Is Le Mars seeing the first signs of gangs?

Does Le Mars have gangs?

Not yet, local police and juvenile court officials say.

But Le Mars is not off the hook.

The vandalism and rumors are warning signs, according to those officials.

If the community doesn't pay attention and respond, gangs might become a reality for this town of less than 10,000 people.

"The problem is here -- we see the symptoms," added Jerry Germann, Plymouth County juvenile court officer.

Sioux City started seeing these signs in the late 1980s and early 1990s, he said.

"We were starting to see some things...spray painting, some of the garb - bandannas, how they dressed, hand signs to show who they belong to," Germann said. "It all flows this way. Now we're getting an influence, I believe, from Sioux City."

He doesn't think the youth behind vandalism and other criminal acts in Le Mars are "bonafide" gang members.

"But they're mimicking to me the behavior, the attitude, the thug mentality," he said. "That's how they get their self-esteem. That's how they get their peer respect."

Le Mars does have gang-like activity, he and Le Mars Police Chief Dekkenga agreed.

"I think we're seeing the low end start to make a build," Germann said.

Where does it begin?

"The issue is bigger than spray paint," Dekkenga said. "You have to go back to the root problem."

The same goes for youth involved in substance abuse or kids committing burglary, Watson said.

"You can look at the kid's behavior and say, 'OK, there's the symptoms now we've got to move back and find out what's causing the fundamental problem,'" Dan Watson, another local juvenile court officer, said. "Usually, you'll find that it's the adults in the kid's life."

Dekkenga agreed.

"It doesn't matter if he chooses to associate with somebody in gang activity or drug activity or shoplifting, it's all the same thing," he said. "You've got to go past that into the home."

When parenting buckles

Sometimes parents' techniques in parenting aren't working.

"For lack of knowing what to do, they just keep doing the same thing," Watson explained. "Yelling, threatening, lecturing without following through with consequences -- that doesn't work."

It might be a situation where parents are working opposite hours, or where a single parents are working many hours, making it more difficult for them to be involved in their children's lives.

It may be a situation where money is tight for a family.

"Parents are getting bombarded from all ways," Germann said.

Or it may be people coming from a culture where some things are accepted but are against the law in Iowa.

"These same families, if they're transient, aren't accepted to start with because they're viewed as different," Watson said. "Hence they become sort of recluse."

Isolation makes the issues worse.

"Those kids generally team up with local kids who are isolated, too, or who aren't as well-supervised and have the same behavior issues," Germann said. "Then you have a problem that grows."

But, Watson added, any youth and any family can face these issues.

"It doesn't mean parents are bad," he said. "It just means that what they were dong with that child isn't working for that child."

Backwards approach

The first responders cannot be the police and court system, Watson said.

"We can apply leverage," the juvenile court officer explained. "The social theory is if we apply enough leverage the unwanted behavior will get turned around or at least severely punished."

But that, he said, is a fallacy.

"It doesn't work that way with kids or adults," Watson said. "Even though we have, in the community's eyes, very visible leverage, we don't have the strongest leverage."

The most powerful leverage for kids, he said, is relationships.

The beginning of the answer

Parents need to be a part of the process.

"You can never treat that youth outside the context of the parent," Watson said. "You cannot do that successfully."

Who are those people that will work with the parents?

That's where the community needs to step in, Watson said.

Want to stop gang activity in Le Mars?

Be aware. Get involved.

Awareness and a curfew

If you see spray painted graffiti that wasn't there the day before, call the police, Germann said.

"Don't assume they know about it," he added. "Time kills their ability to track things down."

Report suspicious behavior, Dekkenga added.

Le Mars needs a curfew for youth, Germann suggested.

"It isn't going to solve all the problems, but it allows the police department and the community to police kids," he said. "Too many kids are walking around at 2-3 a.m."

Parents and others need to report issues to the authorities, Germann added.

"People being victimized have to come forward and state that victimization," he said. "If there are kids threatening others, they need to be referred to the authorities. The juvenile or child needs to understand these behaviors are not acceptable."

Get involved

The community needs to form a network for youth and families in need of guidance, the officials agreed.

For some community members, it can be as small as making a compliment.

People in leadership in school or other organizations should seek positive behavior in the youth and praise them for it. Then they should tell the parents, too.

"Whoever the youth is, he needs a lot of positive reinforcement," Watson said. "The parents need to hear it from other individuals -- otherwise they're thinking, 'The phone's ringing, it's the school saying he's in trouble again.'"

But beyond that, the youth and the parents need positive, supportive long-term relationships, Watson said.

"You have to get out from behind the table. You cannot sit here and figure it out. You have to go out and take a kid and a parent and figure it out," he said.

Parent 911

Watson would like to see a support-based group for parents to contact when they're uncertain of how to handle a situation.

"We don't really have a good system where a parent can call," he said.

Dekkenga agreed.

Sometimes parents call him or his officers to make a home visit and talk to their child and help them with discipline.

Once, parents even asked him to come talk with their 5-year-old child.

But even a police visit can be an empty threat.

Some parents simply need assistance in parenting, he said.

That might come from community members building relationships with them, Germann added.

Be a mentor

Another way people can be involved is mentoring.

With the permission of the parents, an adult can meet with the youth and build a supportive relationship over time.

"It all comes down to relationships, and with relationships, trust," Germann said. "That comes from the child as well as the parent."

The core

Watson would like to see a group step forward to be the nucleus of that support system.

He pointed to the success story of Plymouth County's drug court, a volunteer program where community members meet with people charged with drug-related crimes over at least a year. Those community members challenge the people to make life changes and congratulate them when they succeed.

That program started with a grassroots group of a few people coming together on their own time.

He hopes the same can happen in terms of forming a support system for youth and parents.

Who can help?

Anybody willing to invest their time, Watson said.

"Getting people in the community involved is key," Germann added.

It might mean spending part of an evening or a weekend mentoring a youth or meeting with his or her family, he said.

"It's something over and above living for yourself," Watson said.

For families that don't speak English, that means finding people to who speak their language to connect with them.

"As much as they are isolated, in effect we are isolated from them," Watson said. "We don't have that interaction which is the most important piece."

Communication is where the solution starts, he said.

"After a while, you begin to see more open roads of communication," Watson said. "You have to start and work slowly because it's the development of a process."

The time for all this to start, the officials agreed, is now.

"There are patterns going on with these behaviors," Watson said. "The longer they go on, the more ingrained they become and the harder it is to break the pattern."

It's harder for the parents, it's harder for the community, he said.

Not one, all

If the people of Le Mars want to nip the possibility of gangs in the bud, then the people of Le Mars have to be involved, Germann said.

It's not a quick fix; it's a process, Watson said. The community reaches out to support one family at a time.

"It comes down to that saying, 'It takes a village to raise a child,'" Germann said. "We need that. We need the village approach."

Choices Program: a starting place

Currently, a one-day Choices Program is available for youth 12 years old and older who commit misdemeanors.

Those can range from spray painting to shoplifting to crimes with alcohol.

"It's a diversion program where we try to keep kids out of juvenile courts," Police Chief Stu Dekkenga said.

But the program's also open to youth who haven't committed any crime but have shown problem behavior.

The Choices Program is a values-based program hosted at The Asylum. The one-time session lasts about two hours. The format is a group discussion, and the youth are asked questions in front of their peers.

"Their responses lead to discussion showing them how they make choices, what influences their choices," Jerry Germann, juvenile court officer, said.

Parents have called to have their kids go through the Choices Program a second time because it was so influential, he said.

"They Asylum does a good job with some of these kids because they develop a relationship," Germann said.

He hopes to see an 8-10 year old program start, meeting a few times.

But beyond that, community members are needed to form long-term relationships, Dan Watson, another juvenile court officer, said.

The single two hour meeting may make an impact but alone it can't change lives, Dekkenga said.

"You can't stop. You've got to keep going forward with them," Watson said. "Mentoring these kids is a great thing,"