By Monte R. Young, Newsday (New York)
Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi appointed a 30-year police veteran as the county’s gang czar yesterday, but the police union president said that without a dedicated police unit the move was “just another press release.”
With more than two dozen community groups and lawmakers at a news conference in Mineola, Robert Turk, 53, former commanding officer of Nassau’s Bureau of Special Operations, was promoted to inspector to coordinate the county’s anti-gang efforts.
“We have to identify the main agencies and what they have to offer and get law enforcement, ministers, schools, on the same page and we will reduce gang violence,” Turk said. “We have to offer those involved in gangs an alternative - jobs, education, housing - so they can become a functioning part of society.”
Gary DelaRaba, president of the Nassau Police Benevolent Association, said Turk is a good choice for the job but the county needs a special, dedicated unit of officers under him.
Suozzi said he will not form such a unit.
“What we need is not more resources, but coordination of existing resources,” Suozzi said. “We are doing an effective job with enforcement, but we need to do a better job in prevention and redirection of those involved in gangs.”
Currently the police department says it has 50 officers working on gang-related issues. But they work only part time on that and are assigned to other activities. The county has never had a unit dedicated to gang activities.
Without such a unit, DelaRaba said, the administration is giving people false hope.
“You need the unit to eradicate gangs at the root and lock them up,” DelaRaba said. “If you don’t, they will continue to flourish. Anyone who is telling you different is not being honest about the situation.”
Sergio Argueta, 26, a Hempstead gang intervention activist and former member of the Rondel Pride gang, attended yesterday’s news conference and said what the county is doing is good but is not enough.
“They talk about jobs at the malls, they are not hiring kids from our neighborhoods,” Argueta said. “Until you have some alternatives to gangs, we will continue to lose kids.”
Turk’s appointment comes after the brutal killing of two suspected gang members whose bodies were found in mid-October. And, in Suffolk County, a recent crackdown netted a number of suspected gang members, but was criticized by some residents who complained about police harassment and false arrests.
Turk joined the Police Department in 1973 and coordinated security for the Nassau Coliseum and the Goodwill Games.