By Anthony Rifilato
At the front desk, a man wearing a ski cap is raving at the officer behind the desk that he was attacked with a knife earlier that day in Roosevelt.
"So, let me get this straight," the young officer says. "You were jumped by three midgets?"
"Yeah," the man says. "Three Mexican midgets!"
The officer, keeping a straight face, tells the man to fill out a report.
Meanwhile, officers Benedetto and Parpran don shirts to conceal their bulletproof vests. They always wear their vests. "I have a wife and two kids who expect me to come home at night," Benedetto says. "It's crazy not to."
Benedetto and Parpran are on the front line of the battle against gangs in Nassau County. As part of the Special Patrol Unit's Gang Abatement Patrol (GAP), they are part of a unit that patrols troubled neighborhoods, identifiable by pervasive gang graffiti, territorial colors and familiar faces hanging out on the corners.
Part of Nassau County's Task Force Against Gangs (TAG), the unit is aimed at reducing gang violence and educating the community. The Special Patrols Unit consists of 10 plainclothes officers and eight uniformed officers. As a result of gaining greater gang intelligence, TAG recently stepped up its operation, and there has been an increase in the number of arrests for gang activity throughout the precinct. In Baldwin, the number of arrests jumped from 14 in 2001 to 33 in 2002, compared with Roosevelt, which spiked from 41 arrests in 2001 to 96 in 2002.
"The unit is flexible," said First Precinct Commander Patrick O'Connor. GAP tries to curtail gang activity not only through aggressive enforcement, but by addressing quality-of-life issues and reaching out to schools, parents and community groups. Benedetto, Parpran and other officers have addressed gang violence at public forums. "They're educators, enforcers and observers," O'Connor said.
L.I. is no L.A.
Though they usually work nights, since it's the first full week of school, Benedetto and Parpran are working the day patrol. They concentrate on school safety and trying to keep teenagers from doing drugs, fighting or worse, such as gang members looking for new recruits on campus.
"That's how they keep their membership up," says Parpran.
Last Tuesday, the officers focused on Roosevelt and Uniondale High School, following a report that a student was jumped, and that there might be retaliation. "They'll be a fight somewhere," Benedetto says. "We're just not sure where."
As the duo travels north on Grand Avenue in an unmarked Crown Victoria, they stop at Dunkin' Donuts for coffee. Benedetto, 38, who resembles Al Pacino, asks Parpran if he wants anything. But Parpran, tall, fit, clean-cut and looking younger than his 36 years, says no. He'd rather have a fresh bagel from Create a Bagel on North Grand Avenue.
Though it sounds cliched, being in a gang unit isn't like the movies. Even a Friday night can be uneventful, the officers explain. Nevertheless, there are the days filled with multiple shootings.
As they cruise through Baldwin and past the high school, the duo, who have worked together for four years, talk about their wives and kids. Benedetto talks about Los Angeles. For some, it would seem that Nassau County's gang problem is beginning to resemble the one in Los Angeles. But, Benedetto says, it's not nearly as severe as it is in California. "It's not as structured and organized as it is out west," he says.
Baldwin isn't even as bad as some of the neighboring communities, and even though Benedetto and Parpran point to MS-13 graffiti in an alley on Grand Avenue and Merrick Road, Baldwin "doesn't have the volume" of gang activity.
"It has its share," Benedetto says. "You have a couple of bars where we've had a couple of shootings."
By contrast, driving through Roosevelt is like taking the gang equivalent of a star-map tour in Hollywood. Neighborhoods are riddled with MS-13, Crip and Blood graffiti. The officers point out young men who walk with bandannas dangling from their baggy pants, noting the wide spectrum of colors. Gang activity has become worse in the past five years, they said.
"It started showing itself, and we started tracking it more," says Benedetto. "There are a lot more gangs out here now than when we started."
Shifting gears
While they focus on gangs, Special Patrol's officers can shift gears at a moment's notice. While traveling through Roosevelt, Benedetto and Parpran receive a call on the radio that a 2002 Mercedes has been stolen. Parpran quickly tracks the plate number on his computer, while Benedetto speeds toward their destination on Old Country Road. Pulling into the parking lot where the suspect is being handcuffed on the hood of the car, Parpran and Benedetto assist their fellow officers and inspect the vehicle. In the car, they find shopping bags full of new clothes, allegedly purchased by the suspect. Parpran drives the Mercedes back to the First Precinct.
At 2 p.m., the duo returns to Roosevelt, this time riding in an SUV. Unlike the Crown Victoria, they can blend in with this vehicle. Throughout the day, they drive around Roosevelt and Uniondale schools in order to prevent possible fights and make sure kids are in school. But they also keep an eye out for gang activity and suspects they are looking for.
The previous Saturday, two young men had been shot in Roosevelt. The victims didn't want to rat on their assailant, so it was up to Benedetto and Parpran to canvas the neighborhood to glean some information. "We can't say that it was a gang member who shot them, but we can say that it was two gang members who were shot," Benedetto says.
Lately, GAP has been aggressive in issuing more appearance tickets for quality-of-life infractions, such as carrying an open container of an alcoholic beverage. If such tickets aren't paid, they can lead to arrest warrants. Many times unit members arrest people for making drug deals. "Then we keep track of them," Parpran says. "It's a good way to i.d. these guys."
Highlighting their strange coexistence with gangs, Benedetto and Parpran cruise through Roosevelt, pointing out gang members, some of whom they've arrested in the past. "We might not know everyone by face or name," Benedetto says. "But we've certainly locked up the same guys over and over again."
They stop at a corner off Park Avenue in Roosevelt, mostly Crip territory -- last April, a member of the Bloods was shot and killed on Smith Street and Park Avenue -- where a young man is sitting in front of his house. They exchange greetings, and the young man walks toward the car and leans on the fence.
"Who lit those kids up the other night?" Benedetto asks.
"I don't know," the young man replies. "I heard it was MS-13."
Benedetto and Parpran shake their heads with subtle grins. They know they've just been lied to.
"Who's heading the Bloods now?" Parpran asks. Again, the congenial young man says he doesn't know. The officers ask him why he's not in school. "I go to night school," the young man says.
Whether it's Crips on Park Avenue or Bloods on Babylon Turnpike, gang members aren't intimidated by police. "They're all tough on the street," Benedetto says. "Until they're sitting in the station house and want to call Mommy."
Sometimes, when parents suspect that their children are involved in gangs, they call the unit to conduct a "consent search," in which officers search a child's room for signs of gang affiliation. If they find anything, no charges are made. The Special Patrols Unit is also trying to implement a graffiti-removal program with help from the community. But its officers aren't always a welcome presence. "Some people are happy to see us, others aren't," says Benedetto.
As school lets out at Roosevelt, teens walk in the middle of the street, barely moving for the cars that try to pass on East Roosevelt Avenue. Though the officers are here mainly for school safety, they are also searching the area for suspects in a shooting in Roosevelt the previous weekend.
"We smell a cop," says a kid on a bike, riding with two others, as Benedetto and Parpran pass through.
Though Benedetto and Parpran don't see any brawls, eventually they pass a uniformed officer putting handcuffs on a teenager, surrounded by a group of other teens. Benedetto and Parpran idle in their car for a bit, just in case the officer needs assistance, before moving on, looking for their suspects.
Fighting crime takes time
Though their search for the shooting suspects was fruitless that day, the Special Patrols Unit made a large number of drug-related arrests in Roosevelt in the following weeks, according to the First Precinct -- thanks in large part to the day-to-day presence of officers like Benedetto and Parpran.
Fighting gangs, and crime in general, takes time, they explained, and doesn't happen solely through police work. The officers said they are optimistic, and believe that gang proliferation in the county will dissipate. But the problem will only abate with help from the community and parents, they said.
"By us locking up gang members, it doesn't mean that they're going to get out of the gang," Parpran said. "Kids have to not want to be in it."
