Jul 13th, 2009
Posted by Ian Thompson, ACLU at 5:43pm	Criminal Justice, Defending Targets of Discrimination

Turning on a Light, Turning Down the Violence — An Innovative Approach to Gangs

There was an excellent article in yesterday's New York Times about an innovative approach officials are pursuing in Los Angeles to curb gang violence.  The city's praiseworthy effort will actually result in an improvement of the lives of residents who live in neighborhoods with a long history of gang activity by fostering a greater sense of community, while decreasing crime and violence levels in the process.  The really impressive aspect to this approach is that it doesn't rely on heavy-handed enforcement tactics or harsh new sentencing laws, but instead the simple step of turning on a light.

The "Summer Night Lights" program is designed to decrease the violence associated with gangs by keeping the lights on until midnight in what the newspaper describes as some of the roughest parks in the city.  What started last year with $1 million in private donations and eight parks, has spread to 16 sites this year, with pledges of matching support from city officials.

The program is also supported by law enforcement officials, including Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton.  In reviewing the positive numbers, it's really not surprising.  The article reported that in 2008, neighborhoods bordering the eight parks involved saw 86 percent fewer homicides and a 17 percent drop in gang-related violence.  Additionally, some parks went through the entire summer without one homicide. 

We know that young people are often drawn to gangs because of unmet needs and for a sense of connection and community.  Too often, the public policy response to this problem has been to push for tougher laws and longer prison sentences.  A program like Summer Night Lights demonstrates that by fostering a greater sense community and providing young people with positive outlets, you can greatly reduce the problems and violence that stem from gang activity.

On Wednesday of this week, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime will be holding a hearing on a legislative proposal that rejects the failed approaches of the past in favor of proactively working with young people — the Youth PROMISE Act.  The Youth Prison Reduction through Opportunities, Mentoring, Intervention, Support, and Education Act (Youth PROMISE Act), is bipartisan legislation that provides much needed resources to at-risk communities from across the country that will enable them to engage in comprehensive prevention and intervention strategies to decrease juvenile delinquency and criminal street gang activity.

The legislation currently has 225 cosponsors in the House and nine in the Senate.  Please reach out and email your Members of Congress today to let them know of your strong support for the Youth PROMISE Act today.

Programs like Summer Night Lights show that a different way is possible and can succeed.  Now is the time for the federal government to step up to the plate!

Permalink |	Criminal Justice, Defending Targets of Discrimination

1. Steve Says:
   Jul 14th, 2009 at 3:00pm

   I would like to know if those statistics came from the D.O.J. If not, where? Leaving a few lights on in a park will not curtail gang violence. Gangs have NO fear of authority because they know they will get away with the majority of the crimes they commit, and law enforcement can not rely on the public as witnesses because of the ACLU-backed "stop snitching" campaign the gangs use to intimidate the law-abiding. Incarceration works. because it keeps these gangs-who have NO regard for the rights of others-off the streets.

2. Vic Livingston Says:
   Jul 14th, 2009 at 3:48pm

   SECRETIVE AGENCIES OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND THEIR LOCAL 'PARTNERS' NATIONWIDE HAVE ENABLED GANG ACTIVITY...

   ...GANGS OF VIGILANTE 'COMMUNITY STALKERS' WHO USE COVERTLY IMPLANTED GPS TRACKING DEVICES AND DATA FUNNELED TO THEM FROM WARRANTLESS SURVEILLANCE...

   ...TO STALK, HARASS, VANDALIZE, TERRORIZE AND TORTURE UNJUSTLY 'TARGETED AMERICANS AND THEIR FAMILIES.

   • When Will ACLU Stop Turning a Blind Eye to Government-Enabled Domestic Terrorism and Torture?

   • New Jersey ACLU Is Battling Covert GPS Tracking of Unjustly Targeted Persons... Why is National ACLU 'AWOL' on the issue?

   • Congress: BAN WARRANTLESS GPS TRACKING OF AMERICAN CITIZENS AND MAKE IT A CRIME FOR ANYONE TO COMMIT THIS ACT AGAINST ANOTHER.

   http://nowpublic.com/world/gestapo-usa-govt-funded-vig ilante-network-terrorizes-america

   http://nowpublic.com/world/do mestic-torture-radiation-weaponry-americas-horrific-shame

3. Vic Livingston Says:
   Jul 15th, 2009 at 7:04am

   How about crusading against government-enabled "gang stalking" violence committed with covertly implanted GPS devices?

   ACLU of N.J. is battling this unconstitutional warrantless surveillance -- how about national ACLU?

   ***

   GOP GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE CHRIS CHRISTIE APPROVED WARRANTLESS CELLPHONE TRACKING OF NEW JERSEY CITIZENS: ACLU

   As U.S. attorney, Chris Christie approved the covert tracking via cellphones of so-called "targeted" citizens" without first obtaining a court warrant, according to the New Jersey office of the American Civil Liberties Union.

   http://www.aclu-nj.org/news/njsfederallawenforcementus.h tm

   Covert GPS tracking, using cellphones and covertly implanted GPS beacons secreted in or on the vehicles of so-called "targets," is the very backbone of the Bush-Cheney- spawned extrajudicial targeting and punishment "torture matrix."

   Unjustly targeted persons charge that this police state apparatus is destroying lives and livelihoods in an unconstitutional campaign conducted by vigilante "community stalkers" -- many of whom are affiliated with federal volunteer organizations involved in community policing and "anti-terrorism" programs.

   Victims also allege that the "harassment protocol" includes electromagnetic torture via classified microwave radiation "directed energy weapons" that have been proliferated to law enforcement under programs administered by various federal agencies, including the Department of Justice.

   The mainstream media has yet to quiz the Obama administration on the subject of directed energy weapons.

   Candidate Christie and the federal officials who have enabled the warrantless surveillance and tracking of American citizens should be held to account for a wholesale violation of constitutional rights.

   For more on the unconstitutional police-state programs to which CIA Director Leon Panetta may have been referring:

   http://NowPublic.com/scrivener RE: "GESTAPO USA"

4. Rob Says:
   Jul 15th, 2009 at 11:49am

   Vic,
   You have lost it man. I think you are looking at to many left wing websites. In case you dont know the gangs only operate for one thing .... Money. By turning off the lights the gangsters will just move to a different place that is lit up. Most dont care if its dark or not. Drug additics need the drugs and there is ALOT of money to be made drug dealers. Stop the drugs stop the crimes.

5. roald Says:
   Jul 15th, 2009 at 1:12pm

   Rob, I agree that the gangs will simply set up shop elsewhere if they are unhappy with their current location. Lighting has been demonstrated to force those moves, one blow in the fight against gangs. I disagree that if you stop the drugs, you will stop the crimes. Without drugs for income, gangs will return to the muggings, robberies, and extortion they did in the past.

   Give Vic a break, his comments have become easier to read and more enlightening over time.

6. d Says:
   Jul 16th, 2009 at 1:27pm

   The city got word that the Mongols motorcycle gang booked all 144 rooms at Desert Inn for a gathering this weekend.
   "All of these gangs, every single one of them, are nothing more than domestic terrorists, and we treat them accordingly. For them to come into our town is the stupidest thing I can imagine them doing," said Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Perris.
   "If anybody has any doubt about our resolve, that hotel is out of business. It will be out of business forever starting tomorrow. As far as we're concerned, they're consorting with terrorists," Perris said.
   The Mongols, according to law enforcement, have a long history of violence.
   Some Lancaster residents did not want to comment when asked about the Mongols coming to town this weekend. Others support city efforts to keep them out of town.
   "Things like that I say no," said Lancaster resident Irene Baumann.
   The manager of Desert Inn said she does not want to talk about the situation.
   Perris said there will be a strong law enforcement presence in town this weekend.
   "This town has a zero-tolerance of gangs. Stay out, do not come, there is nothing good going to happen to you if you come into our city," he said.
   "I've said it before. I do not care about the civil rights of gang members."

7. Michael Says:
   Jul 16th, 2009 at 5:43pm

   Why not both? The money doesn't have to come with as much collateral damage; if we make the territory worth fighting over for drugs to be territory which is not generally populated . . . the point isn't that it ends violence, it's that it makes it harder. That's the point of any security mechanism.

8. Craig Says:
   Jul 17th, 2009 at 12:53pm

   With all the rights violations in this country, there is one that is never thought of, thats the rights of people being crushed by HOAs/CAIs. Go on any anti HOA/CAI website and you can read all sorts of horror stories. HOAs have a communistic attitude where " you cant paint your house that color, we dont allow it" Heres one for ya, I rent and my landlord has been harrassed for years because we dont have a fence around our yard. Reccently they agreed to install the fence because they are getting fined weekly. they put in the request three weeks ago to the HOA for there "ok" and was told it will take 65 days to OK the fence. However, they will be fined weekly until they approve the fence????? Sounds like extortion to me!

9. N. Miller-Bryan Says:
   Jul 17th, 2009 at 1:43pm

   Jewish World Review May 18, 2009 / 24 Iyar 5769

   Who the bleep is the ACLU?

   By Mitch Albom

   http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Here's a scenario. We release more photos of our alleged abuse of prisoners. Those photos shoot to the Internet.

   They are posted in hotbeds of Islamic extremism. Recruits are rallied. Revenge is demanded.

   A group of U.S. troops in Iraq or Afghanistan is ambushed, and some are taken prisoner. They are filmed with bags over their heads, as terrorists threaten to slit their throats.

   And then they do.

   The terrorists don't show the film of that part. But we hear about it. Our families weep. The public is outraged — since the photos we released were clearly the impetus for this act.

   What does the ACLU do then?

   Does it apologize? Fat chance. Does it demand the terrorists turn over the footage of the beheadings? It can try. And you know what the terrorists' response will be?

   Who the bleep is the ACLU?

   Which is pretty much what our response should be to demands that more Abu Ghraib-like photos be released to the public. The American Civic Liberties Union blindly trumpets the right to know but ignores the real-life implications of such transparency. Screaming at one side to play by a set of rules when the other side laughs at the idea is not always noble.

   Sometimes, it's just stupid.

   THE RIGHT TO CHANGE YOUR MIND
   This is one of those cases. Yes, I know that we might never have addressed the Abu Ghraib abuses without the initial public airing of photos. But we did. Abu Ghraib was closed. Guantanamo will be closed if President Barack Obama has his way. Investigations have taken place, people have been punished. There is already a harsh light shining on how we handle people captured in the war on terror.

   Showing photos of our worst and weakest moments — at this point — doesn't help the cause.

   But it could hurt it.

   I don't blame the president for saying the photos would not add useful knowledge about abuse. I don't blame him for worrying that such photos "further inflame anti-American opinion and … put our troops in greater danger."

   And I don't really care that a month ago, he was saying something else. A good leader learns as he goes along. Holding a person to something he said just because he once said it is to deny development and celebrate muleheadedness.

   There's enough of that already.

   NO COMPARISONS TO THIS ATROCITY
   And at times, the muleheadedness comes from the ACLU. Certainly, this group has done much good. There always should be forces that fight for transparency in civil rights.

   But nobody is correct all the time. And the ACLU is wrong on these 44 photos that it has sued for release. Remember, we are not at war with another open society based on democracy and fair play. We are fighting an enemy that will keep its people blind and ignorant to other worlds, while purporting death to anyone who dares to deviate from theirs.

   In such a world, photos of our mistakes will not be hailed for their honesty and conscience; they will be used as proof that we must be destroyed.

   Some have argued that without photos from the Holocaust, we would never have known its horror. And the Nazis didn't want those released, either. This is just silly. Show me a point where Hitler had transgressions exposed, called for investigations, shut down a concentration camp and spoke openly about past mistakes — and then we can make a comparison.

   But that's what happens when ideals are unfettered by reality. You get people wide-eyed angry over principle and totally blind to the harm they could cause. We know of the abuse. We've seen enough photos. There is such a thing as overkill.

   And when that overkill could lead to more death — the death of your own people — you should ask yourself what bad you are doing while you're doing so much good

10. Rob Says:
    Jul 19th, 2009 at 10:44pm

    Roald, I agree with you didnt even think about the muggings and robberies.

11. Maggie Says:
    Jul 20th, 2009 at 6:48pm

    In the City of Baltimore, at the Inner Harbor (which brings tourist dollars etc) we now have gangs that are attacking people (any people) as gang initiations. They do not rob they just beat up. So lights won't work here. So I don't know if there is any answer.

    Our Mayor is currently busy with her trial of defrauding the City. So I really don't expect anything to be done soon.

12. Samdra Sandoski Says:
    Aug 2nd, 2009 at 5:08pm

    Gps tracking with sound and interrogation with radiation tech. is killing me. Any advice about how to get the authorities to stop targeting you would be appreciated. They pester me in my apt. daily, along the streets, hanging me 3rd world style and make up intricate scenarios with nazis involved. some people are so sick from the use of radiation they are dying of cancer, pulsating (you can hear the sound), the fear is great, no one wants to braoch the topic with authorities. many deaths in Canada as far as I can tell. SS

13. Steve Voss Says:
    Sep 30th, 2009 at 1:04pm

    Vic Livingston Has Got it Right!! You should listen this guy.

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