GANGS TAKING OVER OUR STREETS

It was only a matter of time, but if you read my commentaries you know I have been warning about the devastating influence GANGS are having on our economy and the quality of American daily lives.

Fortunately we are not experiencing the kind of political demonstrations taking place in the Middle East or the economic demonstrations in Greece, but there are growing tensions within communities all over this country directly attributable to the growing violence conducted by GANGS. Could economic issue demonstrations here in the USA be far behind? But that should be the subject of another blog.

In Chicago over the Memorial Day weekend police acted appropriately in closing the popular North Avenue Beach due to a gathering of what is known as a “flash mob” of different GANGS threatened to result in a very serious situation. By closing the area, police prevented mass violence.

Currently “flash mobs” of roaming GANG members are appearing in neighborhoods and along Chicago’s famous Magnificent Mile attacking innocent individuals surrounding, stealing and beating people for little or no reason. These attacks threaten the economy along with the early days of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration. Here is a link to a Wall Street Journal article on this problem.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304778304576375661383528354.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read#printMode

Your Commander is heartened to read in the Chicago Tribune that new Chicago Police Superintendent, Garry McCarthy, has pledged to make the Maniac Latin Disciples a top target of the Chicago Police Department. His statement, “The entire organization is going to be held accountable for the actions of one…This group has gone to the tip of the pile…We are going to arrest every member of that outfit on whatever charges we can come up with. It’s going to be ongoing and relentless.”

You know the GANG problem is serious when Chicago Sun-Times gossip queen Michael Sneed devotes a major portion of a recent column to the “flash mob” issue. “If the city loses the lakefront to the flash mobs, there goes the economy.” Sneed goes on to make a good suggestion to hire some of the 2,000 retired Chicago Police Officers on a part-time basis to beef-up patrols. Apparently Chicago realizes just how serious the GANG problem has become coupled with the danger of these mobs of thugs.

In my mid-size northern Indiana community there is growing GANG violence on the troubled west side of South Bend and in the usually quiet Elkhart County Seat of Goshen. This is a real problem causing great concern to local citizens across the country. These GANGS have communities frightened and bring drugs, guns, murder and social disorder. GANGS are creating huge problems within elementary and high schools, leading to low graduation rates and poor attendance and educational performance.

GANGS cause unnecessary government expense for police, and the legal system is overcrowded with resulting excessive expense in prison operation. There is a direct correlation between GANG growth and the failure of State and Federal government legislation to address Immigrations issues, and it is a part of the reason some governments are literally facing bankruptcy, i.e., California.

It is your Commander’s personal opinion that our elected officials are complicit in this problem, because they fail repeatedly to address this problem because they want the votes of the GANG members, their families, and the minority communities that constitute a majority of the GANG memberships. Our government officials are turning the other cheek thinking the problem will go away, but it only gets worse.

As a boy growing up in Chicago there wasn’t an area of the city that I ever feared to enter, but that is not the case today. It is sad to say that even a mid-size city like South Bend, there are many areas that I will not even drive through.

Again, I ask when will voters address this grievous GANG situation. How many more of our precious children have to be drawn into GANGS or killed unnecessarily before something is done to stop the violence and eradicate these hooligans once and for all time? It can be done, but it must be attacked aggressively by an honest political administration before it destroys our entire country. Why don’t we recognize that GANGS are one of the core reasons our economy is in significant trouble.

COMMANDER GRANGER