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I understand what you are trying to say, Dire Wolf, but you undermine your message by making inflamatory and misleading comparisons. Durham is NOT Afghanistan. It doesn't even have the highest crime rate in this state. None of us are saying it is perfect, but you seem to be losing your perspective here. Not all gang members live in Durham. Many of them also live in Raleigh. And I would not be at all surprised if some of them live in Chapel Hill. And no matter where they live, they are commiting crimes elsewhere. You seem to suggest that we should just build a wall around the city of Durham and let the city fend for itself ... as if that would end all crime in the Triangle. What a preposterous suggestion.
The criminals see no problem crossing city lines, county lines. They commit crimes all over this region, no matter where they sleep afterwards. This is why the entire region needs wo work together to fight this.
It was an analogy to make a point. And I don't suggest build a wall around Durham. But I do suggest the Police chief there not downplay the effect of gangs in his town.
What do you suggest Chapel Hill does to stop gangs from Durham coming into their town?
And I agree, Raleigh has gangs, too. From the stats I've seen, Durham has about the same number of gang members despite being a much smaller city. Which is why it is proportionately a much bigger problem in Durham. All towns in the area need to be wary of growth of gangs in their town.
Like I said in the previous post, how does Chapel Hill prevent such a thing? The root problem for this was in inner city Durham.
You know what? They don't. There's nothing to stop some maniac from driving along I-40 from any city in the United States and hopping on in to Chapel Hill and committing crimes.
Like I said in the previous post, how does Chapel Hill prevent such a thing? The root problem for this was in inner city Durham.
Okay, I will actually give a serious answer here. What Chapel Hill does is acknowledge that crime and criminals in one part of the triangle affects the rest of the triangle, and works with the rest of the communities here to reduce and prevent crime, rather than just saying "it was Durham's fault" and telling someone else to fix the problem.
Dire Wolf, you seem to have a strong opinion, so why don't you tell us what you think should be done?
Durham needs to crack down on the gangs. They need a very aggressive law enforcement stance against them. I agree with the Judge that we need a gang task force (statewide) to aggressively confront the issue. I don't think we need to be ignoring the fact that the killers were in gangs like so many seem to want to do.
We obviously need to fix our court systems to prevent clerical errors from keeping thugs like this on the street. Sounds like we were way to lenient letting these guys be on parole after so many strikes. We need a prison system that has a chance at rehabilitation instead of serving as a training ground for gangmembers. Hopefully some of these things are something a task force could address.
Ultimately we need to realize that our welfare systems and education systems are failing us and overhaul them. I know you guys made fun of the terrorists analogy, but I think there are some real parallels between the hopelessness that drives young people into gangs in the US and into terrorists groups in the Middle East. We aren't good at looking and doing anything about root causes. We always seem to want to put a bandaid on things instead of really fixing anything.
See I actually do think you have a lot of good points here
I think we have a new police chief in Durham (or is that Raleigh? I think Durham, right?) so maybe that will make a difference. Yes we certainly do need to crack down on gangs but really on all crime in general. I haven't been here long enough to know in what specific ways they've failed (if they have - I'm not convinced they (the police) could have or should have done anything differently in regards to how police work is performed).
Totally agree about the courts. Dunno how prisons could be changed but yes they do seem to be a training ground if not for gang members outside of jail, at least training for a life of crime.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dire Wolf
Durham needs to crack down on the gangs. They need a very aggressive law enforcement stance against them. I agree with the Judge that we need a gang task force (statewide) to aggressively confront the issue. I don't think we need to be ignoring the fact that the killers were in gangs like so many seem to want to do.
We obviously need to fix our court systems to prevent clerical errors from keeping thugs like this on the street. Sounds like we were way to lenient letting these guys be on parole after so many strikes. We need a prison system that has a chance at rehabilitation instead of serving as a training ground for gangmembers. Hopefully some of these things are something a task force could address.
Ultimately we need to realize that our welfare systems and education systems are failing us and overhaul them. I know you guys made fun of the terrorists analogy, but I think there are some real parallels between the hopelessness that drives young people into gangs in the US and into terrorists groups in the Middle East. We aren't good at looking and doing anything about root causes. We always seem to want to put a bandaid on things instead of really fixing anything.
Perhaps the overarching issue is our inability to effectively deal with criminals, thus providing them plenty of opportunity to reoffend. I agree gangs are a huge problem but even if you managed to clean up every gang in the country, you'd still have crime and you'd still have a country too soft (IMO) on criminals. So to bring this back to the triangle, the problem isn't just Durham's. No matter where these criminals breed (or sleep), they commit crime any darn well where they please. Like you said, a statewide gang taskforce is a great idea. How about we write our legislators and demand they get tough on crime? Vote them out if they continue to just lethargically sit still.
Eve Carson was a young woman who saw a need to take action in her life to try to change the world around her. The best thing we can all do in honor of her memory is to try to do one thing--even if it seems like a very small thing---to try to bring the crime situation under control.
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