OPINION:
Last year I watched candidate Donald Trump campaign to be our next president — and all the while, domestic gang memberships grew (as did gangs’ violence and harm). I hoped Mr. Trump would be different from prior presidents and administrations that have utterly failed us on the issue of violent gangs.
When I hear President Trump and his Homeland Security secretary and attorney general talk about “targeting” the gangs in my neighborhood, I wonder who is laughing more: me and my neighbors, forced to live in fear of these gangs daily, or the United States’ still-thriving gangs. Laughing especially loudly are MS-13, Crips, Bloods, Latin Kings and our nation’s domestic terror organizations. Going to jail doesn’t scare these terrorists; they control the prisons, too, especially with our foolish policy of grouping inmates by gang.
Colombia and El Salvador won their gang wars by first rescinding the equal rights and justice protections of their gang members. They then began using both better-armed and technology-equipped police and their militaries to get ahead of and crush gangs. Now even joining a violent for-profit gang/domestic-terrorist organization gets these nations’ citizens in trouble. The United States needs to smarten up and follow suit.
Like members of the Islamic State, al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, MS-13, Crips, Bloods, Latin King members, etc., do not fear death. That philosophy is their starting point for each day. Thus our national-security defense approach against any type of terrorist must always be the same.
If we do not get as determined as these gangs, we have no chance against them. Despite idealistic thinking, most of our gang members cannot be rehabilitated. And despite claims on the other side of the political aisle, most U.S. gang members were born here.
Plan B: Anyone joining a violent, for-profit gang gets “drafted” into the military and deployed to Afghanistan. Since they like killing people so much, paying these violent gang members to eliminate terrorists is much cheaper than imprisoning them.
Until serious changes occur, tomorrow will be no different from today.
AJ CASTILLA
East Boston, Mass.
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