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Commissioners discuss gang crime at planning retreat

Brunswick News - 10/27/2017

Oct. 27--Gang crime was one of several topics the Glynn County Commission discussed at a six-hour planning retreat Thursday.

Locals denied gang crime was an issue in the Golden Isles for too long, which helped the Rollings 20s, a local branch of the Bloods criminal gang, gain a foothold in Glynn County, said U.S. District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood.

Wood, the judge for Georgia's southern district, said the county commission was leading by example "pulling (their heads) out of the sand," and facing the problem of gang violence head-on.

The Glynn-Brunswick Narcotics Enforcement Team, working with federal agents, rounded up 19 Rolling 20s gang members last year, all of which were convicted of federal offenses this year.

The Bloods are far from the only gang represented in the Golden Isles, however, Wood said. There is also evidence of the Crips, Ghostface Gangsters and Gangster Disciples, among others, having being Glynn County, she said.

Wood offered advice on how to improve the situation, such as continuing to face the problem, insisting on integrity in all areas of governance and law enforcement and encouraging law enforcement officers and trainees to live in areas near where some of the gang crime occurs.

She also encouraged working with other government entities or advocating for a safety net for freshman and sophomore high school dropouts and promoting job opportunities for residents, especially young ones.

Later in the meeting, Interim Glynn County Police Chief John Powell and Glynn County Sheriff Neal Jump told commissioners about some of their efforts to improve narcotics enforcement. Jump said law enforcement officials plan to use drug squad GBNET to its full potential and that the relationship between the Glynn County Police Department and the his office has improved under Powell. The two agencies and the Brunswick Police Department are working to minimize jurisdictional friction, Powell added.

Commissioner Richard Strickland said when he was a county police officer, the department did regular roundups of street level drug dealers. At some point, the police department stopped, Strickland said, which is one of the reasons he believed gangs were able to lay down roots.

Powell agreed saying, they are looking at going back to doing just that. Once narcotics are under control, many other types of crimes will begin to dwindle, he said.

In other business, the commission told County Manager Alan Ours to evaluate all damaged shoreline protection assets in the county and find out what it would take to fix them, and to look at long-term strategies for protecting the county's shorelines.

The commissioners gave Ours the order after a presentation from Scott McQuade, Golden Isles Convention and Visitors Bureau executive director. McQuade said considering the damage to beaches and revetments inflicted by the relatively weak piece of Hurricane Irma that struck the county, the county should take shoreline protection seriously.

Commissioners also heard a presentation from Ours about what county staff learned from Irma, were given a report on a county employee satisfaction survey and discussed the Brunswick-Glynn County Joint Water and Sewer Commission's monetary needs.

No decision was made on these, but commissioners acknowledged the JWSC had serious problems and the county would be at the table to discuss solutions.

Planning retreats are typically held every six months. Strickland said the next one will probably be around February next year.

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(c)2017 The Brunswick News (Brunswick, Ga.)

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