This is a poll:?

Question

Do you think stings, gang control, and drug enforcement serve their intended purpose or alienate a segment of the community in which the police serve?

Answer 1

Nope! The police need all the help they can get.

Answer 2

I am 60 yrs old and until very recently, I lived all my life in these communities that those programs are supposed to benefit. Unfortunbately, it is the manner in which the police enforce these programs that causes the alienation and also the reason they don't often work. The attitude that you are a criminal because you live there is practically universal among law enforcement. Esp., if you are young and poor. ( our community was racially diverse). These programs can only work where there is respect from law enforcement. I left my neighborhood trusting gang bangers and prostitutes more than cops. I still do.

Answer 3

I believe they have their purpose but they can alienate a group of people whom the police is trying to get to cooperate to combat crime. An example comes from West Sacramento, CaliforniMF The police have a very strict curfew against a group of gang members called the Broderick Boys, a Hispanic group. However, the police aren't just targeting the gang members themselves but Hispanic people within the city who also live in the neighborhoods where the Broderick Boys live. It has gotten so bad that young, middle aged and seniors have joined groups who are fighting against the restrictions and recently held a forum at CSU, Sacramento to address the issue. Their key point is this: West Sacramento until very recently was a working class neighborhood with a whole mixture of people and very affordable (for California) rents. However, recently the city government is trying to upgrade to attract professionals and they're building $400,000 to $900,000 homes. (For Sacramento, $400,000 is moderate, the latter figure is getting pricey.) But the developers can't develop fully as long as there are too many affordable units around, so the groups believe that they're trying to target Hispanaic gangs (and their neighbors) to make it miserable for them so they'll move on.

Ironically, West Sacramento or parts of it are on very dangerous flood plains between the Sacramento and American rivers and would probably flood in a 100 year flood.

Answer 4

The solution lies in education and social services and treatment programs… we need to figure out how to offer the correct combinations of resources to the underprivileged to encourage them to live to their full potential. The war on drugs is a spectacular failure, and until the drug issue can be addressed, gangs will continue to thrive. Kids will continue to be enticed into this lifestyle because of the money to be made and the self-medication of the drug use. People who live surrounded by crime and poverty have more need for self-medicating than those in more affluent areas and they don’t have the health coverage to see a doctor to get a prescription for Zoloft so they use street drugs instead. (Frankly I’m not sure which is worse.) Obviously I don't have all the answers, but simply waiting for these kids to turn into criminals and then arresting them and throwing them in jail for several years is obviously NOT the answer because it is not working. (And of course when they are released, they are more dangerous than before... smarter, stronger, more knowledgeable about the law, more disenchanted with the universe, etc.)

Answer 5

Drug enforcement only serves to create more crime. The police should go after murderers, rapists, child molesters and thieves ONLY. We're putting people in jail to be buttraped by crazy people and then sending them back into society worse off than they were when they went in. I knew a guy who got 37 years for dealing speed, while a guy who adopted a 5 yr old Russian girl for the purpose of molesting her and putting pictures of her on the internet only got like 15 years. How much sense does that make????? It makes me sick.

Answer 6

Just this week a sting operation in my area resulted in 11 drug kingpins being arrested, so I feel it did serve the intended purpose. I know I live in an area at risk and welcome every effort the police make in cleaning it up.

Answer 7

Alienation is a product of poor police enforcement.

Answer 8

The police do not serve the drug, gang or fraud communities.

Answer 9

I think it alienates minonorites and gives police permission to be racially biased. I also think that there are better ways of dealing with problems than putting people in jail.

Answer 10

only one thing determines that . individuals. who's in charge and did greed get the best of the people in whom we put our trust in . most i would like to believe , are doing the job we pay them to do.I hate it that my local sherriffs office is a prime example of how weak , small minded people, fall to such things as power and personal gain at whatever cost.I know it was due to this county being the largest in okla. + 100 yrs of being indian land and sparse population making it easy for law to use law to be lawless. hell now one sees it therforeno one cares. judges with penis pumps is just the beginning of this sick minded district 10 perversion look into it and bare witness to it we need the public to see what the heartland truely is .help .....help .....please help.....