Social media gives rise to new type of criminal: ‘Internet gangsters'

PITTSBURGH — In the ‘90s, street crime was highlighted by a serious gang problem in Pittsburgh. Today, though, most street gangs are non-existent in the city.

However, a new threat has emerged online and it has no boundaries.

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“Social media to me is the biggest thing that's killing us right now,” said Richard Garland, who runs the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Equity’s Violence Prevention Project.

Garland is often the first face a victim of gun violence sees when they wake up in the hospital. His project focuses on a hospital-based program that’s dedicated to keeping children from making a return trip to the emergency room.

Garland said the violence he's seeing is being committed by an entirely new type of criminal.

“What we call them is an Internet gangster,” he said. “It's not so much the guys that are doing the rapping (in videos posted online), but it's the guys that are behind them in these videos that you see. They have all types of different guns.”

According to Garland, the violence perpetuated in the rap videos isn’t about gangs anymore but rather what he called “cliques and crews” brought together by displacement.

“When the housing authority started closing housing communities, we started mixing communities together,” Garland said.

It’s a fact that’s not lost on Pittsburgh police either. The miles that once separated rivals are now just a matter of feet on the streets and in schools.

“What we're seeing is a kid from the Hill (District) that is now accepted in Homewood, and there was a time that would never be possible,” Pittsburgh Police Cmdr. Larry Scirotto.

Scirotto said social media only seems to be adding to the issues.

“I have seen a YouTube video that disrespects a group from another neighborhood and then a shooting in that neighborhood that night or within hours,” he said.

Young men and women who partake in the online videos are ending up in hospital beds, and often times promising Garland something they don’t follow through with.

“While they are in the hospital bed, nine times out of 10 they say, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, I won’t.’ But once they’re feeling better, they’re back out there,” Garland said.

The so-called Internet gangsters are often between 14 and 19 years old, Garland said.

Scirotto said to combat them, the department is ramping up social outreach. Unfortunately, he said almost all of the parents he speaks with have no idea their children are on social media until a crime occurs.

WPXI