State AG asks public's help with gangs

Pickens County residents have been called into action in the fight against gangs.

"We do have a gang problem in the state," S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster said at a gang forum in Pickens County last week. "There's work that every citizen has got to do if we're going to get a grip on this thing."

Caring Communities of the Carolinas put on the forum where community members, law enforcement, school officials and church leaders gathered to learn about the growing problem.

McMaster told the more than 50-person crowd that law enforcement isn't big enough to handle it alone.

He said "swift, purposeful prosecution" must be coupled with an effort aimed at prevention rather than punishment.

Pickens County sheriff's Deputy Matt Kirby, a school resource officer at Daniel High School, said gang recruitment is starting as young as fifth grade.

"It is a Pickens County problem," Kirby said.

He said gangs offer kids excitement, a sense of belonging, money and power.

"So many of them feel like there is nothing else for them out there," Kirby said. "The gang is family."

Bill Byars, director of the state Department of Juvenile Justice, told the group that there are initiatives and programs in other counties in the state that Pickens County could replicate, including having teen after-school centers and employment programs.

"We want to supply you with the resources that we can," Byars said of DJJ.

He said they have worked with churches, boys and girls clubs and others to create the teen after-school centers that give kids a place to go.

"They are protected," Byars said. "They are in a healthy environment."

DJJ can give some funding and software to, and redo computers for, those centers, he said.

Byars said another program is the Juvenile Employment Enrichment Program, in which kids learn job skills and are connected with jobs.

Pickens County Assistant Sheriff Tim Morgan said the sheriff's office is working with the county to get a gang investigator and said getting mentors from the community is vital.

"We want to pay now with our time and effort so we don't pay later with the destroyed lives of our children," Morgan said.