Prosecutors said a 17-year-old Girl led a group of four other girls to her ex-girlfriend’s home, where someone fired at least 19 shots, killing a 20-year-old young lady. The judge sentenced the 17-year-old Girl to 140 years in prison on murder and gang charges.’
The murder of the family’s daughter is/was horrible beyond words; however, please let me deviate for a moment. Compared to the exceedingly minimum sentences given to most insurrectionists that attack the U.S. Capital on January 6, 2021, where five people died, the 140-year sentence given to the 17-year-old seems astonishingly excessive. Let’s be clear; the sentences given to most insurrectionists don’t fit the seriousness of their multiple criminal acts.
Based on the definition of 18 USC 521, why aren’t the insurrectionists and criminal groups SUCH AS; the so-called Proud Boys, QAnon, Nationalist Socialist Club or, NSC-131, No White Guilt, Boogaloo, Baked Alaska, Oath Keepers, the Three Percenters, Patriot, Texas Freedom Force, Ohio State Regular Militia, Skinhead, Public Enemy Number One, The Nazi Low Riders, Aryan Brotherhood, and alt-right CONSIDERED GANGS? They are literally “Hiding in Plain Sight.”
Since the DOJ can’t or doesn’t desire to charge the insurrectionists that attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, as radicalized U.S. domestic terrorists, the DOJ must label them as GANGS members. That’s what they are gangs. I am a Man of peace; however, we must end racial disparities that have long permeated every step of the criminal justice process, from police stops, searches, arrests, shootings, and other uses of force. Policies changes must include charging decisions, wrongful convictions, and excessive sentencing.
If local, county, or state police or the FBI notice 3, 4, or more young Black or Brown boys or men hanging together in an urban neighborhood, they are quickly labeled gang members. When law enforcement considers someone a gang member, they receive “gang enhancement” sentencing upon arrest and conviction.
18 USC 521 provides a penalty enhancement of up to 10 years for certain gang members who commit crimes to further the gang’s activities or to maintain or advance their position within the gang. The enhancement is in addition to the penalty for the underlying crime(s).
Violent Gang and Terrorist Organizations File
“The definitions of “gang,” “gang crime,” and “gang member” of the Violent Gang and Terrorist
Organizations File (VGTOF), contained within the FBI” s National Crime Information Center
(NCIC), share some similarities with those definitions used by the states”:
“Gang Member” Definitions
- The VGTOF definition has a list of criteria, some of which a person must meet to be
considered a gang member.
- The VGTOF definition requires an admission of gang membership OR two of its criteria.
- The VGTOF defines a gang as consisting of three or more persons.
- The VGTOF refers to a gang as an “organization, association, or group.”
- The VGTOF definition includes criminal/illegal activity or behavior.
Every group that participated in the attack on the attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, fit the definition of a GANG; consequently, why does the U.S. federal and state government treat the groups listed above differently from what is also known as street gangs? The U.S government must expand the gang databases to include all the groups listed above, and not just Black and Brown people. The intelligence law enforcement could obtain by expanding their gang database to include white racist groups will significantly reduce criminal activity and abundantly enhance public safety.
The U.S. must get serious about taking down Domestic Terrorist GANGS that terrorize American citizens with general impunity. We must label them as GANG members and prosecute them as such! We all will be safer.
I will close with this: the FBI has acknowledged the links between law enforcement (GANGS) and suspected white racist terrorist groups. However, to date, the Justice Department has no national strategy designed to identify white racist police officers or protect the safety and civil rights of the communities they patrol.
The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have identified white racists as the most lethal domestic terrorist threat to the United States. We will protect our Democracy and ensure Public Safety when we also treat law enforcement officers associated with racist groups (i.e., attacked on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021) as an urgent concern. Without a doubt, they are truly “Hiding in Plain Sight”.