Crime analyst: Police use videos to track people

Rap music videos show young people with guns

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A controversial rap video has neighbors in Grand Park talking and outraged after police showed it Thursday night at a community meeting on violence.

The video, which appears to have been recorded in the area, shows young people, some children, doing everything from flashing apparent gang signs to waving guns.

"There ain't no men around here. There's no men, nothing for them to look up to," resident Darlene Neal said. "Look at them showing like, 'We a gang and we got a gang in Grand Park,' and they like that."

"They got to put (police) on every corner. That's what you got to do," a friend of Neal's said. "On every corner. People want to sit on their porch and be safe."

"It advertises they can have a gang and that's OK," Neal said.

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News4Jax crime and safety analyst Gil Smith said the video can set a bad example.

"There's kids of all ages in the video. You see younger kids looking up to older kids," he said. "Now is that what they aspire to be?"

Smith said police keep track of videos like these that pop up on websites like Facebook and apps like Instagram and Vine.

"They use this mostly to keep track of what's going on and who's involved in certain activity," Smith said. "So they have several kids in this video, some may be gang members, some they may recognize."

Similar videos from around town are also posted online.

Smith said any of the use of weapons in the video can't be considered criminal. He said for a violation of the use of firearms, police have to catch a suspect in the act to prove it's not fake or something else. Smith said the video is just used for keeping track of people in the area.


About the Author:

Scott is a multi-Emmy Award Winning Anchor and Reporter, who also hosts the “Going Ringside With The Local Station” Podcast. Scott has been a journalist for 25 years, covering stories including six presidential elections, multiple space shuttle launches and dozens of high-profile murder trials.