um, hello, do they need to tell them? (sales, mover)

[Aran]

No, there are actually people that dumb in the world.

[Tallysmom]

Originally Posted by Little Bevis

I'm not really sure if there is white gangs or not. My comment about the KKK the other night was not appreciated.

Of course there are white gangs. Aryan Brotherhood for one. I'm sure lots others.

And while good parenting is a good thing, it doesn't always work. Some people are just made for that life.

I knew a good family whose son did a retaliation killing in which he accidentally killed a two year old boy. He was so broken up about it, he turned himself in, after speaking with his family and his pastor. They were all "shocked about it, it came from nowhere"... but my first thought was, if he had killed the target, he would have felt nothing, and they would have still thought he was the model young man.

He was made for the life...

[CortlandGirl79]

Sure the mafia is a "white gang".

[Pitts10yrs]

Yeah, I read that article in the PPG. Nothing like rounding up the criminal element and telling them not to commit crimes. I guess the guy who raped and killed that 14 year old girl was not at the meeting.

Criminals are flawed people. Seriously. Simply they can not function well enough to hold a job, be around other people, and follow rules.

[warmonkey23]

To answer the original question. The purpose of the declaration that all associated gang members will be prosecuted in gang related homicides is to note the fact that you do not have to be the individual who actually commits homicide in order to be prosecuted. You merely have to, in some way, be involved with the acts at hand or the gang itself. The announcement is an attempt to sway gang members from participating in or being part of any activity which may inadvertently land them a spot in the slammer with their new girlfriend Jose.

[Herodotus]

Some of the stupidity in this thread is mind boggling. Some must never read the paper. What they are doing is instituting a program that has sharply reduced homicides in other cities. Stories about it have been in the papers for the last two years. It's a three pronged approach. The first prong involves having people from their own communities come in and talk to them, explaining first hand how their behavior is making life hell for their own friends and families. Prong two involves an offer for assistance, for those who would like to become productive members of society, and leave the nonsense behind. This would involve things like getting them back in school, and providing better role models for them. Prong three involves law enforcement. Most of these gang members are facing various criminal charges, ranging from drug sales, to failure to pay child support. The cops and DA's office know who the shooters are, but can't get the witnesses needed to obtain convictions. What they are telling these guys is this; we may not be able to pin a murder on you, but if we find out that your clique has been involved in a shooting, we are going to arrest every member that we have as much as a jay walking ticket on, and we are going to seek maximum sentences on all charges. Federal charges will be filed whenever possible, with convicts being sent to far away prisons, where they will have to fend for themselves without the help of their "homies", and where visits from family will be few and far between. It's the classic "Al Capone strategy". "We might not be able to get you for your most serious crimes, but we can still get you off of the street". Most of these shootings are done by a handful of hotheads. The idea behind this is to create internal pressure on the shooters, to stop shooting, as most members are not trying to get locked up for 20+ years. Because so many shootings are retaliatory, a reduction in shootings tends to create it's own momentum. It's the classic "carrot and stick" approach. I like it, and hope it has an effect. I imagine it will be business as usual for some clique, who will then become the "example", as they get hammered with long prison sentences. The rest will either "get with the program", or will be removed from our streets. A good outcome either way.

[pic-chic]

My point is that, in those other cities, they simply arrested the wrongdoers. They didn't call them in for a meeting first. They did get community leaders together in Boston and worked with them to get the word out.
Part of it is just they way the article is written. It makes it sound like the police are standing there shaking their finger back and forth in a "no, no" fashion. It doesn't make it sound like they're actually getting tough (which is what they did in Boston).

[Tallysmom]

Originally Posted by pic-chic

My point is that, in those other cities, they simply arrested the wrongdoers. They didn't call them in for a meeting first. They did get community leaders together in Boston and worked with them to get the word out.
Part of it is just they way the article is written. It makes it sound like the police are standing there shaking their finger back and forth in a "no, no" fashion. It doesn't make it sound like they're actually getting tough (which is what they did in Boston).

Actually, in other cities, they do exactly what the news article says -- but they just don't get any press about it.

A few years back, we had a massive crackdown on the Acorn gang (Acorn is a public housing development here in Oakland CA) and after they arrested almost all the gang on various charges, the police spokesperson stated during their press conference that this was part of an ongoing plan to decrease the gang presence in Oakland CA.

Now -- the actual effect was that there was a power vacuum created over the Acorn turf, and a small gang war erupted and shootings ramped up.

But when you have people intent on killing each other, what can you do?

[Pitts10yrs]

Not stupid, just more experienced and having direct experience with these type of people. You are not going to stop them this way. They only to stop them is either to lock them up or kill them. For most of the public it does not matter which, just as long as we are safe from them. All these sociological explaination and interventions are useless.

[warmonkey23]

Truth be told... we can make whatever efforts we so choose to stop the crime. But, none of it will ever work if the criminals themselves never decide that they want to change. At some point, most of them make a conscious decision to be the way they are. I came from a bad neighborhood in Pittsburgh, yet now I am a school teacher. I disagree with those who state that people do not have a choice, as I myself had an awful childhood and CHOSE otherwise. It is like telling a drug dealer that they are destroying their family and threatening to throw them in jail... This approach fails because to the drug dealer the only thing that matters is the drug itself.. all else in their lives including family, friends, jobs, and the law... generally lags behind on their to-do list. The only prayer of changing these types of people is to completely remove them from the scene itself so that they can glimpse what their lives COULD be like.