“These kids (are) killing at an alarming rate,” says Tally, now 43. “And they’re meaning to kill.”
Floyd Tally was looking for a family.
He was only 16 when his mother died in 1986, leaving him as the surviving name on their lease in Back Maryland’s subsidized housing.
There were people who cared about him, though. At least that’s what he thought. Drug deals brought in money, and guns kept them safe.
They called themselves the Abdullahs, although Tally will no longer use that title. Taken from Islam — as were their rivals, the Salaams — they had nothing to do with religion, he says. Or family.
“That’s false love,” he says now.
The Abdullahs and Salaams may be gone, but the gangs continue in Atlantic City, and are even more dangerous, experts say.
More than half of the city’s violence can be tied to Back Maryland gangs “800 Blok” and rival “Dirty Blok”, based in Stanley Holmes Village, Carver Hall and Schoolhouse Apartments, says city Detective Lonell Jones.
Dozens of alleged members and associates of those groups were arrested in separate raids within a two-month span this spring. Both investigations were bolstered by the inside knowledge of the city’s Vice and Intelligence units. The charges range from heroin distribution to murder.
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