How to stop Gang Violence

Kenneth Chan

Ms. M

English 9293

How to stop Gang Violence?

       Can we stop gang violence? There are manygang related crime happening all throughout America, families and communitiesin many cities have suffer from youth lost due to gang violence. Some believegang violence can be stop by using problem oriented policing and through lawenforcement methods, but some disagree and believe in order to stop gangviolence we have to address the root causes and fund more social programs. Thegovernment’s tactics used to approach gang violence does not work. We cannotstop gang violence completely but we can reduce gang related crimes through preventionprograms and social services.

       Even though the law enforcement’s strategiescan reduce gang related-crime, it does not put a stop to crime. David Kennedy,director of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control, a professor ofcriminal justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and an author came upwith the method called Operation Ceasefire. Operation Ceasefire is a method useto approach gang violence in cities with out of control gang problems. In thebook Don’t Shoot, Kennedy states “despiteall the strategizing that had gone into designing Ceasefire, the streets hadjust flipped. Violence was way down. Basically we’d taken the violence out ofthe drug crews. The street drug scene was the next biggest problem, volatile,chaotic and dangerous” (DS 73). According to Kennedy, operation ceasefire was useto apply to the dangerous communities and they did reduce the gang violence inthe neighborhood but they did not affect the drug scene at all. Drug dealing isa big crime that is still going on and it is a huge problem for the lawenforcement. However, to truly stop gang related-crime we have to prevent itfrom happening through funding more social services and prevention programs. Ganginjunctions are a method used to label a gang as a public nuisance. Discussingabout how gang injunction does not work, in the article “Oakland GangInjunction is a False Solution”, Diana Tate Vermeire states, “Thorough reportsfrom the Justice Policy Institute and the Advancement Project conclude that, toprevent violent crime and gang activity, cities need to create job andeducation opportunities and fund social services for at-risk youth. Accordingto Vermeire, the Justice Policy Institute and the Advancement Project came upwith a solution, to prevent violent crime and gang activities from happening,the cities need to provide more job and school opportunities and also fund moresocial services for kids that live in at-risk communities. The techniques useby the law enforcement does help reduce the violence in the communities but tostop gang violence completely is to prevent it from happening through funding moresocial programs for at-risk youth, and providing more job and schoolopportunities to keep kids off the streets.

Wecannot put an end to gang violence through gang injunctions because it does notwork. Examining the civil rights of a person targeted by gang injunctions, ACLUstates, “people targeted by gang injunctions are not guaranteed their legalright to be notified or given the opportunity to defend themselves in courtprior to being bound by restrictions of the injunction, nor are they providedwith an attorney. In addition, gang injunctions do not provide a clear way outfor people who are either mistakenly identified as gang members or for thosewho have turned their lives around. This means that the injunction could followthem for the rest of their life, which can make it more difficult to avoid gangactivity” (105). The first amendment of the constitution states that a personhas the freedom of speech, can associate freely, and one is innocent untilproven guilty. According to ACLU, the people that are targeted by the ganginjunctions have their rights taken away and they are denied the opportunity ofa lawyer to represent them. Gang injunctions does not work when use to approachgang violence because they strip away the civil rights of the person targeted bythe injunction. Another reason why gang injunctions do not work is because law enforcementmistakenly labels people as gang members and the people targeted by theinjunction have a much more difficult time avoiding criminal activity. Thismethod might reduce crime but it challenges the relationship between community andthe law enforcement. Discussing the concerns of civil liberties raised byinjunctions, in the article “GangInjunctions: Fact Sheet from The ACLU of northern California” ACLU states, “Oneof the most troubling aspects is that they often give police overly-broaddiscretion to label people gang members without having to present any evidenceor even charge someone with a crime. Police are left to rely on things likewhat someone looks like, where they live, and who they know. As a result, thereis a great potential for racial profiling, with a particular impact on youngpeople of color” (105). According to ACLU, a major problem is that ganginjunctions give police officers too much power to label someone as a gangmember base on the way the person looks, the neighborhood they live in and thepeople the person is affiliated with. This type of racial profiling is unfairand it makes the relationship between the law enforcement and the communityworse.  There are white gangs other thanblack gangs but the law enforcement only focus on targeting black gang members.The people of the community do not trust the law because of the harassment bythe law enforcement. Discussing how police officers look at people of the community,Timothy Thomas’ brother Terry states, “I mean yeah, there’s a few drug dealer,but you can’t just point them out and say, yeah, he’s a drug dealer. If youaint seen it or know he doin’ it, you cant just point him out. But that’s whatthey was doing. They was just picking you out the crowd“(DS 2). According to Terry,police officers automatically assume one is a drug dealer base on the way theperson looks even though the police did not see them deal drugs. The way policehave been engaging with these communities does not make it any better but itactually makes it worse. Gang injunctions give police too much authority tolabel a person as a gang member. This method does not stop gang violence andthe law enforcement should stop using it because it’s a false solution.

David Kennedy, a professor of Harvard, came upwith the strategy called Operation Ceasefire. Operation ceasefire is a method thatdoes not work because it fails to address the root causes of gang violence.This method reduces gang related crimes but it does not stop the violence, inorder to stop the violence; the root causes needs to be addressed. Talkingabout root causes, in Don’t Shoot, byDavid Kennedy, he states “the deepest commitment to going upstream in ways thatdon’t involve law enforcement comes from people who believe in what’s come tobe called prevention: working on root causes, working on racism, and economicsand education and health care, supporting families, addressing the risk factorsthat travel with kids’ movement into crime, providing treatment and counseling andmentoring” (DS 217). According to David Kennedy, the group called preventionwhich is against the methods of the law enforcement believes that to stop gangviolence we must prevent it from happening, and to do so we must address theroot causes first, discuss about racism in the community, come up with ways toimprove the economy, and address the risk factor that follow kids’ movementinto crime and offer counseling and mentoring to those kids at risk. Examiningthe root causes, in the book AlwaysRunning by Luis J. Rodriquez, Luis experiences racism at a local park inhis neighborhood, “Hey, get out of there – that’s ourseat. Look spic, you can’t sit there!” the American woman yelled. “You don’tbelong here! Understand? This is not your country!” (AR 19). The effect of thisexperience causes Luis’ feeling of being unwelcomed because the society tellshim that his family does not belong here. Racism is a huge factor and is one ofthe root causes that are not addressed. Another example of root causes that arenot address is the educational system. In school, Luis experiences the improperclass placement, “the school separated these two groups by level of education:the professional-class kids were provided with college-preparatory classes; theblue-collar students were pushed into industrial arts.”(AR 84) This type ofclass placement is unfair, because it is based on their status and kids do nothave the option of being born into a rich or poor family. Students don’t evenhave a chance to choose the field they want to be in and they have their futurealready planned for them. Education is one of the root causes that are notaddressed. Operation Ceasefire is a method that does not work when use toapproach gang violence because it fails to address the root causes. To trulystop gang violence, we have to address the root causes and find a solution forthem.

Fundingmore social services and prevention programs are solutions for at-risk youth indangerous neighborhoods. Luis J. Rodriquez talks about how he felt while attendinga community center in his neighborhood. Rodriquez states, “the BienvenidosCommunity Center hired Chente Ramirez. His credentials included a lifetime inthe White Fence barrio in East L.A. – known as the oldest “street gang” in thecountry. But Chente managed to avoid gang involvement, went to school…Chenteimpressed me as someone I could learn from. He was calm, but also street enoughto go among all those crazy guys and know how to handle himself. I wanted to beable to do this too. I looked up to him, but not as a big brother. He wassomeone who could influence me without judging me morally or telling me what todo” (AR 114). Luis was attending the Bienvenidos community program, where theyhired Chente. Chente was an ex-gang member that went to school and worked tosupport his family. Chente impress Luis because he is able to avoid ganginvolvement and also did well in school. Luis looked up to him because he feelsthat he can relate to Chente because he is also involved with a gang. Chente isan example of how he can also change his lifestyle and do the things he want todo, looking at Chente gave him the inspiration to do so. This is proof of how socialprograms can help prevent kids from engaging with gang related crime because ithelps them realize the potential they have. Social programs with ex-gangmembers as community directors can give at-risk youth something to relate toand they feel more comfortable working with them. Examining the school basedprevention program, in the article “Evaluation of the Gang Resistance andTraining program”, by Alison L. Ramsey states, “a community based gangprevention/intervention program is the Neutral Zone. This is a program designedin Washington state that offers youths, who are either at-risk of joining agang or already a member, an alternative for spending their time more productively.This is a late evening program that provides recreational and social serviceactivities on Friday and Saturday nights. When evaluated through anaccountability study, this program was found to be an effective method to theapproaches that rely on curfews and police to control gang activity”(Evaluation of the Gang Resistance and Training program). According to Ramsey,Neutral Zone is a late evening program created to provide youths who are eithera gang member or at risk of joining a gang, an alternative to spend their timemore wisely. This program offers recreational and social service activities andis evaluated to be an effective method. Cities with uncontrollable gangproblems need to consider funding more social programs similar to Neutral Zonebecause it encourages at-risk youth to spend time more productively. Theseprevention programs also provide kids with recreational activities so they areless likely to engage with gang-related activities. To stop gang violence,creating more social services and prevention programs is the correct solutionto curb increased gang related-crimes.

       Can we stop gang violence? The answer isno, but we can definitely reduce the amount of crime that is happening.Thecurrent law enforcement methods use to fight gang violence are not working,they need to consider using different style of techniques to actually stop gangviolence. Gang injunctions do not work because it gives police too much power.Operation Ceasefire does not work because it fails to address the root causes. Whatis proven to work is funding more social services and prevention programs.Society has been greatly impacted by gangs, and the levels of gang activitiesare way worse than it was before. We cannot stop gang violence completely butwe can reduce gang related crimes through prevention programs and socialservices.

Works Cited

Kennedy, David M. Don’t Shoot. One Man, AStreet Fellowship, and The End of Violence in Inner-City America. NewYork: Bloomsbury USA, 2011. Print.

Ramsey, Alison L. “Evaluation of the GangResistance and Training (Great) program: a school based prevention program.”Education. 1242 (winter 2003): p297. From Academic OneFile.

Rodriquez, Luis J. Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A. New York:Touchstone books, 2005. Print.

ACLU. “Gang Injunctions: Fact Sheet from The ACLUof Northern California”

Vermeire, Diana Tate. “Oakland Gang Injunction is aFalse Solution” SF Chronicle. 26 May, 2010.