Show Community Involvement Solution to Gang Problems Problems- Alison Thornton Associate Editor THE gang phenomenon phenomenon- has been a part of Utah culture since the the but outside influences did not become an issue until the said an offic official al Because of recent transporting of gang members from larger cities the nature of the local gangs have become more violent Carols Jimenez diversity and equal opportunity director said The kids that come here from LA New York Chicago they come from areas in the country where gangs have been around for a years where the kids know what gang life is all about they come here and educate the local kids on what it is to be oe e a areal areal areal real gangster instead of a want-a- want be The relationship between gangs and drugs is an area of misconceptions misconceptions misconceptions mis mis- conceptions Jimenez said Many of the gang members are smalltime smalltime smalltime small small- time users users and and dealers but the bulk of hard core e drugs are either flown in or driven in on large semi Show me one of these gang members that have a license to fly a plane or dri drive ve one of these semis semi's he said What Wha some people in our community have done is use the gang situation as a scapegoat for many of the problems ems in our community Society is not a product of the gangs but gangs come from problems within society Many elements of society are factors in the organization of street gangs in including including including in- in unemployment underemployment underemployment underemployment under under- employment cultural differences language differences religious differences differences differences dif dif- and racism Jimenez said He added that other issues that need to be addressed by the community community community com com- are poor housing facilities learning disabilities and lack of positive role models for youth which encourages another problem low self esteem What some people in our community have done is use the gang situation as a scapegoat for In many allY of the problems in our community Carlos Jimenez I dont don't believe that we need a couple billion dollars to solve the problem We already have the resources needed to address the problem we just need to reallocate reallocate reallocate cate the monies and programs to the areas of the city where the problems are much more prevalent he said Although Jimenez commends Gov Mike Leavitt for toughening the laws for juvenile offenders he said the proposed opening of new beds at the state penitentiary for the hard-core hard juvenile offenders offenders offenders of of- fenders wasn't enough Other I are areas s need to have programs going as well At the same time we need to implement prevention programs keeping kids out of the gangs by providing recreational activities role models in the schools churches churches churches chur chur- ches becoming more involved opening their doors doing what we can to keep kids from joining gangs he said Also needed are intervention programs to go after the known gang members Providing job opportunities getting the juveniles back in school and addressing addressing ad ad- d- d dressing the drug or alcohol problems facing the members is the third thing that needed to be bedone bedone bedone done Jimenez said You cant can't do one program without the others For example if we just have new beds and we dont don't do the intervention or prevention programs this time next year well we'll be going up to the Governor and saying hey Governor Governor Gover Gover- nor we need another hundred new beds What happens is you may remove 80 to kids up front but theres there's going to be several hundred to take their place The news media glorifying gang activity is one of the reasons that the replacement of removed members is so high Jiminez said The news media has exaggerated the gang problem problem problem lem in the area by reporting all criminal activity involving juveniles and referring to it as gang related See Gang on page 2 c G Gang a ang ri g 1 continued from page 1 All the young kids say What better way to get famous just commit commit commit com com- mit a crime and they will put you on TV for it That is literally how these kids think They gang members members members mem mem- bers laugh in a cynical way and say that's just what we and these younger kids want They want the community to cover these stories so they can get more gang members members members mem mem- bers to join Jimenez said He said that the media needs to cover these stories but from a different different different dif dif- dif dif- ferent angle without names given or photos shown Then the glory is gone A Salt Lake Tribune editor said that the community needs to know w what hat is happening in their neigh neigh- boyhood The job of f the media is to inform their audience of events that could affect their lives I think its it's a public safety issue I think people need to know who are committing heinous crimes whether it be a juvenile or an adult said Dawn House assistant news editor at the Tribune When there is a crime committed committed committed com com- we report it whether its it's gang or not The thing Im I'm Im I'm concerned concerned concerned con con- about is that everything a juvenile does somehow gets tagged with the term tenn gang gang related I think that we the media have to tobe tobe tobe be really careful Just because youre you're a juvenile doesn't mean youre you're a gang member and I think that those terms are thrown around indiscriminately House said With everything in place to curb the rising gang problem in Salt Lake City Jimenez said it would still take more than I 10 Q years to put an end to the situation One of the aspects of this whole gang situation that troubles and saddens me is the fact that its it's not going to be me that flips the bill to house these kids in prison or the juvenile system its it's going to be our children In essence we as adults are leaving a burden on our children Because we are failing we have failed and we will continue continue continue con con- to fail until we really address this problem in a comprehensive serious manner Jimenez said |