Legal and Financial Barriers to massive gun / gang raids ? (Chicago: sales, 2013)

[NARFALICIOUS]

Okay so I've read here and on CBS' website that the total gang population is around 70,000.

How many of those 70,000 members, roughly a number equal to 2% of the city's population, live within the city borders?
Does the Chicago Police know who, specifically, those 70,000 members are by name? Address? Phone #?


My question is: What legal, financial and logistical barriers exist that are preventing Chicago Police or other agencies from raiding all their homes, or most of their homes, and possibly known areas, like a known shady business or warehouse or vehicles and confiscating all their firearms? And possibly charging the violators with illegal possession?

No, not their knives, shanks, ropes, bandanas, bushido blades, duckhunt guns. Just their firearms. Handguns, revolvers, AK47s, shotguns, rifles.
And please don't turn this into a gun control thread; clearly they get their firearms illegally.
I know they can kill other ways. But a lot of shootings are drivebys or quick-shoot and run. How many would actually stand toe to toe in a knife fight to the death?


If they did raid all or most of the 70,000 members, how much good would it really do?
What would it cost?
How would the crime rate be affected in the short term? Long term?
What kind of media consequences would arise? What kind of civil rights consequences would arise?

.

[chet everett]

Pretty sure the street gangs are not really up to speed on the latest in real time databases-- there are no registration requirements to be a thug. It is not like they collect royalties for tee-shirt sales or charge a licensing fee for taggers or tattoo makers. There are no "Blue Cross / Blue Shield" cards printed out that read: "ORGANIZATION: INSANE CRYPT DISCIPLES".

There are constitutional barriers that exist to prohibit what I am quite sure can only be intrepretted as "unreasonable search and seizure". Anyone that paid attention to even elementary school "Facts of the US Constitution" probably picked up some of this: Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Many folks have legitimate questions about how many CPD officers are assigned to the various divisions that are actively engaged in using data about gangs to make such violence less likely but even assuming the entire budgeted allocation of personal was engaged in such an endeavor there is no way to accomplish this -- Police Staffing in America

[Freefall18]

It's not a financial issue, it's a legal issue. You can't just raid somebody's house with no evidence of illegal items. It's not illegal to be in a gang.

[NARFALICIOUS]

To answer chet and free fall:
Three dozen Rollin' 30s gang members arrested in South L.A. raid - latimes.com

Police round up 129 gang suspects in huge Mexican Mafia raid in Orange County | The Raw Story

27 held on drug, gun in raids targeting Boston gangs - Metro - The Boston Globe

Cops Arrest 41 Gang Members, Intercept Million-Dollar Pot Shipment in Raids - Chicago - DNAinfo.com Chicago

There seem to always be raids happening.

I'm not saying they just go in blind-eyed, obviously have a reason, some facts/evidence of crime.
They've done it on very small scales. What's stopping them from doing it on large scale. Instead of making chips in the concrete, drop the hammer.

Yeah I know there is no exact list, but they have to have some kind of database in tracking known gang members that have been arrested, jailed/imprisoned or even just spotted or talked to.

I guess my point is, what's stopping them from changing the target from 50-100 to 70,000.
Say they don't end up getting to the 70,000 mark, but maybe even half that 35,000?

[Pantless1]

They've done that here before... google "Operation Broken Crown"

[Vlajos]

Killer Chicago Street Gang Targeted in Federal Probe to be Revealed Today - The Loop - DNAinfo.com Chicago

Federal charges against the alleged leaders of a violent Chicago street gang involved in a series of drug-related murders are expected to be announced Thursday by the feds and Chicago Police.

[NARFALICIOUS]

Nice! but you're still talking handfuls, not the whole bucketful.

[emathias]

I'm not sure there are enough people in the entire midwest with the necessary training to round up and arrest 70,000 people in a single day - maybe not even in a single week. Using the National Guard sounds good, but only a small portion of the military receive training relevant to urban police raids. Entering a house in a real foreign war zone, and entering one in a domestic residential neighborhood are two very different activities that require different training both for the preservation of civil rights and for the safety of the officer/soldier.

[thegrid]

they just need to RICO everyone. isnt that in the pipeline?