MS-13 affiliation. He also said there was a report to law enforcement earlier this week involving a member of the Bloods gang in Riverhead, though he declined to give further details.He sees Mr. Simi’s countywide initiative as a step in the right direction. “It’s an excellent move on his part, to create a unit focused on gang members,” he said on Thursday, February 8, specifically complimenting the plan to bring together local, state and federal authorities. However, the ramped-up rhetoric on gang violence has caused some in local Latino and immigrant communities to fear that the crackdown will be used as a cover to nab undocumented people who have no criminal associations. Minerva Perez, executive director of Organizacion Latino-Americana, or OLA, an advocacy group for the Latino community on the East End, said she believes that focusing only on the policing and prosecution of gangs fails to address the root problems, and also stokes fear in the targeted community. “No one wants gangs out of here more than Latinos,” she said last week. “But I don’t see any money going to prevention.“You can’t get the information you need while stamping out communication with the Latino community,” she added. “If people feel that they can’t go to or trust law enforcement, that leaves a vacuum for gangs.” She added that gang activity is a minimal issue on the East End, and worries that renewed efforts to extinguish it will be used to target innocent Latinos here. “This is not Brentwood—this is fear mongering and scapegoating,” she said. Chief Skrynecki dismissed the idea that the push to eradicate gangs is anything more than that. “The [district attorney’s] announcement is in no way directed toward undocumented people who are not involved in gang activity,” he said. “Documentation is not in play here.”
Kate Riga on Feb 8, 2018