The P.I. this morning is reporting the latest on Washington State's Anti-Gang Act, which has now made its way through Legislature and awaits the signature of Miss Gregoire herself. Turns out that even among those who initially supported it, not everyone is celebrating; in fact, many of the bill's original proponents seem unhappy that the final version focuses more on punishing gang members than cutting into their recruitment efforts.
P.I. reporter Claudia Rowe writes:
In its current incarnation, the law will focus primarily on levying stiffer penalties for gang crimes and creating a database of gang members for law enforcement to track -- as opposed to the original aim of intercepting teens before they become involved.
What's wrong with that? Sure, at first glance a gang database raises civil liberties concerns. But in a privacy-conscious state like Washington, I'm willing to give it a chance...so long as the only people included are those who meet the criteria of a gang member (the Anti-Gang Act defines a gang as "a group of three or more people who commit crime and, whether formally or informally, share a common name or identifying sign").
Anti-gang counselor Andre Franklin is quoted in the piece:
"My concern is how they're deciding who's a gang member," Franklin said. "It could ruin somebody's life to be labeled like that and it's pretty much at the discretion of the police officer."
Did I miss something? From how the article presents it, being labeled a gang member isn't left to the discretion of police officers at all; it's outlined clearly in the bill's description of what makes up a gang. The only people whose lives will be "ruined" are those who consciously made the choice to partake in such activity in the first place. Using the aforementioned criteria, it seems to be pretty hard to get mislabeled a gangster...and it's doubtful that we'd have law-abiding citizens getting caught up in a gang database by accident.
But the bill makes sense. It gives the government power to do what it should: take down criminals. The preventative measures that some are whining about are simply not the responsibility of the state..they are the responsibility of folks like Andre Franklin. Teachers, counselors, parents, neighborhood leaders...there's no denying that positive change in a community can only come from within that community.
Plus, by reading the article's headline ("Anti-gang bill: penalty over prevention") one would think that every single preventive measure had been stripped away. That isn't quite the truth:
The law also sets tougher penalties for gang members who recruit minors or encourage youths to commit crimes.
What more can you ask for? Asking the government to develop and/or fund programs that show young people the pitfalls of gang membership is a cop-out...it's saying, "We as a community aren't willing to do this ourselves, and therefore the government has a duty to do it for us" (a conclusion that couldn't be further from the truth).
If gangs are a problem in a community, that community must look within itself at what it's doing wrong to allow such activity to proliferate. Expecting the government to do it for you - when their efforts would be more costly and less effective - is a refusal to step up the challenge.
UPDATE:
Lights & Sirens, the Tacoma News Tribune's crime blog, offers up a more detailed list of just what the Anti-Gang Act does:
- Establishes a grant program for cops to battle gang problems.
- Establishes a grant program to help clean up graffiti and tagging.
- Sets up a statewide database of known gang members.
- Increases the penalties for adults who recruit kids to participate in a gang-related crime.
- Expands the list of aggravated factors for exceptional sentences to include crimes committed to benefit a gang.
- Allows property owners to seek costs from a person who tagged or spraypainted graffiti on their property.
- Defines a criminal street gang.
- Directs the state Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development to establish a grant program for witnesses of felony gang-related crimes. The program would provide temporary assistance to those witnesses.
- Requests a study of the best practices to reduce gang involvement of inmates in prison.
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