Talk:Opelika, Alabama

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[edit] Recent Deletions

IP only editor--it would be appreciated if you would fill out an edit summary when you make your deletions, or start a discussion on this page. So far your changes have removed relevant information taken from the cited sources at the bottom of the References section, and as such I've had to revert them as vandalism. If you have valid cites which counter those provided in the current article, I would welcome your discussing of them here so that we can reach a consensus. --Lissoy 22:16, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Gang issues

I have a question. Where does your information about Opelika's gang problem come from?

I work for the Auburn Plainsman and one of our reporters used your entry on Opelika for her story (no offense to you or the site, but she probably should not have done that). Long story short, some prominent citizens called us demanding to know where we got the info from, so me made some phone calls.

We talked to Officer McMinamin (I'm sure I'm not spelling it correctly) at the Opelika Police Department (he is in charge of all "gang related" crimes) and he said that while there is a "gang mentality" within certain sections of Opelika's youth, there are no real gangs, so to speak. He said that the whole "gang culture" of Opelika is really nothing more than a rumor.

While I agree that the city's crime rate has gone up in the last few years, as a long time resident of the city, I see no evidence of any real gangs. And the leaders in the African American community that we have talked to say the same thing.

Just wondering.

Thanks.

Good timing. I was just doing the research on this topic last night to get a better cite for that clause. Opelika is cited by the National Youth Gang Center and the U.S. Department of Justice as "reporting youth gang problems" in The Growth of Youth Gang Problems in the United States: 1970-98. Legally, in Alabama a gang is defined as "any combination, confederation, alliance, network, conspiracy, understanding, or other similar arrangement in law or in fact, of three or more persons that, through its membership or through the agency of any member, engages in a course or pattern of criminal activity." (Code of Alabama, Section 13A-6-26). By that definition, gang activity is common in Opelika--Mayor Fuller noted such an understanding between criminal elements with respect to territory in his 2006 State of the City Address: "Unfortunately, there are certain neighborhoods in our community where the people living there don't feel safe outside of their homes after sunset and would never entertain the idea of sitting out on their front porches - all because of the thugs, drug dealers and other criminal elements who have taken over those areas as their own "turf."" Fuller, as a candidate for mayor in August 2004, stated in an interview with Auburn-Opelika This Morning on WANI that the problem wasn't localized--that one could hear gunshots after dusk from any front porch (he seems to like front porches) in the city. I can't imagine anyone arguing that there aren't groups of youths in Opelika who commit patterns of crimes. For what is probably the single best description of crime in Opelika, go back and read the Plainsman article on crime in Opelika written in the 1995-96 year--it is quite an eye-opener.

Nonetheless, this technical definition of "gang" is not exactly what most people think of when they hear the word "gang". I cannot find any direct evidence of any national gangs operating in Opelika, and so to eliminate confusion, I've changed "gang activity" to "gang-like activity". That should eliminate confusion with respect to the national gangs, but also still describes the nature of much of the criminal element in Opelika. -- Lissoy 13:20, 6 September 2006 (UTC)