Dateline Canarsie: “Parents Go ‘Gangsta’ to Save Children”*

Ever cautious, the NYPD suggests conceiving of parenting as a massive CIA-caliber intelligence operation:

The Bloods and Crips in this city have numbers, weapons and pride themselves on all the crimes they commit.

But, all of their gangsta’ bluster can be rendered powerless by the tenacity of a nosy parent.

So say the NYPD, who still believe that the best deterrent to the proliferation of street gangs is a parent who makes it a point to know their child’s business.

“There is nothing wrong with snooping through your child’s things . . . to know who they are hanging out with,” encouraged Police Officer Mildred Roman, of the NYPD’s Community Affairs Training Unit, who kept parents on the edge of their seats recently during an frank discussion about street gangs and the ways parents can help dry up the flow of new recruits filling the ranks.

. . .

Giving a packed house at last week’s 69th Precinct Community Council in Canarsie a glance into the “thug life,” Roman explained that changes in a child’s dress, demeanor and how he greets his friends can all be indicators that he is planning to or may already have joined a gang.

But to be sure, a parent should look through the child’s notebooks, where, if he is consorting with gang members, he will be practicing their “alphabet.”

Roman went on to add “the best defense is a good offense” and that “that namby pamby Dr. Spock” is for “pussies” . . .

*No, that’s actually the headline.