Report: Gang Suppression Doesn't Work

Report: Gang Suppression Doesn't Work

apnews.myway.com

Anti-gang legislation and police crackdowns are failing so badly that they are strengthening the criminal organizations and making U.S. cities more dangerous, according to a report being released Wednesday.

Mass arrests, stiff prison sentences often served with other gang members and other strategies that focus on law enforcement rather than intervention actually strengthen gang ties and further marginalize angry young men, according to the Justice Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.,..

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Mod Edit: Removed excessive copy/paste over the 500 character limit

[edit on 18-7-2007 by UM_Gazz]

I'm not really surprised by this.
I don't think law enforcement understands gangs and their allegiance to one another.
Gangs provide something lacking in a gang members life: a sense of belonging, strength, power, brotherhood, an escape from a hopeless life.

Sending a gang member to jail does little in my opinion to break the structures of the gang.
It is my understanding that gang life flourishes inside prisons anyway.
What the alternatives are, I do not know. But the current law enforcement policy on incarceration seems to be broken: too few prisons, too many prisoners, and no way to break the chain of committing crime, arrest and jail-time.

apnews.myway.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 18-7-2007 by DontTreadOnMe]

Originally posted by DontTreadOnMe
I don't think law enforcement understands gangs and their allegiance to one another.
Gangs provide something lacking in a gang members life: a sense of belonging, strength, power, brotherhood, an escape from a hopeless life.

Sending a gang member to jail does little in my opinion to break the structures of the gang.

I think cops know full well what a gang is all about. They are the gang that's supposed to protect civilians. Other gangs are only in it for themselves.

The 'Fraternal Order of Police' sounds more like a cult than a civilian protection force to me. They're just as bad.

I agree though, intimidation does not work with most people if they are already on the other side of the law by choice. Law enforcement merely reinforces most people's hate of the law by sending them to jail for some bogus crime at such a young age (I guess any age would feel that way, but especially when they're still finding out who they are).

It seems to me that what the article is suggesting is that many young adults who join gangs will probably get bored with them or otherwise wise up and quit or become inactive if left to their own devices but imprisonment typically cements them into the gang lifestyle.

I smell a Reality Show!

Welcome to "Gangland Island"

Welcome one and all, where we pit the most youngest, Disillusioned , or organized members of some of the nations and even world's inner city street gangs, as well as the Infamous leaders in Gang technology. They start off as two big groups and work their way to Leader hill. Once there they can Mess up as much as possibly able to corrupt and dismantle the gangs themselves an pit one gangmember against another.

Enjoy, "we will enjoy your ratings! " ( Muahahahahahaha )


Anywho. Its just a problem that needs some intergrated technological personality tactics, as well as some bad Cheese to get at em.

Either way they florish in some of the oddest ways.

[edit on 18-7-2007 by Tranceopticalinclined]

What do we do about MS-13? Just let them run around hacking people's heads off and mowing people down with AK47s?

Folks, gangs today are not your 1950s style gangs with sissy fights between kids in leather jackets and carrying razor blades and bike chains. These are heavily armed organizations with paramilitary rank structures and organization. They dont have switchblades; they have bazookas, light machine guns, grenades, etc. Thats not a gang, thats an insurgency and we need to deal with it as such.

In the Honduras, MS-13 is not classified as a gang they classify it as a terrorist organization. Members of MS-13 recently stopped a bus filled with civilians in a rural part of that country; they dragged everyone off the bus, robbed them and then mowed them down. 28 civilians riddled with bullets. They practically control all of Honduras and El Salvador outside the major cities.

Growing up in los angeles I have known lots of gang members. And lots of people that where not in gangs that got in trouble, Went to jail and came out being in a gang. All jail does is form a group of men/woman that re-enforce each others idea's and views. They make new contacts for future dealings with people on the outside. In my opinion they are the same as terrorist. And if our New laws that are in place that stem from the patriot act are enforced, These gangs could end up being rounded up and put in special detention centers. Remember that conspiracy , if found guilty, Could land you life in prison. If you belong to a gang that commits unheard of acts , even if you dont participate you could face longer prison sentences then the person that does the crime. The gang issue has been on the back burner for awhile, But im sure it will be an issue again soon and these new laws will certainly be enforced. The challenge will be when these gangs ever start to organize together. Then we may see violence beyond anything in the past. I know how ruthless these gangs can be. Back in 1996 a gang came to my house and extorted money from me. They held my family at gun point and drove me to all my places of employment to get my checks and cash them and made me hand them over to there leader. I worked in the network studios in los angeles. Every network pays you with seperate checks. Thats why there was more than one pay check. I never went to the police because these people knew where other family members of mine lived and i couldnt take the chance. They are a network of terrorist just as bad as any other group acting with mob tactics. So if you ask me what should be done with them, i say give us the people the right to shoot them when they infringe on our lives.