By Mike D'Avria
mike.davria@onlineathens.com

   Athens-Clarke County Police Department officials told county residents Tuesday that the department is having a tough time linking crimes, other than graffiti, to gangs in the area.
   Police Capts. James Williams and Mark Sizemore spoke about the issue of street gangs in Athens at a brown-bag lunch event at the Athens-Clarke County Library, saying that graffiti is coming from groups the law enforcement personnel term gang ''emulators'' that may not be directly affiliated with gangs such as Sur 13 and the 18th Street Gang.
   The two police officials spoke to area residents concerned about gang activity in the county and fielded questions from the audience.
   Williams said police are dealing with many graffiti problems from ''groups'' such as Sur-13 and the 18th Street Gang, which are ''tagging'' buildings with gang names to mark their territory. He said these two gangs started in Los Angeles, and the FBI has said that in many cities across the country local factions of these supposed gangs are not actually affiliated with the larger gang.
   Williams said the FBI has termed these groups emulators. Williams said local ''groups'' do this for a number of reasons, comparing it to a motorcycle club calling itself the Hell's Angels without actually being part of the infamous gang.
   ''It immediately gives these groups an identity,'' Williams said.
   He said he does not know whether or not these groups in Athens have formal ties to the larger gangs in California, but that the FBI has made it clear that this is common in other cities.
   Sizemore told the audience that the graffiti issue in Athens is obviously a problem, but pointed out that police do not believe many major crimes in the area are gang-related.
   Responding to a question about felonies committed by gang members, Williams said he was not aware of specific crimes such as extortion or armed robberies attributable to gangs in Athens. He said he could not say whether these crimes are, or are not, being committed by gangs, but he is currently unaware of specific incidents.
   He said a shooting in January on Wynter Court, at the Garden Apartments complex off North Avenue, may involve some area gang members, but may not be gang-related.
   Sizemore said the definition of a gang is sometimes confusing, and in some definitions a police department could be classified as a gang as well. He noted that police officers all wear the same colors, are part of a group and carry firearms.
   ''There are a number of different definitions of gangs,'' he said.
   Williams said the police department is doing several things to combat local gangs, such as communicating with other organizations in other cities with gang problems to get advice on how to deal with some problems.
   Forming a task force to combat graffiti also has been discussed. Athens-Clarke County Manager Alan Reddish said he has raised the possibility of creating an anti-graffiti squad with Athens-Clarke Police Chief Jack Lumpkin.
   In a telephone interview, Reddish said that calling it a task force would not be completely accurate, but that discussions about assigning specific officers to deal with graffiti issues have taken place. He said a task force implies assigning a group of specific people to deal with the issue on a consistent basis.
   Reddish said an anti-graffiti group might have people rotate in and out for temporary service.
   ''It is just in its infancy at this point,'' Reddish said.
   Sizemore said school resource officers - police officers who have been assigned to high schools and middle schools in the Clarke County School System for a number of years - could be a resource in helping to prevent students from getting involved in gangs.
   He said the police department also is looking for more officers with foreign language skills, specifically police officers fluent in Spanish.