Wilson Calls for Tougher Gang Penalties

Gov. Pete Wilson on Tuesday called for the death penalty for gang members who commit murders and said that law enforcement officers need to be better equipped to fight the rising number of street gangs.

The governor, speaking at the annual convention of the California Gang Investigators Assn., advocated tougher penalties overall for gang members, especially juveniles, who commit felonies.

“Right now kids can literally get away with murder and they are savvy enough to know it,” Wilson said. “They need to know they can’t get away with it without consequences.”

The governor said cooperation between all levels of government is needed to tackle the gang problem nationwide. Law enforcement agencies in different states need to communicate and share information with each other, he said.

“We have to recognize that gang violence isn’t a problem that’s unique to one city, one county, or even one region of California,” Wilson said. “It requires the complete cooperation at all levels of government, from local to federal.”

Wilson noted with dismay that Los Angeles gang affiliates have surfaced throughout the country.

“That is an intolerable situation and yet it is endured in more and more communities across this country,” Wilson said. “This is an export for which we are not proud.”

The governor also echoed his support for the formation of a statewide computer system called CAL/GANG. Operated by the state Department of Justice, the system will keep track of gang members, including their photographs, nicknames and other distinguishing features.

Wilson labeled as “nonsense” the American Civil Liberties Union’s concern that the database may unfairly target minorities in Orange County.

Latinos, Asians and African Americans make up more than 90% of the men and women being tracked by law enforcement as suspected gang members in Orange County, yet they make up less than 50% of the county’s population.

“I wonder if the ACLU ever thinks about who it is who suffers from gangs,” said Wilson, noting that gang members often victimize people of their own races.

In Orange County, gang-related killings plummeted last year by 40% to a five-year low. Still, gang-related drug offenses and gang membership continued to climb with 33 new gangs emerging in the county in 1996 alone, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office.

County officials credit the drop in homicides to law enforcement crackdowns and the new high-tech data system.

Wilson praised the recent court-ordered crackdown on Los Angeles’ most notorious gang, whose members now are barred from associating with each other.

“They are not just picked at random,” Wilson said in defending the court order. “The only people selected for that are people associated with gang activity.”

In his speech before a crowd of more than 500, Wilson called on President Clinton to produce a national strategy for federal gang investigations, to remove Mexican illegal immigrants from U.S. jails and return them to Mexico, and to have the attorney general establish a centralized method of gathering gang information within the Justice Department.

“It’s time for the federal government to recognize that gang violence has escalated to the point of national crisis,” he said. “Washington has a role to play in combating gang violence, a role that goes beyond writing checks.”

At the state level, Wilson was critical of the Senate Public Safety Committee, which he labeled as a group of “ ‘60s liberals” who failed to pass several pieces of crime legislation the governor said would have toughened the penalties for gang violence.

One of the bills would have made gang members eligible for the death penalty if they were convicted of murder.

The governor said his goal is to recruit 250,000 adult mentors from “every group and every community” who could give time and guidance to youths who are susceptible to joining gangs.

“A lot of gangs are successful in recruiting kids who really don’t find their own sense of belonging,” he said. “They find in the gangs what they are missing in their lives.”