Ganging Up on Gangs

Gang activity throughout Orange County has been increasing. So has the violence that gang members wreak, not only on each other but on innocent people who get caught in their crossfire and on their turf.

In Santa Ana alone last year, police reported 10 gang-related homicides. And despite stepped-up community and law enforcement efforts against the gangs, juvenile court cases involving gang activity more than doubled last year. But gang offenses aren’t kid stuff. Far from it. Their crimes include murder, rape, robbery, extortion, kidnaping and drug sales.

On Tuesday the county Board of Supervisors will have an opportunity to help cut down some of that violence by creating a special $450,000 anti-gang unit for the district attorney’s office. The special unit should be formed, and funded.

As proposed by Dist. Atty. Cecil Hicks and Supervisor Roger R. Stanton, the unit would have six prosecutors and five investigators who would be assigned permanently to gang-related criminal cases. They would follow cases from the moment they became part of the criminal justice system and would not, and should not, be diverted to other duties. That continuity could lead to more convictions.

The program would create a county task force drawn from the schools, the community and law enforcement and also a computerized system that would enable all police agencies in the county to share information on gang suspects.

Aggressive police work and successful prosecution is only one approach to curbing gang activity. The long-range solution is to eliminate the causes of gang membership by providing jobs, athletic programs, community centers and other alternatives.

In the meantime, as many hard-core gang members as possible must be taken off the streets. Special gang units like the one proposed by Hicks and Stanton have been set up in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Bernardino counties. It is time that Orange County officials ganged up on the street gangs too.