OPENING A DOOR TO TEXAS PRISON GANG MEMBERS

Laura McKee, our NLEM Graphics Imaging Project Intern, is a student in the graduate museum studies program at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. She is currently interning with the National Law Enforcement Museum to learn how to catalogue and write about artifacts.

To say that something or someone is “history” is usually a sign of disrespect. However, at the National Law Enforcement Museum, historical artifacts have a significance in American culture that can flow seamlessly into the present and even into the future.

Prison Gang Tattoos Booklet, ca. 1980s. 2008.70.11. Collection of the NLEM, Washington, DC. (all images)

Take, for example, the small, soft-cover handbook of prison gang tattoos (circa 1980s) published by the Crime Analysis Section of the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Criminal Intelligence Service. Despite its modest appearance and low production values by today’s standards, this little booklet provides a fascinating glimpse into the dark, often-obscure world of prisoner identity politics. It has a glossary of “gang slang” and descriptive summaries of violent prison gangs ranging from the American Nazi Party and the Mexican Mafia to the Mandingo Warriors. It’s also filled with illustration after illustration of tattoos, some with text and some without, but each evidencing a rich imagery and symbolism that can be linked directly to the probable criminal activities and ideologies of certain inmates.

Why is this handbook important? Its place in the past, in the history of law enforcement, is indisputable—Texas authorities used it to discharge their duty to protect and serve civilians, to identify gang members, and to map their potential behavior both in and out of prison. But what about this artifact’s relevance, almost three decades later, to current cultural trends and security concerns? Today, 24% of Americans aged 18-50 years have one or more tattoos. Among Americans aged 18 to 29, the rate goes up to 36%. Those statistics, taken by themselves, are innocuous; however, they become meaningful when they intersect with the fact that there are now over 2.4 million people incarcerated in the United States.

In this light, the prison gang tattoo emerges as a long-standing indicator of separateness from the American mainstream, a continuously reliable mark of social deviance. It would also be interesting to ascertain if the twentieth-century tattoos in the booklet are similar or identical to the tattoos worn by present-day prisoners. Do you or somebody you know have experience working with prison gang members? Or have an interest in this critical aspect of the exploding phenomenon of U.S. prison gang membership? Tell us what you think!

How We Create Programs: We Listen to You!

Have you ever thought about how museums come up with their programming?

Think about a field trip you’ve been on, a tour, a lecture, a special event sponsored by some museum, zoo, historic house, arboretum, aquarium—an experience that you just loved and that really made an impression on you. Why did the museum or other institution decide to focus on that subject? Or why did it offer the program at that particular time of day? At the time, why did it seem like that experience was made just for you?

I can tell you from the inside, it wasn’t just a happy coincidence or mere whim on the part of the institution. Any museum worth its salt, and especially anyone who creates programming (read museum educator!), knows that in order to be successful, you have to listen to the needs of the community.

There are lots of ways to do this. The National Law Enforcement Museum uses vehicles like our Facebook page and this blog to get immediate feedback from our national community. We’re developing partnerships with local schools that will help us shape the school programs we’ll offer to students from all over the nation once we’re open. And we’ve assembled a knowledgeable, savvy, national group of advisors with expertise ranging from museum education to law enforcement to civics to socially responsible museum programming to offer guidance. Our Education Advisory Committee is one organized way we listen to all the different communities we want to reach.

So now I’m curious. Who do you think the National Law Enforcement Museum’s community should be? Who should we make extra efforts to reach out to as we develop programs we’ll offer now and in the future? In order to make a program, tour, activity, or whatever seem like it was created especially for you, what should we include, or what would it look like? Please leave a comment and share your thoughts!

Love and Law Enforcement

For four years we have been developing the collection of the National Law Enforcement Museum. One would think that, given the nature of policing, the bulk of what will be in the Museum’s collection is of a serious nature: uniforms, equipment and other tools of the trade, photographs of officers doing their work, items related to bad guys, materials to help us live safer lives, and so on. Indeed, of the over 8,000 items in the collection, the majority of the objects in our collection do represent the serious side of policing. But it’s February, and it’s almost the end of winter. Valentine’s Day is the 14th, and almost everyone’s attention turns to Cupid.

We have acquired two valentines that relate to policing—and I’m happy to share those with you.

What is interesting to me—and I’ve certainly not made a study of valentines, is that they both pun on “please” and “police.”

The first is a mechanical valentine—the clown rotates back and forth, and asks the recipient to “Be my valentine! and ‘poleece’ stop juggling my heart around.” We believe it’s from the middle of the last century (ca. 1940s-50s). It’s signed on the back “To Betty / From / Mum and Dad / with love.”



Police valentine, ca. 1940-1950. 2006.268.1. Collection of the NLEM, Washington, DC.

The second, also believed to be from ca. 1940s-50s, states “Come ahead and ‘police’ be my valentine.”

Police valentine, ca. 1940-1950. R0814. Received by the NLEM, Washington, DC.

If you have any information on these valentines or have thoughts to share about the connection between law enforcement and valentines, we would be delighted to hear from you.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Lending a Helping Hand as a Peer Reviewer

We're delighted to announce that Laurie Baty, post card collector, photography expert, and intrepid Senior Director of Museum Programs here at the National Law Enforcement Museum, was recently selected to be a peer reviewer for the American Association of Museums' Museum Assessment Program.

It's an exciting opportunity, not only for Laurie, but also for our developing museum. This honor recognizes Laurie's three decades of experience in the museum field, as well as her knowledge of best practices and current standards. As a peer reviewer, Laurie will assist museums going through a self assessment process that's designed to help them maintain and improve their operations. Through her work, she'll also learn more about what other museums are doing, strengthening our museum, too.

This volunteer position takes lots of time and dedication, but we know Laurie is up to the challenge. Congrats, Laurie!

Read the NLEOMF press release

New Domestic Violence Program Aims to Work with Schools

According to a study on family violence, over 15 million children live in households where partner violence has occurred (McDonald, 2006). Witnessing domestic violence can affect a child physically, emotionally, and mentally, putting them at higher risk to be depressed, aggressive, and anxious (Edelson, 2006). These children also have trouble expressing themselves in a healthy way. In addition, boys who witness violence have an increased risk of becoming abusers in their future relationships and girls have a higher chance of being victims of dating and domestic violence (Pelcovitz, 2009). School is one place where a child can feel safe and shielded from the violence at home; teachers and school staff are often the only stable relationship the child has with an adult (Kearney, 1999).

With that in mind, and with assistance from the Verizon Foundation, National Law Enforcement Museum program staff are creating a program to provide information and training to Washington-area teachers, school resource officers, and other school staff on what domestic violence is, and how witnessing domestic violence affects children. The training will also give school staff the tools they need to provide students with an outlet to get support and stay safe.

The National Law Enforcement Museum is working on this program because domestic violence is a long-term critical issue for law enforcement. More officers by far are assaulted or injured during domestic disturbance calls than any other circumstance (Floyd, 2007). In addition, the very nature of law enforcement is to keep people safe. An important part of this program will be building respect, trust and confidence between school staff (including the law enforcement officers in the school) and their students. With this program, our goal is to make sure schools are not only safe, but also places where children can get the support they need. This initiative will support the Museum’s mission to encourage open communication and foster interaction between law enforcement and the community.

Contraband Weapons—Shivs and Shanks at the NLEM

In 2007, Louisiana State University (LSU) donated a collection of contraband weapons to the National Law Enforcement Museum. According to Barry Cowan, LSU Archivist, the weapons originally formed a display used by LSU’s Law Enforcement Training Program, which ran from 1953 through 2006. He says, “The LETP offered training for corrections officers, and I was told the display was designed to show students the types of weapons to look for when searching prisoners and their cells.”

The term “shiv” is slang for any sharp, pointed object that is used as a knife, and can be created out of anything from a shard of glass to a hardened, sharpened toothbrush handle. Similarly, “shank” refers to a makeshift, knife-like weapon, and the two terms are often used interchangeably. The weapons seen here were all created from materials gleaned opportunistically; they show careful preparation and have been painstakingly sharpened, probably against a concrete floor or wall.


Contraband prison weapons, ca. 1960-1980. 2007.70. Collection of the NLEM, Washington, D.C.

Mundane, easily available prison items are prime sources for contraband weapons. Dining utensils, machine- and wood-shop parts, and even meat bones left over from prisoner meals have been fashioned into lethal shivs and shanks. Toothpaste has been known to be used as a hardening agent when combined with paper, and thread pulled from prison uniforms or bedding is useful for “fishing” underneath doors or passing notes and other objects from cell to cell. The type of materials used, such as thread, cloth scraps, foil, etc., make contraband easy to hide, and corrections officers are carefully trained to control access to potentially dangerous materials and effectively search prisoner cells and common areas for hidden contraband and caches.

One commonly made contraband weapon was a slashing razor, assembled by melting a razor blade into the plastic handle of a toothbrush. The correctional system has introduced the use of safety items like the “no-shank toothbrush” (seen in the lower left of the safety items image, above the flexible pencil) and specially-designed disposable razors such as those produced by Bob Barker Company, a corrections supply firm who donated these items to us.

Correctional safety hygiene products, ca. 2008. Prop Collection of the NLEM. Shown is clear toothpaste, flexible handled toothbrush, “no-shank toothbrush,” disposable razor, unsharpened safety orange flexible pencil.

These items demonstrate the wide variety of objects in our collection. They document both the dangers that corrections officers face—there are close to 600 corrections officers on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial—and their response to those dangers. We will incorporate these objects into exhibits in the Museum and preserve them for future study.

Prohibition Inspector's Donated Badge Tells a Story

Chris Cosgriff is the founder of the Officer Down Memorial Page, Inc., and PoliceLink.com, two of the most popular law enforcement websites on the Internet. In 2009, with the approval of the officer’s family, Chris donated Inspector William Payne’s prohibition enforcement badge to the National Law Enforcement Museum. We asked Chris to write about this donation.

Prohibition was one of this country’s darkest periods for law enforcement. Local, state, and federal law enforcement officers were being gunned down in city streets, basements of blind tigers, and in the hills and forests while searching for illegal stills. One of the most aggressive of these dry raiders was Inspector William Payne, who served with the Virginia Department of Prohibition Enforcement—the precursor to today’s Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

Badge, ca. 1919. Gift of Chris Cosgriff. 2009.7.1. Collection of the NLEM, Washington, D.C.

Inspector Payne was gunned down in Alexandria County (later renamed Arlington County), Virginia, on February 21, 1919. At the time, he held his department’s record for the highest number of arrests. Demonstrating his dedication to the job, he had already been shot and wounded during another raid the previous year.

His story and legacy, along with his actual badge, were passed down through his family for almost 90 years. The badge, the only original Virginia Prohibition Inspector badge known to exist, ended up with his granddaughter, who donated it to the Officer Down Memorial Page several years ago for safekeeping until the National Law Enforcement Museum was ready to accept donations.

The badge is now where it belongs and will forever be a symbol of the supreme sacrifice that five Virginia Prohibition Inspectors—and hundreds of other brave local, state, and federal law enforcement officers—made during Prohibition. It will be one of several objects that will rotate on exhibition in the Museum's “Gangsters and G-men Time Capsule.”