The Oakville Beaver, Friday July 6, 2007 - 11 Graffiti can be a signal of gang activity Continued from page 3 Nelson High School graduation party. "They don't fight fair and they don't care who you are. They don't care if you're a police officer, if you're the mayor," said Di Felice. "They don't think like us. They don't want to have a family. They don't want to have a future. If you piss someone off in a gang, they will make an example of you. That's the mentality." The young people listening to Di Felice's presentation saw clear evidence of the viciousness of gang activity as he showed them pictures of gang members with grotesque injuries from practicing their trade. "This girl got clawed," said Di Felice, pausing to answer an audience member's question about a picture of a young woman with bloody gauges across her face. "Sometimes female gang members are more violent because they want to prove something." Di Felice sees graffiti as something future community leaders need to watch out for because it can attract the attention of street gangs. "If you're a gang banger and you walk into Burlington and you see graffiti everywhere you'll think, `Okay no one cares about tags around here so I'm going to tag Bloodz on every corner of Burlington,'" said Di Felice. "He just marked his territory, like a dog." Di Felice noted the importance of keeping graffiti and their accompanying gangs out of local neighbourhoods because gangs bring their baggage, which they rarely keep to themselves. "It could be your younger brother, your parent or maybe yourself, who gets taken out because of these guys greed," said Di Felice. To counter this, Di Felice says communities need to give no haven for gangs or their graffiti. If a neighbourhood calls police every time they see some form of gang activity, the gang will go elsewhere in search of a more accommodating environment. If citizens wash off graffiti every time it appears in an area, the so-called artist will move on. For many of the young people who attended the seminar, the day's events proved truly eye opening. "I thought this would be a real opportunity to build my confidence and learn how I could help my community," said Taneisha Woods, 14. "I've learned all sorts of things that I didn't know affected Oakville and Oakville citizens and that there are actually things I can do with my friends or on my own to help." In particular, Woods plans to eradicate the graffiti that she feels is bringing down her neighbourhood's image. "There is graffiti around where I live and because my dad owns a power washer, I can just go by myself or with my friends or family and just get rid of it, because it is demeaning to the way we are. Oakville is not known for that. Oakville is a well respected town and that's what I take pride in." Mark Fisher, 15, says hearing about "They don't think like us. They don't want to have a family. They don't want to have a future. If you piss someone off in a gang, they will make an example of you. That's the mentality." Detective Constable Derek Di Felice the results of gang violence and bullying has spurred him to take action in his own life. "I know I am able to stop it now," he said. "I don't know any gang members, but there are two people I know who do want to get into a gang and I have friends who are still being bullied. Now I know I can actually stop it." DAVID LEA / OAKVILLE BEAVER IMPORTANT LESSON: Sergeant Nishan Duraiappah and Detective Mike Brown of the Halton Regional Police Service demonstrate the do's and don't's of being taken into custody to the participants of Black Youth in Action. 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