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New York Gangs Take Tweets to the Streets

by Amar Toor on November 30, 2009 at 01:57 PM

That Twitter avatar may look cute and docile, but once that bird starts hangin' with the wrong crowd, dangerous things can happen.

The New York Daily News reports that gangs in New York have taken Twitter to the seedy part of town -- and the police have caught on. Several recent incidents of violence between rival teenage gangs have been instigated by intimidating tweets; one youngster was recently shot in the leg as a result of a fight started on Twitter, and the article cited a 15-year-old in local gang The New Dons who uses the site for "settin' up the plans." And the trend is growing.

Still, Twitter is a double-edged sword: as police forces and social outreach groups have demonstrated, the site can monitor gang dialogue and even prevent attacks before they happen. Vernon Williams, a pastor who runs the Perfect Peace Unity Youth Outreach program in Harlem, said that his organization keeps a watchful eye on Twitter exchanges between at-risk teenagers. The group recently intervened to calm a brewing storm between two rival gangs whose threatening tweets suggested imminent danger. The police, too, have been keeping their fingers on the pulse of Twitter's sketchy back alleys; one source described Twitter as just "another tool... like old phone records" that allows investigators to "track these guys." [From: New York Daily News]

Tags: crime, new york, NewYork, top, twitter

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