Gang Suppression
Criminal activities have reduced significantly in recent years, but the existent illegal activities have remained concentrated in the racially segregated and poverty-stricken areas. Gangs have mainly become a menace in the United States with a higher likelihood of unleashing violence and blackmailing communities so that law enforcement cannot catch up with them. This has led to the formation of strategies by law enforcement officers that would ensure that they reduce the extensiveness of this problem in society.
This chapter focuses on gangs in the United States and strategies that have been used to suppress the gangs. There is the recognition of elements such as community policing and the use of force. All these are in the effort to kill gangs and restore peace in the society. However, the lack of understanding of the root cause leads to alienation of the police from the community. The result has been an increased number of gangs.
Gangs will indeed want to increase their levels of criminal activities to ensure that they remain the toughest gang on the block. This affects individuals in society as they start to get terrorized for no good reason. There is also a higher likelihood of getting more recruits into these gangs, hence increasing the number of gang members in the recent past. Through strategies such as humiliation and dispersing of gangs, law enforcement helps to reduce the possibility of their assembly. Nevertheless, from a personal perspective, this does not considerably reduce the number of gangs and their involvement in criminal activities. This is because the gangs can still have secret meeting places and carry on with their planned illegal activities.
A strategy like community policing would be useful in the suppression of gangs. This means that law enforcement partners with the society members, including some gang members, to identify and solve society’s problems. In the case of gangs, officers need to take time to speak to the community about the issues that gangs pose to society and why they need to suppress them (Vitale, 2017). This will form an understanding such that the community members will not view gang arrests or sweeps from a negative light but in a way that grows the community.
However, some of these strategies that law enforcement has put in place have not been effective. Vitale (2017) notes, “Everyone says: ‘What are we going to do about the gang problem?’ It’s the same thing you do about cockroaches and insects; you get someone in there to do whatever they can do to get rid of those creatures.” This is a form of thinking that has introduced some great injustices in treating gang members and the society within which they exist. Since the gang unit now believes that they should do anything within their power to suppress the gangs, they result in unlawful modes.
These include the silent elimination through the brutal treatment of gang members even without proper judicial proceedings, which is abuse to human rights. The worst thing about this is that there is massive corruption. These illegal instances are made to disappear, and the officers responsible are never made accountable for the same. The form of thinking has also affected society at large. There is the likelihood of harassment from law enforcement officers if they believe there is a form of the relationship existing. Overall, there is a disturbance of the peace of the community.
Undoubtingly, there is a need to devise proper ways to fight these gangs without the use of force. Community policing is one strategy, but it should be supplemented byways that deal with the problem from its roots. Such ways include solving joblessness problems to reduce poverty, which is a contributing factor to the increased number of gangs. This will play a vital role in controlling or reducing the number of gangs emerging and existent within the community.
References
Vitale, A. (2017). The End of Policing. Verso. New York