Headscratchers / Law & Order: Criminal Intent

• What exactly is the deal with Jojo Rios ("Legion"), and how is it that he has so much power over an entire community? It's understandable (and well established in the episode) how he gets the kids to follow him, but the idea that he can hold the entire rest of the neighborhood hostage makes less sense. Consider:
  1. Jojo's influence over the kids is largely based on admiration, as he keeps the boys in his thrall with a (completely invented, as it turns out) story about his journey from Cuba to the United States. He doesn't have this kind of thrall over the adults (which makes sense, as most adults aren't going to give a man unquestioning loyalty because of one show of "strength" from his childhood), so why are they just as deferential to him as the kids? It's set up in the episode that the reason is fear, but...
  2. Jojo's gang isn't exactly the mafia: we're talking about maybe twenty teenagers and preteens (no other adults besides Jojo), and not all of them are even willing to take part in violent actions, so the extent to which the community fears Jojo is completely out of proportion to the actual level of threat he poses. He's able to have one person who independently confronts/challenges him taken care of, like the victim at the beginning of the episode, but if multiple adults banded together, Jojo just doesn't have the reach or power to fight back against that.
  3. As is shown several times, the stranglehold that Jojo holds on the community extends to parents being willing to cover up the murders of their own children. Is there not one parent in that community, particularly those with no other children for Jojo to be a threat to, who would decide that it's worth the risk to not let their child's murderer get away with it, and/or feel that they have nothing left to lose anyway?