Criminal street gangs have been a factor in American life for almost 200 years – from the “Gangs of New York” to the Mafia to the modern iteration of this blight on society and killer of our children.
Street gangs are a fact of today’s American youth culture. We can find the influences of street gangs throughout the music and entertainment industry, specifically targeting our children. Numerous studies have confirmed the psychological influence that the music, movie and video game industries have on the minds and lifestyles of youth.
It is no longer necessary for our children to grow up in gang-infested neighborhoods to become totally immersed in the “gang lifestyle.” Add to this the recent trend of criminal street gangs to move out of the large urban areas to suburban and rural communities and this presents a serious threat to our children’s safety.
Children heavily influenced by successful musicians and actors who romanticize and glorify the gang lifestyle are easy targets for adult gang members recruiting in our communities. These recruiters exploit our children’s relative innocence, placing their lives in danger from their first association. Children desperate to feel like they belong to something, left to fend for themselves for hours each day with parents working long hours just to make ends meet, create a “perfect storm” of possibilities for the destruction of their fragile lives.
In Snohomish County, the sheriff’s office traditionally has not tracked crimes by “gang association.” Being a member of a gang is not a crime in and of itself. With the recent addition of a Crime Analysis and Intelligence Unit, however, we have realized that a significant portion of the crime in our communities is committed by organized criminal groups. Crimes committed by known criminal street gang members include burglary, theft, identity theft/fraud, prostitution, assaults, drive-by shootings, rape and murder.
These crimes reduce the quality of life for the citizens we are sworn to protect, even if you are not the direct victim of the crime. They are committed by organized groups that by Washington statute fall under the “gang” title. We are developing action plans to track these groups and the individuals affiliated with them, in an effort to break up their organizations and seek the stiffest possible penalties for convictions.
To do this and prevent the infestation from becoming a countywide community crisis, the sheriff’s office will be required to stretch thin resources even thinner. This will affect our ability to respond to lower priority calls for service.
Fighting criminal street gangs is not only a law enforcement problem. It is a community problem and must be attacked from multiple angles. Certainly law enforcement plays a major role in this fight, but it must also include family, friends, schools, churches, community organizations and after-school activity organizations. This fight must take place in each of our communities and the individuals and organizations above must do what they can to win back the hearts and minds of our children and stop the evil cycle of violence surrounding criminal street gangs and their culture.
We at the sheriff’s office are asking for the assistance of our citizens and communities:
* Talk to your children about gangs, just like you would about cigarettes, drugs and other life subjects.
* Help them to understand that even imitating the gang culture in dress, talk and hand signs can place them and their friends in serious danger.
* If you see or know of emerging gang-related criminal activity, report it to 911 and describe the gang aspect of the incident.
* If you believe you have a gang residence in your area or observe what you believe to be gang members meeting regularly at a given location, contact your local precinct and provide them with this information.
* Support before and after school programs at your local church, YMCA or Boys and Girls Club to help provide positive experiences in our children’s lives.
Together as a community, we can fight this threat and save our children – one life at a time.
Steve Haley is a detective in the Crime Analysis and Intelligence Unit of the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office.
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