[Salvavida]

This is the key issue facing the governments of El Salvador and Honduras in dealing with gangs. The legislative assembly in El Salvador was finally beginning to consider a law that would place gangs into the terrorism realm, which would enable the full force of government to combat them. But they are making slow process.

Bottom line: a society unable or unwilling to execute justice will be victims of evil doers.

[Cobra64]

Don't leave home without it.

[phoneman08]

It took the FBI and Federal RICO laws to put a lid on the Mafia. It’s plain in many cities, the local police and courts have failed at reigning these gangs in.

Chicago needs a modern day Elliot Ness.

[Pearls Before Swine]

In a perverse way, gangs have become the new militia. More fragmented, less community oriented, but still, they are cohesive groups with weapons. Any real local militia in the traditional sense of organized responsible producers has been ruthlessly suppressed by the government. Besides, most producers are too busy working to pay for the non-producers.

It’s a weird civic power vacuum.

[Timpanagos1]

Be very careful of how you want the government to define “Gang.”

[arthurus]

Gangs Are Domestic Terrorists and should be treated as such with military sweeps through gang turfs, capture and forwarding to Gitmo to be treated as enemy combatants.

[mumblypeg]

Re: the headline.
I’ve been saying gangs are domestic terrorists since the drug wars of the 1980s, when drive-by shootings by the Bloods and Crips were commonplace on city streets.

What other purpose is served by such behavior, if not to terrorize everyone? Thousands of innocent bystanders were gunned down.

By definition, terrorism disrupts normal social activity and commerce by instilling fear in the general population, such that law abiding people are afraid to be on the streets.

Obama is in favor of it, both here and abroad. He is an enemy, both foreign and domestic.