Republicans Declare War On Women But Ignore America's Gang Problem

Gangs will continue to be a huge problem as long as we have virtually open borders. An issue that none of our politicians are really addressing except to cry for another round of amnesty.

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There were at least 30,000 gangs and 800,000 gang members active across the USA in 2007,^[4][5] up from 731,500 in 2002 and 750,000 in 2004.^[6] By 1999, Hispanics accounted for 47% of all gang members, Blacks 34%, Whites 13%, and Asians 6%.

As job cuts continued to rise and employers began to hire from the cheaper labour pool of the expanding Latino immigrant community,^[16]unemployment rates of African-American men reached as high as 50% in several areas of South Central Los Angeles,^[17] opening up large recruitment markets for the burgeoning gangs. The increasing social isolation felt by African-American communities across the nation continued unabated in the 1980s and 90s, leading to higher rates of social pathologies, including violence.

It was reported in 2008 that 1-2% of the U.S. military belongs to gangs, according to FBI gang investigator Jennifer Simon in a published article, 50-100 times the rate in the general population.

Transnational organized crime groups may be involved in crimes ranging from drug trafficking, arms trafficking, human trafficking, contract killing, piracy, counterfeiting, money laundering,extortion, and illegal gambling, to acts of terrorism, to political assassination. The complexity and seriousness of the crimes committed by global crime groups pose a threat not only to law enforcement but to democracy and legitimate economic development as well

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangs_in_the_United_States

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From the FBI website....this is FBI homepage for gangs .http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/vc_majorthefts/gangs

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http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/october/gangs_102011

The key findings from the 2011 assessment:

• There are approximately 1.4 million active street, prison, and outlaw motorcycle gang members in more than 33,000 gangs operating in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. (Those numbers reflect an increase from 2009 figures, due primarily to more comprehensive reporting from law enforcement and enhanced gang recruiting efforts.)

Gang growth. Law enforcement officials nationwide have reported an expansion of African, Asian, Eurasian, Caribbean, and Middle Eastern gangs. The so-called Sureno gangs—Mexican-American street gangs that originated in the barrios of Southern California—are also expanding, and faster than other national-level gangs, both geographically and in terms of membership. Those gangs include Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), 18th Street, and Florencia 13.

Law enforcement agencies also noted the growing problem of hybrid gangs—non-traditional gangs with multiple affiliations that are present in at least 25 states. Because of their multiple affiliations, as well as different ethnicities, migratory nature, and nebulous structure, hybrid gangs are tough for law enforcement to identify and target.

Gangs along the border. Along the Southwest border, U.S.-based gangs assist in the smuggling of drugs, arms, and illegal immigrants and serve as enforcers for Mexican drug trafficking organizations’ interests on the U.S. side of the border. Gangs also pose a growing problem for law enforcement along the U.S.-Canada border—smuggling drugs, cigarettes, firearms, and immigrants.

A good article with charts that show ages/gender/race of gang members.

http://www.nationalgangcenter.gov/Survey-Analysis/Demographics

• In virtually every survey year, law enforcement agencies report a greater percentage of adult (18 and over) gang members compared with juvenile (under 18) gang members.
• The most recent figures provided by law enforcement are that approximately three out of every five gang members are adults.
• The most recent figures provided by law enforcement are 50 percent Hispanic/Latino gang members, 32 percent African-American/black gang members, 10 percent white gang members, and 8 percent other race/ethnicity of gang members.

And an article that gives insights on the reasons why there are so many Latino gang members in the US ....

http://www.city-journal.org/html/14_3_immigrant_gang.html

Proponents of unregulated immigration simply ignore the growing underclass problem among later generations of Hispanics, with its attendant gang involvement and teen pregnancy.

..........half of today’s immigrants speak Spanish.

the flow of newcomers came to an abrupt halt after World War I and did not resume until 1965. This long pause allowed the country ample opportunity to Americanize the foreign-born and their children. Today, no end is in sight to the migration from Mexico and its neighbors, which continually reinforces Mexican culture in American Hispanic communities and seems likely to do so for decades into the future.

The constant inflow of barely literate recent Mexican arrivals unquestionably brings down Hispanic education levels. But later American-born generations don’t brighten the picture much. While Mexican-Americans make significant education gains between the first and second generation, adding 3.5 years of schooling, progress stalls in the next generation, economists Jeffrey Grogger and Stephen Trejo have found. Third-generation Mexican-Americans remain three times as likely to drop out of high school than whites and one and a half times as likely to drop out as blacks. They complete college at one-third the rate of whites. Mexican-Americans are assimilating not to the national schooling average, observed the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas this June, but to the dramatically lower “Hispanic average.” In educational outcomes, concluded the bank, “Ethnicity matters.”

Contemporary Hispanic immigration also differs from the classic Ellis Island model in that the ease of cross-border travel and communication allows Mexican and Central American immigrants to keep at least one foot planted in their native land. Meanwhile, the Mexican government does everything it can to bind Mexican migrants psychologically to the home country, in order to safeguard the annual $12 billion flow of remittances. It encourages dual nationality, and Mexicans in the U.S. can now run for office in Mexico. A Yolo County, California, tomato farmer has already been elected mayor of Jerez. Not surprisingly, Mexicans and other Central Americans have the lowest rates of naturalization of all immigrants—less than 30 percent in 1990, compared with two-thirds of qualified immigrants from major European sending countries, the Philippines, and Hong Kong.

Even Mexico’s former foreign minister, Jorge Castaneda, acknowledges the unprecedented character of Hispanic immigration. “Mexican immigration,” he wrote recently, “does have distinctive traits that do make [assimilation] difficult, if not impossible. This is . . . a matter of history.” That “history” holds that the U.S. robbed Mexico of its natural territory in the nineteenth century, as some Mexican immigrants never seem to forget. “It’s kind of scary,” says Santa Ana gang intervention officer Mona Ruiz. “I hear, ‘I was here first; this used to be Mexico. You stole it from us.’ ” Mexican-American Ruiz is herself called a “traitor” for becoming Americanized.

While proponents of the “reconquista” of “Alta California” (as Mexican nationalists call the lost territory) are a small minority of Hispanic immigrants, a much larger proportion hold on to their Hispanic identities. Few of the American-born students I spoke to in Southern California identified themselves as “American.” Many said they were “Mexican,” “Latino,” or “Mexican-American”—usages encouraged by the multicultural dogma in the schools, a far cry from the Americanization efforts of classrooms a century ago.

The Spanish-language media, which reaches two-thirds of all Hispanics, reinforces the sense of grievance. Stories about America’s cruelties to immigrants and the country’s shocking failure to legalize illegal aliens dominate news coverage. A billboard for Los Angeles’s Spanish newspaper La Opinión conveys the usual tone: “Justice,” “Abuse,” “Deportation,” and other hot-button topics blare out in massive lettering.

LE's hands are pretty much tied. They can now only go after the "proven" felons" and the US LE is spending a lot of time, effort, money and manpower to round a few gang members at a time from what I have read about gang busts.

http://www.google.com/search?aq=f&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=gang+arrests