By Bret Liebendorfer
bret@nypress.com

No one recalls what provoked the feud. But after more than a decade of conflict, dozen of members from New York gangs continue to fight, leaving the community struggling with the consequences.

City officials are accustomed to gang violence, but not this type of participant. The Whiteouts and the Snowmen are snowball gangs, the largest in the city, with about 200 members between them.  

Cities like Minneapolis, Minn., Chicago and Ottawa have all seen a recent rise in snowball gang membership experts say. There have not been any reported casualties, yet, but an acceleration of gang-related activity has officials worried. During last week's record-setting snowfall, snowball crime skyrocketed to epidemic proportions.

"The snowballers are slowly becoming the city's biggest gang threat," said Bryan Madison, who was hired by New York City schools as a supervisor with the Youth Gang Task Force. Madison, 20, a self-described "former goof-ball," or snowball troublemaker from the Bronx, counsels students in various local schools. He said snowball gangs have been up-and-coming in the area since the mid-90s and there are at least 20 such gangs in the area that are known about. 

Characteristic of the problems facing officials are two of the more well-known gangs, The Whiteouts and Snowmen. Most fights occur after school on street corners that are out of sight from adults, but there have even been reports of incidents happening during recess. 

Both of the rival gangs began to take form during the mid-90s snowball epidemic. Snow was plentiful, and the city saw an unprecedented surge in gang activity. Each gang is divided into factions based on a loose collection of friends, neighbors and acquaintances who typically live in close proximity or attend the same schools. Whiteout members tend to reside in the Bronx and the Snowmen primarily in Brooklyn. Queens is becoming a new battleground as the two sides battle for turf and new members. New members are attracted by poweful shows of force, and vying gangs attempt to outdo one another. If they are inadequate, alienated youths simply start their own, which may or may affiliate with well-established gangs later. 

Police and school officials, not the gangs themselves, are the only ones who use gang labels. It was not until a few years ago did widespread violence between different groups begin to attract attention, police said. 

The Whiteouts, Snowmen and other New York snowball gangs are not affiliated with groups in other cities, as far as police know. Though the risk of migration could emulate the path of more violent gangs like the Bloods and Crips. Snowball gangs tend to pick only on their rivals, not on others in the community, though the risk to innocent bystanders from stray snowballs is always a possibility. Ego is a major motivator, experts said. 

"I'm about to be 11. I'm trying to get some respect for myself," said Caleb Roberts, a fifth grade student at Jefferson Middle School in the Bronx. Roberts and a member of the Whiteouts. He said the gang was given the moniker by a school official because of their love for snow. 

Timothy "Timmy" Washington, 12, one of approximately 120 Snowmen, plans to try out for his school's baseball team come spring, until then, he devotes his after-school time to maintaining his gang's reputation. "Ya'll best not let us see you packing (snow)," said Washington. "If we see ya, we're going to squad up and it's all over." 

Attacks are an every-day event for these youth. Washington never leaves home without two pairs of thin, Gore-Tex All-Weather Xtreme gloves. This has become a habit of necessity to ensure that, even if he leaves a pair in his locker, he will always have a backup. Last fall during the season’s first snowfall, he said  he had left his gloves at school and members of the Whiteouts "pegged" him with iceballs all the way home from school. Iceballs, snowballs that are held onto for a prolonged period of time and packed tighter than a normal snowball (some gang members claim to put the snowball up to their mouth and suck the excess water out to harden them) are a sign of the arms race developing amongst the region's gangs. 

"There's nothing worse than being behind in snowball advancements" Roberts said. "No one is gong to respect you if your balls are fluffy."

Bud McCarthy, a police detective in Chicago who has become a national gang expert during his 31-year career, said snowball gangs don't receive much attention because their violence is rarely lethal. "Unfortunately, these groups won't be a priority until there's a causality," McCarthy said. No snowball-related deaths have been reported, but New York police records are familiar with snowballers: 

• On Nov. 17, a 10-year-old boy was pelted by several gang members because according to the assailants, "the victim showed no respect" and yelled the attackers “couldn't hit the broad-side of a barn.” 

• On Dec. 12, three pre-teens were hit with snowballs during a recess assault at Steven's Middle School in Brooklyn. An 11-year-old gang member, who police believe is one of the Whiteouts, has been questioned. 

• On Jan. 23, New York police intercepted several dozen snowballers on route to a South Bronx park. Police said they were members of the Whiteouts/Fresh Ballers, two loosely affiliated groups, and had built a snow fort the previous night for future protection. No one was injured. 

• On Dec. 19, a 68-year-old Queens woman reported gang members had telephoned her and promised no family member would be spared from their iceballs. The woman's granddaughter belongs to a rival gang. 

"Winter's been difficult," Madison said. "Things are under control and then the snow hits. What we fear most are snow days at the schools." 

Tempers are inflamed on Internet chat boards, a medium the gang members resort to once their curfew has passed. 

Outside in the snow, it's easy to distinguish the gangs turf because each gang uses distinctive snow figures to decorated the landscape, but identifying a member of another gang is difficult because winter clothes camouflage the individual. 

"You would think it would be easy to identify them after sitting in class all day, but on the street it's a different matter," said Lorenzo Miller, 10, a member of the Whiteouts. The gangs don't wear colors, although they sometimes have distinguishing earmuffs. 

Madison fears that the inability to distinguish rival gang members due to the anonymous nature of winter clothing could result in the pelting of innocent victims. The Whiteouts and Snowmen claim they want peace, and Youth Gang Task Force workers have put in overtime to negotiate a failed truce. 

What worries officials must are what the gang members will turn to once the snow melts. Many experts said mudballs in the spring and water-balloons in the summer will likely be used by gangs to maintain their standing in warmer weather. 

"The days of no one getting an eye poked out are nearly over," said Madison, the city's Youth Gang Task Force supervisor. “It has been a long time coming.”