Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Grand jury, surprised to find that juvenile gang membership is increasing, pleads for additional funding.
BY JESSICA TERRELL
The Orange County Register
Gang prevention efforts should be spared the budget ax as membership in Orange County gets younger and younger, according to an Orange County Grand Jury report released Tuesday.
"When we began looking into the subject of children involved in gangs, we found very quickly that we had some major misconceptions about the problem, and we think it is very likely that the other citizens of Orange County share those misperceptions," said Janet Buell, jury member and principle writer of the report.
The jury found few problems with crime prevention efforts in Orange County, and their recommendations were primarily to increase funding for preventative programs that are proving successful.
Citing a recent study by Vanderbilt University Law School, jury foremen James Perez pointed out that the cost to taxpayers for dealing with chronic criminals jumps from $65,000 at age 12 to $5.7 million over a lifetime. Orange County taxpayers' money is well spent on preventative programs, according to the jury's report.
One of the jurors' misconceptions was that gang membership in Orange County is insignificant. While overall gang membership has dropped dramatically in the last decade, gang membership for juveniles under age 14 has risen steadily since 2002, to nearly 300 countywide.
Despite the spike in younger gang members, they still make up only a small number of overall gang membership.
"Young gang members have always been a problem," Assistant District Attorney Bruce Moore said. "A 14-year-old with a gun is the most dangerous creature because they don't have the conscience to have judgment."
There are an estimated 300 gangs in Orange County and roughly 13,000 gang members, according to Moore.
With roughly 70 gangs in Santa Ana alone, the problem is far more widespread than the jurors previously believed.
Another misconception: that gang prevention activities should start in middle school and focus only on the children. Many juvenile gang members come from large families and reaching out to parents who can then mold the entire family can be more cost effective, Buell said.
The Pio Pico collaboration, cited in the grand jury report as an exemplary gang prevention program, offers parenting classes aimed at everything from regaining control to teaching parents about hygiene and nutrition.
The jury said it was trying to balance its recommendations with the harsh reality of budget limitations.
"It is very difficult to write a report and make recommendations in today's economic climate," Buell said. "We have had to get a little bit creative in some of our recommendations, because there is no point in writing them if they can't be followed."
One of the "creative" suggestions was to hire a fulltime fundraiser who could solicit donations from local businesses with a vested interest in keeping Orange County crime-free.
"Who benefits most when there is no gang activity in a city? Well the businesses (that) have to paint over the graffiti regularly and have endured some of the crime that results from gangs benefit tremendously," Buell said.
Although the jury made pleas on behalf of a number of O.C. gang-prevention organizations, the panel had no specific financial requests to present. Moore said he was disappointed that the Board of Supervisors was not invited to the press conference.
Moore said that if funding was not increased to gang prevention programs, he hoped that at the very least it would not be taken away.
"They want to cut everything, cut every agency," Moore said. "If they cut our agency, they cut intervention."
If we legalized drugs the gangs would disappear overnight. Gang violence is a result of the war on drugs. When you make something illegal it makes the price of that commodity go very high. That is why the gangs are attracted to it. Just look at the prohibition, it formed the entire mafia. The mafia isn't very powerful anymore because their commodity was legalized.
More people die from the war on drugs rather than the actual drugs themselves.
So if you want less gang violence - support the legalization of drugs.
Quote:
ive seen most of the gang infested areas in Orange County-inner OC-ANA-GG-SA and im telling you this. if they were able to fix the problem then they would of done it in the early or late 90s. thus its already 2009.
What makes you think the government wants to solve the problem? They love their populace being afraid, it gives them more power to impose ridiculous police policies and take away your rights.
If we legalized drugs the gangs would disappear overnight. Gang violence is a result of the war on drugs. When you make something illegal it makes the price of that commodity go very high. That is why the gangs are attracted to it. Just look at the prohibition, it formed the entire mafia. The mafia isn't very powerful anymore because their commodity was legalized.
More people die from the war on drugs rather than the actual drugs themselves.
So if you want less gang violence - support the legalization of drugs.
What makes you think the government wants to solve the problem? They love their populace being afraid, it gives them more to impose ridiculous police policies and take away your rights.
I am going to partly agree with you about drugs vs. gangs. However, the reason for gangs is multifaceted: i.e., 1} it is a way for a child to create a family, when a parent is absent. 2} When there is lots of racial bias and violence against a particular group, gangs will be created for security purposes and safety.
One example: In the town of Plainfield, New Jersey, several Hispanic families began moving in. All of a sudden, many honest, hard-working people were hit with bats and some even die. Obviously, the product of violence and racism, and not of drugs.
Hispanics began to form gangs as a way of dealing with this issue. Gerardo Rivera made a documentary of this, on Fox 5 News. It stopped after there were several confrontations, and the issue was taken to a higher court.
Now, the same issue is happening in Long Island, New York. Lots of Hispanics are moving into White areas.
Those programs are vital to Orange county & would seem to qualify for federal funding.
Federal funding? Hello, ET phone home? What planet are you on? People, you're BROKE! There is no funding towards anything. Your entire country is FLAT BROKE and California has no money to even cover basic maintainence costs for more than a few months at the most.
Get real. The US has taken no action against excess, crap/criminal and gang quality immigration, much of it entered illegally, which is now gradually drowning the whole country. The enormous influx mainly of mexican and asian immigration has not given the country the best benefits (lets be real here). There's just too many. Its brought in more crime that costs more to deal with than these people contribute to society by taxes and other payments. Meaning, the rest of you have to pick up the tab. But how much can you pick up when you also have to cover costs for your own citizen rights?
Look at Britain as a perfect format how this system destroys a society: The UK tried to imitate the U.S. model by Tony Blairs lapdog relation to G W Bush. They wanted American economy and American multi-culturalism. New policies were put in place. Immgrants flowed in, in such huge numbers they lost count. And what situation are they in now? The whole country is crumbling and falling apart within a short span of 10 years of Tony Blairs american dreams! They have too many immigrants that suck the system dry, they have no budget or money left for anything else. Its an endless flow of costs just to deal with the needs and also criminality coming mainly from these immigrants. They need housing, they need healthcare, they need jobs, their children need education and care, they need to learn the culture (this too is provided free), they need this and that. And like the US Britain sent all labor abroad, or allowed every Patel from India with fake degrees to transplant and take jobs that should have been given to Brits. If people don't have the qualifications, you don't bring mutts from criminal countries in. You offer your own citizens special arrangements to get the training for jobs requiring special skills. 100,000s American IT staff were replaced by crappy Indian ones who couldn't even do their jobs, because they had to pay them only 1/10 of what american employees cost. These in return has 4 doubled in numbers because when you bring in one, you basically bring 4 all together. And unless you know this, Indians are notorious for avoiding to pay taxes and hide their earnings while they have a high criminal record. This means you don't get taxes from this group to cover the expenses they cause. The same goes with Mexicans, and you all know the many problems with excess Mexican immigration in the country.
It simple doesn't work and UK followed this lunacy and are now in worse condition they have ever been in their entire history.
The U.S. has done nothing to encourage manufacturing and jobs to remain in the country but have allowed them to be sent abroad for cheaper third world varieties which not only kill jobs in the U.S. but also kills any form of quality people are used to.
All of this adds to the cost considerably by having the expense and deal with the burden of it all, but there is no money coming in.
You're flat broke. And being flat broke there will be no money to handle the growing number of criminals operating in society, meaning many areas will eventually turn into ghettos and crumble. All of this because people have been so arrogant in the U.S. thinking they are immortal to the rest of the world.
Well, you're not. When you fall from a higher position, the fall is quicker and harder. Its really time for you to emulate the french a bit. I know they are excessively whiney, but they make their complaints heard and arrange huge protests that does indeed make them achieve things. You're doing nothing but sitting on your lazy bums in front of the TV and expecting things to change by magic!
Federal funding? Hello, ET phone home? What planet are you on? People, you're BROKE! There is no funding towards anything. Your entire country is FLAT BROKE and California has no money to even cover basic maintainence costs for more than a few months at the most.
Get real. The US has taken no action against excess, crap/criminal and gang quality immigration, much of it entered illegally, which is now gradually drowning the whole country. The enormous influx mainly of mexican and asian immigration has not given the country the best benefits (lets be real here). There's just too many. Its brought in more crime that costs more to deal with than these people contribute to society by taxes and other payments. Meaning, the rest of you have to pick up the tab. But how much can you pick up when you also have to cover costs for your own citizen rights?
Look at Britain as a perfect format how this system destroys a society: The UK tried to imitate the U.S. model by Tony Blairs lapdog relation to G W Bush. They wanted American economy and American multi-culturalism. New policies were put in place. Immgrants flowed in, in such huge numbers they lost count. And what situation are they in now? The whole country is crumbling and falling apart within a short span of 10 years of Tony Blairs american dreams! They have too many immigrants that suck the system dry, they have no budget or money left for anything else. Its an endless flow of costs just to deal with the needs and also criminality coming mainly from these immigrants. They need housing, they need healthcare, they need jobs, their children need education and care, they need to learn the culture (this too is provided free), they need this and that. And like the US Britain sent all labor abroad, or allowed every Patel from India with fake degrees to transplant and take jobs that should have been given to Brits. If people don't have the qualifications, you don't bring mutts from criminal countries in. You offer your own citizens special arrangements to get the training for jobs requiring special skills. 100,000s American IT staff were replaced by crappy Indian ones who couldn't even do their jobs, because they had to pay them only 1/10 of what american employees cost. These in return has 4 doubled in numbers because when you bring in one, you basically bring 4 all together. And unless you know this, Indians are notorious for avoiding to pay taxes and hide their earnings while they have a high criminal record. This means you don't get taxes from this group to cover the expenses they cause. The same goes with Mexicans, and you all know the many problems with excess Mexican immigration in the country.
It simple doesn't work and UK followed this lunacy and are now in worse condition they have ever been in their entire history.
The U.S. has done nothing to encourage manufacturing and jobs to remain in the country but have allowed them to be sent abroad for cheaper third world varieties which not only kill jobs in the U.S. but also kills any form of quality people are used to.
All of this adds to the cost considerably by having the expense and deal with the burden of it all, but there is no money coming in.
You're flat broke. And being flat broke there will be no money to handle the growing number of criminals operating in society, meaning many areas will eventually turn into ghettos and crumble. All of this because people have been so arrogant in the U.S. thinking they are immortal to the rest of the world.
Well, you're not. When you fall from a higher position, the fall is quicker and harder. Its really time for you to emulate the french a bit. I know they are excessively whiney, but they make their complaints heard and arrange huge protests that does indeed make them achieve things. You're doing nothing but sitting on your lazy bums in front of the TV and expecting things to change by magic!
What makes you think the government wants to solve the problem? They love their populace being afraid, it gives them more power to impose ridiculous police policies and take away your rights.
Federal funding? Hello, ET phone home? What planet are you on? People, you're BROKE! There is no funding towards anything. Your entire country is FLAT BROKE and California has no money to even cover basic maintainence costs for more than a few months at the most.
Get real. The US has taken no action against excess, crap/criminal and gang quality immigration, much of it entered illegally, which is now gradually drowning the whole country. The enormous influx mainly of mexican and asian immigration has not given the country the best benefits (lets be real here). There's just too many. Its brought in more crime that costs more to deal with than these people contribute to society by taxes and other payments. Meaning, the rest of you have to pick up the tab. But how much can you pick up when you also have to cover costs for your own citizen rights?
Look at Britain as a perfect format how this system destroys a society: The UK tried to imitate the U.S. model by Tony Blairs lapdog relation to G W Bush. They wanted American economy and American multi-culturalism. New policies were put in place. Immgrants flowed in, in such huge numbers they lost count. And what situation are they in now? The whole country is crumbling and falling apart within a short span of 10 years of Tony Blairs american dreams! They have too many immigrants that suck the system dry, they have no budget or money left for anything else. Its an endless flow of costs just to deal with the needs and also criminality coming mainly from these immigrants. They need housing, they need healthcare, they need jobs, their children need education and care, they need to learn the culture (this too is provided free), they need this and that. And like the US Britain sent all labor abroad, or allowed every Patel from India with fake degrees to transplant and take jobs that should have been given to Brits. If people don't have the qualifications, you don't bring mutts from criminal countries in. You offer your own citizens special arrangements to get the training for jobs requiring special skills. 100,000s American IT staff were replaced by crappy Indian ones who couldn't even do their jobs, because they had to pay them only 1/10 of what american employees cost. These in return has 4 doubled in numbers because when you bring in one, you basically bring 4 all together. And unless you know this, Indians are notorious for avoiding to pay taxes and hide their earnings while they have a high criminal record. This means you don't get taxes from this group to cover the expenses they cause. The same goes with Mexicans, and you all know the many problems with excess Mexican immigration in the country.
It simple doesn't work and UK followed this lunacy and are now in worse condition they have ever been in their entire history.
The U.S. has done nothing to encourage manufacturing and jobs to remain in the country but have allowed them to be sent abroad for cheaper third world varieties which not only kill jobs in the U.S. but also kills any form of quality people are used to.
All of this adds to the cost considerably by having the expense and deal with the burden of it all, but there is no money coming in.
You're flat broke. And being flat broke there will be no money to handle the growing number of criminals operating in society, meaning many areas will eventually turn into ghettos and crumble. All of this because people have been so arrogant in the U.S. thinking they are immortal to the rest of the world.
Well, you're not. When you fall from a higher position, the fall is quicker and harder. Its really time for you to emulate the french a bit. I know they are excessively whiney, but they make their complaints heard and arrange huge protests that does indeed make them achieve things. You're doing nothing but sitting on your lazy bums in front of the TV and expecting things to change by magic!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
