Police Use Web To Track Down Gang Members

Posted on 13. Aug, 2009 by Mike Reicher in News Features

By Mike Reicher

 Soon after Nicholas Donaldi-Subero, the 18-year-old son of a Metropolitan Opera singer, was fatally stabbed in Queens, New York in January, some self-declared members of the Latin Kings gang took to the internet to boast about their prowess.

“We shut plenty of clicks down in the past and Corona Queens is not even an exception,” someone named ‘Farrocking’ from Far Rockaway wrote on the site thehoodup.com.

More and more social networking users like Farrockking are boasting about gang exploits, making threats about future activities and posting photos of themselves in gang colors. And increasingly those sites have become helpful tools for law enforcement officials who have used this material to prosecute alleged gangbangers. States like Ohio and California have introduced online evidence to link suspects with street crimes. Meanwhile, Florida has made it a felony offense to post gang-related material online. But this increased presence of both gang activity and law enforcement surveillance online raises questions about how to determine the line between youthful braggadocio and true bad behavior. (more…)

Will the Gowanus Ever Be Cleaned Up?

Posted on 30. Jul, 2009 by Mike Reicher in News Features

By Kieran K. Meadows and Mike Reicher

More than two decades after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency designated a section of the Hudson River a polluted Superfund site, barges finally began scooping toxic sediment from the riverbed last spring.

Miles away, residents of Brooklyn are wondering how long they might have to wait before the government begins cleaning up the Gowanus Canal, their own severely contaminated strip of water. (more…)