PITTSTON, LUZERNE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — Gang violence and gang influence are on the rise in our area. On Tuesday, 28/22 News is looking at the latest effort to combat the troubling issue.
Its focus is on the members of our communities who are targeted by gangs: Our children.
It's all about a book titled Pokey: the Wannabe Gang Puppy. It targets kids as young as five years old.
The author, a Luzerne County man, says it teaches children about gangs in a language they can understand.
"So I came up with an idea, a puppy, symbolism, symbolism. The puppy wants to join a gang," James Marinello, author of Pokey: the Wannabe Gang Puppy, stated.
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Marinello from Pittston has worked with and in law enforcement for some 50 years. He has traveled the country studying gangs in places such as South Central Los Angeles and New York City.
His book, Pokey: the Wannabe Gang Puppy, is about a puppy that wants to be part of a wolfpack, which symbolizes a gang.
Because the puppy thinks the wolfpack is cool, he soon learns it was a bad idea.
Marinello says gangs and their influences are now approaching kids at a younger age than ever before.
"First graders to third graders because I was told fourth and fifth graders talking to kids in school, fourth and fifth graders back in the 80s and early 90s. Guess what? Kids nowadays are more advanced than the kids back then," Marinello explained.
Marinello is a behavioral specialist and therapist and works with area school districts in their anti-gang efforts.
"When I talk to children, I tell them always go with our first impression, like when you take a true or false test, it's true, then you think it's false, you change it. Go with your first impression. It's something inside of you for children. I can't tell you what it is," Marinello continued.
28/22 News spoke with the district attorneys of Luzerne and Lackawanna counties, who say they are seeing gang influences reaching into very early ages and grades.
"Well, we're seeing from the criminal side and government studies that getting children early enough, there is no more important factor than reaching them early, and we're finding our reaching them in the fourth and fifth grades is absolutely too late," Luzerne County District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce told 28/22 News.
"It's attractive to them for whatever reason. In Lackawanna County, we have young kids with an infatuation with firearms, and what we're seeing is a parenting crisis as well," Lackawanna County District Attorney Brian Gallagher said.
Both Sanguedolce and Gallagher say a big part of the gang problem starts at home, where they say adults are either not aware of gang influences or choose to ignore the problem.
Marinello's book is available on Amazon and will soon be in bookstores.
