Posted on 07/18/2007 7:06:11 AM PDT by Cat loving Texan
Report: Gang Suppression Doesn't Work
By ANDREW GLAZER Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES — 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., think tank that advocates alternatives to incarceration.
"We're talking about 12-, 13-, 14-, 15-year-olds whose involvement in gangs is likely to be ephemeral unless they are pulled off the street and put in prison, where they will come out with much stronger gang allegiances," said Judith Greene, co-author of "Gang Wars: The Failure of Enforcement Tactics and the Need for Effective Public Safety Strategies."
The report is based on interviews and analysis of hundreds of pages of previously published statistics and reports. And though it is valid and accurate, the ideas raised in it are not new, said Arthur Lurigio, a psychologist and criminal justice professor at Loyola University of Chicago.
"These approaches, although they sound novel, are just old wine in new bottles," he said. "Gang crime and violence in poor urban neighborhoods have been a problem since the latter parts of the 19th century."
Lurigio, other academics and gang intervention workers have echoed elements of the report that found gangs need to be viewed as a symptom of other problems in poor communities, such as violence, teen pregnancy, drug abuse and unemployment.
The report says Los Angeles and Chicago are losing the war on gangs because they focus on law enforcement and are short on intervention.
It cites a report this year by civil rights attorney Connie Rice, who was hired by Los Angeles to evaluate its failing anti-gang programs. Her report called for an initiative to provide jobs and recreational programs in impoverished neighborhoods.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Police Chief William Bratton both commended Rice's report. But in February, they unveiled a strategy that focused on targeting the city's worst gangs with arrests and civil injunctions that prohibit known gang members from associating with one another in public. Rice describes the city's policy on arresting the city's estimated 39,000 gang members as "stuck on stupid."
Wes McBride, executive director of the California Gang Investigators Association, dismissed the findings of the report, which he said was written by "thug-huggers." The investigators association is a professional organization for police officers.
"Are they saying we can't put a thief in jail, we can't put a murderer in jail, that we should spank them, put a diaper on them, pat them on the bottom, hug them and let them go?" McBride said. "It's obviously a think tank report, and they didn't leave their ivory tower and spend any time on the streets."
"Gang Wars" also criticizes politicians who overstate the threat of criminal gangs and seek tougher sentences.
Greene specifically criticized a bill introduced by Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, that would make it illegal to be a member of a criminal gang and would make it easier to prosecute some minors as adults.
But Feinstein spokesman Scott Gerber said the bill also calls for spending more than $400 million on gang prevention and intervention programs, which he said would be the largest single investment of its kind.
______
Associated Press writer Dan Strumpf in Chicago contributed to this report.
___
On the Net:
http://www.justicepolicy.org/
Build the fence -— or is it too late ???
It is NEVER too late to build the fence and purchase the Dobermans or place the landmines. And, I would a lot rather pay for bigger prisons than pay for police to chase these gangs in the street. Put them in prison for so long that when they come out they are physically incapable of any gang-related activities and have lost any influence they may have had in the street because they have been kept from any communication with said street for so many years.
Once again we have an article that wants to claim that fighting against the enemies of a peaceful American society *only* creates more enemies. When will these goofy articles ever end?
How about we organize a citizens committee? It worked in the past, why not now?
Nothing a little love and cream-puffs won’t fix.
Oh no, we can’t lengthen their sentence, that would be cruel. We must try to understand them and why they belong to gangs. The only answer is to put more money into social programs. Doesn’t that sound like the typical answer you would get from a liberal do-gooder?
Just another gift to American society from our highly respectable Washington government....
How about a PPV “Prison Gang Fight” channel? It could be called “American Loser”. The show would make multi-millions, there’s no doubt about it.
“When will these goofy articles ever end?”
After a revolution.
“Her report called for an initiative to provide jobs and recreational programs in impoverished neighborhoods.”
.....in other words make work programs and midnight basketball
Because said committees usually involved firearms, ropes, and lampposts. The police today would probably admonish the citizenry to leave police work to the police.
Los Angeles is grossly underpoliced. They need more officers per capita and to station them in south central LA. Of course no officer in his right mind wants that duty. The price may need to go up. So be it.
Work programs would be fine. Make the inmates break rocks or mine iridium for 20 years, instead of letting them "strengthen their gang ties" by giving them a bunch of free time in the prison weigh room or on the prison basketball court.
>>the answer to the problem is simple. Lengthen the sentance.
Summary execution would also prevent recividism.
1. Deport illegals
2. Make gang membership itself a crime, punishable under RICO statutes
3. Reduce appeals in death penalty cases, and hang gang members convicted of murder in public
and lastly ...
4. End the ridiculous War on Some Drugs that creates the incentive for gang membership to begin with
Give up! Retreat! Fighting back only makes them stronger! Ahhhhh!
Right. If they get buff turning big rocks into little rocks it’s one thing, but I hate saying someone is built like he just got out of prison.
When Michigan got serious about putting people into prison, the crime rate in Detroit went down.
As it turns out, those “angry young men” usually go back to gangs and crime if let out before age 30, but if they’re let out after age 30, they tend to do much better (maybe its because their homies are all dead?).
Solution — put them in jail until age 30.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.