Photos of seized firearms, cocaine, gang tattoos and graffiti flashed across the screen as explicit hip hop lyrics thumped over speakers during a Thursday night meeting near Coolidge Park.
An audience of 25 North Chattanooga residents and business owners sat inside the Outdoor Chattanooga building, a few hundred feet from where five youths were shot during a gathering of 200 to 250 people in the park on March 27.
Participants learned how to spot gang activity, what gangs operate in the city and what police are doing about the problem.
"Citizens need to understand Chattanooga doesn't have a problem with random, violent crime," said Assistant Police Chief Bobby Dodd, who described shootings as mostly between rival gang members or suspects who've interacted with the victim.
The North Chattanooga Council of the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce hosted the meeting as part of its strategy to address members' concerns, said Jerome Sterling, council member.
The chief also addressed recent shootings, many of which wounded victims' legs or other extremities.
"That says to me that I'm willing to shoot you but I don't want to spend the rest of my life in prison," Chief Dodd said.
Investigator Rusty "Laser" Morrison and Sgt. Todd Royval with the police department's five-man Crime Suppression Unit explained gang details and Chattanooga-specific gang culture.
Similar colors, certain types of graffiti, hand signs and symbols all may point to gang activity, but each indicator doesn't mean the person is a validated gang member, the officers said.
The best recourse for the public? Pay attention and contact police.
"Just because you don't see police doesn't mean we're not there," said Investigator Morrison.
Rather than make quick arrests for minor offenses, police with the unit try to gather a more complete picture of individual and group criminal activity, often using undercover officers to make arrests that will yield longer prison time, Sgt. Royval said.
One visible byproduct of gangs for businesses is graffiti, the sergeant said. Business owners need to photograph the graffiti and paint over it.
"They put it back up, paint over it again," he said. "By the third or fourth time they'll quit because they know you mean business."
Audience members applauded the unit following the presentation but some said they want the city to do more.
North Shore resident Jack Brooks said he got a handgun-carry permit in the last year out of safety concerns in his Frazier Avenue neighborhood and he won't let his wife or stepdaughter walk the dog at night after a nearby neighbor was mugged at gunpoint.
"Obviously gang members are not intimidated by what (the city's) doing," he said, following the meeting.
Crime Suppression Unit numbers
2007
226 arrests
13 guns seized
86 drug arrests
205 gang contacts
2008
321 arrests
24 guns seized
120 drug arrests
345 gang contacts
2009
421 arrests
65 guns seized
138 drug arrests
929 gang contacts
Reasons people join gangs
Protection
Family feeling
Peer pressure
Born into it
Money
Respect
Parties
Home issues
Something to do
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