Wally Marchant has made gang investigations his life’s work.

So at a seminar Friday in Fayette County, local officials were all ears when he spoke about how to recognize the signs of gang activity.

Because the forum was for law enforcement and court officials, other important people who need Marchant’s message weren’t there: parents of local youths. But they were on Marchant’s mind.

Parents are often the first line of defense in terms of finding out whether their children are participating in a gang, Marchant said.

Parents should routinely check in their children’s rooms and question where they get jewelry such as fancy watches and necklaces which gang members refer to as “bling.”

Fayetteville Police Chief Steve Heaton suggested that parents keep an eye on kids’ computer activities and even on the photos, videos and text messages in their cellphone.

“I’d argue if you don’t want law enforcement raising your children ... When they get to us, it’s probably too late. We’re dealing with a crime at that point.”

Part of the solution is to get kids involved in recreation and other positive outlets, Heaton said.

Marchant said popular signs of gang involvement include the flashing of hand gestures known as “gang signs” and “sagging,” which is the art of dressing with pants worn below the waist, often times with underwear showing and with no belt in sight.

Gang members selling drugs use the area under their genitals to hide their drug stash because they know police officers won’t touch that area when frisking a suspect, Marchant said. Officers can combat that by forcing the suspect to pull their pants up, he added.

Marchant said addressing sagging should be a priority of school officials.

Drugs also are often stashed inside tennis balls, which can’t be easily detected since the ball retains its original shape after a slit is cut in it to insert the contraband, Marchant said. Other containers for drugs include magic markers, small Ziploc bags used to display coins, film canisters and even Chapstick or lipstick tubes, he said.

Police have even found drugs hidden in a contraption designed to look like a can of Coca-Cola that had a hidden compartment in it.

“They’re going to hide things in plain view,” Marchant said.

Parents should also be on the lookout for smoking devices such as empty soda cans with sscorch-markson them.

“And rolling papers. How many people here know kids that smoke tobacco and roll their own,” Marchant said. “You see a kid with a set of rolling papers, that’s a clue. I guarantee it’s not gonna be theirs, they’re holding it for a friend.”

Gangs are responsible for a significant amount of drug dealing, Marchant added.

Tattoos can also be a significant sign of gang involvement, Marchant said.

“If you put tattoos on your body, that’s a measurement of how committed you are to the gang life,” Marchant said. “... It’s that red flag we want you to know where there’s possibly some gang involvement.”

Jose Diaz, a partner of Marchant’s who also specializes in gang activity, displayed several photos of gang tattoos. A common one is two theatrical masks side by side, one with a happy face and the other a sad face. That stands for the credo of “enjoy life now, sad times later,” Diaz said.

Teardrop tattoos can mean mourning the loss of a gang member or sorrow about the gang lifestyle. Three dots together stand for living the crazy life, which Diaz described as “doing whatever you want to do to whomever you want to do it.”

Often gangs try to mix religious symbols into their gang culture, and that can show up in tattoos, Diaz said. One photo he showed was of a tattoo of praying hands with a message below saying, “God please forgive me for the life I’ve chosen.” Another featured a rosary tattooed onto a gang member’s wrist and hand.

“They use that as part of their reasoning for what they’re doing,” Marchant said of the “religious” connection. “Please don’t be fooled.”

Marchant noted that some Latino gangs, who refer to themselves as “brown” because of their skin color, have taken to wearing NASCAR jackets of a particular racer. Turns out that driver is sponsored by UPS, the shipping company whose slogan is, “What can Brown do for you?”

Another sign of gang activity is sneakers hanging on utility wires in a neighborhood, Marchant said. That typically means one of two things: a warning to other gangs that this is a particular gang’s territory or a sign that this is a location to buy drugs, he added.

Gangs often go by names that end in some derivative of the words “boyz,” “mob,” “posse,” “crew” and “mafia,” Marchant said.

Gangs also typically have no one firm leader, but have multiple leaders.

Parents can also be on the lookout for references to “training” women, which refers to the gang initiation process of forcing a woman to have multiple sex partners in which the males line up as if they were a train with an engine and a caboose, Marchant said.

Parents need to be made aware of their children’s activity with a gang, even if it means a police officer knocks on the parent’s door to inform them, Marchant said. Once parents are aware, they can address the issue at home too.

Parents should also know they can petition the court for a protective order to keep their children from being approached by gangs.

Marchant noted that it’s not against the law to be a gang member, but gang members who participate in other crimes, including intimidation and drug dealing, can be dealt with by law enforcement.

Gang recruiting is even a felony under Georgia law, Marchant said.

Often times, gang members carry weapons because rival gangs also are armed, Marchant said.

“We have to keep weapons out of kids’ hands,” Marchant said.

The top way for gangs to get weapons is through burglaries, Marchant said.

Marchant said he’d love to see judges hold parents more accountable for their children’s actions. Turns out that’s just what’s happening in Fayette County Juvenile Court.

Chief Juvenile Court Judge Ben Miller Jr. said he often issues court orders on parents of delinquent juveniles, who are causing trouble, and in some cases parents are jailed on contempt charges when the parents have defied those orders.

“From time to time we see parents come in and say they can’t control the child,” Miller said. “The first thing we ask them is ‘what have you done to try and fix this?’”

Miller said he will send parents to parenting classes, but if children aren’t under control by the time they’re 5 or 6 years old, “you’re going to have an animal when the hormonal thing” hits when the children are older.

Miller said he wished he had more options for disposing of cases, as Georgia law is limiting on the lengths of sentences that can be imposed.

“You have some very violent and bad kids out there you have to deal with,” Miller said. “For some offenses they get no longer than 60 days.”

Marchant suggested that juveniles who are multiple repeat offenders be sentenced to detention along with one of their parents so that the parent will be allowed to return to their job much like citizen soldiers are allowed to do the same when they return from the battlefield.

“Send them for six months in a facility for rehabilitation and you parents know what, you’re going with them,” Marchant said.

“You are accountable for your child. ... We have to hold parents more accountable right now and unfortunately we don’t.”

Marchant said kids also need an alternative to the gang lifestyle through aafter-schoolactivities and the like.

“I have found if you have children and don’t say to them often these three words: ‘I love you’ ... then somebody else will and they’re going to attach to that.”

Fayetteville City Councilman Larry Dell asked if there was anything cities can do on a local level to help law enforcement deal with gangs. Marchant responded that funding is important to help come up with things for kids to do after school.

Marchant suggested offering organized sports programs would be a good idea.

“The kids most susceptible to joining a gang, their parents can’t afford to send them,” Marchant said. “Maybe put together some type of program where kids can do something other than maybe get involved in gangs.”

Marchant said there are three top places that gangs recruit participants from: schools, in the community (particularly in neighborhoods) and in prisons.

Though gang members attend middle and high schools in Georgia, there are some also in elementary school, Marchant said. Other elementary students may not be directly involved in a gang but they may see that type of activity in their home, he added.

Art Powell, another guest speaker at the forum, noted that gang culture is prevalent in the various media being consumed by young people.

“The gangsta image is advocated and promoted beyond your wildest imagination,” Powell said.

Powell is a former gang member who did more than 10 years in prison for his role in a botched robbery that resulted in a shootout with police in Atlanta.

Now he runs a company that counsels gang members and at-risk youth, urging them to communicate with their parents (who must attend some of the sessions) and also to aspire to higher goals in life than gang activity.

“All my court-appointed kids ... the parents are mandated to attend. We’re gonna get dirty, they’re gonna get mad, but we’re gonna work this problem out,” Powell said. “The community also has to be involved. Everybody has to be involved.”