ATLANTA — Georgia is now home to more than 127,000 known gang members and there are at least 1,600 gangs.
The Georgia Gang Investigators Association has confirmed that gang membership has surged 80% since 2018.
A prosecutor in the Fulton County District Attorney’s Gang Unit says crime stats suggest a dramatic drop in violent crime in Atlanta during a time of increased gang prosecution.
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While watching surveillance video of a gang shooting, Chris Sperry, Chief of the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office Gang Unit said, “A group of Piru Bloods have gone into a rival gang’s territory with the intent to shoot up the very first vehicle that they see at this apartment complex. All of these defendants are all opening up fire upon that first car that they saw, which did not have a gang member in it. And killed Kaso Gordon, an innocent civilian just visiting a friend.”
Sperry said the killing of Gordon shows why gangs need to be tackled aggressively and how to do that.
He said three gang members were convicted of murder and seven others pleaded to other charges for long sentences.
“We have convicted at this point a minimum of 279 people for gang activity,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis told Channel 2′s Mark Winne.
Sperry said as of October 7, since roughly the same time in 2022, Atlanta police have seen approximate declines of 26.7% in homicides and 27.8% in firearm aggravated assaults, with going after gangs being a major factor in those declines.
But he said it’s also about saving those that can be saved, citing a recent case where a young gang member courageously renounced gang membership in court, agreed to disassociate himself and have his gang tattoo removed.
That young man received straight probation for two misdemeanors and his felony charges were dropped.
“We’re saving young people from a life that leads to death or incarceration,” Willis said.
Willis said police across Fulton County, the City of South Fulton, and the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office among others have bought into the importance of fighting gangs and in doing so have saved lives.
Sperry said data collected by the Georgia Gang Investigators Association from 86 of Georgia’s 159 counties shows gangs are responsible for approximately 65% of all crime in those counties.
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