By Bro Bor D and Bro Mike
Gangstyle.com
In Chicago, many still speak of the use of excessive force at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. It was the cops and the Illinois National Guard vs. the demonstrators in the streets of the Windy City. Back then, another Mayor Daley decided that the show of force was needed to keep the peace and protect the public good.
It took years for Chicago to live down the media pictures and public horror of what transpired in the streets of a modern, urban city under the guise of ‘law and order’.
Now, there are those who want to repeat the tragedy more than 40 years later.
We hear about a “war on gangs” from politicians and law enforcement all the time, city after city making the same noises to appease the public who fear gunfire and crime in their back yard. This approach not only does a disservice to those affected by gang activity as it promises results without delivering solutions; it also does a disservice to individual gang members who–under this proposal–would all be perceived the same way whether they are peripheral members or hard core bangers.
The problem is that the time is coming for gang members and society where this moves beyond words to possibly ill considered actions. The rumblings are already afoot with talk of the National Guard being deployed in Chicago once again, much like guard units across America were deployed during the sixties for ‘urban duty’ from Los Angeles toDetroit. Rather like Northern Ireland, the guard may be welcomed at first as the perception will be that they will restore peace. Visible gang activity will drop in the face of overwhelming force, at least for a few weeks. As time progresses in order to enforce the peace, the very people who welcomed the troops will then have their freedoms restricted in order for peace to be maintained.
Remember what the Bible says about ‘peace and safety’.
Road blocks, ID checks and curfew sweeps will become the order of the day, of course for the sake of public safety and security. Eventually, the public would get tired of the use of the guard, and a REAL set of problems may surface. This will turn support into resentment…much like it did by the demonstrators on the receiving end of the police nightsticks in 1968.
Government, even within its own ranks, continues to flounder on keeping track of real and perceived gang activity. In 2005, one government funded report came out and said that there were more than 800,000 gang members in the USA. Resources were poured in. However, another government report came out in 2009 saying that in spite of all the resources added, gang membership had swelled to more than 1 million in rural, suburban, and urban areas. The Washington Times reported in its April 28, 2010 edition that TWO federally funded anti-gang programs established in the Justice Department (NGIC–the National Gang Intelligence Center & Gang TECC–the National Gang Targeting, Enforcement and Coordination Center) have NOT made a significant impact on the department’s anti gang efforts even though both programs are housed in the SAME building and within a stone’s throw of each other. Furthermore, they did not have JOINT database capability, because they chose
NOT to.
Scary stuff.
Sounds like another option must be explored. An option many may not like to hear. Using the Cross over the nightstick in fighting gang activity.
Many in government have forgotten that gang members do have families, siblings and, yes, even sweethearts. Still more in government have forgotten how churches have transformed raw areas of crime in the past. But, that is a problem to some. Now the problem is that governments have grown ignorant in the way gangs are developing and turning inner cities–and other areas–into war zones. It almost justifies–from the government–that a harsh response is coming.
The Cross would be far better than a nightstick.
Many government officials would rather not hear this truth. After all, in a bad, deteriorating economy government needs a quick scapegoat to justify spending and expansion. Enter today’s gangs. They will go from being talked about as Public Enemy #1 to actually being understood in a way that would justify the use of excessive force. This will be bad news for those in gangs and also those in gang affected neighborhoods.
Here–in our view–is what the politicians use for justification of more suppression:
Gangs increase crime in the areas in which they operate : Check
Gangs are involved in intimidation: Check
Gangs are involved in illicit weapons trade: Check
Gangs are involved in drugs: Check
Gangs are involved in prostitution: Check
Gangs are involved in human trafficking/sex slavery: Check
Once those in authority join the above dots in a real, public way (through the deaths of the wrong people at the hands of gang activity) then action could be swift, forthcoming and brutal. Once the ‘genie’ is out of the bottle; once something like the National Guard is tried and it reduces headlines and crime statistics in one city, rest assured that other cities might try this and it soon may become the nationwide approach.
How hard pressed are local police in these hard economic times? Police layoffs in some cities have caused detectives to ‘only’ work ‘some’ murder cases and leave others to the side. In other cities, police layoffs have forced uniform cops to stop dispatching squad cars to the scenes of fender-benders and other minor traffic accidents.
In this atmosphere, much as in 1968, some still believe–in spite of the history–that an aggressive ‘crackdown’ will work. It would reassure those who don’t live near gangs…those taxpayers who can puff out their chests and proclaim “…not MY child…” that downtown ‘hears you’ and all will be perceived to be well.
However, the truth is that suppression doesn’t address the spiritual, economic and social factors that make gang life attractive. Only the freedom for the spread of theGospel of Jesus Christ throughout these gang-infected areas will bring needed–and lasting change.
It’s the Cross that will eliminate the need for the policeman’s nightstick and the guardsman’s bayonet. This is the true miracle that is needed, in these last days. Every other means of gang suppression has failed–as we can see by the evidence.
This is the miracle that is needed.
Fortunately our God not afraid to get involved and get His hands dirty in the hood without a nightstick. We here at Gangstyle.com have seen former gang members repent, turn their lives over to Christ, be saved, become disciples, transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit and willingly go back into hoods they once terrorized to bring spiritual change and true biblical healing by the power of Jesus Christ.
The Cross is stronger than the nightstick. The Cross needs to replace the nightstick. The Cross is where true victory over gang life lays. Not in political ‘pipe dreams’ of excessive force and martial law, but in the power of Jesus Christ.
In closing we would ask those in authority NOT to buy into the use of martial law and excessive force for gang suppression. Yes, use regular law enforcement methods…but make room to talk things over with the church. For such a partnership with the Cross could help and move along economic development, empowerment and general encouragement. No city will succeed without cooperation with her citizens. Military checkpoints can’t do what an empowered citizenry can.
Like the old idiom goes “It’s an ill wind that does nobody any good.” It’s a breeze right now but the storm’s gathering force and we’ll all be caught up in it if we don’t learn from our own history.
In Jesus Name
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