Gangs are alive and well and roaming the streets of Bermuda looking to claim their piece of turf, members of the community warned yesterday.

Following news of an alleged gang fight between rival gangs “town” and “country” early Saturday morning in front of Escape Nightclub, an anonymous 32-year-old Somerset man told The Royal Gazette: “This is going back to war. This is going back to a gang war that takes no prisoners. So watch out, watch out, watch out.”

An 18-year-old Pembroke girl, who asked not to be named because she lives in an area where there is a gang, agreed there was definitely a problem on the Island.

She said: “I would say the problem is back. I don't think it ever really went away. It's not like I'm scared to live where I do, but you have to be careful. I don't know what can be done. Maybe the Police need to be taking this more seriously.”

Community activist Dwayne Santucci agreed with the anonymous callers and defied anyone who said gangs did not exist.

“Yes, we have gangs in Bermuda - stop fooling yourselves. Crime is getting worse,” he said.

“The Police claim it is going down, but it's not. Maybe the reports in their hands are going down, but that's only because people are more scared.”

But one of the moderators of the so-called “gang peace talks” that took place in the summer of 2000, who refused to allow The Royal Gazette to print his name, denied the problem was gangs but rather a problem with the youth.

He said: “These kids are not in gangs. This has been happening for decades - people trying to conquer land that's not theirs. It happens when people are greedy or confused. This is definitely not a gang situation though. It's just human nature in this Western world.”

Meanwhile the Police have said they will step up their “vigilance” following the early Saturday morning mini-riot outside the Escape Nightclub which saw a young man end up in hospital after being allegedly zapped by a stun gun and beaten.

Police spokesman Dwayne Caines said: “The Bermuda Police Service recognises that the weekends are a time that we must be very vigilant in and around liquor licensed premises. We will be stepping up our vigilance and deploying the appropriate resources to deal with arising situations. The Police Support Unit (PSU) will be working with regular operational units to monitor and control activity.”

Despite disagreeing whether gangs existed, both Mr. Santucci and the moderator agreed the youth were not solely to blame.

The moderator said: “It's us adults that create, the youth only imitate. If we are going to allow our youth to act unethically, then we will create a monster. It takes a village to raise a child. I'm sick of people who are here blaming the youths, who say: ‘When I was your age...' Parents have got to get their act in motion.”

He added: “We have all got to be assertive and firm in our decisions and we have to be flexible.”Mr. Santucci added: “The biggest problem is that the current Government does not address these needs. They are dealing with everything you can imagine besides the social ills that are causing this problem.

“We are trying to become too much like the US. They are attempting to adapt the gang attitude we see on TV to Bermuda.”

He said the majority of the gang problems were drug related.

“The lawmakers are going to have to do something too. They need to crack down. Either they need to be changing the laws or enforcing them fully,” he said.

“I am in favour of putting drug dealers behind bars for life. They are ruining lives.The minimum should be nothing less than 15 years if convicted of possession with intent to supply. I am sincere about that, even if it were my own child.”

He stressed neighbourhoods must be willing to eradicate the problem themselves, saying: “People in the area are not coming out because they are afraid that something will happen to their house or their car or them. Someone is going to have to put themselves on the line if anything is going to be done.”

Mr. Santucci added: “If you want something done at Whitewall and Curving Avenue, then you need Curving Avenue people right there fighting against the crime.”

He added: “I'm very disappointed in the church. They are doing nothing about it. This is a spiritual problem too.”

The moderator said: “The answer is not surface, meaning we have to go right to the root. The principles are to evade, deflect, direct or redirect what is going to harm you.”

“We've got to get rid of this cancer that's infecting our society,” he said.

The man additionally talked about why the “peace talks” from two years ago had not been successful. He said the situation would have been on “a better path” had it not been for people taking things out of context.

The man stressed he was not specifically blaming the media for the problem. However he did say: “I didn't want the media to be involved. The public went crazy. We didn't get everything resolved before they came in.”