SPOKANE — Gang members here are increasingly using the Internet, cell phones and other technology to intimidate foes, take credit for crimes and recruit new members, police say.
“They used to use graffiti, but now they do it in text messages and on MySpace,” said Spokane County sheriff’s Sgt. Mike Kittilstved, a member of the Spokane Gang Enforcement Team. “They are like society, and changing with times.”
Frank Harrill, an FBI special agent in Spokane, agreed.
“We’ve seen threats wrapped up in music. The higher technology is far more detailed and modifiable than spray painting graffiti,” he said.
In one case, court records say, a Feb. 17 gang-related shooting in north Spokane stemmed from a message posted on the MySpace page of Rashjel Cage, a self-professed member of the Murder 1 Crips gang who was convicted of riot.
The message insulted a rival gang, the Blocc Hustler Crips, and boasted of a shooting in March 2007 that targeted the Blocc Hustlers, according to court documents.
Cage and his family were then the targets of the Blocc Hustlers in the Feb. 17 shooting in north Spokane, authorities say.
Pierre Davis, 19, was arrested for investigation in that shooting but denies involvement.
Davis said he no longer is a member of the Blocc Hustlers. “I ain’t done nothin’,” Davis told The Spokesman-Review in a jailhouse interview. “I just know I’m here being falsely accused of a crime. I just wish the truth would come up.”
But investigators remain convinced Davis is one of seven people linked to the Feb. 17 shooting. He’s charged with five counts of attempted murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder.
Davis’ MySpace page claimed affiliation to the Blocc Hustler Crips and asked that those arrested in the shooting be freed. According to information on his page, Davis last logged in on April 9, the day he was arrested.
“The online communication is increasingly becoming the marketplace for the criminal element,” Harrill said.
“It creates a challenge for law enforcement because we have to become equally technologically capable,” he said. “But we have been able to use technology with some success to investigate data derived from online communication.”
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