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Kiwanis Club of
Lexington, KY.
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Club News

News Items

Kiwanis to Serve Thanksgiving Dinner at Harrison Elementary

     The Kiwanis Club of Lexington will once again serve a sit-down Thanksgiving dinner to the students, teachers and staff at Harrison Elementary on November 24 in the school cafeteria.     This has become a tradition of more than a dozen years of which the children look forward to being a part. Unfortunately this will be the only Thanksgining dinner that some of the children will experience.
     

Most Recent Meeting

November 10, 2009

Officer Todd Phillips

   

                Whether they are visible to most of us or not, there are gangs in Lexington that are engaged in criminal activity.  Officer Todd Phillips, Gang Resource Officer - Criminal Gang Activities of the Lexington Metro Police Department told Kiwanians on Tuesday that there are 11-12 active gangs at any one time operating in the Lexington area.  There are usually 330-400 total members in these gangs.

                 Gangs have been a presence in Lexington for many years but in the past they usually grew within their own area.  They didn’t spread beyond their own “turf”.  Now the media glamorizes gangs and their influence spreads to other areas.

                 The most dangerous gang members are the new recruits - often as young as 12 or 13 years old.  These new recruits feel they have to prove themselves worthy of gang membership so they are increasingly daring in the crimes that they commit.  Not only are they told to sell drugs, spread graffiti, commit robberies, etc., they are often asked to prove their toughness with acts of violence against others.  An increasing number of these young gang members are female and they are often more dangerous than their male counterparts because they feel they have more to prove.

                Officer Phillips works with the CLEAR unit of the  Special Operations department . The unit uses a three-pronged approach to the problem of gang activities: (1)Enforcement, (2) Education, and (3) Prevention.