
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, May 7, 1990                   TAG: 9005070246
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ALEXANDRIA                                LENGTH: Medium

ALEXANDRIA'S CRIME BLAMED ON YOUTH `GROUPS,' NOT `GANGS'

Despite beatings, shootings, killings and robberies attributed to groups of youths, police say the city "does not have any problem with youth street gangs."

At the same time, however, police provided details of violence and crime attributed to at least four different groups in Alexandria, and announced increased police patrols - uniformed and undercover - in some areas.

Officials apparently are worried that reports of gangs in Alexandria will conjure up images of knife-carrying, uniformed and well-organized street gangs of the kind seen in Los Angeles and other cities.

Jay Melvin, director of the Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Home in Alexandria, said he has to keep many of the 50 to 60 inmates separated at the regional facility because of gang rivalries.

Melvin agreed with police that these are not well-organized gangs - but they are gangs nonetheless, according to the definition used by authorities in juvenile crime.

"They are definitely a loosely knit group of kids who come together to commit crimes," Melvin said.

The groups have names, Melvin and counselors at the youth home said: In Alexandria, they are called "The Uptown Boys." A rival gang in Fairfax County is called "The Highway Crew."

And, Melvin said, "this is how the Crips and the Bloods started" - loosely organized groups who came from the same neighborhood and stayed together.

Reports of the "Uptown Boys" and "Highway Crew" surfaced early last year in the murder trials of several Fairfax County youths who came to Alexandria looking for "Uptown Boys."

The "Uptown Boys" were suspected of driving by a "Highway Crew" party in Fairfax County and shooting at a woman, according to testimony.

They didn't find who they were looking for in January 1989 in Alexandria, but settled on robbing and murdering 20-year-old Richard Jennings in Alexandria.

by CNB