Twelve arrests after a teen fight, five arrests for participating in gang activity and an appeal to the Fayette County Commission are the opening salvos in what Fayette County Sheriff's deputies describe as a battle to stop street gangs here "before we have drive-by shootings and the other hard-core gang problems," said Detective Thom McKennie of the FCSD.

Officers were able to arrest five students from Sandy Creek High School, four from Fayette County High and three nonstudents after a fight that was videotaped Feb. 26 at American Foods grocery on Jenkins Road. Sheriff's deputies noted that there were "gang signs" displayed by some of the teens on the video, leading to further investigation of the incident.

McKennie said a website describing the "Rollin 5 Crackas" was discovered, listing the names of several local teens. The site "disrepects" another group called "Wolf Pac," McKennie said, "and that's where the trouble starts." Even if the local teens are "playing a game, or could be called 'wannabes,'" McKennie said, "they don't realize that other gangs will respond to this, usually with violence."

The site, McKennie said, "claims that the Crackas are a spin-off of the Rollin 60s Crypts ... if that's not true, that could upset some other people."

Jeffrey Wright, 17, 225 Pepperdine Way, Fayetteville, was arrested last Friday and charged with participating in criminal street gang activity as a result of the website, and with interference with government property for "tagging" a bridge on Eastin Road, McKennie noted. On Monday, the detective said, the parents of four juveniles brought them to the sheriff's department, where the teenagers were given the same charges, he added.

"Tagging," is graffiti which purports to mark a gang's "territory," McKennie said.

"Right now, Fayette probably has the least gang problem of anyplace I've seen," McKennie said. "and we want to keep it that way. We are trying very hard to make our young people understand that this is no game."