Fayette County attorneys are looking for ways to stop teen violence before it gets any worse.

"I need to not have to wait until somebody gets killed," county sheriff's Major Bruce Jordan told county commissioners last week.

Jordan said the county currently has no loitering laws and no laws addressing gang activity, and state laws addressing those issues can be used only if gangs of teens engage in severe criminal activity.

One group of Fayette County teens, advertising themselves as a new gang called the Rolling Cracka Five, has been advertising for members over the internet, Jordan said.

That group has been broken up, its leader charged with soliciting for gang activity, he said.

There is a growing trend toward "gang banger wannabes" in Fayette, Jordan said. "They're just playing around with something that I don't believe they know what they're playing around with," he said.

Things could truly get ugly, he added, as local start-up gangs disrespect well-known inner city gangs. Those older, more violent groups may challenge the local "wannabes" and the situation could get violent, he added.

A recent fight between Fayette County High School and Sandy Creek High students involving about 150 teens ended in injuries and arrests, Jordan added.

"I'm looking for the tools to break up these crowds and take some proactive measures," he said.

Laws that prohibit loitering for the purpose of gang or drug activity, or laws providing penalties for groups identifying themselves as gangs would be helpful, he said. He also called for laws prohibiting the display of gang colors and "tagging" of bridges.

Tagging is the practice of painting gang colors on bridges as a way of marking territory, and is another example of the type of activity that could bring retaliation by more violent groups, Jordan said.

"it's the first stage to what's going to bring us more trouble," Jordan said of tagging.

The only laws that currently address the problem, Jordan said, are state laws designed to deal with much more severe criminal activity. Fayette needs laws designed to break up the gang activity without saddling the teens with felony charges, he said, adding that the burden of proving that loitering or tagging are gang-related would still keep officers from using the laws to harass innocent teens.

Currently, he said, the county doesn't even have a disorderly conduct law.

But writing such laws could be tricky, said Commissioner Linda Wells. "Many of the loitering laws have been struck down as unconstitutional," she said, adding that display of gang colors could be something as subtle as wearing one pant leg shorter than the other.

But, she added, "We're not that isolated. I would favor anything we could do that would be constitutional," she said.

"It has to be as tough as we can possibly make it to nip this thing in the bud," added commission Chairman Harold Bost.