Gangs in Town?

I was half listening to the TV this morning and heard something about a stabbing in Middletown so I went on line and found a very short piece in the Middletown Press and I just read on WTNH.com  that there were several stabbings in Middletown last night.   One man was severely injured and found about 8 p.m. on the corner of Church and Hubbard and three others showed up in the Middlesex emergency room.  The TV announcer reported that the Middletown police were investigating if these incidences were related to each other and if they were gang related? 

When I wrote earlier in the week about the graffiti in the south end of town last weekend, two of you commented in the Eye that the graffiti could be gang related.  At the Wesleyan Potters this week, staff reported that several groups of teenagers walked into the Pottery for no apparent reason or were seen attempting to cut through the back yard from Birdsey to South Main late in the evening.  Not in itself reason to panic -- but the staff befriended one of these groups of kids and after giving them an impromptu pottery lesson,  asked the kids if they knew anything about the graffiti that appeared on the Pottery building.  The kids asked what the graffiti looked like and then responded "If we tell you, will the spray painters find out who ratted them out?"   Despite assurances, the kids declined to give any information but said they would think about it.  If the kids know who is doing what,  perhaps the police, too, could find out easily?