BINGHAMTON -- Mike Early of Binghamton has heard the crack of gunfire, the squeal of tires from stolen cars and the metallic clang of jail doors slamming shut -- all the result of gang activity.

"I've seen people get shot up," he said. "I have seen a lot of my friends die, go to jail, disappear."

Early is a 20-year-old Binghamton resident who says he was a member of the Hoover Deuce Crips when he lived in Houston. Now that he is out of the gang, he says, he is working to stop gang violence here.

And with at least two gang-related killings in the past four years, anti-gang efforts are needed, authorities say, as gangs make their presence known in Broome County. Jury selection is ongoing for three men -- including at least one alleged member of the Bloods gang -- accused of strangling suspected New York City marijuana dealer Carlton Rose, who was found slain in Broome three years ago.

Currently, Broome counts at least 300 gang members among its 200,000 residents, authorities said. Most are in the county's more urban areas, such as Binghamton and Johnson City, said Trooper Richard Berry, gang coordinator with state police Troop C.

While local prosecutors and police crack down on gang members, they're getting help from a new gang-prevention coordinator and a team of volunteers.

The goal is to target young people via prevention and education, and to offer information to schools, organizations and parents, said Beth Harrington, program coordinator for Broome County Gang Prevention.

"We specifically want to target parents to offer them information they need to identify their child's potential or actual involvement in gang activity," she said.

People join gangs for a range of reasons, authorities say.

Sometimes, said Steve Nawojczyk, a nationally known gang expert who has presented anti-gang programs in Broome County, young people who watch movies and hear gangsta rap -- which glorifies gang life -- can become "wannabees."

Wannabees dress like gang members but aren't actually members of a gang.

Young people struggling through adolescence or failing in school might be drawn to gangs, Early said. Others join because they're looking for love and support.

"A lot of kids don't have their fathers there to discipline them. The mothers can't really handle them," he said. "They all run in the street looking up to gangsters as father figures."

Some are lured by what they view as easy money to be made selling drugs, Early said.

"They don't go places with their parents. They don't have the money," he said. "To people who live in that lifestyle, it's exciting."

George Collado of Binghamton said he joined the Latin Kings gang seeking protection from people in what he said is the tough neighborhood in which he lives. He also joined to be around fellow Hispanics.

"If anything happened to one of us, we are going to come together and do something back," said Collado, 19. He said his gang "didn't like to start trouble."

But where gangs go, authorities say, crime follows.

Gang members sometimes commit crimes, such as slashing someone, as part of a gang initiation, or a response to "disrespect" by a rival gang, said Kevin Wright, a Binghamton University criminologist.

Besides crime, other signs of gang activity include gang-related graffiti. It can be found in urban areas such as Binghamton and suburban and rural areas such as Endwell and the Town of Maine.

And while gangs have been around for years, there's a new breed of gang member on the streets, Syracuse Deputy Police Chief Gary Miguel said.

"You have a mindset with some individuals within this generation that there's very little respect for life," he said. "They watch (gang activity) on TV. It's glamorized."

In Syracuse, most of the city's 25 homicides last year were gang-related, BU's Wright said. None of Broome County's nine homicides in 2002 was gang-related, police said.

Because the gang problem is relatively new to this area, police say they do not have exact statistics on how much gang-related crime occurs annually.

But while the gang problem in some upstate New York communities could be worse, some people deny the problem exists at all, Albany Police detective Dan Stevens said. Albany's most recent gang problem started in the mid-1990s.

"They say, 'We don't have a gang problem,' " he said. "That really fuels it."

Police sometimes don't say much about the topic because they don't want to give gangs credibility, Nawojczyk said.

"It's a dangerous thing to do because the community tends to not be involved ... because they don't think there's a problem," he said.

"Politicians often fear they'll be blamed for the problem. (Citizens) have to make it clear to the leadership, 'We don't blame you for this. But we will blame you for this if you don't do something about it.' "

Southern Tier officials say they're both aware of the problem and responding to it.

"We know it's here," Binghamton Mayor Richard A. Bucci said. "We are monitoring it extremely closely. If the law is broken, arrests are made."

Added Binghamton Police Sgt. Michael Whalen: "We're lucky. The problem is still small enough so we recognize who these gang members are. We know what's going on."

So why is there gang activity in quiet, mostly rural Broome County? Gang members from New York and other large cities move here seeking new recruits, Nawojczyk said.

Others come because they can make more money selling drugs here than in New York City, said Mark Smolinsky, Broome County's deputy jail administrator.

Last year, 121 confirmed gang members came to the Broome County Jail. Another 129 inmates are suspected of being gang members but wouldn't confirm it, Broome County Jail Administrator Larry Fischer said. That amounts to about 8 percent of the 3,856 people booked in last year. Jail officials are working on identifying 25 more.

Perhaps surprisingly, major simultaneous drug raids in the past decade such as Golden Road have created a vacancy filled by gang members.

"The demand is still there," Smolinsky said.

Carlton Rose is an example. Police say the three men, including at least one member of the Bloods, killed him to eliminate competition in the marijuana business.

Downstate families often send their children to Broome County for school, thinking it's safer, Nawojczyk said. They don't realize he or she may bring gangs here.

Gang members tend to prey on each other, rather than the general public, police said.

"Most of what we see is them ripping each other off," Binghamton Police Investigator Michael Talbut said. For example, authorities said, Bloods robbed and shot to death marijuana dealer Luke Spencer in 1999 inside his Munsell Street apartment on the city's North Side.

Broome County District Attorney Gerald F. Mollen said he has seen other gang-related crime, but does not keep statistics on it.

"We've seen some criminal activity purely driven by what they have to do to get in gangs," such as slashing or "blooding in," which Bloods do, he said. "There's some turf wars and stupid things like somebody disrespected somebody's apartment. We have had shootings based on that."

Mike Early saw that kind of gang-related shooting -- and witnessed its deadly effects -- during his days in a Houston gang. Today, he plans to attend Broome Community College to study hotel or restaurant management or drug counseling.

And he hopes to help keep other young people out of gangs.

"Now I have a second chance at life," he said. "Because I came from it, they will listen to me."

And if they don't?

"They're going to be dead or in jail or hooked on drugs wishing they had stayed in school and listened to their parents."