Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff called the gangs "a threat to our homeland security and ... a very urgent law enforcement priority." But what is a gang? The American version of terrorists?
Acording to Glen Ford of the Black Commentator, "under legislation passed or pending in the U.S. House, it only takes three people – rather than the current five – to constitute a gang, mandating especially harsh punishment. Ten years for any act of violence, 20 years for serious assaults, and 30 years for kidnapping, aggravated sexual abuse or maiming. Mandatory death or life imprisonment for crimes that result in someone’s death."
In last weeks Black Commentator.com, Tim Wise writes that "non-Hispanic whites commit more than half of all violent crimes, but make up only one-quarter of the prison population. Blacks commit about a quarter of the nation’s violent crimes, but are fully half the prison population. Either half the whites are getting off, or two times too many Blacks are behind bars."
In a study done by Duke Univeristy's Law Department, "police stop and search whites not because of race, but because they have observed suspicious behavior. Blacks and Latinos, on the other hand, were stopped not only because of suspicious behavior, but also because of race or ethnic appearance." This study proves that when stops and searches are not racialized, they are more productive.
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