Word: ganges
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...year-old. The rest of the night saw six more people shot in the neighborhood, two of whom died. A man has been charged in one of the shootings, but it is unclear if it was connected to the cookout. (Read "How to Turn Around a Gang Member...
Authorities have described the incident as gang-related. But the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office has not confirmed that it was in fact a gang shooting. No gang business was being transacted: there does not appear to have been a drug deal involved. The violence seems to have stemmed from a yearlong retribution pattern between two "gangs" that, while involved in selling drugs, were at each other's throats mainly because of the kidnapping of two younger brothers of a man who is linked with one of the groups. At least five homicides are believed to be part...
Crime attributed to gang violence has been going up even as the nation's overall violent crime rate has been decreasing (it was down 2.5% in 2008 from the year before). But rather than look at such incidents as ordered up by gang bosses, some experts are beginning to see them as the product of a street culture of feuds, vendettas, retribution and violent one-upmanship that pervade what are commonly called gangs but which may not be gangs...
...February, the National Gang Threat Assessment report, released by the Department of Justice, concluded that there are 20,000 street, prison and biker gangs in the country, with about 1 million members. In some communities, the report said, gangs account for as much as 80% of the crime. The report also said that 58% of law-enforcement agencies saw an increase of gang activity in 2008, up from 45% in 2004. (Read a brief history of the Hells Angels...
...simply labeling such crimes as "gang-related" does not explain what is happening on the streets. Criminal-justice experts are beginning to believe that a majority of the violence does not result from directives from any formal gang hierarchy, but rather that it is the result of beefs between smaller neighborhood groups that can be started by anything from a kidnapping, as in the Baltimore case, to a simple look of disrespect on a rival's face. A fistfight among young men can escalate into drive-by shootings that elicit identical retribution, finally leading to the slaying of people...