If you'd like to take credit for the obvious I'm cool with that.
I don't think anyone has questioned that stepped up enforcement and
police presence is badly needed to deal with the immediate problem.
It can't be the only solution, though. The article you quote below
accurately frames the stepped up enforcement as "what is needed in
the short-term". What is really needed is something that gets
beyond an ongoing police vs. gang battle. We need a long term plan
that addresses both the immediate need to battle these gangs today
with increased police presence and enforcement combined with plans
and programs designed to prevent the next generation of potential
gang members from making the choice to go in that direction. Again,
the article below clearly says that these kinds of programs are
important.
Neither increased police or increased programs can succeed in a
vaccum. They are both tactics desperately in need of a strategy.
It is the lack of a real plan, and the venomous political
environment that exists right now which may not allow one to emerge,
that worries me the most. When you are at war, those who don't work
together die together. We are clearly at war with these gangs.
--- In AsburyPark@yahoogroups.com, "justifiedright"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> So the Press is saying the appropriate response to these killings
is
> police cracking down, not recreation.
>
> I wonder who was the first on this board to say that?
>
>
>
> --- In AsburyPark@yahoogroups.com, "Fred" <asburydogma@> wrote:
> >
> > Declare war on gangs, guns
> > Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 12/8/06
> > Another young person has been killed in Asbury Park, triggering
> > renewed calls for an end to the senseless violence, for the
> community
> > to pull together to combat it, and for expanded social services,
> job
> > programs and recreational opportunities to help address the root
> > causes of the violence.
> >
> > All those things are important. But what is needed most in the
> short
> > term is a bolstered, visible police presence one dedicated to
> > getting guns, and those who illegally sell and possess them, off
> the
> > streets.
> >
> > The shooting death Tuesday night of a 21-year-old woman in what
> > authorities say was a gang-related murder was the seventh
homicide
> in
> > Asbury Park this year. That's the city's highest one-year total
in
> 22
> > years. And the seven murders are just one less than the number
> > committed in all of Monmouth County last year.
> >
> > Things are out of control in Asbury Park, and something dramatic
> > needs to be done. Adding a few more street cops isn't enough.
The
> > city needs additional manpower from the county, the state and
the
> > Drug Enforcement Agency. And the extra personnel must remain in
> place
> > until the city is stabilized.
> >
> > The environment that has spawned the violence can't be
> fundamentally
> > altered until the gangs and the thugs are brought under control.
> That
> > is an essential first step. The state, the county Prosecutor's
> Office
> > and Asbury Park officials owe it to the residents of the city
now
> > living in a perpetual state of fear to give them the protection
> and
> > peace of mind every citizen deserves.
> >
> > Ironically, the day after the latest shooting occurred, the
Press
> ran
> > a front-page story about a statewide anti-gang initiative called
> > Operation Ceasefire, which is to focus on 13 cities, including
> Asbury
> > Park and Lakewood. That program needs to be ramped up in Asbury
> Park.
> >
> > The head of Operation Ceasefire, State Police Lt. Col. Frank E.
> > Rodgers, rightly refers to gang members who wreak havoc on their
> > neighborhoods as domestic terrorists. Those terrorists must be
> > stopped. Attorney General Stuart Rabner must make certain that
> > Monmouth County Prosecutor Luis A. Valentin, state police and
city
> > police work together, using every weapon at their disposal, to
do
> > just that. The response to the terrorism taking place in Asbury
> Park
> > streets must be equal to the devastation it is causing in the
> > community.
> >
>
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