Gangs in Savannah

Does Savannah have gangs?
It's a question we've asked the police department time and time again.
While they've admitted neighborhood gangs are a problem ....that's all they've said.
So we decided to do some digging of our own.
News Three’s Community Reporter Alice Massimi didn't have to scratch very far below the surface to find Bloods, Crips and other nationally known gangs are calling the SAV home.
For years the Savannah Chatham Metro Police Department has dubbed them youth groups, but what these groups are wrapped up in are not games of tag or baseball. They're dealing drugs, toting guns, and most likely committing a significant percentage of Savannah's crimes.

Beneath the moss covered trees, hidden from the throngs of tourists the City of Savannah has a dirty secret...gangs.
Left unspoken and seldom acknowledged by police, gangs operate throughout Chatham County.
“Garden City we call them “GC”, “204 boys”, “Pooler”, lists off “Michael”.
He knows first hand, all it takes is one look at his hands and arms, the tattoos, are a calling card that he is a proud member of “Highway 17” Gang, loosely affiliated with the Crip.
“There is like the main Crips and if they got something they got to do, we go with them,” explains “Michael” of their affiliation.
A lifestyle he joined for one reason...
“Make money.”
“Really how do you guys do that?” I ask.
“Drugs.”
It’s what Savannah Detective Udon Carter says drives many of Savannah's thirty plus gangs.
“This neighborhood here has at least 4 to 5 different gang sects and we are in one of the sects here as it says on the trash can ‘41st C.V.B.’”, points out Carter.
Driving around Savannah's Westside Carter points out gang after gang... the “38th Street Boys”, the ‘Cann Park Goons”, the “Ghetto Mafia Thugs”, he says no area of Savannah is untouched.
“Every city has gangs. If there is a neighborhood there is a gang. If there is a gated community there is a gang in the gated community,” says Carter matter of factly.
Carter says every gang can be violent, not at the level of L.A. or New York, Savannah's Gangs are different.
“New hybrids are gangs that have grown up in neighborhoods for many years but they want to align themselves with some of the rules and traditions of the gangs such as the Blood and Crips.”
Growing up on Savannah's Eastside Michael says it was hard to escape the drugs and violence.
“It was a neighborhood thing. My whole neighborhood basically grew up in it,” explains another “Michael”, this one a member of the Piru Bloods.
Selling drugs at eleven years old, he quickly found himself in the gang world.
“Younger kids right now, seeing the older kids with the money, the cars they want that and like I said they too young to get a job right now. So this job always hiring no matter what age,” says “Michael”.
The job interview? .
Michael was beat in.
“Five dudes for 55 seconds. You all just fight.”
“What was that like?”
“Kind of tough but after you get shown love so it was alright,” he says with a smile.
Making as much as ten thousand dollars in a day, Michael was living the life....girls, drugs ...and gang wars.
“Every gang has their wars. I been shot at and shot at people,” he admits.
He's living a different life now. Home is jail, again.
“No it is not always glamorous. That is what a lot of people don’t know. The stuff that is behind all the glamorous life and it’s actually harder than a regular job. People think selling drugs is easy but its one of the hardest jobs you can ever have.”