URL: http://www.abqjournal.com/opinion/guest_columns/032148352913opinionguestcolumns07-03-09.htm
Friday, July 03, 2009
N.M. Needs Tough Gang Laws
By John W. Wheeler
Secretary, Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management
As the former crime policy adviser to Gov. Bill Richardson and current secretary of the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, I am quite saddened at the recent gang-related violence in New Mexico, particularly the recent murder of a young woman at the Albuquerque Denny's and the murder of a young man in Santa Fe on Sunday night. Despite the efforts of law enforcement, violent gang activity remains a desperate concern of virtually every community in New Mexico.
In each of the last six regular legislative sessions, the Richardson administration has proposed two important pieces of gang legislation aimed at starting to curb violent gang activity. One, a bill aimed at punishing those who would seek to recruit both adults and particularly juveniles, those most at risk for susceptibility to joining gangs. The other, a bill aimed at increasing penalties for those convicted of committing a crime in furtherance of a criminal street gang enterprise. Yet each year these bills have met with varying degrees of failure in the Legislature. The excuses have been many and varied — such as nonsensical claims that these bills would effectively classify the Boy and Girl Scouts as criminal syndicates — with the net result being that in six years no substantive gang legislation has been passed that would help law enforcement and the courts address this issue.
While I cannot unequivocally state that passage of this gang legislation would have prevented this latest violent activity, I can state that New Mexico can and should do more to curb the growing threat of violent criminal street gangs. The truth is these gangs are here today; local, regional, and in the Denny's case, international gangs. They are in our communities, they are in our schools, they are in our streets and in our prisons. We must do more to not only educate families and those who interact with our youth to help prevent the spread of this violent scourge, we must do more to convince our lawmakers that a failure to act is a failure for our communities and our children. This is our responsibility.
In fairness it must be noted that we cannot simply arrest or enforce our way out of the gang problem. By the same token a strong response from law enforcement and the courts sends a strong message, and the current problem with criminal street gangs cannot be dealt with solely by prevention activities, treatment actions or harm reduction efforts. It is a combination of these four actions that will help us begin to stem the tide and influence of violent criminal street gangs on our youth.