Letter to the Editor
Gang solution
Published Wednesday, August 20, 2008
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To the editor:
When I was a young college student in the ’60s, if a young man committed a felony, he was given a choice: jail time or an all-expenses paid trip to Vietnam.
These gang members want to shoot their guns; well, send them to Iraq, where there is plenty of opportunity for them to be the macho, violent “men” they want to be. If any of these gang members are already in the service, put them on the fast track to Iraq.
Community Discussion
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Is that you auntedna?
No that’s not me! by the way my intent was to say, give them something constructive to do. Fight for our country and not against each other or our community.
Ok, just curious! :)
How would those already serving feel about this?
One's belief in his/her "country" is a representation of their value for the community and the people in it. These people have already shown that they don't value either of those things. Do you honestly think it's something they'd fight for? They'd be fighting for their lives, and not for their country.
New idea please.
Unfortunately, this is precisely the way some gang members wind up at Fort Wainwright. In case you missed it, the police believe some of the suspected gang members involved in the "shoot-out" might have been active duty soldiers.
In all probability, some judge in the Lower 48 gave one or more gang members a choice: Jail or military service. In almost all cases, the Air Force, Navy, and Marines won't take 'em, leaving the Army as the only military service option. Most gang members don't have the education needed for the more technical specialities so they wind up in the infantry ... typically assigned to a Stryker Brigade.
As a retired senior noncommissioned officer, I can tell you the 'jail or military service' sentences cause tremendous waste within the military. Basic training rarely changes these 'problem children' ... assuming they manage to complete it without getting kicked out. The result is officers and NCOs wind up spending a lot of time dealing with the problems these people cause -- time that should be spent focusing on the mission instead of babysitting a judge's castoffs.
Jail is the place for these criminals. The millitary needs intelligent, motivated personnel, not society's rejects.
You're right Griff.... I know I wouldn't want these punks watching my back during combat. Could use them as human mine sweepers though. At least they would save some good soldiers lives that way...
No, they should be put on a remote island like those two native boys who robbed the pizza guy all those years ago. Put them on an island, give them guns to hunt and/or kill each other. Good riddance.
Don't relegate our fine men and women serving our nation so proudly to having to work beside this scum and depend on them in combat. These weaklings don't deserve to represent this country.
Crips and Bloods...what a stupid sad joke. Grow the hell up already!
Doing hard time in the Arizona desert jail is the place for them. We certainly don't need them to be ambassadors for the U.S. in a foreign country. I've heard stories of people like this going over to Iraq and wantonly shooting innocent Iraqis - women and children.
Thanks, Bush, for choosing to get us into this mess and forcing the Army to take low-life scum like this to make its recruitment quota. And, thanks for bringing some real gang members to Fairbanks, Alaska. Our gang member wannabes that were already here were bad enough.
akjak -
I agree with your comment on sending them fellas off to jail - however..
Please quote some of the articles you have heard about 'people like this' going over to wantonly shoot women and children in Iraq ---
Also - I may have missed it but the Army standards are not all that much lower than when I was in ... and I served with some of the hardest working and truly good and unselfish people I have ever met.
Please leave your bitterness about politics out of this mess...if I am mistaken, the kid arrested is not military - but a civilian....is it also GWB's fault that this kid's dad didn't use contraception the one time he should have?
Publish the admitted gangbangers pictures in the FDNM, I am sure that kind of publicity would be welcome in some circles.
I REALLY LOVE HAD YOUR SAYING ITS ALL ALASKAN
I couldn't have said it better myself.:)
These scum bags shouldn't be in the military learning to shoot a gun straight instead they should be in prison or better yet as one poster stated in the arizona prison where they make them live in tents and eat green bologna sandwhiches.)
The military NCO's and officers end up babysitting rather than instructing because of snot nose brats like this wasting everyone else's time including their own.
They don't want or need them anymore than society does.
don't put 'em on a remote island... they'll have a ring to sell crack cocaine to bears in no time. i say, put them in a jail that doesn't have cable tv (no, "YO! MTV RAPS").
Please pring their pictures when they are found guilty...so all may see and be aware!!!
Please print their pictures when they are found guilty...so all may see and be aware!!!
Combat requires discipline, courage and sacrifice - traits that these types rarely posess. No thanks, keep them stateside, closer to the prisons that will eventually become their homes.
IF there are any 'gang members' on post, here's something to think about. In the early 90's, there was some gang activity in and around Ft. Bragg. Within days, that entire post (60,000+ soldiers and civilians) was squeezed like a sponge. Cars were lined up in parking lots and searched by dogs, soldiers were stripped down to their skivvies and tattoos were recorded and compared against photos of gang symbols, clearances were verified, rooms were tossed, passes revoked, entire areas of Fayetteville were placed "off limits," and there was a Courtesy Patrol available to enforce it.
So tell me, how can a truly enormous post, with NO gates, be so efficiently cleansed in such a short time? C'mon Post CO/CSM/PMO, make me BELIEVE that you have the problem under control.
Oh, and for those who think that any 'military gang' issues will be resolved once the Strykers deploy - I hate to dissapoint you. These guys are most likely REMFs/pogues/whatever. Support folks, who will not deply with the Brigade. They're probably Garrison 9-to-5ers who have little active leadership in their units - Squad Leaders, do you know what your soldiers are up to? Once the Infantry leaves, they'll be free to victimize the families of those soldiers who have deployed, as well as the public at large.
A criminal is a criminal, regardless of what outfit he wears at work.
You can take the gang member out of his "hood" but you can never take the ganster out of gang member. The tendencies are still there. However, down the lower 48 the gang members try and be cool and shoot-up everything (missing the target). In Alaska, people own guns and they know how to shoot and quite frankly will NOT miss the intended target! I would love to see one of these "gang" members trespass on someone's property, if the dog's don't get them then the gun will! In the 50's/60's/70's the gang members found some abandoned area to fight and they did not need guns. Go and find some alley to fiGHT your little turf wars and do not do IT on our streets, at our stores, or our fairs!
You can take them out of the jungle,but you can't take the jungle out of them
My husband was assigned to a unit with a used to be gang member. As his team leader in Iraq he was responsible for this man. One day when he told him to do something the man "balled up" and said he was going to grab an A bag full of ammo and kill him. Keep the gang bangers in jail thank you very much the Army certainly doesn't need them anymore.
You're all wrong. God stated it pretty clearly. 'An eye for an eye, tooth for tooth'. If they want to kill, stick them in front of a firing squad. I guarantee the crime rate will drop expotentially, immediately. And, our taxpayers money could be well spent elsewhere.
Sorry Edna, I feel you are a bit off-base with your thinking. This is a different day and age. Besides that, our state is special, and gangs do not belong here. I agree, with the greatest and upmost respect and regard for our military, why in the heck would you want to send your loved one off overseas, and side by side with a violent criminal. This is why we have military personal victimized over there, they really need to get the riff-raff out of the services. As for this current gang related issues in "our" town, it needs to be nipped in the butt and right now.
When we lived on fort lee in virginia several years ago had a strict policy that was vehenently enforced.
Any soldier especially the AIT soldiers caught wearing a red or black bandana (or other gang color) hanging out of a pocket, wrapped around their head or an arm either removed it when told or faced an article 15. Tatoos were also regardless of the nature were also to be kept hidden.
I DO hope the military eliminates these low lifes from our bases because we despise them as much as everyone else.
it's crap they shouldn't be allowed in the military period!! yeah lets give already angry militant gangbangers bigger wepons and the extensive knowlege of how to kill with their bare hands, and then have our children and society look up to them as upstanding soldiers who believe in their country, who are suposed to stand for loyalty, and honnor when in actuality their low life heartless bottom feeding cold blooded killers who will obviously turn on their "brother in arms" and have no regaurds for human life. yeah that sounds like the kind of hero I want to admire.
There are times our great (and unparallelled) military slips up, the same way our courts do, our schools do, and our community does. Our service members certainly don't need the added aggravation of "jail or military" court sentences! Sometimes, depending on the crime, the incentive provided by discipline and order in the military WILL help straighten out an otherwise "problem" kid, but gangstas are another matter. Generally ingrained from childhood, membership in a gang is a very, very strong pull from there on out.
Some great information on gangs and gang violence can be found at a website provided by the U.S. Department of Justice, the NCJRS. Here's one of the many links for anyone interested:
http://www.ncjrs.gov/spotlight/gangs/sum...
This link has many others embedded in it. Great information. The beginning of a fight against crime is knowing what you're fighting!
This is exactly where they need to be. I would be happy to take any one of them Bear Baiting with me. Any interested gangbangers email me here, I'd be happy to show you how we do it in Alaska. I will help you get an up close and personal look at nature.
I for one will start carrying a handgun. You know, for stray dogs, bears, moose, stray gangbangers etc.
The Army has already been recruiting aggravated felons. They end up raping and shooting Iraqi families and throwing dogs over cliffs for fun. Then they come home (even more screwed up in the head) to join the police to beat up, taser and shoot innocent Americans.
I remember one article I read about an army lieutenant who had commanded over 600 gangsters in two years and the article was accompanied by a photo of LA gang grafiti in Baghdad. The good people in the military do not need more violent felons in their ranks and the Iraqi people do not need to deal with them either.
What goes around -comes around. Don't throw your trash in your neighbor's yard.
I say, put them in jail and use them for product testing-make up, cleaning fluid, medications, etc. that would have been tested on innocent animals.
LoneWolf, that sounds like a good & reasonable plan.
I know the Law was inquiering about the presence of Red Bandana wearing individuals around the Gueist McDonalds area today.
This used to work in the fifties and sixties but times have changed. The trouble makers back then probably just needed discipline and direction.
The current gangster types are hard core drug dealers and thugs. Not just the problem children of old.
Pat
As some have mentioned, there are plenty of gangs in the military now as it is. The "Go to war or go to Jail" deal still exists just not quite as prominent. I know someone mentioned Ft. bragg earlier on. I was there from 2001-2004. During that time my neighbor was killed in a gang shootout, two houses down from me there was a meth lab that got busted, on another part of post a cpl soldiers were involved in a drrive by shooting, the WHOLE merchison road(all 10+ miles of it) was off limits due to gang activity and most of them were military. So to send more of these peopl to the military is just plain out retarded. There are enough of them in there as it is.
what we need is for laws to be strictly enforced. Lots of gang members are in and out of jail. That shouldn't be.