Why Doesn't the US Declare War against US Gangs?

As the drug war in Mexico continues to gain media attention, I can't but wonder how those drug gangs rose to become such a threat to Mexico. I assume they were regular street gangs selling stolen or smuggle items here and there and where at first just a nuisance to society. Slowly, they got into drugs, prostitution, weapons trafficking and became major headaches for many of Mexico's law enforcement. Slowly the gangs spread to different community causing further headaches across the nation.

I see a similar pattern with US gangs and feel it is only a matter of time before our gangs become larger than life figures.

Current gang info.

Criminal gangs in the USA have swelled to an estimated 1 million members responsible for up to 80% of crimes in communities across the nation, according to a gang threat assessment compiled by federal officials.

The major findings in a report by the Justice Department's National Gang Intelligence Center, which has not been publicly released, conclude gangs are the "primary retail-level distributors of most illicit drugs" and several are "capable" of competing with major U.S.-based Mexican drug-trafficking organizations.

"A rising number of U.S.-based gangs are seemingly intent on developing working relationships" with U.S. and foreign drug-trafficking organizations and other criminal groups to "gain direct access to foreign sources of illicit drugs," the report concludes.

www.usatoday.com...

I think that it would be safe to assume that with this current economic fiasco, gang activity and membership could rise very rapidly. I also want to point out the 80% mentioned in the article. Wouldn't it be nice to reduce that 80% figure and not have to worry about all the crimes being committed in our communities?

Gangs are also the primary way illegal drugs find their way on to US streets. If the US is serious about stopping the amount of drugs being sold on our streets, I feel they should declare war on every gang in the US to reduce the large amount of drugs being sold on US streets.

How long will it be before our own gangs get their hands on military weapons and start using them? Should we wait for the problem to grow into this scenario before we do something about it?

Members of nearly every major street gang as well as some prison gangs and OMGs have been identified on both domestic and international military installations. Deployments have resulted in gang members among service members and/or dependents on or near overseas bases. Additionally, military transfers have resulted in gang members, both service members and dependents/relatives, moving to new areas and establishing a gang presence.

Gang members with military training pose a unique threat to law enforcement personnel because of the distinctive military skills that they possess and their willingness to teach these skills to fellow gang members. While the number of gang members trained by the military is unknown, the threat that they pose to law enforcement is potentially significant, particularly if gang members trained in weapons, tactics, and planning pass this instruction on to other gang members.

www.usdoj.gov...

The US gang problems and its connection to illegal activities and crimes is not going away anytime soon. If anything, the problem will escalate to epic proportions IMO.

The gang population estimate is up 200,000 since 2005.

Bruce Ferrell, chairman of the Midwest Gang Investigators Association, whose group monitors gang activity in 10 states, says the number of gang members may be even higher than the report's estimate.

"We've seen an expansion for the last 10 years," says Ferrell, who has reviewed the report. "Each year, the numbers are moving forward."

'Growing threat' on the move

The report says about 900,000 gang members live "within local communities across the country," and about 147,000 are in U.S. prisons or jails.

"Most regions in the United States will experience increased gang membership ... and increased gang-related criminal activity," the report concludes, citing a recent rise in gangs on the campuses of suburban and rural schools.

www.usatoday.com...
We can either take on the gangs now while they are relatively weak, divided, and possibly disorganized or we can wait till they grow into a major powerhouse like the drug gangs in Mexico. I propose we take them on now. I find it ironic that the US chooses to take on other countries drug gangs while minimizing or ignoring the problems its own gangs are causing. While Mexico uis taking on its own drug gangs, the US should do likewise. Without the US gangs, the Mexican gangs would have less suppliers to get their goods to their intended market.

Should the US declare an all out war on the gangs in the US now or let them continue to become a future national problem?


Further research

National Gang threat Assessment 2009

Gangs Or US

I though the US already declared WAR on DRUGS. If you want to promote something, just declare war on it.

why would they want to do anything about it, if anything it gives them excuse to put more police out there and take people's rights away in order to put them back into line with the rest of society.....

This problem will only get worse before the govermant has to step in and make it look like they are trying to do something.....

Are you kidding me this is where obama will draw his civilian guard force from and these gangs are already trained in street to street, house to house, car to car combat. obama surely does not want to go to war with his allies, on the street gangs.

reply to post by Disclosure Agent

why would they want to do anything about it, if anything it gives them excuse to put more police out there and take people's rights away in order to put them back into line with the rest of society.....

You make a good point.

What good is it that cops go after consumers rather than the producers and suppliers?

The US government doesn't declare war on the gangs because they're all gangsters, robbing and exploiting others so they can sit back and enjoy the good life.

Originally posted by amari
Are you kidding me this is where obama will draw his civilian guard force from and these gangs are already trained in street to street, house to house, car to car combat. obama surely does not want to go to war with his allies, on the street gangs.

i'm sorry for the one-line post, but are you serious?

Gangs are run by the CIA, military black ops, the Freemasons, the Trilateral Commission, the Club of Rome and other groups.

gangs already have military-grade arms stockpiles. As a mattter of fact, they give away free guns to neighborhood kids. Some kids who are crafty enough to get the bullets are the ones who shoot other little kids in school. They get these weapons on the black market, by trading them for a combination of drugs, prostitution and other illegal goods and sevices (like cellphone jailbreakers, wifi sniffers, computer hacking warez and satellite comlinks). That's why they scratch off the serial numbers.

why would they want to do that?

I thought the whole point was to allow for primitive tribal urge for "belonging" to a group to take hold.. and manipulate them to fight one another.. more effectively solving the problem.. by covertly using them against one another instead of overtly and obviously stamping them out.

and they have their useful purposes right?
they run drugs.. make billions..for the drug industry..kidnapping industry..
...they rarely formally educate themselves thus remaining in a more easily influenced level of thought.

could be wrong..
maybe TPTB haven't thought that out their usefulness..

yea right.

-

Yes, I am quite sure we already have a war on gangs...war on drugs...I grew up with it being shoved down my throat by every PSA and elementary school teacher...ugh.

However, ask anyone who lives in a gang-controlled area: they are no joke.

The reason the media is so up in arms about Mexico is
A. they're not even our citizens so it makes it exceptionally annoying
B. Phoenix, AZ has become #2 in the WORLD for kidnappings
C. its really ruining many middle-class teenagers spring breaks (or at least pundits like O'Reilly and Hannity are because repeatedly every night 'they're looking out for you" and will not stop doing stories on it)

Originally posted by '___'eviant

Originally posted by amari
Are you kidding me this is where obama will draw his civilian guard force from and these gangs are already trained in street to street, house to house, car to car combat. obama surely does not want to go to war with his allies, on the street gangs.

i'm sorry for the one-line post, but are you serious?

Serious as a heart attack and you will see the continuation of the endoctrination of children in our government run schools to be brain washed with leftist propaganda and to join his civilian guard that pledges their alligence to obama.

Set back and watch what happens in the near future because the majority of the people wanted change and change they are getting like it or not. Look what has happened in a month and a half to our country. A year ago most would of thought it would have been impossible the changes that are being made today by this administration. Look for words to be used such as Czar and Comrade that will come into play as this administration enacts more revolutionary changes and controls on your everyday life.

[edit on 13-3-2009 by amari]

reply to post by jam321


Why Doesn't the US Declare War against US Gangs?

Its one of those simple questions , that leaves you chiming in with ...."why not ?"
War has been declared on just about everything else !

reply to post by jam321



Well it is my opinion that membership is way down, at least in LA county.
In the 80's it was really bad - I lived in ECHO PARK in RAMPART division as a youngster.
On one intersection - Sunset blvd. you had a different neighborhood (gang) on each of the four corners. They once had a three way shoot out across the Blvd. that was insane. ExP
(Echo park) once made some of my neighborhood friends jump off a bridge down to into moving traffic. I got jumped a few times, shot at, robbed and shanked ( in the hand).

Anyhow that neighborhood which used to be really, really bad is now clean, safe. The property values are way up and I just walked around their the other night at 2 in the morning, no problems and not one gang banger to be found. I also noticed graffiti (gang graffiti not TAGGER graffiti ) is much less prevalent - and the markings themselves do not indicate the WARS and Green lights ( death on sight ) that I remember.

I would say things have changed for the better, in my city at least.

Knowing the culture, I would say this incarnation of Gang banging will die off in 10 -20 years.

The musical culture has changed which influenced the imagery and violence of my era dramatically.

We had EZ-Z - NWA - early snoop - Dre - Tupac - 2short

These kids have Chris Brown - NEO - Black eyed peas - lil wayne...

Or in plain English the popular music is no longer telling our youths to die, kill and murder...

Maybe in other parts of the nation this hasn't run its corse, but it will.


On a side note the Mexican Mafia will always do their thing in prison -

I can say that completely legalizing Marijuana would set back the Mexican connections tens of years, which would in turn ruin many street gangs financing over night.

To the OP: there is, in fact, a war on US gangs. Read: The War On Drugs.

Silly concept if you ask me. Similar to The War On Terrorism.

I think that membership figure is underestimated.( left out congress )

They already have their hands on Glocks, Uzis , Ak’s, SKS’s.

The drug trade is in the billions. A lot of people make a lot of money from drugs , some never have to come in contact with the drugs. Prisons are loaded with drugs. Gangs run the prison drug trade. How do you think drugs get into prison? ( rhetorical )
Who makes money from the current system?
Gangs are midlevel distributors.
What about the major importers that organize massive shipments and see that those shipments are protected? That is really the root of the whole problem.


Some gangs are very well organized and far from weak.

Law enforcement has been declaring war for a while now. Anti gang units, rico act.
Like the other poster stated, the war on drugs. How is that going? Its been about twenty five years, has it been won yet? Has the trade decreased?


To answer your question
No, I don’t want to hear some hypocrite politician pounding his fist on a podium screaming about another war on whatever, trying to collect votes for re election with yet another ineffective policy.

As long as large sums of money are availed from the gang’s endeavors, gangs will continue to grow. To break their back take away their money.

Here is why you go after consumers - simple economics.

So long as you have demand, you have price. Take suppliers and supply out of the chain, you merely drive the price of the consumable up. This makes it more profitable, and drives more people to consider that the risk-to-reward ratio is significant enough to warrant the risk.

So long as you have demand, you'll have a black market....or any market really.

You have to make the consequences of being a consumer too large to be worth it. That drives down the demand, and increases supply, which drives people OUT of the supply side.

Economics - it isn't just for egg-heads.

Originally posted by jam321
reply to post by Disclosure Agent

 

why would they want to do anything about it, if anything it gives them excuse to put more police out there and take people's rights away in order to put them back into line with the rest of society.....

You make a good point.

What good is it that cops go after consumers rather than the producers and suppliers?

Originally posted by jam321
reply to post by Disclosure Agent

 

why would they want to do anything about it, if anything it gives them excuse to put more police out there and take people's rights away in order to put them back into line with the rest of society.....

You make a good point.

What good is it that cops go after consumers rather than the producers and suppliers?

Because for every dealer there are 100 - 200 - 300 - who might have 200 more customers - on and on...

Think about how many more cops you would need to nab all the dealers X's 100 - 200 X's 15 - 20 in the chain of hierarchy.

reply to post by Plasma applicator



I agree.

Use economics and increased consequences to drive the market down.

HOWEVER - I am also all good with taking the leaders of any gangs that take over an area and try them as traitors. When thugs and gangsters step out of their assigned place - to quietly supply contraband and a societal valve - and replace the rightful democratically elected government of the land in any region they have made themselves traitors.

The power of economics only goes so far. There is a boundary point that they cross, and when they do they need to be vividly reminded that they have a place in society and it isn't as a governing power.

On some fronts that gangs/thugs/mob work on, I'm also for using more than economics. In the spirit of my previous post where you get rid of demand you get rid of the market......I'm ALL FOR getting rid of the child prostitution/slavery/porn people through killing everyone who is found to be a consumer or producer. Consider it the economics of demand-side reduction.


[edit on 2009/3/14 by Aeons]

reply to post by Aeons


valid point.

Supply and demand is always a part of the picture.


Plasma applicator

Law enforcement has been declaring war for a while now. Anti gang units, rico act.

Very true. But what good does it do to get a few here and a few there and then send them to prison so they can continue to operate their gangs. I also have to wonder because of what I have been reading lately, is if many of these arrests have more to do with seizures than shutting down the illegal activity.

In the past decade, drug-related property seizures have skyrocketed in Washington, with annual proceeds raised from auctions statewide jumping from $1.2 million to a record $6.7 million in 2000. That doesn't count forfeitures made by federal agencies, such as the Drug Enforcement Administration or the FBI.

seattlepi.nwsource.com...

reply to post by mental modulator


as always, I welcome your very well thought out points.

I think your option of legalizing is the best option but will never happen.

Kinda sad when I can get certain cold medicines easier on the street than from a drugstore.