News
RB Police Investigate Graffiti Is it a nuisance crime or is it gang-related?
By John Burton
RED BANK - Borough police are investigating the possibility that a rash of graffiti popping up around the borough recently is gang-related.
Police spokesman Lieutenant Eliot Ramos, in an e-mail this week, said there have been approximately eight known instances of graffiti being drawn through the borough with the symbols "SGD."
The case has been assigned to a detective and an investigation is in progress. "When we get more information as to the meaning of the graffiti we will let you know," Ramos' e-mail said.
"Of course it's always a concern," Mayor Pasquale Menna said of the possibility that the graffiti might be gang-related. But, he stressed, "Right now we don't know enough about it."
Peter E. Warshaw Jr., speaking in general terms and not about this specific case, said on Wednesday that the "SGD" could refer to "Southern Gangster Delinquents." That group, Warshaw explained, is a subset of Sureno 13, traditionally a Mexican gang.
Warshaw declined to comment further about gang acitivity in the area but acknowledged, "The Red Bank Police are very aware of this matter."
Dr. Ron Sopenoff, chairman for the criminal justice department at Brookdale Community College, Middletown, couldn't speak specifically about the recent graffiti in Red Bank, but said that this type of graffiti (known as "tags") is often the work of gang members.
"It's a marking of a presence," Sopenoff noted, "that they exist in our area," and a way for one gang to let other gangs know it is their territory.
But the fact that the markings may be similar to some used by gangs doesn't necessarily indicate that there's a connection.
"Of course," Sopenoff said, "it could be some graffiti artist."
Gang activity is, "very pervasive," in Monmouth County, Sopenoff said.
"It's a major problem nationwide, it's a major problem in New Jersey and it's a major problem in Monmouth County," he said.
Monmouth County has gang activity related to Bloods and Crips, two of the largest groups throughout the country, especially in Asbury Park and Freehold. But there are other groups, including white supremacist, or "skinhead" groups, and various Latino gangs.
Sopenoff wasn't familiar with a gang known as Southern Gangster Delinquents. But Sureno 13, according to a recent story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, sureno or surenos means "southerner," commonly used in the California prison population, referring to any member of a Southern California gang; and the 13 representing "m," the 13th letter of the alphabet, symbolizing the group's allegiance to the Mexican mafia.
