Brick Township councilman calls for gang task force
Police: Gangs 'not a problem right now' in Brick
BY COLLEEN LUTOLF
Staff Writer

BRICK - Gang activity in Brick Township?

Brick police say they've got a handle on it.

"We really don't have a gang problem right now," said Police Capt. Douglas Kinney, the police department's public information officer. "In the future could we have one? We could. We certainly could, and we're cognizant of that. We'd like to take steps now to head that off."

One township councilman is calling for action against gangs now, citing at a recent council meeting that several recent violent incidents in town were gang related.

There was a stabbing at a Brick basketball court, and a gunshot fired during a private party at the Laurelton Firehouse was gang related, Councilman Stephen C. Acropolis said.

"We should put together a gang task force," he said. "There are things going on right now that we really need to address."

"I never thought it could happen in beautiful Brick Township," said Mayor Joseph C. Scarpelli.

Gangs are usually a problem urban mayors have to contend with, he said.

"Mayors of smaller towns are not usually involved, although they should be involved," he said.

Kinney would not confirm nor deny whether the incident at the firehouse was gang related.

"We're not commenting on any ongoing investigations," Kinney said. "Nobody was shot there. There was a shot fired there."

The stabbing, Kinney said, was a result of an argument between two acquaintances.

"Two Hispanic males got in a fight over a basketball game," he said. "One male hit the victim with a bottle and the guy pulled out a knife and slashed his arm before fleeing the scene. He was later identified and arrested. These two guys were acquaintances. They weren't in rival gangs or anything like that."

Although the "slashing," as Kinney described it may not have been gang related, there have been other incidents in town that have been gang related and the police department is aware of them, Kinney said.

"We've been cognizant of gang activity in Ocean County," he said. "We had a problem at the movie theater. There was outside gang activity and things like that. I think parents should always be concerned. However, don't think we're at a point where gangs are roaming our township and we have outward gang activity."

Acropolis claimed the West Coast-born gang the Bloods, infamous rivals of the Crips, is the gang "who's here."

Kinney wouldn't confirm that either.

"I wouldn't name any gangs' names," he said. "I wouldn't want to single out any group."

Last year, William Sosa, also known as "King Homicide" and the leader of the Philadelphia Latin Kings, a notoriously violent gang, was arrested in Brick Township last February on charges of racketeering related to murder, kidnapping, drug trafficking and robbery.

Although Sosa had relatives and associates living in Lakewood, he was staying at a Arlene Court residence.

"I don't know if he was living there, staying there or hiding there," Kinney said. "That's the kind of stuff we've developed intelligence on."

Schools were locked down and traffic was diverted from the area where the arrest took place, said investigators at the time.

Last month, Sosa was sentenced to life in prison plus 85 mandatory consecutive years for the crimes, according to published reports.

In the N.J. State Police's Gangs in New Jersey: Municipal Law Enforcement Response to the 2004 & 2001 NJSP Gang Surveys, information compiled by Brick law enforcement showed there was no gang activity in Brick in 2001. By 2004, Brick reported that it was unknown whether or not gangs existed in town. Comparatively, in 2001, municipalities along Brick's western borders, Dover, Lakewood and Howell reported gang activity. In 2004, Lakewood and Dover continued to report the existence of gangs in their towns but Howell reported none.

Last week, Gov. Jon S. Corzine's office released an announcement that Operation CeaseFire, an anti-gang initiative that his office said resulted in a 30 percent reduction in shootings in the Newark/Irvington area in the past year, will expand to include 11 more municipalities, including Lakewood and Asbury Park.