Many forms of hate face American citizens in this day and age. Sexual preference, Race and religion seem to be on everyone‘s minds. Every time you turn on the news you read about somebody that was hurt or even worse killed because they had a different view of a subject. However one problem you don’t hear too much about any more is gang violence.
Gangs have been around longer than anybody can remember. They did not always have to be violent. They could be considered as more of a way to be associated with others like you. Almost like a second family for some. This is partially the reason the violence started. If another gang would encroach on your turf or another member of your gang than something would have to be done. Then the other gang would have to retaliate for what you did to their member. And so a long chain of successive events would follow.
These events are demonstrated even more so amongst the inner city gangs of today. Police have over 13,000 documented gang members in their records. Keep in mind these are only the ones they know about.
Police are faced with more and more youths joining gangs. The police attempt to sway the youths minds in the right direction, but this is becoming more and more difficult. The reason is lack of funding from the government. Funds have been slowly decreasing in programs all around the country. This means that the police have no where to send a potential gang member for rehabilitation. So the youth goes back out on the street and finds friends in the wrong places. This has become one of the major reasons for the increase in gang related crimes.
Denver police Capt. Joseph Padilla says, “The popularity’s come back.” In the past Padilla could send a potential gang member to a rehabilitation center, but now they have all been closed due to lack of funding. However things could be looking up for officers such as Padilla. Due to the increase in gang related crimes the awareness has increased. This may appear to be a bad way of getting noticed, but at least it’s happening. Diversion programs have shown great success in the rehabilitation of offenders. Funding for these pr
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