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Many Voices, One Freedom: United in the 1st Amendment

March 28, 2024

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Crime is a hot political topic today, and many pundits say it will be a critical issue not only for this election cycle but also for the ones in the future until a key to reversing this horrible increase in violence and horror is found. Every urban cop in America shakes their head when journalists, politicians, and activists go on and on about Covid and poverty and climate change as issues to be addressed to relieve us of this plague of criminality.

Some do point to the moral void ⏤ of broken families, readily available drugs, and failed schools ⏤ but never mention the phenomena of criminal gangs. Mass shootings, drive-bys, knockout games, car-jackings, vandalism, and hordes of shoplifters are shown on video nightly, terrorizing the urban world without anyone uttering the simple fact that the causation is street gang members.

Recent FBI reports show how vast the problem has become. We have about 33,000 gangs in the United States today; not 33,000 “gang members,” but 33,000 individually recognized street gangs. When we talk about “gun violence,” what we are doing is avoiding talking about the “G” word.

What we used to talk about as an urban crisis has been mismanaged to the point that we have gangs from San Diego, California to Portland, Maine, from Miami, Florida to Bellingham, Washington, from urban to rural, Tribal Lands and in the Smokey Mountains. Literally, every region of the country has some form of the criminal gang problem, and watching our intellectual, political, and chattering classes dance a little sidestep to avoid even talking about it is almost amusing if it wasn’t so incredibly tragic. Tragic in that it allows the discussion to deal with “ghost guns” and “gun violence” without ever having actually to talk about the root problems of the gang culture. 

Gang expert, Richard Valdemar, has articulated the gang culture far better than most so-called anthropologists or sociologists (who can’t seem even to find a link from hip-hop music and gang violence) with what he calls “Valdemar’s Axioms,” which are the following: 

1) Gangs are not part of the Hispanic, Black, Asian, or White Culture.
2) All gangs are part of the criminal culture.
3) It is the nature of criminals to band together.
4) All gangs are formed in defense, and later prey on their own kind.
5) Gangs multiply by dividing.
6) Gangs develop their own “code of conduct.”
7) To a gang member, the gang comes before: God, family, marriage, community, friendship, and the law.

Understanding these principles should give lawmakers and social workers insight into how to re-anchor such individuals back with their communities and neighborhoods, short-circuiting the cycle. The criminality of gangs is evident on its face, and alienated individuals who cannot see consequences or have the ability to defer gratification will be drawn to them both in the form of a defensive response and a powerful reward system.

For the law enforcement community, the recent trend to demonize police, defund or disband gang enforcement teams, and the political discourse further dividing individuals into alienated groups has only increased the deadly nature of gangs.

The now nearly useless “social sciences” seem to spend more time justifying a sense of oppression than solving problems and can’t even agree to such simple issues as whether Rap Music, glorifying gang violence, drug usage, misogynistic behavior, and the quick financial rewards of criminality, are contributors to the problem. As far back as Plato, it was recognized how controlling music was critically important for the young. In the Republic, he says, “And of all these influences, the greatest is the education given by music, which finds a way into the innermost soul!”

Unfortunately, for modern minds, it seems the politically correct influence has made researchers hesitant to condemn such social influencers. Movies, music, and most institutions fail to denounce the gang culture, and it is doubtful anything will be done until times get far worse. A society so distracted by “glittering generalities” such as “gun violence,” and “institutional racism,” and “police violence” has little chance of doing anything constructive toward real-world crises.

The modern legal theory that has demonized traditional criminal justice actions that punished criminality and replaced it with a form of “reparations” that seems to punish the victims and reward the criminals has only increased the power of gangs and remains to be seen if a political sea-change is coming.  

Remember the above axioms; if fear increases the recruiting of gangs, then we are in for a terrible future as fear appears to be a dominant feature in today’s world. Disease, war, financial crisis, and social conflict have always been with us, and the law enforcement community is constantly thrust into the nexus of all these concerns when fear turns into actions hurting others and creating crimes.  

The key for today is to put leadership in charge that doesn’t look away from the complex realities of crime, gangs, and what criminologist John Dilulio called “moral poverty” in impoverished urban centers where children were raised in physical poverty as well. With the spread of moral poverty to the suburban world, we find gangs becoming a truly national problem. His motto in the 1990s was “build churches, not jails.” As religion declines, punishments are reduced, education failing, and drugs become a greater and greater crisis, with swift action, firm punishment, and improved living conditions, we can make a difference…but only if we acknowledge the problem, elect effective leaders, and support law enforcement.

It is time to address our nation’s problems honestly, without nonsensical solutions or demonization, and get back to the business of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Image: AP

  • Lt. Dave Smith and Sgt Betsy Smith

    Former police lieutenant Dave Smith is an internationally known speaker, writer and law enforcement expert. As a career police officer in Arizona, Dave held positions in Patrol, SWAT, Narcotics, Training and Management. In 1980 he developed the popular "JD Buck Savage" video training series and holds numerous instructor certifications in firearms, defensive tactics, and human performance. Dave also created the Video Training Unit for Police1.com, was the primary trainer for the online Police1 Academy and hosted Police1’s award winning “Roll Call Reality Training” segments. Dave trains law enforcement personnel internationally and can be reached at www.bucksavage.com. Sgt. Betsy Brantner Smith retired in 2009 after serving 29 years in Chicago area law enforcement. She has been a police trainer for over 35 years, is a popular keynote speaker at conferences and events throughout the United States and has trained in various national and international venues. She is a featured columnist and video contributor for several law enforcement websites, an author and spokesman for the National Police Association (NationalPolice.org), a contributor on “The First TV” network and the host of the “NPA Report.” She is married to Dave “JD Buck Savage” Smith can be reached through her website at www.FemaleForces.com.

MANY VOICES, ONE FREEDOM: UNITED IN THE 1ST AMENDMENT

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