<p>The night before 20-year-old Kendrick Tennyson was killed, gunfire in east Athens sent a group of teens looking for payback on the west side.</p><p>They thought it was Kendrick whod done it, so they brought it to him, said a friend of Tennysons, who calls himself Taliban Soldier.</p><p>The next night, Tennyson died in a hail of bullets outside an apartment complex.</p><p>The March killing set off a wave of gunfire around the city, as east-siders and west-siders defended their respective territories.</p><p>If someone is giving you a hard time, your people from the hood are going to represent you 100 percent, Taliban Soldier told the Athens Banner-Herald for a Monday story. The teen spoke on the condition that his real name not be used because of his role in the shootings.</p><p>The intense east-west rivalry in Athens may seem to have all the makings of gang activity, but Athens-Clarke Police Chief Jack Lumpkin disagrees.</p><p>Are they neighborhood friends? Yes. Are they kids who grew up together in a particular neighborhood? Yes. Do they have a general allegiance to each other? Yes. But that is the same no matter where you live, Lumpkin said.</p><p>Lumpkin said using a gang label would be adhering to the slang definition of what a gang is _ not the legal definition, which is what would have to fit an offender to be prosecuted under the Georgia Street Gangs Act of 1998.</p><p>Brothers Marcus Jaren Daniel, 18, and Warren Daniel, 20, will stand trial this week in Tennysons death. Prosecutors have not charged them under the gang law.</p><p>Youths who band together based on where they live or went to school are loose affiliations rather than street gangs, said Maj. Alan Brown.</p><p>Belonging to such affiliations does not involve initiation or the wearing of colors. Organized gangs also are extremely difficult to enter or leave, Brown said.</p><p>Lumpkin said Athens has prosecuted several drug gangs, but the teens involved in the east-west rivalry are not the same.</p><p>Their allegiances change from week to week, he said. Its not a clear distinction _ east and west... Theres no territory.</p><p>Many of those who consider themselves to be west-siders attended Clarke Central High School, while those considering themselves to be east-siders went to Cedar Shoals High School.</p><p>This is a type of rivalry that pops up several times a year, but typically in a good-natured sense, Brown said. But sometimes when people get angry with one another they stick with their friends, and they are the people who grew up in close proximity to them.</p><p>Sterling Gardner, director of the local Boys & Girls Clubs, said thats enough to qualify as a gang in his opinion.</p><p>When you talk about gang activity in Athens, for the most part youre not talking about Atlanta-style gangs, Gardner said. These are mostly loose groups of individuals trying to find something to identify with _ which in itself is the definition of a gang.</p><p>Violent east-west clashes can be sparked by something as minor as trash talking.</p><p>Taliban Soldier said that often happens after a bout of heavy drinking that brings out foolish bravado.</p><p>You get tough. You make a big scene, he said. And you dont discriminate _ it could be a child, a lady or anything.</p>
