[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 67 (Wednesday, May 25, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[Congressional Record: May 25, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
GANG CRIME
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, last Wednesday, the New York Times ran a
lengthy article on the growing number of crimes committed by gangs of
white youths.
The article focused on the brutal and senseless murder last August of
17-year-old Michelle Jensen in my own State on Iowa. Miss Jensen was
killed because she would not turn over her car keys so that the gang
members could rob a convenience store.
Three youths, aged 17, 18, and 19, were convicted of murder for their
role in the crime, and three other gang member were convicted of lesser
offenses.
For many years, Iowa was spared the ravages of gang activity that
have plagued other states.
Although rural crime is growing at a rapid rate, Iowa still has a
crime rate much below the national average. In recent years, gangs have
begun to be formed in my State. In the quad cities, at least 23 gangs
roam the streets.
As tragic as this crime was, I can at least praise the State of Iowa
for its response.
Suspects were taken into custody quickly, and have been convicted
less than 9 months later. The trigger man was convicted of first degree
murder and robbery, and the others present at the scene were convicted
of second degree murder and robbery. In Iowa, our criminal laws are
more enlightened than ``three strikes and you're out'' if someone
commits violent offenses.
Iowa's tough criminal justice system will sentence all three of these
individuals, despite their ages, to life without parole. I deeply
appreciate the outstanding efforts of Iowa law enforcement personnel
and prosecutors in bringing these criminals to justice.
I believe that swift, certain, and tough law enforcement is the most
important weapon we have to contain gang activity.
Mr. President, the article also mentioned that only one of the gang
members came from a two-parent family.
A criminologist quoted in the article maintained that gang activity
grew in the quad cities as a result of corporate downsizing there over
the years. There are some important points to note in response to the
article.
First, we all agree that two-parent families are more likely to
instill the moral training helpful to producing law-abiding citizens.
But an individual is not less culpable for the crimes he commits
merely because he comes from a single-parent family. And, second,
corporate downsizing and its accompanying unemployment also cannot be
used to excuse gangs or murders. Moreover, the corporate downsizing in
the quad cities took place quite a few years ago.
Today, unemployment in Iowa is under 4 percent, so the state
government's economic policies are working well. Nonetheless,
significant reductions in the unemployment rate have not led to
lessened gang activity or fewer brutal murders.
The Senate crime bill conferees may want to think about this when
considering how much so-called crime prevention money should be
included in the bill, and whether it is likely to really have any
effect on crime.
We need to focus on the growing problem of gangs.
We need to punish strictly those gang members who commit violent
crimes. And we must stop looking for explanations of crime that focus
entirely on societal factors and not on the moral decisions that
individuals choose to make, and for which they must be held
accountable.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the New York Times
article be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the New York Times, May 18, 1994]
Killed by Her Friends In an All-White Gang
(By Don Terry)
Davenport, IA, May 13.--In the middle of a silent country
night last August, 17-year-old Michelle Jensen was shot to
death. Her body was left along a dusty rural road, near a
cornfield not far from the center of the city.
Three teen-age gang members murdered her, a jury ruled on
Friday, for the keys to her Ford Escort. The killing by the
youths, all from Davenport's blue-collar West end, rocked the
eastern edge of the state, not only because of the cold-
blooded brutality of the crime but because Iowa boys are
supposed to join the Scouts, not gangs; they are supposed to
be committing pranks, not murder.
Three other young men arrested in the case pleaded guilty
to lesser charges and testified against the fellow gang
members they had vowed to die for. But what seemed to shock
people even more than the big-city style of the gang violence
were the suspects themselves: six white sons of the
heartland.
``People were amazed when they saw them on TV and found out
all six of them were white,'' said Michelle's mother, Cheryl
Jensen. ``For some reason, that blew people's minds.''
Seeing the suspects shuffle into the courtroom in handcuffs
forced people here to question beliefs about race and crime
and the boys down the block. When many people here used to
talk of gang violence, they were referring to black and
hispanic youngsters in big city ghettos, not young people in
Iowa cities like Davenport, which has fewer than 100,000
residents.
Dan Wulff, coordinator of a neighborhood youth program
here, said, ``I think the Jensen case made a dent in those
stereo types, but I'm afraid they're still alive and
unwell.''
Davenport, along with Bettendorf, Iowa, and Rock Island and
Moline, Ill., make up the Quad Cities, clustered on the banks
of the Mississippi River. The police say there are 2,000 to
2,500 gang members of all races in the Quad Cities, which
have a total population of about 200,000. asian, black and
Hispanic residents make up about 9 percent of that number.
About a third of the gang members are white, a percentage
that some criminologist and sociologists say is high compared
with the rest of the country. Nationally, experts say, more
whites are turning to gangs for the same reason that black
and Hispanic youngsters do: family, esteem and fast money.
Youth workers here say that before Michelle was killed,
white gang members were ignored in a way that black and
hispanic gang members were not, even though some of the
whites were conspicuous with multiple gang tattoos and
clothing adorned with gang insignias. One worker said, for
example, that white and black gang members would go
shoplifting together, then split up by race, knowing that the
shopkeeper would follow the blacks and not pay attention to
the whites.
``I see white kids running around here with gang colors and
flashing gang signs and nobody pays them that much
attention,'' said Prof. James Houston, who teaches criminal
justice at St. Ambrose University here and is an expert on
street gangs. ``But if you're black and you do it, then
everybody's radar goes off.''
the background--copycat gangs, a girl with a car
Michelle Jensen's body was discovered on Chapel Hill Road
shortly before 2 a.m. on Aug. 29. Within hours, according to
her sister, Veronica, 14, the police had rounded up six
members of an all-white chapter of the Vice Lords street
gang.
One of Chicago's oldest black street gangs, the Vice Lords
have haunted that city for 30 years and spawned chapters or
copycats around the Midwest. The authorities here said gang
members from Chicago and St. Louis often come to Davenport on
weekends to sell drugs, recruit members and escape the heat
from the hometown police. Chicago is a three-hour drive from
here.
Cpl. Henry Hawkins of the Davenport Police Department grew
up in Chicago and never imagined that so much of the mean
streets would follow him to Iowa. Now he spends a lot of his
time talking to school and neighborhood groups about street
gangs.
`the saddest part of all'
One thing Corporal Hawkins tells the groups is that white
and black teen-agers join street gangs for basically the same
reasons. Some are lured by money, others by the rush that
comes with a gang fight or trying to outrun the police. A lot
of them do it for love. being in a gang provides them with a
sense of family they have not found anywhere else. ``That's
the saddest part of all,'' Corporal Hawkins says.
Lieut. Phil Yerington of the Police Department said: ``A
lot of these kids don't have much to cling to. I think these
guys were closer as a gang then they were in their own
homes.''
Only one of the six involved in Michelle's killing lived
with both birth parents, and he provided the gun for the
killing. Fathers, for most of them, were only faded memories.
All six had dropped out of school, although one earned a high
school equivalency degree.
Michelle was not a member of the gang. But she was friendly
with several members, and close enough to one, Jason Means,
17, that he accompanied Michelle and her family on a camping
trip last July.
The night Michelle died, the Vice Lords wanted to borrow
her 11-year-old Escort to use in the robbery of a convenience
store, according to court testimony. They had high hopes for
the stolen cash. They planned to start a drug ring, so they
could jump into the major leagues of the gang world, the
police said.
only blocks apart
The evening began with a party at the home of Anthony
Hoeck, 19, a high school dropout and would-be gang leader. He
lived with his father, Lavern, a former steel foundry worker
who had been disabled, and his mother, Marsha.
Michelle lived a few blocks away. Her mother, Cheryl, works
at a gift shop, and her father, Mark, is an electrician. A
good student, Michelle loved drama and music and helped out
at the Zion Lutheran Church pre-school on Sundays. She also
worked at a summer camp for disabled children, where she had
met a new boyfriend, a college freshman her parents were
crazy about.
``I said, `Thank, God, finally, Michelle has met a decent
boy,''' her mother recalled. ``She was so happy.''
Michelle and her mother had the usual conflicts, Mrs.
Jensen said, and one particularly bitter battle, when she
thought her daughter might be sniffing glue. But Mrs. Jensen
said Michelle could not resist the badboy charms of the Vice
Lords; they looked so cool with their tattoos and red gang
bandanas. Michelle had dated a gang member who was in jail
the night she was killed. She considered the Vice Lords her
friends.
``They put up a good front when they were around us,'' Mrs.
Jensen said. ``We never realized they were a threat. Michelle
never thought they would hurt her.''
Before going to the party, Michelle cleaned up her family's
house. Then she lied to her parents. She told them she was
going baby sitting. She gave her sister $5 not to tell where
she was really going.
``She had her troubles, but we got through them; at least I
thought we did,'' Mrs. Jensen said. ``She was on the right
track. I could trust her again. I did everything in my power
to protect my kids. I thought I had it under control.''
the night of the killing--a demand for keys at a party
At the party, everyone was drinking gin and malt liquor,
said Christopher Felgenhauer, 19, who pleaded guilty to
robbery and kidnapping. Also at the party were the other two
who pleaded guilty, Shawn Shewmake, 18, the leader of the
gang, and Joe Hager, 20, who lived with the Hoecks.
Their plan was to rob a convenience store that night, and
they needed a car. They chose Michelle's. But when Michelle
refused to turn over her keys, Chris Felgenhauer testified,
Tony Hoeck told him to hit her in the head with an electric
fan to knock her out. When he hesitated, Chris said, Tony
threatened to kill him if he did not carry out his order.
Chris then hit Michelle once in the face, knocking her onto
the bed but not unconscious. When he tried to take her keys,
he said, Michelle got angrier and louder.
Hearing the noise, Mrs. Hoeck came up stairs and told her
son to get Michelle out of the house because she was drunk,
Joe Hager testified.
Chris testified that Michelle had complained to Mrs. Hoeck
that he had struck her, but he said he had denied it.
Chris said Tony then gave Jason Means and Justin Voelkers,
19, another gang member, a sawed-off shotgun that he kept
under his bed and called ``Bud.'' The gun had been stolen and
the barrel sawed off, a prosecutor said. Tony told Jason and
Justin to take Michelle outside and to get her car, according
to court testimony. The witnesses, including the three
suspects who pleaded guilty, provided this account of the
slaying:
The boys convinced Michelle that she was too drunk to drive
and promised to take her home. They drove away with no
destination in mind, turning down Chapel Hill Road. Justin
had to urinate. He got out of the car with the shotgun.
Michelle got out and walked down the road. Justin ran after
her, hiding the gun behind his leg, and ordered her to sit
down in the road. She refused. He gave her until the count of
five. When she continued walking, he shot her. The blast tore
away part of her head.
Justin, in a videotaped confession, never said why he
pulled the trigger. He said he had been drunk and has been
told ``to take care of the bitch'' because she knew too much.
``I didn't look,'' He said. ``All I saw was a big flame, a
big flash.
Justin and Jason went back to the house and picked up the
other boys and headed for the convenience store. But they
decided against robbing it because it was too crowded.
Instead they drove to a Hardee's for hamburgers before
driving back out to Chapel Hill Road to prove to the other
gang members that they had had the nerve to kill someone. The
police were already there, so they went back to Davenport.
The police woke most of them up a few hours later.
Jason, who also gave a videotaped confession, was asked by
a sheriff's deputy if it had been hard for him to eat after
Michelle was shot. He replied: ``No, not really. I was
hungry. I wasn't even thinking about it.''
A ``Wrong Place'' Defense
Tony, Justin and Jason all pleaded not guilty. Tony's
lawyer said his client, with an I.Q. of 77, was not smart
enough to be the leader of the plot, as the prosecution
contended. The lawyers for Justin and Jason said their
confessions had been manipulated. Justin's lawyer said the
killing had been an accident. Jason's lawyer said his client
had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. The
three did not testify.
The Scott County District Court convicted Justin of first-
degree murder and Jason and Tony of second-degree murder. All
three were convicted of kidnapping and robbery and under Iowa
law will be sentenced to life in prison without parole. The
sentencing is scheduled for May 31. There is no capital
punishment in Iowa.
[Shawn Shewmake and Joe Hager were each sentenced on
Tuesday to two 25-year terms to run consecutively. Chris
Felgenhauer is expected to receive about the same term when
he is sentenced on Thursday. They will have to serve at least
a quarter of their sentences before being eligible for
parole.]
The Personalities--2 Teen-Agers On Different Paths
Earlier in August, Michelle had been so excited about
starting her senior year at Davenport Central High School
that she had loaded her school locker with new notebooks and
decorated the gray metal door with photographs of her new
boyfriend.
She also had some photographs taken of herself. Her mother
said she had never looked better. She had dark hair and an
easy smile, though she still worried about her weight and
chewed her nails constantly.
In the morgue, her mother said, the only way she was sure
it was Michelle was by looking at her fingernails.
Justin Voelkers, who was 18 at the time he killed Michelle,
had been in and out of trouble at school and with the police.
His background is not that of the stereo-typed gang member.
He grew up about 45 minutes from Davenport, just outside of
Calamus, population 450, on a 250-acre farm owned by his
stepgrandparents, Clara and Robert Wilhelm. There is a rope
swing at the farm and a yardful of cats and dogs.
His mother, Dorinda Voelkers, commutes to Davenport to tend
bar.
Justin was shifted from one school to another in Calamus
and Davenport for students with behavioral or learning
problems.
Niki Soto, who drives a school bus in Calamus and developed
a close relationship with Justin, said: ``I'd have him into
my house. I just wouldn't trust him. There's a difference.''
She said Justin had a lightning-fast temper and a short
attention span. ``He's not a kid with a bad heart,'' she
said. ``I've had others that you could actually fear.''
In his videotaped confession, Justin said the gang was
after money and power when Michelle was killed.
``Money will get you power,'' he said. ``Power and money
are everything.''
Justin said he did not feel too bad about the dead girl
because he did not know her well.
``I ain't worried about going to jail,'' he said between
sobs. ``I'm worried about my mom. She might kill me.''
The Gangs--Substitutes For a Family
Street gangs began showing up in Davenport in the 1980's,
about when the hard times hit. From 1980 to 1987, the Quad
Cities area lost 17,000 jobs when large farm-implement and
construction concerns trimmed their payrolls, according to
the Quad City Development Group, which tries to attract
business to the area.
The jobs had kept families and dreams together for decades,
but in 1983 the unemployment rate for the area was 14.8
percent. It was fertile ground for gangs. Then, in 1987,
crack came to town and the sound of gunfire in the night
became more common.
The unemployment rate is down to 5.5 percent but Malcolm W.
Klein, director of the Social Science Research Institute at
the University of Southern California, who has been studying
street gangs since the 1960's, said once gangs come to town
they are hard to get rid of. ``There are almost no ex-gang
cities,'' he said.
Today, the police say there are at least 23 street gangs in
the Quad Cities. ``We're a real melting pot,'' said
Lieutenant Yerington of the Police Department. ``We have
black Asian Tigers and white Black Gangster Disciples.'' It
has been that way here almost from the birth of the gangs,
and in that respect, at least, Davenport is different, when
so much of life in other places remains segregated.
`you got to be there with us'
``Black, white, Mexican, gook, it don't matter to us,''
said Hershey McFarland, 19, of the Imperial Gangsters,
another largely white gang and the main rival of the Vice
Lords. ``What matters is, `Is you down?' When we go out and
mob somebody, you got to be out there with us, throwing
blows, pulling the trigger.''
Lieutenant Yerington said the average gang member in the
Quad Cities is a ``wannabe tough guy.'' For these gang
members, bricks, bats and bottles are still the most common
weapons.
Elliott Currie, a criminologist and the author of
``Confronting Crime'' (Pantheon Books, 1986), said one reason
white gang members are not studied more is that they blend
into the American mainstream more easily than their black or
brown counter-parts.
Mr. Currie said white gang members, especially in
Midwestern cities like Davenport, are the bitter fruit of
years of corporate cutbacks. ``The white kids and their
families are going through what black kids in ghettos have
gone through for generations,'' he said. ``For black kids,
it's worse.''
A total of 2,829 people under 18 were arrested for murder
and nonnegligent manslaughter in 1992, the last year for
which the Federal Bureau of Investigation has records. More
than 40 percent of them, 1,162, were white. The same year
63,683 young people were arrested for aggravated assault; 56
percent of them, 35,865, were white.
investigation and trial--``a lot i didn't know''
An early break in Michelle's slaying came when the police
learned that the last person she had been seen with was a
skinny young-ster called ``Opie,'' because of his resemblance
to the son of the sheriff on the old ``Andy Griffith''
television show. That was Jason, the only one of the six who
is not tattooed.
His mother, Cheryl Means, is a 40-year-old single mother
and a housekeeper at a nursing home. Five years ago, her
oldest boy died of heart failure, at 16. Now her 16-year-old
daughter is in a home for troubled children.
Mrs. Means said she had her put there ``so she wouldn't end
up dead on the street.''
The weekend Michelle was killed, Jason was supposed to be
driving with his mother to visit his sister, who lives 160
miles away. They were going to leave the day before Michelle
was killed, but Jason left home that Tuesday, and Mrs. Means
says she did not see him again until he was under arrest in
the slaying. She said she had not been concerned about his
absence because it was summertime and he was 17.
``There's a lot of things I have to admit that Jason did
that I didn't know about,'' she said. ``I didn't even know he
knew Michelle. Later, I heard he went camping with her.''
Mrs. Means says Jason's father left the family when his
youngest boy was 5 years old and was not around when Jason, a
shy boy, fell in love with baseball and football. But sports
was not enough to keep the streets away.
Jason had been in trouble before for shoplifting, his
mother said. Jason hated school and dropped out when he was
16, as soon as the system allowed it, his mother said.
``I tried a good two years to get help for Jason,'' she
said. ``I would call the truant officer on my own son. I did
that four times. `Hey, do your job,' I'd say. `I want my son
to grow up and be someone.' But when he turned 16, it was
like nobody care anymore. It was like everybody stopped
trying.''
In July, five weeks before he took Michelle to her death,
Jason accompanied her and her family on a camping trip to
celebrate her parents' 20th wedding anniversary. For six
days, he tried his best to please, Mrs. Jensen said. He
washed dishes, he gathered wood, he helped with the cooking.
And he followed the Jensens everywhere, like a lost child.
``It was almost impossible for me and Mark to get a bike
ride alone,'' Mrs. Jensen said. ``I don't understand it. We
treated him decent and he turned around and got involved in
this.''
The trial lasted a week and a half. The jury reached its
verdicts in a few hours. Guilty, guilty, guilty, the foreman
said, looking as sad as Tony Hoeck's father, who put his head
down and began to sob.
Across the aisle, Michelle Jensen's father was also crying.
``Let's go,'' he said to his wife. ``No, wait,'' she said.
She wanted to watch as the deputies put each boy-turned-
killer into leg irons and handcuffs and led them away.
``We're pleased with the verdict,'' Mr. Jensen said later,
his eyes filled with hurt. ``But we don't like to see these
teen-agers waste their lives like this. We just hope other
teenagers will look at this and think twice.''
I yield the floor and yield back the remainder of whatever time I
have.
Mr. BAUCUS addressed the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. (Mr. Akaka). The Senator from Montana.
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