Gangs in America 6

I wonder why there hasn’t been more done in our country to put a complete stop to America’s gang problem. I really have thought about this and for the life of me, I cannot understand their inability to take drastic measures to stop any form of gang activity. All anyone has to do is take a serious look around any prison and every major city across our country and you would see that gangs are alive and thriving.

I have been to at least nine different prisons in Texas and all of them have gang problems, same for Ohio and the federal prison system. I have met men from California to New York and every state in between, everyone has told me about their gang problems. As with every major city, alone has to do is turn on your local news and you will see for yourself there are gangs everywhere.

I remember back in the 1970’s, a law professor from Harvard was talking with an FBI agent, telling him how it was virtually impossible to arrest and convict the heads of the Italian Mafia. The FBI agent said, “They never break the law themselves; they walk around all day with suits on, acting like they are upstanding citizens.” Later on, that same law professor came up with what is known as the RICO act, which gave the federal government a broader opportunity to show these mafia bosses were the heads of these gangs. Later on they came up with what is known as conspiracy, which also helped the government with thousands of arrests.

Now let me fast forward to 9/11, the day that changed everything in our country. America was sad, angry and pissed off with Osama Bin Laden and his gang of murders. The United States government understood what they were dealing with and they knew these people would strike again. The government also knew Osama Bin Laden and his gang had no empathy for human life.

The United States then created a law called the Patriot Act. This would allow America to hunt down, capture and detain indefinitely everyone involved with the 9/11 attack. Without due process of the American laws, the United States decided under no circumstances would we allow any of these men to slip through the cracks of our legal system. Has anyone ever thought about why the United States created the Patriot Act? For one, why would we allow someone that would be willing to murder three and a half thousand American people for absolutely no reason whatsoever? Plus, we also knew from past experiences that when you take down a mafia boss or the leader of a gang, it never stops the organization. Someone else steps up and takes their place.

The United States government put the Patriot Act into law so they could have a much broader ability to attack and destroy this gang. Basically, nothing stood in our way to put a complete end to everyone that was involved with the 9/11 attack. Laws like the RICO Act, conspiracy and the Patriot Act have been used to combat threats to the United States. Our government has used these laws to arrest and convict people which might not otherwise ever been brought to justice.

Now once again, my question is, why hasn’t our government created laws to eradicate these different gangs throughout our country, to once and for all stop all gang activity everywhere. Why wouldn’t the same strict laws that have been used to fight terrorists, be used to fight these gangs of terrorists right here in our country? To me it’s insanity to allow gangs to control not only the prison systems, but to take over parts of every major city across our country.

As I have written over and over again, how can you expect people to come to prison and be rehabilitated when they have to deal with these ruthless gangs? Look at the kid I had written about who went to the United States Penitentiary in Hazelton, West Virginia, this young man in his 20’s from Kentucky, was sent to prison for ten years for drug charges and because of the gangs he was forced to kill someone or be killed. Now he has been in prison for almost thirty years and it’s not just this one man, this has happened to countless others too.

Now let’s take a look at all the men who have been beat, stabbed, and killed by the gangs in prison. Those numbers have to be in the tens of thousands. Take a look at how many guards have been assaulted, stabbed and murdered by gang members, then go across the United States, look at all the police officers, both state and federal, look at how many have been assaulted, shot and killed. Then go look at all of the individual citizens in every major city that have been robbed, raped, extorted, assaulted and murdered by gangs. Something else that has played out on every news station across this country as well, how many children have been killed by drive by shootings in the United States? Just off the top of my head, I have known three different people that have killed children during a drive by shooting, one of them a newborn in his mother’s arms. I am writing about this because I want to show that it’s not just a prison problem, gangs in America effect every single person in our country, it’s no longer a bunch of teenagers from different neighborhoods fighting to see who is the toughest. Every part of society has been affected by gangs. They have no morals, no respect and no empathy for human life. From my experience around them, their only ambition in life is to be a criminal and make money at any cost, no one or nothing in their life matters. Every prison, every city, every race and all walks of life have been affected by gangs. Not even the most innocent of our society are safe to play in the streets or even walk home from school. Truthfully, children are not even safe in school anymore because of gangs. Just this year in Philadelphia, November of 2021, there have been over five hundred and twenty-three murders. While I know not all of them are gang related, I would be willing to bet that almost all of them are.

I have wondered if anyone has ever taken a look at just how many people are killed each year because of gangs. I have heard people on the news talk about gang problems, but no one in Washington seems to come up with any type of solution to combat the gang crime wave that has swept across America like a tornado. If I were to speak to all of the people in Washington, I would say “Every single one of you have been put in office by the people in this country, you have an obligation to protect the American citizens and to insure everyone is kept safe. You took an oath when you took office, but it seems to me that you have forgotten everything. While I do understand not everyone in Washington has forgotten their obligation, unfortunately a large portion of you have, and because of that, the gangs have taken over every major city in our country.”

Over the decades, I have wondered many times when would enough be enough, at what point does our government say, it’s time to declare a total war on all of the gangs in America and do whatever it takes to eliminate every one of them? How many innocent people have to be robbed, assaulted and murdered? How many law enforcement officers have to be killed by gangs before our government decides to do something? How many American children have to be killed in drive by shootings before you say enough? At what point does America treat all gangs for exactly what they are, home grown terrorists. As I said earlier, laws have been created to combat organized crime, the Patriot Act was created to deal with terrorists, it’s way beyond time to once and for all declare gangs a clear and present danger to the United States of America. They have shown this to be a fact, the gangs have been relentless in their ability to continue in their path of destruction. They are not going away; in fact they are growing bigger and more dangerous every single day.

If you doubt this, just take a look at what’s going on in Chicago. Today is December 21, 2021, so far this year there has been over eight hundred homicides in the Windy City. The shootings and homicides continue to climb every year in Chicago. The people that live there have given the city a nick name, they call it Chi-raq, because it is like living in a war zone. As bad as this may sound, I believe there is an answer to solve this problem. In my next and final chapter, I’ll explain how to take back all of the prisons and cities, to put an end to the gang problem now and forever.