Understanding, combatting gang violence in Scranton
SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — The battle to reduce youth gang violence continues Wednesday.
Community leaders gathered Wednesday to talk about the ongoing fight to combat the problem, first by understanding it.
Three important takeaways from Wednesday coming from Lackawanna County District Attorney Mark Powell.
Gang activity is not new, it’s not unique to Scranton if the community works together in a collaborative effort, gang activity, and violent crime can be reduced.
Local leaders collaborated with human service organizations Wednesday to help the community better understand gang violence.
“We understand that violence is nothing but a symptom,” Scranton Police Chief Thomas Carroll explained.
Chief Carroll spoke about the prevention that goes on between the news headlines.
“That’s hard to gauge, every time we take a gun off the street, three of them last week off juveniles, you didn’t hear about that but that’s three shootings prevented,” Carroll added.
In 2023, Chief Carroll says the Scranton Street crimes unit took 43 guns off the street.
Successful efforts like that can continue with collaboration between Scranton police, state police, and the Lackawanna County District Attorney’s Office.
Major Michael Carroll with the Pennsylvania State Police shared that gangs are a generational issue, and there is a breakdown in many families.
“I’ve arrested parents back in the 1990s and I’ve arrested their kids in the 2000s because they don’t have those family traits at the house and they fall into the wrong groups and they just go over and over and over,” Major Carroll said.
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But Powell says police work alone won’t solve the issue.
“In my humble opinion and I know there are many causes but there are clearly too many illegal guns on the street,” Powell said.
The goal of this conversation is to combine law enforcement, the community, and outreach programs to help reduce gang activity on our streets.
“The police will make a difference but more importantly you all will make a difference in the lives of those kids,” said Keynote speaker and Wyoming County District Attorney Joe Peters.
Local human services organizations will have a follow-up seminar this fall. Brainstorm plans to address the issues.
“Our hope is for collaboration partnerships, to rebuild the families to rebuild resiliency in the community and hopes to affect the change that we so desperately need in our area,” said Maria Maletta Hastie, Lackawanna Interagency Council.
Peters says the tough part creating programs that make a difference.
“Whether they be mentorship programs, cause me Mentoring matters cause guess what if you have a mentor, you replace the gang,” Peters said.
These solutions don’t come overnight. Just the fact that so many different organizations are talking about the problem is very significant progress in our community.
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