Rather quick observation that there’s clear borders at Hollywood, BH, and other affluent areas. Curious what some takeaways are. Gangs exist only where gang members live? No affluent people are in or run gangs? More/more effective policing in affluent areas? Less/less effective policing in less affluent areas?
You think the West Hollywood PhD Crips is a likely thing? Yes, generally speaking when it comes to street gangs, they tend to be staffed and started by people from the lower rungs of society (until some of them get rich doing their activities). There are exceptions as with anything in the world, but the poverty connection is pretty damn common worldwide. Other kinds of organized crime are often different though.
It’s not like they operate out in the open. Just arresting all young men of color who are hanging out in the neighborhood is bound to rightfully get a beat down by the court.
Sure, but given their level of danger and common physical characteristics (lots of tatoos), why not detain just about everyone in the area, and screen them thoroughly? Its perfectly legal in light of a murderous gang.
Applying force and incarcerating as many as possible leads to nothing but full prisons, and as individuals are released, the cycle begins anew. It's necessary to break this cycle and focus on very young children, understanding the key factors of why they join gangs, and then taking precise countermeasures.
Education: Implementing educational programs that teach conflict resolution and provide positive social-emotional learning.
Opportunities: Creating job training and employment opportunities for young people.
Community Programs: Offering after-school and summer programs focused on arts, sports, and other activities.
Mentorship: Connecting young people with mentors who can provide guidance and support.
Family Support: Providing resources and support to families to help them create stable, nurturing environments.
Safe Spaces: Ensuring there are safe community spaces for social interaction.
Police-Community Relations: Fostering positive relationships between law enforcement and the community.
Intervention Strategies: Developing programs to intervene when young people show signs of potentially joining gangs.
It is a complex problem, hence there is no easy solution.
Even easier, let the cops use their best judgement to stop and frisk people on the street. That way there is no paperwork unless someone is in possession.
Maybe we can ask NYC how that worked out for them?
This has all been done before and it is really ineffective at stopping the drug trade but really effective at getting everyone to hate you. Community trust is finite resource, use it wisely.
You do know that millions of younger people (especially these days now that its more socially acceptable and popular) have tattoos of all kinds without being criminals?
The latent authoritarian tendencies of many HN comments are one thing, but blatant, blanket fascism like the above is especially amusing. "Perfectly legal" isn't always the best defense of shitty proposals.
It's easy to point a finger at "blatant/blanket fascism" from an ivory tower, but ask yourself, would you feel differently if you were an impoverished person trying to raise a family and live a clean life in one of these areas?
You probably wouldn't, because with laws like those proposed above, it's very likely that your family members in that neighborhood, despite being innocent of any specific act, would be dragnet arrested and hauled off to some shit hole county/city jail because they went for a coke and chips at 3 am but had tattoos and "looked suspicious". I live in a place where the police get license to do exactly these sorts of things with little fear of repercussions, all in the name of "fighting delinquency". The inevitable result has been a ton of corruption and awfully unjust abuses of (mostly) kids doing nothing wrong. The real crime rate doesn't seem to change much despite.
There is little evidence to suggest that broad, indiscriminate screening and detention are effective ways to combat gang activity, to say nothing about how blatantly profiling your suggestion is. Focusing on community engagement, targeted law enforcement based on evidence and reasonable suspicion, and addressing the ROOT CAUSES of gang involvement are more effective strategies, but you wouldn't know that being an inbred, nazi thug.
Yesterday 2 gang members in El Salvador murdered 2 of their citizens. After catching them, the president called an army of 5000 troops to eradicate what remained of gangs in the area.
Swift, strong justice is the inly way to deal with murderous gangs.
Quickly going from one of the most dangerous to one of the safest countries in the world, El Salvador is an example to the world of how to fix these problems.
It's proven.
Instead, in the US, we now routinely let criminals roam free and many of our cities are now quite dangerous, plus barely any police left to protect citizens.
No one needs "reasonable suspicion" for thug-looking people with MS-13 tattoes, except perhaps those who insult others and lack minimal critical thinking.
And settlements or jury verdicts in the billions, easily. Do it en masse and the state might as well as mortgage itself to pay for all the Section 1983 suits that are slam dunks since the 4th Amendment is still good law last I checked.
