Gang Violence In America

Words: 2148
Pages: 9

“There can always be someone outside that’s ready to kill me because of where I live at” (Jayceon T. Taylor). In the southern part of one of the wealthiest city, in one of the wealthiest states in America, one will find a group of neighborhoods. Ten miles to the west is the Pacific Coast Highway and the beaches of Santa Monica. Five miles to the north is Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Seven miles to the east is the corner of Hollywood and Vine. 25 miles south lays Orange County and Disneyland. Encircled by the California dream, this place has its own story. On these streets, the country’s most violent outbreak of civil unrest has risen. It is also the birthing place of America’s two most recognized African-American gangs, the Crips and the Bloods. …show more content…
A major societal issue in today’s generation is the problem of gang violence. A gang is usually defined as a group of criminals that terrorize a community. Gang violence is mostly viewed as a public safety issue, but it is also a public health matter. Gangs have immediate consequences on a community, such as increased levels of crime, violence and murder. Many youth and gang members suffer with health issues, but they are not the only ones affected. Families are broken as an outcome of the homicides. People also living in communities inside gang territories come in contact with chronic stress and mental health problems. Due to these impacting consequences, gang violence needs to be addressed by teaching millennials why gangs have started, the appeal to gangs, lifetime consequences of gangs, and ways a community can reduce this …show more content…
It has first advanced from the focus on stopping youth gang violence, to a complete undertake that combines deterrence with workforce training, employment, and other services. In the book, Don’t Shoot, Kennedy voices that “despite all the strategizing that had gone into designing Ceasefire, the streets had just flipped. Violence was way down. Basically we’d taken the violence out of the drug crews”. Operation ceasefire was used to help out unsafe communities. This method has worked and reduced the gang violence in the neighborhood, but did not stop it completely. The public still needs to find ways to fund more prevention programs to stop gang related crime. Many would think about the method gang injunctions. Gang injunctions is a restraining order provided by the courts in the United States. It stops gang members from entering certain cities and from participating in certain activities (Vermeire). It was made because of the legal theory that gangs cause public nuisances that stops the people in their community from enjoying peace in their neighborhoods. In the article “Oakland Gang Injunction is a False Solution”, by Diana Tate Vermeire, it speaks on how gang injunction does not and will never work, “Thorough reports from the Justice Policy Institute and the Advancement Project conclude that, to prevent violent crime and gang activity, cities need to create job and education opportunities and fund social