With a cycle of crime leading to incarceration then onto recruitment, we need to learn a bit from history this time.
A recent crime last year in El Salvador bore all the hall marks of the MS-13 gang, a gang known for its more than violent crimes utilising machetes and machine guns to kill its targets. There was just one problem – it wasn’t them. Even though police initially thought the crime was committed by the gang, it was later revealed that is was carried out by Barrio 18 a rival gang whose on-going feud has cost thousands of people their lives.
A distinctive feature of both gangs is the head to toe tattoos, their murderous tactics and their goal to be more dominate. It started on the streets of Los Angeles and, as the gang members were pushed out of the United States, they have turned the Central American northern triangle into the area with the highest homicide rate in the world.
Some experts in the field of gangs have traced MS-13’s origins right back to the 1950s whereas Barrio 18 truly came into being in the 1980s when it broke away from one of California’s oldest Hispanic gangs, Clanton 14. Barrio 18 originally was composed of Mexican immigrants or people of Mexican descent, but soon began incorporating other Latino nationalities as Los Angeles’ immigrant community diversified.
Police hoped to eliminate Barrio 18 and MS-13 by incarcerating its leaders however it became their biggest mistakes as they used the US Prison system to recruit new gang members at an alarming rate and when that was coupled with mass deportations and weak South American governments, these groups returned to their native countries and waged war against each other.
In 2012 with murders averaging around 14 a day, the catholic church (which many of these gangs remained loyal to due to their upbringing) intervened and negotiated a cease fire which has worked in the mean time to bring homicide rates down but the two gangs belief that they can destroy each other is still prevalent and has the potential to explode and surprisingly not from these gangs but from an outside source – President Trump.
President Trump has publicly declared war on MS-13 which means the Department of Justice and other agencies working with it will attempt to shut down the gang and route it out of America. Potentially this will lead to the United States assisting its allies in South America in shutting down this gang but here is where we hit a problem.
In order to best combat this gang, a coordinated effort with law enforcement to shut down this gang would require imprisoning gang members and by doing this a recruitment spree like we haven’t seen before will happen. MS-13 and Barrio 18 would greatly increase their numbers and make US Prisons more dangerous; reports are also stating that MS-13 members pay guards at U.S. prisons to smuggle cellphones to them so they can communicate with members in Guatemala, Honduras as well as in the U.S. gang leaders behind bars routinely order subordinates to commit crimes including murder in the US.
On top of that, mass deportation of these gang members and leaders once they have been released from prison will only fuel tensions in South America and create a climate as dangerous as the times of Pablo Escobar and the Narcos.
Unless this time around a better effort is taken and the gangs are properly dealt with, we are only helping to fuel the fire that is MS-13 and Barrio 18.
Isolate them. A prison just for gang members. No recruitment.
Execute them and all other terrorists.
There are many other areas that will need to be addressed before the issue of organised gangs can be brought under control and eradicated:
Open, free and fair elections.
Rooting out Governmental, police and security services corruption.
Coordination and information sharing between Central American and South American states.
Creating a stable economy that allows for foreign investment and job creation.
So your solution is do nothing. Did you even bother to do anymore than cursory research? I am just asking because this seems even less well considered than the authors normal weekly vacillating about President Trump. Blaming the President for scum of the Earth killing each other is just inherently flawed (not to mention partisan).
This idea that you can’t imprison people or they will spread their gang. Completely vapid anybody who has ever worked in a correctional facility will tell you that. If they are the gang type they will always join a gang. All you change is which one. In my own native state of Texas this past year MS-13 has been going on a bit of a spree which included the kidnapping, torture , and rape of two 15 year old girls and the BEHEADING of one of them. It was a killing so brutal the LIBERAL prosecutor of Houston turned down plea deal for life in order to seek the death penalty. For some reason you are arguing that there should not be campaign to eradicate such groups by all means available to the State and Federal governments. You mention Pablo Escobar perhaps you should read about what happened to him and the Narcos.
Yes there was violence on a near unprecedented scale but at the end of the day they and the threat to National Security/Public Safety were crushed. See until the last two years a lowering crime rate. The truth progressive’s(regressive’s) do not want admit mass incarceration and the death penalty works when dealing with violent criminals.
The thought that my country or any for that matter country should not punish and deport wherever it sees fit morally repugnant. A democracy/republic’s first, second, and last duty are to it’s citizens that is all. Their safety is paramount not half of Central America’s. If that means sending in military aid and direct action groups to those countries if they are in unstable condition after deportations so be it. But not one more little girl on her way home from school or longshoreman coming of shift should fall victim to these animals.
It’s very easy for us to judge these lost souls. I’m not sure that any of us would have the courage to behave any differently if we were born into similar circumstances.
Will – You live and die by the choices you make. That truth will never change.
These people chose to join gangs like MS-13. They chose to use violence and terror to gain power. Don’t pull that ‘You don’t know a man ’til you walk a mile in his shoes” B.S. essentially saying that we can’t judge them because we haven’t killed, tortured, or raped innocents. We chose to obey the law in a western society, that’s not something that should be used against law-abiding citizens.
Those MS-13 and other gang members chose to break the law. They must be held accountable. If not, watch vigilante movement(s) start up and the decline of law and order as people no longer believe that it works for everyone in our society.
That dissolution of society is something everyone will be uncomfortable with. So punish the lawbreakers now.
I might be more confident about tackling gangs in the US if the population as a whole wanted to adhere to the law. As we have seen in recent times there are a large number of American citizens who do not feel bound by the very laws that ensure something approaching a decent way of life. This of course starts at the top where many politicians openly incite law breaking (sanctuary cities etc).