tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/gang-violence-11997/articlesGang violence – The Conversation2024-03-27T17:26:37Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2239692024-03-27T17:26:37Z2024-03-27T17:26:37Z‘Bukelism,’ El Salvador’s flawed approach to gang violence, is no silver bullet for Ecuador<p>Ecuador’s unexpected <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-67964229">gang-related security crisis</a> has resurrected the debate on <a href="https://advox.globalvoices.org/2023/05/19/unfreedom-monitor-report-el-salvador/">what’s known as Bukelism</a>, the supposedly miraculous anti-crime strategy named after El Salvador President Nayib Bukele. </p>
<p>Bukelism is credited with dramatically reducing El Salvador’s drug-related homicide rates <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/08/opinion/el-salvador-bukele-election.html">from 38 per 100,000 people in 2019 to 7.8 per 100,000 in 2022</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/el-salvador-young-maverick-bukele-wins-presidential-election-but-countrys-future-remains-uncertain-111775">El Salvador: young maverick Bukele wins presidential election, but country's future remains uncertain</a>
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<p>This model has, however, come at the cost of an authoritarian drift in El Salvador and <a href="https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/from-bad-to-worse-nayib-bukeles-split-with-washington/">American sanctions for corruption</a>. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, on April 21, Ecuador will hold a <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2024-02-14/ecuador-sets-april-21-for-referendum-on-tightening-security">landmark referendum</a> to change its constitution in order to emulate the Salvadorean model. </p>
<p>If Ecuadorans vote in favour of these unprecedented reforms on security, they will not only give permanent and extensive powers to the country’s armed forces — along with immunity measures and the dismantlement of democratic checks and balances — but they will also normalize Bukelism, even though recent studies question its effectiveness.</p>
<h2>Eroding democracy</h2>
<p>Ecuador is among <a href="https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/nayib-bukeles-growing-list-of-latin-american-admirers/">a growing number of countries in the region</a> that want to implement this seemingly successful new style of the war on drugs. They’re apparently willing to disregard the impact on <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2024/country-chapters/el-salvador">freedom of the press and democracy</a> to curb the narco-trafficking crisis. </p>
<p>In 2022, El Salvador declared states of emergency several times and incarcerated more than 73,000 people, giving it the <a href="https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/rankings/prisoners/">highest incarceration rate in the world</a>. </p>
<p>These strong-arm tactics against crime give the public a reassuring image of control, even though the massive arrests targeted <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/thousands-of-innocent-people-jailed-in-el-salvadors-gang-crackdown">thousands of innocent people</a> and 327 citizens were forcibly disappeared, according to <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/12/el-salvador-policies-practices-legislation-violate-human-rights/#:%7E:text=Among%20its%20recommendations%2C%20Amnesty%20International,process%20and%20nullify%20judicial%20guarantees">a recent Amnesty International report</a>. In addition, almost 200 died in state custody.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.omct.org/es/recursos/comunicados-de-prensa/comit%C3%A9-de-las-naciones-unidas-pide-a-el-salvador-prevenir-las-detenciones-arbitrarias-e-investigar-todos-los-actos-de-tortura">United Nations has called on El Salvador to stop torturing detainees</a>. <a href="https://www.americas.org/52204/">Attacks on female journalists by authorities and supporters of Bukele’s methods have also increased dramatically</a>, illustrating how Bukelism’s aggressive rhetoric has had a significant impact on journalists, especially women, in a country <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/el-salvador-women-abortion-obstetric-problems-prison-fight/">where abortion has also been completely banned</a> since Bukele’s election.</p>
<p>Yet, even the country’s worst infringements on the rule of law, including hundreds of show trials and laws <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/06/el-salvador-press-censorship-gang-law">threatening journalists with 10- to 15-year prison sentences for criticizing law enforcement</a>, are often regarded as evidence of <a href="https://insightcrime.org/investigations/how-bukele-government-overpowered-gangs-major-findings/">Bukelism’s effectiveness</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/el-salvadors-facade-of-democracy-crumbles-as-president-purges-his-political-opponents-161781">El Salvador's façade of democracy crumbles as president purges his political opponents</a>
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<h2>Bukelism’s popularity</h2>
<p>According to experts like Laura Chinchilla, Costa Rica’s former minister of public security and justice, the popularity of Bukelism <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/01/02/el-salvador-elections-bukele-bitcoin-crime-gang-policy/">is rising</a> largely because it’s frequently described in the media as the only effective model to fight gangs. Chinchilla argues that the Salvadorean model <a href="https://www.bbc.com/mundo/articles/cpw79166j9go">is only a “mirage</a>” that ignores other efficient security strategies that don’t dismantle the rule of law, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/OXAN-DB201595">such as her country’s efforts a decade ago</a>. </p>
<p>This myth of Bukelism’s effectiveness creates a dilemma for other democratic countries plagued by drug-trafficking violence: should they opt for the successes of Bukelism despite human rights violations, or choose other strategies that uphold democratic norms?</p>
<p>But this is a false dilemma based on incorrect assumptions, because Bukelism is not as effective as it seems.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://icg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-10/096-el-salvadors-prison-fever.pdf">recent report</a> from the International Crisis Group, one of the world’s most trusted non-governmental organizations on security issues, shows that drug-related homicide rates had already fallen by 60 per cent before Bukele’s massive crackdown in 2022. The report also points out that democratic countries like Ecuador can’t duplicate Bukelism without trading off democracy. </p>
<p>In fact, by stifling political opposition, imposing presidential control over the judicial, executive and legislative branches and muzzling the media, El Salvador has slipped to the <a href="https://www.idea.int/democracytracker/country/el-salvador">bottom 25 per cent of countries worldwide in terms of democracy</a> since Bukele was first elected in 2019.</p>
<p>Freedom House’s well-known annual study of political rights and civil liberties worldwide rated El Salvador as “<a href="https://freedomhouse.org/countries/freedom-world/scores">partly free</a>” in 2023, along with countries such as Kuwait, Malaysia and Hong Kong.</p>
<h2>Bukelism’s questionable results</h2>
<p>Data from the <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/departamento-de-justicia-anuncia-operaci-n-contra-l-deres-clave-de-grupo-criminal-ms-13">U.S. task force Vulcan</a> also show homicide rates have been steadily declining in El Salvador since 2016 due to deals with drug-trafficking gangs. </p>
<p>Bukele’s 2022 crackdown “<a href="https://insightcrime.org/investigations/el-salvador-keeping-lid-on-prisons/">frenzy,” as the think tank Insight Crime calls it</a>, was therefore merely a reaction to the cartels’ decision to disregard the deals they had previously made with the government. </p>
<p>El Salvador’s small population and its unique geography are also key factors in Bukelism’s purported success that don’t always exist elsewhere. Ecuador, for example, has three times El Salvador’s population and a completely different landscape. What’s more, the country’s drug gangs <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2024/1/11/24034891/ecuador-drugs-cocaine-cartels-violence-murder-daniel-naboa-columbia-crime">can’t be compared to other Latin American drug cartels</a> in terms of financing, weapons and equipment. </p>
<p>The importance of these factors is evident in failed attempts to implement Bukelism elsewhere. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/04/honduras-gangs-crackdown-xiomara-castro">Recent data shows that neighbouring Honduras</a> has failed to achieve significant results adopting similar measures. After more than six months of duplicating El Salvador’s war on gangs, the country still has the <a href="https://insightcrime.org/news/honduras-makes-few-advances-against-crime-during-6-month-state-of-exception/">second-highest homicide rate in Latin America</a>. </p>
<p>At the opposite end, Colombia seems to be on track to achieve its new “<a href="https://www.cfr.org/blog/petros-total-peace-plan-turns-one-good-bad-and-ugly">total peace plan</a>” by negotiating with its <a href="https://www.bbc.com/mundo/articles/cm5rlrgvkyno">most iconic drug cartels, including the Clan del Golfo</a>, and providing education for impoverished young people.</p>
<h2>Corruption is part of Bukelism</h2>
<p>But perhaps Bukelism’s biggest flaw is its widespread corruption. Despite <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/us-sanctions-officials-close-el-salvadors-bukele-alleged-corruption-2022-12-09/">U.S sanctions in 2022</a>, the rampant corruption among state entities, the armed forces and the private sector is too often ignored by the media.</p>
<p>This contributes to the false image of Bukele’s efficiency. Given that new laws restricting the <a href="https://rsf.org/en/serious-decline-press-freedom-el-salvador-rsf-and-its-partners-call-national-authorities-safeguard">freedom of the press</a> were recently adopted, and checks and balances such as <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2023/country-chapters/el-salvador">judicial independence are under attack</a>, corruption is unlikely to receive the media attention it warrants in El Salvador.</p>
<p>This perfect storm of corruption, human rights violations, extended military powers, institutional impunity and <a href="https://ovcd.org/en/criminalisation/">criminalization of journalists</a> poses <a href="https://www.wola.org/analysis/states-of-exception-new-security-model-central-america/">serious risks</a> to the region.</p>
<p>Mexico embraced a model similar to Bukelism in the 2010s, and its war on drugs failed, transforming the country into <a href="https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/environmental-activists/standing-firm/">one of the three worst in the world</a> in terms of the level of violence and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X17719258">human rights violations against environmental activists and journalists</a>.</p>
<p>Ecuador and other nations flirting with Bukelism must not make the same mistake.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223969/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marie-Christine Doran receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada-SSHRCC. </span></em></p>Ecuador is soon holding a referendum to decide whether to follow El Salvador’s controversial strategy to end drug trafficking.Marie-Christine Doran, Full Professor of Compared Politics, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2255142024-03-12T15:26:35Z2024-03-12T15:26:35ZJimmy ‘Barbecue’ Chérizier: the gangster behind the violence in Haiti who may have political aspirations of his own<p>A violent uprising in the Caribbean nation of Haiti has put the spotlight on the man leading the mayhem – a homicidal gang boss and former policeman called Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier.</p>
<p>Over the past two weeks, Haiti’s powerful gangs have plunged a country already on life support into a coma. More than <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-68462851">3,800 hardened criminals</a> were broken out of Haiti’s two biggest jails, the country’s international airport has been partially taken over, and gangs have <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-68531759">tried to seize</a> the political quarter of its capital, Port-au-Prince.</p>
<p>Following the recent wave of violence, the country’s acting president, Ariel Henry, has <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-68541349">agreed to step down</a> once a transitional council has been created to run the country. Henry has become a pariah in Haitian politics. He is an unelected leader, taking power after Haiti’s president was <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-57762246">assassinated</a> in 2021, and has presided over the country’s <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/10/1129537?utm_term=63bfaeecfacb1506e4d4474705eee640&utm_campaign=FirstEdition&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=firstedition_email">economic freefall</a>.</p>
<p>It is unclear how the current political crisis will be solved. But Chérizier has emerged from the armed insurrection as the most formidable leader in Haiti, and some suspect he may have political aspirations of his own. </p>
<p>He has <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/haitis-notorious-gang-leader-plots-future-amid-rebellion/story?id=107994731">claimed</a> to be fighting a holy war of sorts for the soul of Haiti, delivering “it back into the hands of its chosen people, the everyday Haitian beat down by years of abuse, racism and corruption.” </p>
<p>However, there is one crucial question. Can Chérizier reinvent himself from a feared gangland boss to a legitimate political leader?</p>
<p>Haiti’s history is replete with political leaders with very dubious pasts, and the country’s citizens are used to their violent machinations. François “Papa Doc” Duvalier, a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Francois-Duvalier">ruthless dictator</a> who served as president of the country between 1957 and 1971, institutionalised gangs and made them a part of the everyday life of the Haitian people.</p>
<p>His personal militia, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1971/04/23/archives/papa-doc-a-ruthless-dictator-kept-the-haitians-in-illiteracy-and.html">Tonton Macoute</a>, were given the license to kidnap, torture and kill thousands of their fellow Haitians during his brutal reign. Despite this, Papa Doc enjoyed an abundance of admiration and affection from those he lorded over with an iron fist. This was, in large part, because of his politics of patronage and unique brand of “grassroots” black nationalism.</p>
<p>Going by that antecedent, Chérizier is not an uncommon outsider. He may be a homicidal criminal, but he also enjoys a cult status in Port-au-Prince. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/10/haiti-gang-boss-kingpin-barbecue-jimmy-cherizier">Murals</a> in the impoverished Haitian slums he rules as his private fiefdom liken him to the Argentine guerrilla leader, Ernesto “Che” Guevara. In a country with a short supply of tall leaders, Chérizier is an outsize figure. </p>
<p>His alias, <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1873542/haiti-gang-leader-barbecue">“Barbecue”</a>, which he has earned due to his penchant for burning his opponents alive, has helped him build a “tough guy” image – an essential character trait for any aspiring leader in this violent country. The last political leader of Haiti of any significance, Papa Doc Duvalier, had this in plenty. </p>
<p>But unlike other contemporary gang leaders in Haiti, Chérizier is a man with a brain. He is articulate, aware and thinks big. Far from your traditional gang boss that exists in the twilight, he actively seeks out the limelight. </p>
<p>He likes giving interviews and goes the extra mile to impress the audience with his revolutionary political zeal. Over the past year, he has welcomed a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyGnxdDOGHo">succession of foreign reporters</a> to the gang-controlled neighbourhoods of Port-au-Prince in attempt to justify the uprising. According to Chérizier, his brand of violent street politics is very much in tune with the need of the hour. </p>
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<h2>Political acumen</h2>
<p>The current political instability in Haiti has largely been manufactured by Chérizier and the gangs he leads as a cleverly thought-out survival strategy. But it is also couched in an astute reading of the Haitian national sentiment and popular mood. </p>
<p>In 2023, the UN security council <a href="https://apnews.com/article/haiti-un-kenya-armed-force-resolution-3749ac5db9d6c5903e61dee7b4206e6c">approved</a> the deployment of a Kenyan-led multinational peacekeeping force to Haiti to reign in the gangs and their spiralling violence. The UN secretary-general, António Guterres, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-66946156">stressed</a> that a “robust use of force” is needed to disarm the gangs and restore order. However, the mission has subsequently stalled. </p>
<p>Such an intervention would in all likelihood severely undermine the power of Haiti’s gangs. So, on the one hand, Chérizier’s decision to stir up a political uprising can be seen as a planned strategy to scare off any external forces seeking to impose order. </p>
<p>But Haitians have traditionally <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/11/04/1131254613/haiti-sanctions-foreign-intervention-protests-gangs-cholera">opposed</a> any foreign intervention in their domestic affairs, regardless of the state of disarray or chaos. As a fiercely independent people, they proudly stand as the first black republic to emerge following a successful <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Haitian-Revolution#ref343634">slave revolt</a> during the high noon of European colonialism. </p>
<p>Chérizier has used Henry’s unpopularity and controversial decision to deploy foreign police officers in the nation to drum up a nationwide violent fervour for political change. In a video call to <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/haitis-notorious-gang-leader-plots-future-amid-rebellion/story?id=107994731">ABC News</a> on March 11, he said: “The first step is to overthrow Ariel Henry and then we will start the real fight against the current system, the system of corrupt oligarchs and corrupt traditional politicians.” </p>
<p>In the past, Chérizier has floated his own <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/akeyz8/haiti-jimmy-cherizier-government">“peace plan”</a> for the country. He has demanded that gang members be given total amnesty and that the country is governed by a “council of sages”, implying leaders such as him would have a formal political role. </p>
<p>With Henry now out of the political scene, the chance that Haitians will be forced to embrace such an outcome may not be far-fetched after all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225514/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amalendu Misra has received funding from
British Academy /
Nuffield Foundation</span></em></p>Haiti is descending into anarchy, causing the gang leader behind the violence to emerge as the country’s most powerful leader.Amalendu Misra, Professor, Department: Politics, Philosophy and Religion, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2214292024-01-22T14:55:15Z2024-01-22T14:55:15ZDeep-seated inequality is fuelling an escalation of violence across Latin America<p>For most of the 20th century, Latin America was portrayed as one of the world’s most peaceful regions. Coups and repressive military regimes had long been commonplace but widespread civil disorder and war were relatively rare. Today, however, the world’s media is slowly waking up to a <a href="https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/latin-america-erupts-the-danger-of-democratic-delinquency/">very different reality</a>.</p>
<p>Surging levels of violence now mean that mortality rates in Latin America often exceed those seen in the world’s conflict areas. In 2021, Latin America had the <a href="https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/gsh/2023/GSH23_ExSum.pdf">highest murder rate</a> in the world at almost three times the global regional average.</p>
<p>Ecuador is one country that has seen a particularly massive spike in violence in recent years. Masked gunmen <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-67930452">stormed</a> a live news broadcast on January 9 and the prosecutor investigating the attack was <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-68014040">murdered</a> just days later.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/ecuadors-crackdown-on-violent-crime-helped-turn-the-country-into-a-narco-state-220920">Ecuador's crackdown on violent crime helped turn the country into a narco state</a>
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<p>The explosion of violence in the region is being caused by a number of mutually reinforcing factors. Notably, deep-rooted inequalities and a weak state have allowed a destabilising narcotics economy to flourish.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Armed gangsters storm TV station in Ecuador.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Forever unequal</h2>
<p>Latin America has long been the most unequal area of the world in terms of income and wealth. But this inequality has worsened over recent decades. In 2021, Brazil’s wealthiest 1% <a href="https://shs.hal.science/halshs-04166852/document">owned</a> 47% of the country’s wealth, up from 45% in 2006. The increase was even greater for the top 0.01%, with their wealth share rising from 12% to 18%.</p>
<p>Unlike other middle-income areas, the economic structure of the region is still based on exporting primary products – something that has remained largely unchanged since colonial times. This dependence has deepened as Latin America feeds the growing <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/specialization-latam-exports-china-shows-worrying-trend-un-report-says-2023-11-02/">demand from China</a> for its minerals and foodstuffs.</p>
<p>Relying on the export of primary products has <a href="https://www.oasisbr.ibict.br/vufind/Record/UNIFAP-1_25b9cf30e04a53a0d1b7befc7f7dd0d7">reinforced inequality</a> because the expansion of large-scale commercial farming and mining has blocked moves towards agrarian reform. </p>
<p>As a result, there has been a surge in the <a href="https://www-cdn.oxfam.org/s3fs-public/file_attachments/bp-land-power-inequality-latin-america-301116-en.pdf">migration</a> of school-leavers to urban areas in search of work. However, by anchoring this highly capital-intensive economic model, any serious attempt at industrialisation and labour-intensive job creation – akin to what has taken place in much of south and south-east Asia – has been stymied.</p>
<p>The long history of anti-communism promoted by successive US administrations during and after the cold war, coupled with a Catholic church that has become deeply conservative in recent decades, has also hindered attempts at social democratic reform and inclusive development. This has seen the <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-gb/The+New+Latin+America-p-9781509540020">collapse of revolutionary movements</a> with a progressive agenda capable of bringing about the structural reforms the region so desperately needs. </p>
<p>Consequently, <a href="https://www.ilo.org/caribbean/newsroom/WCMS_867540/lang--en/index.htm#:%7E:text=The%20estimated%20average%20regional%20unemployment,level%20of%208%20per%20cent">underemployment</a> is rife – a major factor propelling <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/12/22/1221006083/immigration-border-election-presidential">soaring illegal immigration</a> to the US. Over half of workers in Latin America are employed informally with job instability, low income and no social protection.</p>
<h2>The illegal drug trade</h2>
<p>But a new factor – the narcotics industry – has emerged in recent decades with a deadly impact. Colombia is now the world’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/20/colombia-cocaine-decriminalize-petro/">largest producer of cocaine</a> and Mexico is fast becoming a global producer of <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF10400">heroin and fentanyl</a>.</p>
<p>The emergence of narcotics has built on and reinforced the deep-rooted inequality that affects the region. Young and underemployed migrants to urban areas provide the foot soldiers for the growth of extremely powerful narcotics gangs. The <a href="https://greydynamics.com/primeiro-comando-da-capital-pcc-from-sao-paulo-to-the-world/">Primeiro Comando da Capital</a> in Brazil is now one of the largest gangs in the world with over 30,000 members and a <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/20fb5c77-baf1-45ab-a886-51cac68cfd4e">growing global reach</a>.</p>
<p>Narcotics gangs <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/cd9d4d72-1266-4441-81e0-6259cba864ae">now exist</a> in every Latin American country and are driving homicide trends across the region. They seek to co-opt and corrupt rather than challenge the power of the state. But this is <a href="https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/aq-podcast-how-organized-crime-is-changing-in-latin-america/">likely to change</a>.</p>
<p>International development organisations that operate in the region have long been lamenting its “institutional fragility” and the falling level of citizen trust. They <a href="https://www.thedialogue.org/analysis/the-pulse-of-democracy-in-the-americas-results-of-the-2023-americasbarometer/">call for</a> governance reforms, but nothing fundamental ever changes.</p>
<p>A main reason for this dismal governance is inequality – a bloated public administration characterised by <a href="https://americasquarterly.org/article/latin-americas-inequality-is-taking-a-toll-on-governance/">“clientelism”</a> (the practice of choosing or promoting people in return for political support).</p>
<p>But the flip side is the virtual absence of a professional ethic and collective memory inside the civil service. Public sector corruption thus remains endemic within the government, police, armed forces and prison system.</p>
<h2>Failing states</h2>
<p>The most striking feature of the weak governance encouraging this gradual slide towards failed states is now rampant corruption from top to bottom of the judicial system, thanks to the infiltration of drug gangs. Personal insecurity has become the daily norm for the urban poor and the rule of law simply does not exist for most citizens.</p>
<p>When a poor person is killed – whether by state repression, settling of scores among narcos, street robbery or extortion – no criminal investigation usually takes place unless relatives have the resources to hire a lawyer. The crime prosecution rate is minimal and the vast majority of inmates in overcrowded prisons are poor people awaiting trial.</p>
<p>As a result, the capacity of the state to counter the gradual spread of narcotics is extremely limited. This vulnerability has already produced the first example of a narco state – Honduras under the presidency of Juan Orlando Hernández (2014–2022). On leaving office in April 2022, Hernández was <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/juan-orlando-hern%C3%A1ndez-former-president-honduras-indicted-drug-trafficking">extradited</a> to the US to face charges of drug trafficking and money laundering. </p>
<p>The Latin American elite try to justify the current economic model as providing food security and mineral resources for the growing world population. Yet the elite remain in denial about the violent consequences of this model. </p>
<p>There is a risk that Latin America’s very role as a bread basket will convert it into a basket case of perpetual civil disorder.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221429/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Nickson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Latin America’s spike in violence is the result of systemic problems that have long gone unaddressed.Andrew Nickson, Honorary Reader in the Department of International Development, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2083832023-07-13T13:27:35Z2023-07-13T13:27:35ZStreet gangs in South Africa and Canada are worlds apart - but they have a great deal in common<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534820/original/file-20230629-25-xiuneg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A former gang member in Cape Town, South Africa, shows off his tattoos.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy Dariusz Dziewanski</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>At first glance, it would appear that there’s little in common between the vast plains of the Canadian Prairies and the mountainous swells of South Africa’s southernmost coastline. But take a closer look into cities like Calgary, Winnipeg, and Saskatoon, on one hand, and Cape Town, on the other, and you’ll come across the gangs in each city. </p>
<p>Although they exist in different socioeconomic, historical, and geographic contexts, our <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10612-022-09659-4">recent paper</a> finds that street gangs in Cape Town have key things in common with those in Prairie cities. Both are subcultural groups seeking empowerment and protection in areas defined by structural oppression and exclusion. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-cape-town-gangsters-who-use-extreme-violence-to-operate-solo-143750">The Cape Town gangsters who use extreme violence to operate solo</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As a criminologist with extensive research experience in South Africa and a <a href="https://www.metisnation.org/culture-heritage/#:%7E:text=Who%20are%20the%20M%C3%A9tis%3F,Nations%20women%20and%20European%20men.">Métis</a> professor of Indigenous studies in Canada, we’ve both studied how and why individuals become engaged in street gangs in our respective countries of interest. </p>
<p>Researchers often overlook the similarities between street gang involvement and its connection to marginalisation and colonisation in South Africa and Canada. Our paper compared the life histories of 24 gang members from Cape Town to those of 53 members in Prairie cities. Our findings are represented through the accounts of two former gang members, Gavin and Roddy, in South Africa and Canada.</p>
<p>Whether in South Africa, Canada, or elsewhere, gangs are an embedded, systemic feature of unequal and exclusionary urban landscapes. They are often an indication of larger problems in the societies in which they exist. The deep-rooted contours of discrimination, disenfranchisement, and disempowerment – past and present – shape social life in Cape Town and on the Canadian Prairies. They create the conditions in which many young <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Coloured">Coloured</a> and Indigenous men and women turn to gangs. </p>
<h2>Gavin and Roddy</h2>
<p>The paper presented in this article adds to a small but growing body of <a href="https://academic.oup.com/minnesota-scholarship-online/book/21312">gang literature</a> that draws comparisons across international contexts.</p>
<p>Gavin, a long-time member of the Mongrels gang, grew up with an abusive father in an impoverished informal settlement on the outskirts of Cape Town. He explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There’s no jobs, right. It’s the gangsters here that have the money. They put food on the table … It’s what I was attracted to. </p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-how-some-of-cape-towns-gangsters-got-out-and-stayed-out-170485">Street cultural gang research</a> suggests that, for those living in tough circumstances, aggression and violence are a sure way to get respect – or “street cred”. Says Gavin:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The reason (gangsters) shoot constantly – that they do it every day – is they want to … make a statement and become famous – put their name out. Then he has the power…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For Roddy, a member of the Native Syndicate in Winnipeg, Manitoba, respect was associated with <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev.anthro.32.061002.093426">“acting crazy”</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>At the time, being crazy gave you that status and people knew you.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Roddy also spoke about the same challenges Gavin faced, and how being in a gang provided a solution:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>No water, no money, no brotherhood … the identity of something (the gang) made you feel important … I felt so awesome when I joined the gang, I felt like: wow your problems are over. I didn’t even know what I was getting into. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Although Gavin and Roddy grew up on different sides of the world, each saw gangs and street culture as a way to gain access to the basic amenities of life where legitimate opportunities were not afforded.</p>
<h2>Mapping marginality</h2>
<p>Cape Town’s most powerful street gangs are found in <a href="https://africasacountry.com/2019/09/john-w-fredericks-1946-2019">communities</a> that are predominantly Cape Coloured – a multiracial ethnic category in South Africa – and often beset by <a href="https://businesstech.co.za/news/government/688371/south-africas-unemployment-rate-ticks-higher/">joblessness</a> and <a href="https://businesstech.co.za/news/lifestyle/407087/cape-town-now-ranks-as-the-8th-most-violent-city-in-the-world/">violence</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534823/original/file-20230629-13286-3tbalc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A block of apartments and a parking lot in a modest area." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534823/original/file-20230629-13286-3tbalc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534823/original/file-20230629-13286-3tbalc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534823/original/file-20230629-13286-3tbalc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534823/original/file-20230629-13286-3tbalc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534823/original/file-20230629-13286-3tbalc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534823/original/file-20230629-13286-3tbalc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534823/original/file-20230629-13286-3tbalc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A housing project in a peripheral part of Cape Town where gangs are common.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy Dariusz Dziewanski</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Winnipeg and other Prairie cities, gang membership is dominated by <a href="https://uofmpress.ca/books/detail/settler-city-limits">Indigenous youth</a> living in marginalised neighbourhoods that are seen as gang controlled. </p>
<p>Gang membership in each research context has long colonial roots linked to historical struggles of Coloured and Indigenous populations to endure successive state campaigns directed at their cultural erasure through institutionalised violence. </p>
<p>For example, in South Africa, the term “Coloured” was produced through colonial efforts to force people of diverse geographical and cultural origins into a single <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02582479208671739">racial classification</a>. Later, <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/cape-town-segregated-city#:%7E:text=Between%201957%20and%201961%2C%20an,proclaimed%20for%20%27white%27%20people.">forced relocations</a> under the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-apartheid-south-africa">apartheid</a> regime violently tore apart Coloured communities – as well as other racialised groups – to make space for white-owned real estate in the city centre. This encouraged the <a href="https://theconversation.com/cape-towns-bloody-gang-violence-is-inextricably-bound-up-in-its-history-121384">formation of gangs</a> that provided adrift youth with a sense of belonging, purpose and empowerment.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535549/original/file-20230704-20097-jom9rr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A building with graffiti on the roof, reading " src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535549/original/file-20230704-20097-jom9rr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535549/original/file-20230704-20097-jom9rr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=290&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535549/original/file-20230704-20097-jom9rr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=290&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535549/original/file-20230704-20097-jom9rr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=290&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535549/original/file-20230704-20097-jom9rr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535549/original/file-20230704-20097-jom9rr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535549/original/file-20230704-20097-jom9rr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gang graffiti in Canada.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy Robert Henry</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Similarly across the Prairies, street gangs have emerged due to the fragmentation of Indigenous families and identities. This occurred first through the <a href="https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1450124405592/1529106060525">Indian residential school policy</a>, which removed children from their families, placing them in state and church run schools. Here they were stripped of their cultures and languages, and many children died. It later also happened through <a href="https://uofmpress.ca/books/detail/settler-city-limits">child welfare policies</a> which <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sixties-scoop">scooped</a> children away from their families and placed them in non-Indigenous homes. Settler colonial policies such as these have created the social conditions and inequities that enable Indigenous street gangs to emerge and expand. </p>
<h2>What this means</h2>
<p>Actions taken in the streets can seem random or senseless to the outside observer. But consistently acting “crazy” and <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-cape-town-gangsters-who-use-extreme-violence-to-operate-solo-143750">seeking violent confrontation</a> expands a gang member’s social and personal esteem by conforming to gang ideals of toughness and fearlessness. </p>
<p>Gang membership was a calculated move that provided Gavin, Roddy, and others in our study with what they believed to be their best chance to survive.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534825/original/file-20230629-19-cww47l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man without a shirt pictured from behind, a prominent tattoo on his shoulders reads " src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534825/original/file-20230629-19-cww47l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534825/original/file-20230629-19-cww47l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534825/original/file-20230629-19-cww47l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534825/original/file-20230629-19-cww47l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534825/original/file-20230629-19-cww47l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534825/original/file-20230629-19-cww47l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534825/original/file-20230629-19-cww47l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Prairie gang member in Canada.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy Robert Henry</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Denied access to legal sources of income and other forms of human capital, marginal populations turn to the streets and to violence. Gang membership helps them construct defiant identities. In the short term street culture gives gang members some hope for empowerment and connections to underground economies. </p>
<p>However, long-term prospects for gang membership are not promising. Most literature on street gangs has shown that involvement is often <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1748895815603774">short-lived and highly violent</a>. Although gang members like Gavin and Roddy do make it out, it’s not easy and can be deadly. </p>
<p>More needs to be done to create equitable and just societies in which young men and women do not feel that the gang is their only choice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208383/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Henry receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dariusz Dziewanski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>More than being the social problem they are often made out to be, gangs are an indication of larger problems present in their societies.Dariusz Dziewanski, Honorary research affiliate, Centre of Criminology, University of Cape TownRobert Henry, Assistant professor, Indigenous Studies, University of SaskatchewanLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2060732023-05-25T12:27:22Z2023-05-25T12:27:22ZNFL icon and social activist Jim Brown leaves a complicated legacy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528099/original/file-20230524-30-gv5a9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=628%2C218%2C2206%2C2223&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jim Brown takes a break during a 1963 Cleveland Browns football game.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/jim-brown-close-up-on-bench-news-photo/515449734?adppopup=true">Bettmann/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Throughout his <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/may/20/jim-brown-remembrance-complex-legacy">celebrated life</a>, Jim Brown was both praised for <a href="https://apnews.com/article/jim-brown-activist-actor-nfl-ali-jabbar-e1f179ce07d940d418062ffc01daac97">his community activism</a> and vilified for his <a href="https://www.cleveland.com/news/2023/05/jim-browns-legacy-clouded-by-allegations-of-domestic-violence.html">abuse of women</a>. </p>
<p>But no one questions his incredible ability on the professional football field or his subsequent career in Hollywood during the racially tumultuous 1960s as one of the movie industry’s few Black male stars. </p>
<p>Considered by some sports analysts as the <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/157718-the-undisputed-greatest-jim-brown">best football player</a> in the history of the game, Brown became a <a href="https://www.profootballhof.com/players/jim-brown/">Hall of Fame</a> running back for the Cleveland Browns and used his celebrity status to <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/a-look-at-jim-browns-life-and-legacy-as-a-football-great-and-activist">fight for equal rights</a> at a time when America’s racial divide was erupting throughout the Deep South.</p>
<p>From his <a href="https://www.nfl.com/videos/a-football-life-how-jim-brown-dealt-with-racial-discrimination-63446">fight against racial discrimination</a> in the 1950s to his <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/nfl-legend-jim-brown-teaches-25-year-old-program-amer-i-can-foundation-article-1.972923">development of programs</a> to end gang violence in the 1980s, Brown set an early standard for being more than just a gifted athlete.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://lgst.wharton.upenn.edu/profile/shrop/">a scholar of African American Studies</a>, it’s my belief that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/19/sports/football/jim-brown-dead.html">Brown’s death on May 19, 2023,</a> at the age of 87 renews questions about the role that modern-day athletes could and should have on ongoing political and social debates. </p>
<h2>Brown’s first public act of activism</h2>
<p>Unlike later Black superstars such as <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/10/what-o-j-simpson-means-to-me/497570/">O.J. Simpson</a>, <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/29130478/michael-jordan-stands-firm-republicans-buy-sneakers-too-quote-says-was-made-jest">Michael Jordan</a> and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/458b7710858579281e0f1b73be0da618">Tiger Woods</a>, Brown was unafraid of potential financial losses and stood up for himself and, by extension, every Black man. </p>
<p>That boldness became clear when Brown <a href="https://www.daytondailynews.com/sports/brown-never-lamented-decision-to-retire-from-football-at-young-age/7EYPBMCBXNDYJLAJUSRHSDEYGA/">walked away from football</a> in 1966 to pursue another career as an actor in Hollywood, a decision prompted in part by the actions of Browns owner Art Modell. </p>
<p>Incensed that <a href="https://theathletic.com/4538174/2023/05/22/jim-brown-retirement-browns-super-bowl/">Brown was in England</a> filming the movie “Dirty Dozen” instead of practicing with the team, <a href="https://andscape.com/features/jim-brown-retires-while-on-the-set-of-the-dirty-dozen/">Modell threatened</a> to issue Brown daily fines of $100 until he returned. </p>
<p>Brown’s response was unequivocal. </p>
<p>In a letter to Modell, Brown wrote: “You must realize that both of us are men and that my manhood is just as important to me as yours is to you.” </p>
<p>His retirement in July 1966 from football was shocking.</p>
<p>As a young man who wanted to play professional football myself, I couldn’t understand why Brown walked away from the sport, voluntarily, at the age of 30 years old and at the peak of his career. </p>
<p>Little did I know at the time that <a href="https://andscape.com/features/jim-brown-retires-while-on-the-set-of-the-dirty-dozen/">his sudden retirement</a> was a form of activism to be himself.</p>
<p>Brown said as much in his letter to Modell. </p>
<p>“This decision is final,” <a href="https://www.profootballrumors.com/2018/07/jim-brown-retires-browns-nfl">Brown wrote</a>, “and is made only because of the future that I desire for myself, my family and, if not to sound corny, my race.” </p>
<p>I learned about Brown’s activism after I began to study sports as <a href="https://www.kennethshropshire.com/">a scholar</a> and came to realize how unique Brown was at the time and in comparison to other modern-day superstars who rarely jeopardize their livelihoods to protest racial inequality. </p>
<h2>The Cleveland Summit</h2>
<p>In June 1967, a year after his retirement, Brown organized what has come to be known as <a href="https://andscape.com/features/the-cleveland-summit-muhammad-ali/">the Cleveland Summit</a>, and it centered around Muhammad Ali and his refusal on religious grounds to join the U.S. military and fight in the Vietnam War.</p>
<p>For his refusal, Ali <a href="https://www.pbs.org/video/muhammad-ali-refuses-vietnam-war-draft-gqtvtv/">was stripped of his boxing titles</a> and faced a fine of $10,000 and a five-year prison sentence. But he still rejected the <a href="https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/muhammad-alis-draft-controversy/">government’s offer</a> to restrict his military activity to only boosting the morale of U.S. troops by boxing in sparring matches on military bases and not serve combat duty.</p>
<p>To show Ali support and convince him to accept the government’s offer, Brown gathered a meeting of the greatest Black athletes of the day and several politicians, including <a href="https://menofchange.si.edu/exhibit/men-of-change/ali/">Bill Russell</a>, Lew Alcindor – later known as <a href="https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/sports/2016/06/09/alis-passing-takes-jim-brown-abdul-jabbar-down-memory-lane/27955651007/">Kareem Abdul-Jabbar</a> – <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dc-sports-bog/wp/2016/06/07/a-redskins-hall-of-famer-once-tried-to-convince-muhammad-ali-to-serve-in-the-military/">Bobby Mitchell</a>, <a href="https://www.packersnews.com/story/sports/nfl/packers/dougherty/2017/02/17/dougherty-willie-davis-stood-up-ali/97995320/">Willie Davis</a> and then-<a href="https://teachingcleveland.org/category/carl-stokes-civil-rights-1960s/clevelands-muhammad-ali-summit-45-years-later/">Cleveland Mayor Carl Stokes</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of professional Black athletes and politicians are gathered together during a meeting." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527373/original/file-20230521-125283-55l4xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527373/original/file-20230521-125283-55l4xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527373/original/file-20230521-125283-55l4xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527373/original/file-20230521-125283-55l4xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527373/original/file-20230521-125283-55l4xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527373/original/file-20230521-125283-55l4xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527373/original/file-20230521-125283-55l4xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jim Brown, seated, second from right, helped organize other professional athletes and politicians in 1967 to talk about Muhammad Ali’s refusal to fight in the Vietnam War.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/nations-top-negro-athletes-gathered-for-a-meeting-at-the-news-photo/517262256?adppopup=true">Bettmann/GettyImages</a></span>
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<p>“I felt with Ali taking the position he was taking, and with him losing the crown, and with the government coming at him with everything they had, that we as a body of prominent athletes could get the truth and stand behind Ali and give him the necessary support,” Brown told the <a href="https://www.cleveland.com/sports/2012/06/gathering_of_stars.html">(Cleveland) Plain Dealer in 2012</a>.</p>
<p>In my view, not before, and certainly not since then, has there ever been a more significant gathering of athletes. Though the group <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/2022/0429/My-conscience-won-t-let-me-What-Muhammad-Ali-teaches-us-today">failed to convince Ali</a> to go against his religious beliefs, the meeting sent a powerful message that Black men were united and unafraid to support a Black man deemed an outcast by the U.S. government. Ali was later sent to prison.</p>
<p>“Everybody had taken a great risk at losing everything by meeting with him,” Brown <a href="https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/sports/2016/06/09/alis-passing-takes-jim-brown-abdul-jabbar-down-memory-lane/27955651007/">told The Associated Press in 2016</a>. “But what was so real was that we met for about five hours and Ali was asked every question that you could ask a person.”</p>
<p>Based on Ali’s genuine sincerity about his religious beliefs, Brown said the men became “a group of one” and decided “to back him all the way.”</p>
<h2>A flawed presence</h2>
<p>As a sports and entertainment attorney in Los Angeles, I often saw Brown at galas, some held at his home. Several years ago, I spent a day with him at <a href="https://amer-i-cancommunity.partners/about-amer-i-can/">Amer-I-can</a>, the organization that he founded in the 1980s that is focused on gang members and formerly incarcerated men and women. </p>
<p>In both of those settings, Brown had universal respect, and to say he had presence does not do him justice.</p>
<p>Part of that respect was due to Brown’s public admission that he had flaws. </p>
<p>In his <a href="https://www.kensingtonbooks.com/9780806539270/out-of-bounds/">1989 book</a> “Out of Bounds,” he wrote regarding one domestic abuse case he was involved in: “The toughest thing I did to her was slap her. I have also slapped other women. … I don’t think any man should slap a woman.”</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A black man with a grey beard wears a blue jacket as he stands in front of photographers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527370/original/file-20230521-127159-zcvt5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527370/original/file-20230521-127159-zcvt5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527370/original/file-20230521-127159-zcvt5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527370/original/file-20230521-127159-zcvt5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527370/original/file-20230521-127159-zcvt5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527370/original/file-20230521-127159-zcvt5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527370/original/file-20230521-127159-zcvt5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Jim Brown attends a gala in Manhattan Beach, Calif., on July 13, 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/cleveland-browns-full-back-nfl-champion-and-actor-jim-brown-news-photo/814424334?adppopup=true">Greg Doherty/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Clearly, some of Brown’s flaws were inexcusable. But for me, Brown offered a rare glimpse of a proud Black man who was willing to give up everything in order to stay true to his own principles. </p>
<p>The last time I saw Brown was during the 2023 Super Bowl festivities in Phoenix. Despite his frailty, crowded rooms still parted to make space for him.</p>
<p>No one invaded Jim Brown’s space without permission.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206073/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kenneth L. Shropshire does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The death of NFL great and Hollywood star Jim Brown renews questions about the role of modern-day athletes in political and social issues.Kenneth L. Shropshire, Professor Emeritus of Legal Studies and Business Ethics; Faculty Director, Wharton Coalition for Equity & Opportunity, University of PennsylvaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1893562022-09-08T16:36:30Z2022-09-08T16:36:30ZLiverpool shooting and the devastating impact of violence and deprivation on communities<p>August 22 marked the 15th anniversary of the shooting of 11-year-old <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/rhys-jones-killer-15-years-27800683">Rhys Jones</a> in the Liverpool suburb of Croxteth. In the same week, the people of Liverpool again witnessed the merciless <a href="https://www.itv.com/news/granada/2022-08-23/murder-of-nine-year-old-girl-in-liverpool-act-of-evil">killing of an innocent</a> child, gunned down in her own home. Nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel has become one more unnecessary victim of a shooting in the city.</p>
<p>Police have appealed to the public for help identifying those involved, and have made several arrests. Merseyside Police’s Assistant Chief Constable Chris Green <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-merseyside-62722937">praised the public’s</a> “collective ambition to make sure that those individuals in our communities who are engaged in organised crime – the intimidation, the violence, the use of firearms – they’ve got no place in our society.”</p>
<p>Olivia is the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-62706386">fourth person</a> to be killed in recent weeks in the area. As many previous events have shown, the impact of violence goes beyond those directly involved.</p>
<h2>Areas of high crime</h2>
<p>I have spent the last ten years studying gangs and violent crime, as well as living in an area on Merseyside that has seen its fair share of both. In that time, young people, often under the age of 25, have become involved in street gangs. While there are no official figures regarding gang involvement, “best guess” numbers are often drawn from historic reports and news articles. </p>
<p>A Home Office study several years ago found that <a href="https://safeguardinghub.co.uk/young-people-risk-gang-involvement-just-statistic/">up to 6%</a> of ten to 19-year-olds in England and Wales belonged to a gang. While identity, money, status and territory are all important consequences for those involved, their decision to join is usually triggered by one main case: inequality.</p>
<p>We in the west live in a society of conspicuous consumption, placing a high value on materialism and spending money on symbols of success, like designer clothes, cars and expensive holidays. But in less affluent areas, there are fewer legitimate means to achieve financial and material success through good jobs and other opportunities. </p>
<p>As a result, people simply innovate or find alternative means to reach those goals. For some, the obvious alternative path is one of criminality. This is an old academic theory that dates back to 1938 to social scientist <a href="https://soztheo.de/theories-of-crime/anomie-strain-theories/anomie-theory-merton/?lang=en">Robert Merton</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334633203_Grafting_the_boyz_just_doing_business_Deviant_entrepreneurship_in_street_gangs">My research</a> has found that where crime, particularly dangerous drug dealing, is concerned, illegal innovation has blurred the lines of criminality and employment. Young people selling drugs, often under the influence of adult organised crime groups, speak of their illegal activities in business-like ways, talking about “serving” clients and describing their gangs as “firms”. I coined the term “deviant entrepreneurship” to describe this.</p>
<h2>The sprawl of violence</h2>
<p>The existence of deviant entrepreneurship as a viable “career path” has created a cycle of young people growing up in environments that lack real opportunities, ultimately drifting into street gangs and later on adult organised crime. And with increased involvement in crime, violence often follows. As one young person who had been involved in violent crime and gangs said to me, it was on “my doorstep, I had no choice”. </p>
<p>For those who are innocent bystanders, yet occupy the same place as gangs and organised crime groups, the indirect effects can be damaging. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/43609902_Who_needs_enemies_with_friends_like_these_The_importance_of_place_for_young_people_living_in_known_gang_areas">Research has revealed</a> the effects of living in known “gang areas” on young people who are not involved in gangs. Law-abiding residents can be subjected to surveillance or have their movement restricted by heavy policing or gang conflict that takes over particular places. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Front facade of a derelict industrial red brick warehouse, with many broken windows." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482487/original/file-20220902-20-fxk51p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482487/original/file-20220902-20-fxk51p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482487/original/file-20220902-20-fxk51p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482487/original/file-20220902-20-fxk51p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482487/original/file-20220902-20-fxk51p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482487/original/file-20220902-20-fxk51p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482487/original/file-20220902-20-fxk51p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The cycle of deprivation and crime is difficult to break.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/old-derelict-brick-industrial-historical-warehouse-1229062213">Marbury / Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>It also has an impact on families. Parents and siblings unaware of their family member’s involvement in gang activity may experience shock, shame and anxiety when <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-71169-6_3">going through the criminal justice system</a>, or may even be blamed for their child’s actions.</p>
<p>On a community-wide level, the prevalence of gangs and organised crime groups can lead to a normalisation of crime, where violence and disorder just becomes <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/broken-windows-theory">part of local life</a>. Poverty has always been intertwined with crime and is something that politicians have <a href="https://www.leicestershirevillages.com/are-crime-rates-higher-in-urban-or-rural-areas/">failed to address</a> head-on, ignoring it in favour of pursuing individual perpetrators. </p>
<h2>Preventing and solving the problem</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.merseyside.police.uk/news/merseyside/news/august/merseyside-police-continues-its-relentless-pursuit-of-organised-crime-groups/">recent shootings</a> in Dingle, Old Swan and Dovecot (three other deprived Liverpool suburbs) are indicative of a continuing pattern of social exclusion and poverty leading to organised crime or violence generally. </p>
<p>It is a cycle that sadly is not going to go away any time soon, especially with the cost of living crisis. The government’s “levelling up” policy has, so far, neglected the ground-level issues that real people want addressing. Homelessness, poverty and crime have been overlooked to focus more on physical infrastructure. And much of the funding has reportedly gone to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2022/feb/02/levelling-up-funding-inequality-exposed-by-guardian-research">focus on more affluent areas</a> – contradicting the very notion of levelling up.</p>
<p>But on Merseyside, there is some hope in the form of <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/prevention-focused-community-policing/">preventative policing</a>, an approach that focuses on preventing crime before it occurs. Preventative policing is not just about increasing police presence, it involves looking at the social biographies of communities, their needs and the types of crime that is occurring. It recognises that community safety is not just a matter for law enforcement, but requires other agencies and organisations such as public health and the third sector to work together to alleviate poverty and crime. </p>
<p>Preventative policing is in its infancy, and we are likely to see it operational on Merseyside in early 2023. It’s a start, but the road is long. Solving a problem as endemic as inequality and related gang involvement will involve long term cultural change. </p>
<p>This can only be achieved by early intervention strategies and better investment, not just in the community, but in the people themselves with tailored support into decent employment. But how many more Rhyses and Olivias will there be before this happens?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189356/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Hesketh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Violence affects entire communities, even law-abiding residents.Robert Hesketh, Lecturer in Policing Studies, School of Justice Studies., Liverpool John Moores UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1864432022-07-07T12:26:53Z2022-07-07T12:26:53ZScapegoating rap hits new low after July Fourth mass shooting<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472870/original/file-20220706-25-p2t2ut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=862%2C181%2C4889%2C3638&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Flowers are laid near the scene of a mass shooting during a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Ill.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/flowers-are-laid-near-the-scene-of-a-shooting-at-a-fourth-news-photo/1241722394?adppopup=true">Jim Vondruska/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When local police named 22-year-old Robert E. Crimo III as “a person of interest” in the July 4 mass shootings in an affluent Chicago suburb, several news outlets described him in headlines as a “rapper.” </p>
<p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07/05/robert-crimo-highland-park-parade-shooting/">A Washington Post</a> headline read “Robert Crimo III, ‘Awake the Rapper,’ arrested in Highland Park shooting.” A <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7zvxz/highland-park-person-of-interest-robert-crimo">Vice News</a> headline read “Police Arrest Local Rapper in Connection to Highland Park Mass Shooting.”</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1544097698961399809"}"></div></p>
<p>In addition to the headlines, media outlets noted that Crimo had musical references to mass shootings on his social media accounts as well as crude drawings depicting violence.</p>
<p>But none of these justify the use of “rap” or “rapper” in describing Crimo’s alleged criminal behavior — and everything to do with criminalizing rap and rappers. </p>
<p>In my view, referring to this genre of music and those that make it is a racially loaded signal to readers that Crimo’s musical interests are a significant part of the mass shooting and somehow led to the crimes of which he is accused.</p>
<p>Those crimes include at least <a href="https://www.wcvb.com/article/highland-park-illinois-parade-shooting-what-we-know/40523471#">seven counts of first-degree murder</a> which, if he’s convicted, carry a maximum sentence of life without parole. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/05/us/robert-e-crimo-highland-park-suspect/index.html">Crimo is scheduled to appear</a> for a preliminary hearing on July 28 and is being held in detention without bail. </p>
<p>As far as I can tell, none of those alleged crimes had anything to do with Crimo’s career as a rapper.</p>
<p>But rap is an easy target.</p>
<h2>Scapegoating rap</h2>
<p>Rap has long been used to conspicuously stereotype, caricature and reinforce mythologies about Black people. As <a href="https://music.virginia.edu/people/profile/acarson">a rapper and scholar</a>, I wrote about this scapegoating in a <a href="https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/file_sets/pv63g236n">chapbook</a>, “Rap & Storytellingly Invention,” published with the <a href="https://theconversation.com/hip-hop-professor-looks-to-open-doors-with-worlds-first-peer-reviewed-rap-album-153761">peer-reviewed album</a> I released in 2020. </p>
<iframe style="border: 0; width: 410px; height: 406px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=734046536/size=large/bgcol=333333/linkcol=0f91ff/artwork=small/transparent=true/" seamless="" width="100%" height="400"><a href="https://aydeethegreat.bandcamp.com/album/i-used-to-love-to-dream">i used to love to dream by A.D. Carson</a></iframe>
<p>Since the rise of hip-hop in the early 1980s, critics of rap sought to tie the music to violent crime. </p>
<p>One of <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com./music/music-news/run-d-m-c-is-beating-the-rap-106981/">the first targets</a> was <a href="https://www.rundmc.com/">Run-DMC</a>, the rappers from Queens, New York, given credit for <a href="https://www.oprahdaily.com/entertainment/a30644382/run-dmc-facts/">bringing hip-hip to mainstream</a> music and culture. </p>
<p>During the group’s 1986 “Raising Hell” tour, police and journalists <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-08-19-me-16897-story.html">blamed its music for violence</a> that occurred in towns it visited. At its show in Long Beach, California, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1986/08/19/us/42-are-hurt-as-gang-fighting-breaks-up-california-concert.html">gang violence in the crowd</a> also was blamed on rap. </p>
<p>In the 1990s, politician and civil rights activist <a href="https://www.latimes.com/local/la-fi-tupacdelores20march2096-story.html">C. Delores Tucker</a> became one of the most outspoken anti-rap voices, focusing her ire on <a href="https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/tupac-shakur">Tupac Shakur</a> and the <a href="https://historyofthehiphop.wordpress.com/music-genres/gangsta-rap/">“gangsta rap”</a> subgenre.</p>
<p>The finger-pointing against rap – or some version of it – continues to this day.</p>
<p>The latest target is <a href="https://theconversation.com/chief-keef-changed-the-music-industry-and-its-time-he-gets-the-credit-he-deserves-170172">drill rap</a>, a hip-hop subgenre that originated in Chicago and has since spread across the world.</p>
<p>New York City Mayor Eric Adams <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/mayor-eric-adams-drill-rap-1299108/">condemned drill rap</a> on Feb. 11, 2022, after the murders of two Brooklyn rap artists, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/jayquan-mckenley-funeral/">Jayquan McKenley </a> and <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/rising-brooklyn-rapper-tdott-woo-fatally-shot-gun/story?id=82647146">Tahjay Dobson</a>. </p>
<p>Adams said the violence portrayed in drill rap music videos was “alarming” and that he would sit down with social media companies to try to remove the content by telling them they “have a civic and corporate responsibility.” </p>
<p>“We pulled Trump off Twitter for what he was spewing,” Adams said, “yet we are allowing music, displaying of guns, violence. We’re allowing it to stay on these sites.”</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1492247548387631108"}"></div></p>
<p>Similar tactics have been employed in the past to shut down drill music. </p>
<p>London drill rappers have been targeted since 2015 by the Metropolitan Police’s <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/bvnp8v/met-police-youtube-drill-music-removal">Operation Domain</a>, a joint effort with YouTube to monitor for “videos that incite violence.”</p>
<p>It’s as if politicians and police don’t understand that the music emerging from these places is a reflection of crisis, not the source of it.</p>
<h2>Tragic myths and realities</h2>
<p>Despite the immense popularity of hip-hop, the culture and the music continue to be portrayed as a cultural wasteland in both subtle and explicit ways.</p>
<p>Worse, in my view, these harmful assumptions affect the ways ordinary people who experience tragedies are described. </p>
<p>The word “rapper” is used to conjure negative imagery. It leaves hollow expectations in its place, to be filled with the specter of death and the spectacle of violence. The person described by it becomes a <a href="https://scalawagmagazine.org/2018/11/boogeymen/">boogeyman</a> in the public imagination. </p>
<p>In the most unjust of circumstances, “rapper” has become a social shorthand for presumptions of guilt, expectations of violence and sometimes worthiness of death. </p>
<p>Such was the case with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/12/willie-mccoy-shooting-vallejo-police-55-shots">Willie McCoy</a>. In 2019, the 20-year-old was killed by six policemen while he slept in his car at a Vallejo, California, Taco Bell. The officers claimed they saw a gun and tried to wake him. When McCoy moved, the officers fired 55 shots in 3½ seconds. </p>
<p>While rap music appears to have had nothing to do with the tragic events of his death, <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/02/17/vallejo-police-officer-colin-eaton-disciplined-for-excessive-force-in-2020-according-to-investigation/">descriptions of McCoy</a> as a rapper were reported more prominently and consistently than the 55 shots police fired at him while he slept.</p>
<p>Even playing rap music might result in death. In 2012, a 17-year-old named <a href="https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/crime/2016/11/17/michael-dunn-convicted-killing-17-year-old-after-telling-teen-turn-down-rap-music/15732203007/">Jordan Davis</a> was shot and killed by a man who complained about the <a href="https://www.firstcoastnews.com/article/news/local/monday-night-marks-8-years-since-murder-of-jordan-davis-over-loud-music-at-jacksonville-gas-station/77-2297d230-84cb-4cdf-bacd-00b583df6648">“loud” music Davis was playing</a> in his car at a Florida gas station. </p>
<p>During the proceedings, dubbed “the loud music trial,” Michael Dunn testified that <a href="http://www.redwedgemagazine.com/atonal-notes/on-white-thugs-like-michael-dunn-and-the-scapegoating-of-hip-hop">the music Davis and his friends were playing</a> in Davis’ car was “thug music” or “rap crap.”</p>
<p>Dunn’s defense depended on his victims’ being viewed as thugs by association with rap. </p>
<p>In jail, Dunn was <a href="https://participant.com/film/3-12-minutes-ten-bullets">recorded</a> on the phone speculating whether Davis and his friends were “gangster rappers.” He claimed he’d seen YouTube videos. </p>
<p>In describing these tragedies, the words “rappers” and “rap music” are code for “Black” and “other,” meant to elicit fear and justify violence. There’s no question in my mind that they would have been perceived differently if the words “poets” or “poetry” had been used instead. </p>
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<h2>Moral decline blamed on rap</h2>
<p>The day after the <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2022/05/25/uvalde-school-shooting-victims/">May 24, 2022, mass shooting</a> at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, U.S. Rep. <a href="https://www.congress.gov/member/district/ronny-jackson/J000304">Ronny Jackson</a> promptly blamed the violence on rap music and video games.</p>
<p>“Kids are exposed to all kinds of horrible stuff nowadays,” the Texas Republican <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/texas-school-shooting-god-family-ronny-jackson">told Fox News on May 25, 2022</a>. “I think about the horrible stuff that they hear when they listen to rap music, the video games that they watch … with all of this horrible violence.”</p>
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<p>For Jackson and other critics, rap seems to explain criminal behavior and signal moral decline. In the eyes of Georgia’s <a href="https://fultoncountyga.gov/districtattorney">Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis</a>, rap might be something else as well – evidence. </p>
<p>Atlanta rappers <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/young-thug-focused-faith-mental-192746912.html">Young Thug</a> and <a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/crime/rapper-gunna-now-in-fulton-jail-on-racketeering-charge/SW5HGGXXIJFNLAYD2A5EZEH324/">Gunna</a> were among 28 defendants <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/05/13/young-thung-gunna-rap-lyrics-court/">charged under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act</a> in May 2022 with conspiracy and street gang activity. </p>
<p>They are now in jail in Atlanta awaiting trial. </p>
<p>In the indictment, prosecutors cite lyrics from Young Thug’s songs as “overt acts in furtherance of the conspiracy.” </p>
<p>Several tracks are quoted, including “Slatty,” on which <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=slatty+lyrics&oq=%22Slatty%2C%22&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0i512l2j46i512l2j0i512j46i10i512j0i512j46i10i512j0i10i512.3369j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8">Young Thug raps</a>: “I killed his man in front of his mama /
Like f–k lil bruh, his sister, and cousin.”</p>
<p>Free speech has its limits. </p>
<p>“The First Amendment,” Willis explained, “does not protect people from prosecutors using [lyrics] as evidence if it is such.” </p>
<h2>Made in America</h2>
<p>Indeed, violence perpetuated by people who rap is as real any other American violence.</p>
<p>Young Thug, Gunna or any other rapper accused of crimes is not exempt from accountability. But, in my view, assuming people are criminals simply because they rap – even if they rap about violence – is wrong. </p>
<p>Admittedly, throughout hip-hop history, rappers have constructed personas as antiheroes. Performances of masculinity, violence, intimidation, gun ownership and misogyny are meant to signal a kind of authenticity. </p>
<p>In her 1994 book “Outlaw Culture,” bell hooks included a <a href="http://challengingmalesupremacy.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Misogyny-gangsta-rap-and-The-Piano-bell-hooks.pdf">chapter on “gangsta rap.”</a> Hooks explained that the abhorrent behaviors scrutinized and highlighted in rap are American values that people living and surviving here adopt.</p>
<p>In his <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com./music/music-news/run-d-m-c-is-beating-the-rap-106981/">December 1986 story on Run-DMC</a>, Rolling Stone writer Ed Kiersh said out loud what many were thinking.</p>
<p>“To much of white America,” Kiersh wrote, “rap means mayhem and bloodletting.” </p>
<p>Perhaps.</p>
<p>But those who still seek to vilify rap might do well to focus on the sources of the crisis of violence in America rather than blaming the music that reflects it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186443/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>A.D. Carson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Since rap music emerged in mainstream culture in the late 1980s, politicians have derided its lyrics and imagery as violent. Over the years, rap has become an easy target to blame for violence.A.D. Carson, Assistant Professor of Hip-Hop, University of VirginiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1666202021-10-20T12:37:32Z2021-10-20T12:37:32ZModel minority blues: The mental health consequences of being a model citizen — Don’t Call Me Resilient EP 9<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427434/original/file-20211020-14-1bdnaro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C19%2C988%2C587&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In this episode, we discuss some of the reasons South Asians are reporting higher rates of mental health issues than any other group. Here a group of young South Asians at Besharam, a Toronto nightclub hosted by DJ Amita (pre-pandemic). </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">courtesy Besharam</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/593ba323-0be6-42b4-a9f2-6d785595cc81?dark=true"></iframe>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-572" class="tc-infographic" height="100" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/572/661898416fdc21fc4fdef6a5379efd7cac19d9d5/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>It has been a tough year. We have all struggled and our collective mental health has taken a real hit. But according to a recent Statistics Canada report, South Asians have taken an even bigger hit, <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/200902/dq200902b-eng.htm">reporting lower levels of mental health than any other Canadians during the pandemic</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com/episodes/ep-9-model-minority-blues-the-mental-health-consequences-of-being-a-model-citizen">In this episode of <em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em></a>, we take a look at some of the reasons why, including the pressure of needing to be a model minority. That’s the idea that Asian immigrants keep their heads down. They don’t rock the boat. They are successful and they prosper. Well, those ideas are mostly myths. And those myths can cause all kinds of problems. It often forces people to internalize their mental anguish and it can end up leaving gaps in our mental health services. </p>
<p>My guests on this episode are intimately connected to the situation. Satwinder Bains is an associate professor and director of the South Asian Studies Institute at the University of the Fraser Valley. Her research focuses on access to mental health support in South Asian communities and the effects of migration and social isolation on mental health. And Maneet Chahal is co-founder of Soch Mental Health, which encourages better access to mental health support in Canada’s South Asian communities.</p>
<p>For a full transcript of this episode of Don’t Call Me Resilient, go <a href="https://theconversation.com/model-minority-blues-the-mental-health-consequences-of-being-a-model-citizen-dont-call-me-resilient-ep-9-transcript-167521">here</a>.</p>
<h2>Additional reading</h2>
<p>Each week, we highlight articles from <em>The Conversation</em> and other places that drill down into the topics we discuss in the episode. This week:</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-mental-health-issues-get-stigmatized-in-south-asian-communities-culturally-diverse-therapy-needed-164913">How mental health issues get stigmatized in South Asian communities: Culturally diverse therapy needed</a></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/we-still-stigmatize-mental-illness-that-needs-to-stop-169518">We still stigmatize mental illness, that needs to stop </a></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-mental-health-issues-get-stigmatized-in-south-asian-communities-culturally-diverse-services-needed-164913">Inquiry into coronavirus nursing home deaths needs to include discussion of workers and race</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/how-2-toronto-women-are-reshaping-what-it-means-to-be-south-asian-and-taking-that-message-worldwide-1.6006002">How 2 Toronto women are reshaping what it means to be South Asian and taking that message worldwide</a></p>
<p><a href="https://newcanadianmedia.ca/mental-health-south-asian-community">Men’s forum addresses mental health in South Asian community</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.baaznews.org/p/ask-new-questions-metro-vancouver-gang-violence">Harpo Mander: It’s time to ask new questions when analysing Metro Vancouver gang violence</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.abbynews.com/news/theres-help-for-south-asian-men-wrestling-with-drug-addiction-in-surrey/">There’s help for South Asian men wrestling with drug addiction in Surrey</a></p>
<p>If you or your loved one needs resources, check out this <a href="https://www.sochmentalhealth.com/resources/">resource list published by Soch Mental Health Services.</a> </p>
<h2>Follow and listen</h2>
<p>You can listen or subscribe on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/dont-call-me-resilient/id1549798876">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9qZFg0Ql9DOA">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/37tK4zmjWvq2Sh6jLIpzp7">Spotify</a> or <a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com/">wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts</a>. <a href="mailto:theculturedesk@theconversation.com">We’d love to hear from you</a>, including any ideas for future episodes. Join <em>The Conversation</em> on <a href="https://twitter.com/ConversationCA">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TheConversationCanada">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">Instagram</a> and use #DontCallMeResilient.</p>
<p><em>Don’t Call Me Resilient is a production of The Conversation Canada. This podcast was produced with a grant for Journalism Innovation from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The series is produced and hosted by Vinita Srivastava. Our producer is Susana Ferreira. Our associate producer is Ibrahim Daair. Vaishnavi Dandekar is our editorial intern. Reza Dahya is our sound producer. Our consulting producer is Jennifer Moroz. Lisa Varano is our audience development editor and Scott White is the CEO of The Conversation Canada. Zaki Ibrahim wrote and performed the music we use on the pod. The track is Something in the Water.</em></p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A girl sits on her dad's shoulders" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427320/original/file-20211019-14-1fm0rrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=307%2C193%2C3386%2C2728&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427320/original/file-20211019-14-1fm0rrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427320/original/file-20211019-14-1fm0rrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427320/original/file-20211019-14-1fm0rrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427320/original/file-20211019-14-1fm0rrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427320/original/file-20211019-14-1fm0rrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427320/original/file-20211019-14-1fm0rrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This episode explores the mental health of South Asians in the diaspora. Here a South Asian girl sits on her dad’s shoulders at the Vaisakhi Parade in Surrey, B.C., 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166620/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The pressure of needing to be a model minority — successful, quiet, hardworking — can force people to internalize their mental anguish and ends up leaving gaps in our mental health services.Vinita Srivastava, Host + Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientIbrahim Daair, Culture + Society EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1688612021-10-11T15:06:38Z2021-10-11T15:06:38ZStudy paints a grim picture of what young gangsters think about violence and manhood<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424472/original/file-20211004-15-bvtz8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Children watch as police work behind a cordon where a young victim of a gang shooting lies dead on the ground. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Brenton Geach/Gallo Images via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Gang violence is a <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0259-94222014000300033">deeply rooted problem</a> in many impoverished communities across South Africa. This not only significantly affects the young people involved, but has adverse effects on communities: psychological violence, substance abuse and <a href="https://aidc.org.za/the-violent-work-of-south-african-gangs/">abnormal levels of crime and gun battles</a>.</p>
<p>Another grim side effect of gang violence is gender-based violence, which is one of the country’s <a href="https://www.gov.za/speeches/dialogue-mark-16-days-activism-26-nov-2020-0000">greatest concerns</a>. Research has repeatedly <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7599123/">shown</a> how gender-based violence is closely <a href="https://promundoglobal.org/resources/masculine-norms-violence-making-connections/">linked to toxic masculinities</a> – views about masculinity (what it means to be a man) that are harmful to the man himself and the people around him. It is also about the exercise of power by men over women and other men they consider weak.</p>
<p>Our study explored the intricate connection between marginalised youth in gangs, toxic masculinity and gender-based violence in <a href="https://www.mindat.org/feature-1017447.html">Bophelong</a>, a township about 70 kilometres south of Johannesburg, in the Vaal area. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03736245.1982.10559651?journalCode=rsag20#:%7E:text=Positioned%20just%20to%20the%20west,3">Townships</a> are historically black urban residential areas, mostly characterised by underdevelopment and high levels of poverty. </p>
<p>The study, <em>The Interconnection between Youth Gangs, Toxic Masculinity and Gender Based Violence in South Africa</em>, is a chapter in the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Negotiating-Patriarchy-Gender-Africa-Discourses-ebook/dp/B09BYQYSWZ">book</a> Negotiating Patriarchy and Gender in Africa: Discourses, Practices, and Policies.</p>
<p>We found that, in the absence of socio-economic opportunities – recreational and cultural facilities, jobs, other economic opportunities and social networks – gangs use violence to dominate and subordinate rival gangs in order to maintain their place as the “superior” men in their communities. </p>
<p>High levels of violence are used to “prove” gang members’ masculinity. The findings also highlight that the way young gang members think about and understand masculinity ultimately translates into gender-based violence.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-cape-town-gangsters-who-use-extreme-violence-to-operate-solo-143750">The Cape Town gangsters who use extreme violence to operate solo</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Our findings are important because they highlight the link between harmful definitions of masculinity and violence. They show that in the face of marginalisation and social exclusion, youth in gangs think they have no options except violence to prove that they are “real” men in their communities.</p>
<h2>The study</h2>
<p>We interviewed 15 unemployed youths and former gang members between the ages of 14 and 35, and 19 practitioners working on the issue of youth and gang violence. </p>
<p>We asked questions about the development challenges facing youth in townships, as well as exploring what drives young people’s attraction to gangs. And we examined how gang members think about masculinity. We found that gangs use violence to construct and practise a toxic masculinity: it makes them engage in anti-social behaviour, resulting in them being maimed or killed. </p>
<p>Women in the areas are often caught in the crossfire of gang wars. This is because territory marking and revenge among rival gangs is not just about them fighting among themselves. It also spills over into sexual violence.</p>
<p>The gang members often lose their loved ones or put them in danger of revenge attacks while trying to prove that they are the better gangs and the better men. </p>
<p>A former gang member explained (page 82):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>you feel like you are a man if your gang is powerful but there is so much violence and there is so much revenge.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These results concur with those of other <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X17000761">studies</a> which have noted that gangs use violence as a tool to eradicate all traces of femininity or weakness within them. Gangs enable their members to assert their manhood. As our study confirms, being a “real man” is about power and hierarchy.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gangs-offer-a-tempting-home-to-frustrated-unhappy-youngsters-54840">Gangs offer a tempting 'home' to frustrated, unhappy youngsters</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Many participants in our study identified the masculine norms of power, control, being in command and aggression as some of the defining factors of being “top dogs” (<em>izinja ze game</em> in isiZulu). There was also an element of performance, whereby they displayed their so-called prowess on the streets to intimidate communities. </p>
<p>All of this is, of course, dangerous not just for the individual men, but for their communities more broadly.</p>
<h2>Sexual violence</h2>
<p><a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/latamcaribbean/2017/07/18/breaking-bad-recognising-the-role-of-masculinities-can-help-prevent-gang-formation-in-latin-america-and-the-caribbean/">Research</a> indicates that, due to their glamorous lifestyle which includes access to cash, expensive clothes and flashy cars, gangs often construct their masculinity through promiscuity. Our findings show, however, that in Bophelong, gangs use rape as a weapon to assert their masculinity. A respondent working with former gang members noted (page 81):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>They start raping girls around the area. I don’t know, maybe they are told that they are now men they must test their thing.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We also found that the gangs extended their violence to the women and girls around them. To mark territory or exert revenge, a rival gang member’s female family member is sometimes raped. </p>
<p>Another respondent working with current and former gang members added (page 82):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You find that you are a gang member and you belong to a certain group. How do we hurt you? We hurt you by either touching your daughter, your wife, or your girlfriend. So now again you see gender-based violence … It plays right into the sexual violence domain.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A former gang member confirmed (page 80):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>My sister was raped by rival gangs as an act of revenge.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>This study has shown how gangs from the marginalised community of Bophelong, who feel that they have been “emasculated” by poverty, construct and practise masculinity. It also shows the impacts. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-soldiers-wont-end-gang-violence-a-co-ordinated-plan-might-120775">South Africa's soldiers won't end gang violence. A co-ordinated plan might</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It is, therefore, recommended that various government departments, civil society and communities work together to deny toxic masculinity its breeding ground. The focus should be on addressing the underlying, interlinked root causes of toxic masculinity. This includes a change in attitudes, socialisation, behaviours and beliefs about masculinity and manhood.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168861/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>G. Nokukhanya Ndhlovu receives funding from the Govan Mbeki Research and Development Centre (GMRDC) at the University of Fort Hare.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pius Tanga does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Findings show that in the face of marginalisation and social exclusion, youth in gangs think that they have no options except violence to prove that they are ‘real’ men in their communities.G. Nokukhanya Ndhlovu, Post-doctoral fellow, University of Fort HarePius Tanga, Professor, University of Fort HareLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1580082021-05-27T12:06:56Z2021-05-27T12:06:56ZColombian city beset by crime declares ‘Black Lives Matter’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402694/original/file-20210525-19-16h5jn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5568%2C3700&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A demonstration for peace in Buenaventura, Colombia, where a cartel turf war has left at least 30 people dead since the beginning of this year.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/people-demonstrate-against-armed-groups-that-have-left-this-year-31-picture-id1230988457?k=6&m=1230988457&s=612x612&w=0&h=T125h4MNCaPx0YOo2PwqwzHb8EE6xXU-RpaVFdEuNOg=">Luis Robayo/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.semana.com/nacion/articulo/urgente-grave-situacion-en-buenaventura-reportan-saqueos-en-el-area-del-puerto/202130/">Chaotic and deadly protests</a> have for weeks rocked the Colombian port city of Buenaventura. <a href="https://www.semana.com/nacion/articulo/autoridades-investigan-tres-muertes-en-protestas-de-este-miercoles-en-buenaventura/202126/">In mid-May</a> some demonstrators stormed the airport, and riot police responded with force, killing three.</p>
<p>Buenaventura’s demonstrations are a part of the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/11/cali-emerges-as-epicentre-of-colombias-ongoing-unrest">massive, violent national wave of protests</a> over increasing poverty and incessant violence in Colombia. But they actually began well before Colombia’s broader upheaval. </p>
<p>Since early 2021, people in this <a href="https://geoportal.dane.gov.co/geovisores/territorio/servicios-web-geograficos/?cod=049">majority-Black coastal city</a> have been rising up peacefully but insistently against rampant drug trafficking, political violence and cartel infiltration. </p>
<p>Organized crime and illicit economies are both national problems in Colombia. But in Buenaventura, a history of state neglect has allowed both to flourish unchecked, according to <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=WvO0RgIAAAAJ&hl=en&authuser=1&gmla=AJsN-F6H25YEpEpLDoeSyz3HJMMO7N6Ww_gzpTquP-RTH1MG-525I5paRUsnNF5eC7lcqiIImFrojBmRGOOv6Bc6BzJ_S7aTgc-cDe3wVElDu-J_rfOwrqk&sciund=5776971038694750573">my academic research in the city</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://pares.com.co/2020/06/03/racismo-y-covid-19-en-colombia-las-vidas-negras-importan/">For many Colombian</a> and <a href="https://www.wola.org/2021/02/colombian-government-us-policymakers-must-protect-black-lives-buenaventura/">international observers</a>, the government’s apparent lack of interest in saving Buenaventura has a clear source: structural racism resulting from <a href="https://nacla.org/news/2021/03/11/afro-colombians-buenaventura-ports-violence">state policies that have long marginalized Black Colombians</a>. </p>
<iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=476&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fsoydebuenaventura%2Fvideos%2F2683404115319100%2F&show_text=false&width=476" width="100%" height="476" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share"></iframe>
<figure><figcaption><span class="caption">After a young Black man named Anderson Arboleda was beaten to death by Colombian police in May 2020, a Buenaventura digital news site posted this explainer on racism in Colombia.</span></figcaption></figure>
<h2>Abandoned city</h2>
<p>Black people, or Afro-Colombians, make up approximately 10% of Colombia’s 50 million people and 85% of Buenaventura’s population. </p>
<p>Many residents originally came to Buenaventura – located approximately 300 miles from Colombia’s Andean capital, Bogota – as war refugees from different parts of Colombia’s Pacific region to escape armed conflict. </p>
<p>Colombia is home to a <a href="https://theconversation.com/violence-and-killings-havent-stopped-in-colombia-despite-landmark-peace-deal-111232">half-century long battle among guerrillas, the government and paramilitary groups</a>. The war technically ended with a 2016 peace accord, but Colombia’s ever-changing and complex armed conflict continues to kill and displace scores each year. <a href="https://www.hrw.org/reports/1994/colombia/gener1.htm">Most violent crimes in the country go unsolved</a>.</p>
<p>Activists and <a href="https://www.wola.org/2021/02/colombian-government-us-policymakers-must-protect-black-lives-buenaventura/">human rights groups say Buenaventura’s dismal and dangerous living conditions</a> reflect long-standing disparities between Black and white Colombians. For example, approximately <a href="https://www.justice.gov/eoir/page/file/1277501/download">41% of Afro-Colombians live in poverty, compared with 27% of white Colombians</a>.</p>
<p>All Buenaventura is in desperate need of investment to upgrade its dilapidated or nonexistent infrastructure. Many neighborhoods <a href="https://www.abcolombia.org.uk/emblematic-case-buenaventura/">lack drinkable water, trash pickup and functioning sewers</a>. Sewage runs underneath houses near the port and <a href="https://www.coha.org/colombias-next-pertinent-deal-buenaventura/#_edn10">flows untreated into the Pacific Ocean</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402692/original/file-20210525-13-w1kf1b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Soldier in fatigue holds a weapon while a young girl covers her head" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402692/original/file-20210525-13-w1kf1b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402692/original/file-20210525-13-w1kf1b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402692/original/file-20210525-13-w1kf1b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402692/original/file-20210525-13-w1kf1b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402692/original/file-20210525-13-w1kf1b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402692/original/file-20210525-13-w1kf1b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402692/original/file-20210525-13-w1kf1b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Colombian marine on patrol in Buenaventura on Feb. 10, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/colombian-marine-infantry-soldiers-patrol-the-streets-of-buenaventura-picture-id1231092379?k=6&m=1231092379&s=612x612&w=0&h=l4ZKcDEHFoZ3PX3VNbiOU_qGlM864yn0IbgDHGQwSFE=">Luis Robayo/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Medical care is also poor in Buenaventura. Local clinics often do not have the supplies or capacity to treat many patients, so sick Buenaventura residents are referred to hospitals in Cali, three hours away. Last June, Buenaventura had <a href="https://colombiacheck.com/chequeos/si-buenaventura-tiene-la-tasa-de-letalidad-mas-alta-del-pais-por-covid-19">Colombia’s highest COVID-19 mortality rate</a>.</p>
<p>A chronic <a href="https://colombiareports.com/colombias-failing-state-part-2-who-is-the-boss-in-buenaventura/">75% unemployment rate</a> and <a href="https://www.dane.gov.co/files/investigaciones/planes-desarrollo-territorial/100320-Info-Alcaldia-Buenaventura.pdf">64% poverty rate</a> – twice the national average – make local youth easy recruits for armed groups. The lack of state presence also allows these groups to <a href="https://www.dane.gov.co/files/investigaciones/planes-desarrollo-territorial/100320-Info-Alcaldia-Buenaventura.pdf">threaten and attack locals</a> without accountability. Many residents <a href="https://insightcrime.org/news/violence-buenaventura-local-rift/">do not even report such incidents</a> to police for fear of retaliation. </p>
<p>Although the Colombian national government normally has little presence in Buenaventura, it flexed its muscle when protests broke out. In February, amid the outburst of cartel violence, marines were sent to patrol city streets. And in May, when some protests turned to riots, security forces quelled the uprising with deadly violence.</p>
<p>Cries of “Black Lives Matter” – or “las vidas negras importan” – became a <a href="https://www.huckmag.com/perspectives/activism-2/colombia-black-lives-matter-trend-racism/">theme in the city’s protests</a>, as residents in this oppressed city connect their struggles with those of Black people in the U.S. and worldwide.</p>
<h2>Cartel violence</h2>
<p>Despite these troubles, Buenaventura is home to Colombia’s most vital port. Over 50% of all Colombian <a href="https://www.ccbun.org/articulos/ventajas-competitivas">imports and exports move through the city</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402900/original/file-20210526-17-1aog9od.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Large ships with stacked containers lined up in the water" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402900/original/file-20210526-17-1aog9od.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402900/original/file-20210526-17-1aog9od.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402900/original/file-20210526-17-1aog9od.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402900/original/file-20210526-17-1aog9od.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402900/original/file-20210526-17-1aog9od.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402900/original/file-20210526-17-1aog9od.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402900/original/file-20210526-17-1aog9od.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Container ships at the port of Buenaventura, Colombia’s most important port.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Puerto_de_buenaventura.jpg">Jimysantandef via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That includes legal goods such as coffee and mined minerals as well as illegal products such as marijuana and <a href="https://wtop.com/world/2020/03/us-report-colombia-coca-production-still-at-record-high/">cocaine</a>, which is processed in <a href="http://thecitypaperbogota.com/news/colombian-cocaine-exports-increased-during-pandemic-claims-dea/26915">hidden laboratories throughout the country</a>. Cocaine is shipped from Buenaventura to partner cartels in Central America and on to the U.S. or directly to Europe – the world’s biggest cocaine markets. </p>
<p>Each kilo of cocaine that makes it to Europe earns <a href="https://insightcrime.org/news/analysis/buenaventura-cocaine-path-least-resistance/">approximately US$30,000</a>. Controlling Buenaventura and connecting waterways is a profitable enterprise for Colombia’s many <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/latin-america-caribbean/andes/colombia/076-calming-restless-pacific-violence-and-crime-colombias-coast">criminal operations</a>. </p>
<p>For years, a local narco-trafficking group called La Local held a comfortable monopoly on illegal imports and exports, allowing for relative peace. But in late 2020, the group split into factions. </p>
<p>The resulting turf war <a href="https://www.semana.com/nacion/articulo/la-increible-guerra-urbana-que-tiene-a-buenaventura-sumida-en-zozobra-y-dolor/202154/">led to at least 30 murders and 40 disappearances</a> by February 2021. Another 6,000 people in Buenaventura were forced to flee their homes to escape crossfire. Some fled <a href="https://nacla.org/news/2021/03/11/afro-colombians-buenaventura-ports-violence">besieged portside neighborhoods after death threats</a>. </p>
<p>“There’s collective panic, a generalized sense of insecurity where we can’t feel at ease even in our own neighborhoods or houses or in public spaces,” local activist Danelly Estupiñán told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/feb/23/colombias-capital-of-horror-despairs-amid-renewed-gang-violence-buenaventura">The Guardian newspaper in February</a>. That newspaper has called Buenaventura “Colombia’s Capital of Horror.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402693/original/file-20210525-19-10gtsr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Warehouse with rows of plastic packages lined up and a caution tape running across foreground" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402693/original/file-20210525-19-10gtsr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402693/original/file-20210525-19-10gtsr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402693/original/file-20210525-19-10gtsr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402693/original/file-20210525-19-10gtsr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402693/original/file-20210525-19-10gtsr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402693/original/file-20210525-19-10gtsr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402693/original/file-20210525-19-10gtsr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Packages of marijuana seized near Buenaventura on March 27, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/colombian-soldiers-organize-seized-marijuana-packages-in-buenaventura-picture-id1231972895?k=6&m=1231972895&s=612x612&w=0&h=P3NKwuJAolJYQ1q9LxPFPKKBMbUtCKlZ89ya_ts9Vq8=">Luis Robayo/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Desperate to <a href="https://www.wola.org/2021/02/colombia-begins-2021-alarming-records-violence-urgent-action/">stop spiking violence</a>, which Estupiñán called a “humanitarian crisis,” residents in this city of 450,000 staged large-scale protests early this year. </p>
<p>At one point in February, they formed a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/feb/23/colombias-capital-of-horror-despairs-amid-renewed-gang-violence-buenaventura">13-mile human “chain for peace.”</a></p>
<p>Buenaventura’s fight for government investment, inclusion in national policymaking and better social welfare programs has had limited success so far. </p>
<p>But locals say something has to change – and they won’t stop marching until it does. </p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158008/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shauna N Gillooly receives funding from the Fulbright Commission.</span></em></p>A lethal turf war between drug traffickers has terrorized Buenaventura, Colombia for months. Now protesters are demanding the government’s help to protect people in this mostly Black city.Shauna N Gillooly, PhD Candidate, Political Science, University of California, IrvineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1566222021-03-10T13:31:53Z2021-03-10T13:31:53ZBiden ends policy forcing asylum-seekers to ‘remain in Mexico’ – but for 41,247 migrants, it’s too late<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388635/original/file-20210309-19-1toamej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C11%2C7577%2C5199&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The first group of asylum-seekers allowed to cross from a migrant camp in Mexico into the United States following Biden's repeal of the 'Remain in Mexico' policy arrives to Brownsville, Texas, Feb. 25, 2021.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/volunteer-welcomes-a-group-of-at-least-25-immigrant-asylum-news-photo/1304097843">John Moore/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The last residents of Mexico’s Matamoros refugee camp <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-mexico-feature/mexican-camp-that-was-symbol-of-migrant-misery-empties-out-under-biden-idUSKBN2AZ0GB">crossed the border</a> into the United States on March 5 to request asylum. </p>
<p>The migrants – many of them <a href="https://theconversation.com/migrants-stories-why-they-flee-114725">Central Americans fleeing endemic violence, poverty and corruption</a> – will be allowed to stay in the U.S. as their cases move through the immigration court system. </p>
<p>The exodus from the <a href="https://twitter.com/nspimentel/status/1367884621254393857">Matamoros camp</a>, which once <a href="https://gpc.batten.virginia.edu/our-work/publications/living-tent-camp-usmexico-border-experience-women-and-children-matamoros">sheltered more than 2,500 asylum-seekers</a>, marks the end of a Trump-era policy called the <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/news/2019/01/24/migrant-protection-protocols">Migrant Protection Protocols</a>. Commonly known as “Remain in Mexico,” the January 2019 policy forced <a href="https://trac.syr.edu/phptools/immigration/mpp/">71,000 migrants</a> who were detained along the U.S.-Mexico border back into Mexico to file for asylum and wait for many months while their claims were processed. </p>
<p>The Trump administration claimed the Migrant Protection Protocols ensured a “<a href="https://www.dhs.gov/news/2019/01/24/migrant-protection-protocols">safe and orderly process</a>.” But it created a refugee crisis in Mexico, whose border cities were not equipped to house, feed and protect tens of thousands of refugees. Matamoros is <a href="https://www.texasobserver.org/life-is-a-fight-scenes-from-a-migrant-tent-camp-in-juarez/">one of many tent camps</a> and Catholic shelters set up to serve this population. </p>
<p>On President Joe Biden’s first day in office, the Department of Homeland Security <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/news/2021/01/20/dhs-statement-suspension-new-enrollments-migrant-protection-protocols-program">suspended the Migrant Protection Protocols</a>, and by late February asylum-seekers were being screened for COVID-19 and allowed into the United States. The change elicited <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/wx89j5/we-are-so-happy-migrants-stranded-by-trump-are-finally-entering-the-us">enormous relief</a> among the <a href="https://wgno.com/news/politics/line-to-exit-mpp-program-grows-to-15000-in-less-than-two-weeks/">more than 15,000 migrants</a> at that point stuck in the camps in northern Mexico.</p>
<p>But the border reopened too late for most of the 41,247 migrants whose cases were rejected while they “remained in Mexico.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388639/original/file-20210309-21-qq55uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Dozens of tents in a parking lot" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388639/original/file-20210309-21-qq55uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388639/original/file-20210309-21-qq55uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388639/original/file-20210309-21-qq55uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388639/original/file-20210309-21-qq55uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388639/original/file-20210309-21-qq55uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388639/original/file-20210309-21-qq55uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388639/original/file-20210309-21-qq55uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Matamoros camp, next to the international bridge to the United States, Dec. 9, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/camp-for-asylum-seekers-stands-next-to-the-international-news-photo/1193072800?adppopup=true">John Moore/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Dangers of waiting</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://trac.syr.edu/">Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse</a> at Syracuse University, where I research immigration enforcement, collects and analyzes government records procured through the Freedom of Information Act. Records we obtained from the Department of Justice show that <a href="https://trac.syr.edu/phptools/immigration/mpp/">71,036 total asylum cases were filed from Mexico under the Migrant Protection Protocols</a>, which lasted from January 2019 until January 2021.</p>
<p>So far, 41,888 cases have been completed or closed. Of those, just 641 people were granted asylum or otherwise given shelter in the United States, an approval rate of 1.5%. In 2017, by contrast, <a href="https://trac.syr.edu/phptools/immigration/asylum/">40% of asylum-seekers</a> had their claims granted by a U.S. immigration judge.</p>
<p>Of the 41,888 cases completed under the Migrant Protection Protocols, 32,659 asylum-seekers received a deportation order from an immigration judge – even though they were not physically in the United States. Most of these – 27,898 – received deportation orders because they did not appear for their immigration court hearing on the U.S. side of the border.</p>
<p>There are many reasons migrants waiting in Mexico may not have made it to immigration court. One is the dangers of northern Mexico, where <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/displacement-in-central-america.html">drug cartels and organized crime prey on vulnerable migrants</a>.</p>
<p>Matamoros is in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, where <a href="https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/campaign/remain-mexico#accountability">rape, torture and kidnapping</a> are so pervasive that the U.S. State Department has a “do not travel” <a href="https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/mexico-travel-advisory.html">advisory on the state</a>. </p>
<p>The nonprofit organization <a href="https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/campaign/remain-mexico#accountability">Human Rights First documented 1,544 cases</a> of asylum-seekers who became victims of violence while they waited in Mexico. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/attorney-central-american-in-mpp-program-murdered-in-tijuana">In one case</a>, Customs and Border Protection returned a Salvadoran family to Mexico in May 2019 despite their expressed fear. In November 2019, the father was stabbed to death in Tijuana, leaving behind his wife and two children. </p>
<p>“I told the judge that I was afraid for my children because we were in a horrible, horrible place, and we didn’t feel safe here,” <a href="https://www.telemundo20.com/noticias/local/migrante-muere-en-espera-de-asilo/1971748/">his widow told the news outlet Telemundo</a>.</p>
<p>Another victim was <a href="https://diario.mx/juarez/secuestraron-federales-a-migrante-20190618-1528960.html">a Honduran woman</a> of the <a href="https://www.refworld.org/docid/5b9f70157.html">Garífuna</a> Afro-Caribbean minority, who was kidnapped and raped in the city of Juárez while she “remained in Mexico.” </p>
<p>And Vice Magazine reported on David, an asylum-seeker from Guatemala, who was kidnapped by a cartel <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/pa7kkg/trumps-asylum-policies-sent-him-back-to-mexico-he-was-kidnapped-five-hours-later-by-a-cartel">five hours after he was sent back to Mexico</a> in 2019. David escaped, but because the cartel had taken his paperwork, making an asylum claim became all but impossible.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388638/original/file-20210309-15-fg13oz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Line of people standing behind a van, with children playing in dirt in foreground" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388638/original/file-20210309-15-fg13oz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388638/original/file-20210309-15-fg13oz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388638/original/file-20210309-15-fg13oz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388638/original/file-20210309-15-fg13oz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388638/original/file-20210309-15-fg13oz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388638/original/file-20210309-15-fg13oz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388638/original/file-20210309-15-fg13oz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Asylum-seekers from the Matamoros refugee camp line up for bottled water on Dec. 9, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/asylum-seekers-wait-for-bottled-water-at-an-immigrant-camp-news-photo/1193073444?adppopup=true">John Moore/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Insurmountable obstacles</h2>
<p>Lack of legal counsel is another reason migrants waiting in Mexico might not have appeared at their U.S. court hearings or may have been denied asylum and issued a deportation order.</p>
<p>Immigrants with an attorney are <a href="https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/access-counsel-immigration-court">twice as likely to win their cases</a>, and 99% of asylum-seeking families with an immigration attorney <a href="https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/access-counsel-immigration-court">attend all their immigration court hearings</a>.</p>
<p>But it was much harder to get a <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/advocacy/governmental_legislative_work/publications/washingtonletter/november_2019_washington_letter/hearing-recap-laura-pena/">U.S. immigration lawyer in Tamaulipas, Mexico, than in Texas</a> in 2019. In fiscal 2020, only 14% of migrants forced to “remain in Mexico” had found an immigration attorney, compared with <a href="https://trac.syr.edu/phptools/immigration/asylum/">80% of asylum cases for migrants inside the U.S.</a></p>
<p>Without a lawyer, communicating with the American court system across an international border while living in a camp became a nearly insurmountable barrier. </p>
<p>For example, migrants told BuzzFeed News that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement often filed incomplete or inaccurate paperwork, sometimes <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/adolfoflores/asylum-notice-border-appear-facebook-mexico">listing “Facebook” as migrants’ physical address</a>. And without a lawyer, it was all but impossible for these migrants to receive crucial court notices.</p>
<h2>End of asylum</h2>
<p>“Remain in Mexico” made it nearly impossible for asylum-seekers to find safety in the U.S. But the asylum process can have profoundly unequal results – regardless of who sits in the White House.</p>
<p>Asylum outcomes are often determined as much by which <a href="https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2914&context=facpub">asylum officer</a> or <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-17-72">immigration judge</a> decides the case as they are determined by merit. For instance, immigration judges in Atlanta <a href="https://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/590/">reject, on average, 97% of asylum cases</a>, while those in New York City approve, on average, 74%. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388640/original/file-20210309-17-1c0jbd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two men in winter clothing in a room of bunk beds discuss a piece of paper that one man is holding" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388640/original/file-20210309-17-1c0jbd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388640/original/file-20210309-17-1c0jbd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388640/original/file-20210309-17-1c0jbd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388640/original/file-20210309-17-1c0jbd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388640/original/file-20210309-17-1c0jbd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388640/original/file-20210309-17-1c0jbd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388640/original/file-20210309-17-1c0jbd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Cuban migrant discusses next steps in his asylum process under new Biden administration rules at a shelter in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Feb. 19.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/mikel-aties-from-habana-cuba-discusses-details-of-his-news-photo/1231272185?adppopup=true">Paul Ratje / AFP via Getty</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even though El Salvador and Honduras are among the five top <a href="http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/U-Reports/SAS-Report-GVD2017.pdf">countries in the world for violent deaths</a>, typically courts deny <a href="http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/U-Reports/SAS-Report-GVD2017.pdf">more than 80% of asylum cases</a> from those countries, in large part because the U.S. government has been reluctant to recognize <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/11/us/politics/sessions-domestic-violence-asylum.html">gang persecution and domestic violence as grounds for asylum</a>.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 100,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>Political and economic instability in Central America is also <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/children-on-the-run.html">driving children to flee</a> the region. In the past two weeks, 3,200 unaccompanied minors have <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/unaccompanied-minors-border-has-tripled-two-weeks-now-totals-over-3200-1574790">arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border</a>.</p>
<p>“Remain in Mexico” handed asylum-seekers a difficult choice: Stay and hope to survive or lose your chance, however small, of a new life. Luck and perseverance paid off for the <a href="https://wgno.com/news/politics/line-to-exit-mpp-program-grows-to-15000-in-less-than-two-weeks/">estimated 15,000 migrants</a> who may now pursue their asylum claims from the relative safety of the United States. But for everyone else, there is no second chance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156622/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Austin Kocher does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Luck and tenacity paid off for some 15,000 migrants who may now pursue their asylum cases in the US But nearly 42,000 cases filed from Mexico under a Trump-era rule were already rejected.Austin Kocher, Research Assistant Professor, Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, Syracuse UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1437502020-08-09T08:14:16Z2020-08-09T08:14:16ZThe Cape Town gangsters who use extreme violence to operate solo<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351703/original/file-20200807-20-1ddvokv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dariusz Dziewanski</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>White minority rule under <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/africa/apartheid">apartheid</a> ended in South Africa over a quarter-century ago. But racial and class segregation in cities like Cape Town are as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/apr/30/cape-town-apartheid-ended-still-paradise-few-south-africa">present</a> as ever. The vast majority of the city’s black population still lives a far cry from the shops, beaches and restaurants of its affluent and <a href="https://www.capetown.travel/cape-town-voted-best-city-in-the-world-for-7th-year-running/">touristy</a> downtown core. Many struggle in low-income and informal settlements where jobs are scant, government services are inadequate, schools and healthcare lack funding and <a href="https://time.com/longform/south-africa-unequal-country/">violence</a> is a regular occurrence.</p>
<p>These are the circumstances that have driven around <a href="https://issafrica.org/research/books/organised-crime-a-study-from-the-cape-flats">100,000 people</a> into the estimated <a href="https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2018/10/04/why-cape-towns-murder-rate-is-rising">130 gangs</a> fighting each other on the windswept sandy outskirts of Cape Town’s urban periphery. Joining a gang offers marginalised Capetonians opportunities for <a href="https://issafrica.org/research/papers/the-social-contradictions-of-organised-crime-on-the-cape-flats">income</a>, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1466138106069517">protection</a> and <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/G/bo6161597.html">empowerment</a>. </p>
<p>Existing gang literature typically assumes that people join gangs to seek <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1466138106069517">strength in numbers</a>. But in a recent <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bjc/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/bjc/azaa028/5843313">research paper</a> I examine how some Capetonian gangsters choose to stand alone, preferring their independence to taking orders from a gang boss. Without the protection of an armed posse, however, they must fend for themselves. They rely on extreme violence and dangerous risk-taking to survive – and thrive – amid merciless gang warfare, in a city with one of the highest <a href="http://www.seguridadjusticiaypaz.org.mx/seguridad/1567-estudio-las-50-ciudades-mas-violentas-del-mundo-2018">murder</a> <a href="https://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2020-07-03-cape-towns-crime-crisis">rates</a> in the world.</p>
<h2>Meeting the ‘street virtuosos’</h2>
<p>Take the story of Prince, a Capetonian gangland mercenary who chose not to join a street gang. Describing a shootout with the city’s biggest gang, the Americans, he told me in an interview: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I got around about twelve guns with me … I would position guns where I would know I would run to. I would hide here, so I would shoot then run there, and shoot – crazy stuff like that.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Prince said he sought out conflict with the gang after newly arriving in its territory. Doing so earned the Americans’ respect, which in turn gained him access to their territory to sell methamphetamines and other narcotics.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I first had to have a fight with one of the top dogs so that (the gangsters in the area) can acknowledge a person. The only language they understand is violence. You must first take them to the peak of your violence – and then bring them down to the level that you want them to be.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I found that most gangsters are unwilling to expose themselves to this level of vulnerability. This means that few in Cape Town fly solo. </p>
<p>My study chronicles the exploits of what I call “<a href="https://academic.oup.com/bjc/article-abstract/doi/10.1093/bjc/azaa028/5843313">street virtuosos</a>”, those rare gangsters like Prince who challenge street norms by refusing to declare allegiance to a group, defend its tattoo and die for its turf. Instead, they master the “art of killing” to fight alone among the city’s gangs, breaking with the expectations of the streets and showing how radical acts of violence can upset accepted gang norms in Cape Town.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351706/original/file-20200807-24-3uydbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351706/original/file-20200807-24-3uydbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351706/original/file-20200807-24-3uydbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351706/original/file-20200807-24-3uydbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351706/original/file-20200807-24-3uydbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351706/original/file-20200807-24-3uydbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351706/original/file-20200807-24-3uydbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351706/original/file-20200807-24-3uydbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A member of a community violence prevention initiative called Ceasefire.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dariusz Dziewanski</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But one cannot just be violent to stand out in a place where murder and assault are expected. Only extraordinary hostility gets people’s attention. For example, another street virtuoso named Jerome recalls almost beating a criminal colleague to death to teach him a lesson after the man almost botched a robbery. “We were doing a job. It was very easy. But the guy didn’t do what I said he must do and I beat his head up with a hammer … If I’m very honest, I beat his head like a milk sachet,” Jerome said. </p>
<p>Callous aggression of this magnitude sends a message, showing others who is boss and bestowing status onto the perpetrator through the rumours and street gossip that follow the incident.</p>
<p>Gaining street cred is not just about how you fight though. It is also about who you fight. Just as Prince targeted the “top dogs” to gain access to drug turf, Jerome robbed high-ranking gangsters to fill his own pockets. “It is who you rob. If I know that (somebody) is a higher rank, we rob him … So the whole gang thinks, and even he thinks: what’s going on?” declared Jerome. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I would do things which the normal (street) system, there where they live in, is not used to. So I would do things out of the ordinary. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The objective of robbing in this way was to destabilise and disorient other gangsters, leaving potential foes struggling to figure out what is happening around them.</p>
<h2>Escalating violence</h2>
<p>The consequence of these violent manoeuvrings might be the scaling up of overall rates of violent criminality. It is impossible to attribute any sort of causal certainty in this regard. But gang researchers in <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=1t9sZcPEQ7UC&dq=born+Fi%E2%80%99+Dead.&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjsrN7Tt-7qAhVWIDQIHWqPD2UQ6AEwAHoECAIQAg">other settings</a> have suggested that exposure to more aggressive street practices can redefine gangster culture, permanently pushing the modalities of criminality towards greater violence. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-hard-to-leave-a-cape-town-gang-but-these-mens-stories-show-that-its-possible-141208">It's hard to leave a Cape Town gang. But these men's stories show that it's possible</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Yet, there is also a surprising silver lining to the extraordinarily violent behaviour that I recorded in my study. The socialisations, expectations and norms associated with <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1748895815603774">violent street culture</a> are often presented as something binding and inescapable. But providing evidence that street-based practices can evolve and change negatively indicates that it might also be changed for the better. </p>
<p>Whereas street virtuosos use extraordinary force to bend the rules of the streets to their will, others can <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-hard-to-leave-a-cape-town-gang-but-these-mens-stories-show-that-its-possible-141208">break from the streets</a> altogether, transforming their own lives by leaving gangs and showing others that a way out is possible.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143750/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dariusz Dziewanski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A study shows that some Cape Town gangsters choose to stand alone, preferring their independence to taking orders from a gang boss.Dariusz Dziewanski, Researcher, SOAS, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1424492020-07-28T12:17:15Z2020-07-28T12:17:15ZFaith-based ‘violence interrupters’ stop gang shootings with promise of redemption for at-risk youth – not threats of jail<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349433/original/file-20200724-15-19du76r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C4%2C2913%2C2302&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A demonstrator heads to an anti-violence protest in Chicago, which has struggled with gun violence for decades, July 7, 2018.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/demonstrator-carrying-a-cross-heads-to-an-anti-violence-news-photo/993519942?adppopup=true">Jim Young/AFP via Getty Images)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/07/gun-violence-shootings-fourth-of-july-weekend-racism-segregation">July 4 weekend was one of the deadliest in recent U.S. history</a>, with 160 people, including several small children, killed by gun violence in Chicago, New York, Atlanta and beyond. </p>
<p>And the body count <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/06/upshot/murders-rising-crime-coronavirus.html">keeps rising</a>. Columbus, Ohio, where I teach and study <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=BSgvZwEAAAAJ&hl=en">violence prevention</a>, had 13 homicides in the first 26 days of July, <a href="https://communitycrimemap.com/">according to police data</a> – 46% higher than July 2019. Many shooting victims are from the same <a href="https://www.dispatch.com/article/20110529/news/305299795">Black neighborhoods in cities that have borne the burden of American gun violence</a> for decades.</p>
<p>Urban gun violence is an entrenched but not intractable problem, evidence shows. Since the 1990s community anti-violence initiatives – many of them <a href="https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/faith-and-character/faith-and-character/the-man-behind-the-boston-miracle.html">run out of churches</a> – have reduced crime locally, at least temporarily, by “interrupting” potential violence before it happens.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349431/original/file-20200724-17-13otb3d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Man speaks on megaphone in front of crowd" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349431/original/file-20200724-17-13otb3d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349431/original/file-20200724-17-13otb3d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349431/original/file-20200724-17-13otb3d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349431/original/file-20200724-17-13otb3d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349431/original/file-20200724-17-13otb3d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349431/original/file-20200724-17-13otb3d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349431/original/file-20200724-17-13otb3d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">New York City public advocate Jumaane Williams with anti-violence activists in Brooklyn, July 14, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/new-york-city-public-advocate-jumaane-williams-joins-anti-news-photo/1256205267?adppopup=true">Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Preventable violence</h2>
<p>One such program is Cure Violence, previously called <a href="https://www.who.int/violenceprevention/about/participants/cure_violence/en/">Chicago CeaseFire</a>. Founded in 1999 with Illinois state funding, CeaseFire employed community members with street credibility – that is, status in their community – to identify those at highest risk of being shot or being a shooter, then intervene in feuds that might otherwise end with fatal gunfire. </p>
<p>Working with churches, schools and community groups like the Boys and Girls Club, CeaseFire also helped gang members and at-risk youth move beyond street life by finishing their studies, finding a job or enrolling in drug and alcohol treatment.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://nij.ojp.gov/library/publications/evaluation-ceasefire-chicago">National Institute of Justice evaluation</a> found that between 1991 and 2006, CeaseFire helped shootings decline 16% to 28% in four of the seven Chicago neighborhoods studied.</p>
<p>Variations of the CeaseFire program run by <a href="https://nnscommunities.org/">law enforcement</a>, <a href="https://cvg.org/impact/">public health experts</a> and <a href="http://www.youthalive.org/results/">hospitals</a> have also substantially reduced gun violence in Cincinnati, <a href="https://johnjayrec.nyc/category/work-products-by-project/cure-violence-project-materials/">New York</a>, Boston and beyond. However, many of these successful initiatives, including <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-ceasefire-funds-frozen-as-chicago-shootings-climb-20151009-story.html">Chicago CeaseFire</a>, were ultimately scaled back or terminated due to a <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-safe-streets-funding-rally-20160804-story.html">lack of sustained funding</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349428/original/file-20200724-33-k2dwb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Red bumper sticker on a snow-covered guardrail" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349428/original/file-20200724-33-k2dwb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349428/original/file-20200724-33-k2dwb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349428/original/file-20200724-33-k2dwb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349428/original/file-20200724-33-k2dwb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349428/original/file-20200724-33-k2dwb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349428/original/file-20200724-33-k2dwb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349428/original/file-20200724-33-k2dwb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">CeaseFire Chicago worked, while it lasted.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ceasefire-sticker-is-posted-on-a-guardrail-near-a-homicide-news-photo/456895181?adppopup=true">Scott Olson/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Restorative justice</h2>
<p>That’s what happened to CeaseFire Columbus, an Ohio program <a href="https://www.dispatch.com/article/20110531/news/305319787">modeled after Chicago’s program</a> but with a religious orientation. </p>
<p>CeaseFire Columbus was run by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/M4M43206">Ministries for Movement</a>, an anti-violence community organization founded in the deadly summer of 2009. After <a href="https://www.dispatch.com/article/20090814/NEWS/308149680">20-year-old Dominique Searcy</a> became Columbus’ 52nd murder victim that year, Dominique’s uncle, Cecil Ahad, teamed up with local youth and the former gang leader Dartangnan Hill for a “homicidal pain” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPuxtUuY4qU">march through their community</a> of South Side Columbus. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349688/original/file-20200727-17-1vqwvd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Young musicians walking" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349688/original/file-20200727-17-1vqwvd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349688/original/file-20200727-17-1vqwvd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349688/original/file-20200727-17-1vqwvd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349688/original/file-20200727-17-1vqwvd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349688/original/file-20200727-17-1vqwvd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349688/original/file-20200727-17-1vqwvd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349688/original/file-20200727-17-1vqwvd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Teen drummers lead a march to Columbus’s Family Missionary Baptist Church.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Deanna Wilkinson</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A local pastor, Frederick LaMarr, offered his Family Missionary Baptist Church to host the group’s anti-violence work, giving rise to Ministries for Movement. In 2010, having studied Columbus’ crime data, I invited the group to implement a local CeaseFire program.</p>
<p>CeaseFire Columbus adopted many of Chicago’s violence interruption tactics, but the guiding philosophy of Pastor LaMarr and <a href="https://stories.usatodaynetwork.com/cbusnext/profile-cecil-ahad/">Brother Ahad</a> was to meet everyone with compassion and openness, whether they were a grieving mother or a gang member. </p>
<p>To convince high-risk young people to stop killing each other, they used positive motivation – not threats of jail time, as <a href="https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/188741.pdf">some CeaseFire programs do</a>. Evidence shows young people <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.20278">trapped in a cycle of violence</a> are often willing to drop their guns for the chance of a better life: a high school degree, say, or a job offer in a field of interest. </p>
<p>LaMarr and Ahad also encouraged perpetrators of violence to take responsibility for their actions. Sometimes, that meant turning themselves in to authorities. Other times, it meant making amends through community service. </p>
<p>Ministries for Movement has helped several hundred young Columbus residents <a href="https://www.dispatch.com/article/20110530/news/305309864">escape gangs</a>. My evaluation for The Ohio State University found that between 2011 to 2014, CeaseFire Columbus helped to reduce shootings by 76% in our <a href="https://www.dispatch.com/article/20130101/NEWS/301019918">40-block target area</a>. For one 27-month period, no one was murdered.</p>
<p>The first homicide after those two years of peace was <a href="https://medium.com/@jgrabmeier/guns-gangs-and-gardens-c839908ffdfe">heartbreaking</a>. The victim, 24-year-old <a href="https://www.dispatch.com/article/20141017/NEWS/310179781">Rondell Brinkley</a>, had been turning his life around with the help of Ministries for Movement. Days before his murder, Brinkley had inspired attendees at a community event with his personal story of change.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349703/original/file-20200727-27-tycjli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Group photo of people holding anti-violence signs" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349703/original/file-20200727-27-tycjli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349703/original/file-20200727-27-tycjli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349703/original/file-20200727-27-tycjli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349703/original/file-20200727-27-tycjli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349703/original/file-20200727-27-tycjli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349703/original/file-20200727-27-tycjli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349703/original/file-20200727-27-tycjli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">CeaseFire Columbus in 2012.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of the Ohio State University</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Gardening for change</h2>
<p>Violence interruption works, but it takes intensive and sustained effort. That can be difficult with a volunteer staff. </p>
<p>CeaseFire Columbus achieved its best results after getting US$125,000 in grants to expand its street outreach, community mobilizing, public health messaging and conflict mediation. Funding came from <a href="https://engage.osu.edu/past-outreach-and-engagement-grant-recipients">The Ohio State University</a>, the Ohio attorney general’s office and the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Ohio. </p>
<p>Ministries for Movement is still active in South Side Columbus: It leads a <a href="https://www.dispatch.com/article/20130107/news/301079701">healing march</a> on the first Sunday of each month, among other activities. But CeaseFire became a casualty of lost funding and city politics. With gun violence quieter in our area but <a href="https://www.dispatch.com/news/20200204/rsquoalarming-uptickrsquo-in-gun-violence-worries-columbus-police-mayor">spiking in other parts of Columbus</a>, Ministries for Movement is now sharing its approach with community members and faith leaders in those areas. </p>
<p>[<em>You’re too busy to read everything. We get it. That’s why we’ve got a weekly newsletter.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybusy">Sign up for good Sunday reading.</a> ]</p>
<p>It is also trying something new to stop the violence: gardening. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349434/original/file-20200724-15-9vmwkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Boy waters plants" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349434/original/file-20200724-15-9vmwkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349434/original/file-20200724-15-9vmwkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349434/original/file-20200724-15-9vmwkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349434/original/file-20200724-15-9vmwkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349434/original/file-20200724-15-9vmwkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349434/original/file-20200724-15-9vmwkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349434/original/file-20200724-15-9vmwkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An Urban Gardening Entrepreneurs Motivating Sustainability participant.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/demonstrator-carrying-a-cross-heads-to-an-anti-violence-news-photo/993519942?adppopup=true">Deanna Wilkinson</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 2015, with Department of Agriculture funding, I worked with Ohio State to launch the <a href="https://urbangems.ehe.osu.edu/">Urban Gardening Entrepreneurs Motivating Sustainability</a> program and planted a garden at Pastor LaMarr’s church, replacing the overgrown rusty fence line of an abandoned neighboring house. </p>
<p>Urban Gardening Entrepreneurs Motivating Sustainability helps young people build skills, strengthen social connections and improve health in their communities by growing and selling fresh food. Many of the program’s 300 participants have witnessed gun violence and deaths. Many say they find gardening therapeutic. </p>
<p>Surveys I’ve conducted find that Urban Gardening Entrepreneurs Motivating Sustainability improves participants’ eating habits, problem-solving and leadership skills, persistence and workforce readiness. </p>
<p>“Personally, it has taught me a lot of things: How to eat healthier, how to grow produce,” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoUMAdEkVa8&feature=youtu.be">said Nasir Groce</a>, who is now 13 years old, back in 2017. “It’s taught me that I can do anything I put my mind to.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142449/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Deanna Wilkinson receives funding from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, US Department of Agriculture, under award number 2015-41520-23772. She has previously received funding from The Ohio State University, the Ohio Criminal Justice Services which distributed public safety dollars from the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio's office. She is an active partner in Ministries for Movement.</span></em></p>Gun violence has killed hundreds of Americans, including kids, this summer. There are proven ways to bring peace to city streets, says an expert in violence prevention – but someone has to pay for it.Deanna Wilkinson, Associate Professor. Department of Human Sciences, The Ohio State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1412082020-07-15T14:48:44Z2020-07-15T14:48:44ZIt’s hard to leave a Cape Town gang. But these men’s stories show that it’s possible<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346529/original/file-20200709-87067-1ndz4wb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dariusz Dziewanski</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Cape Town, South Africa, is a city of almost four million people. Many know it as a premier <a href="https://www.capetown.travel/cape-town-voted-best-city-in-the-world-for-7th-year-running/">tourist spot</a> and a <a href="https://wdo.org/programmes/wdc/past-cities/wdccapetown2014/">World Design Capital</a>. Fewer know it is Africa’s <a href="http://www.seguridadjusticiaypaz.org.mx/sala-de-prensa/1590-boletin-ranking-2019-de-las-50-ciudades-mas-violentas-del-mundo">deadliest</a> <a href="https://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2020-07-03-cape-towns-crime-crisis">city</a>. Gang violence accounts for about <a href="https://www.saps.gov.za/services/annual_crime_report2019.pdf">one third</a> of its murders, an average of about two gangland killings every day.</p>
<p>The city has anywhere from <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/07/20/dispatch-south-african-army-struggle-contain-gang-war-driven/">90</a> to <a href="https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/gangs-criminal-empires-and-military-intervention-cape-towns-crime-wars">130</a> gangs, with an estimated <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-24/rising-cape-town-gang-violence-is-yet-another-legacy-of-apartheid">100,000 members</a>. For some residing in the many townships on the city’s periphery, joining a gang offsets a lack of <a href="https://issafrica.org/research/books/organised-crime-a-study-from-the-cape-flats">development and governance</a> and offers possibilities for <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1466138106069517">protection</a>, <a href="https://issafrica.org/research/papers/the-social-contradictions-of-organised-crime-on-the-cape-flats">income</a> and <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/G/bo6161597.html">esteem</a>.</p>
<p>The general impression is that joining gangs is a death sentence. “Blood in, blood out” is a well-known Capetonian axiom. The same message is echoed in news reports about ongoing <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/gang-wars-map-who-is-fighting-who-in-cape-towns-gang-lands-20190729">gang wars</a>. </p>
<p>But this isn’t the whole truth. People do leave gangs, and create new lives for themselves. I explore this in my <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0891241620915942">recent research</a>.</p>
<h2>A gang member’s first doubts</h2>
<p>“It was too hot man. Other times were also hot – nah – but this… and with my age, you understand.” At 43, Alfred had been a gangster long enough to acquire five “death spots” on his body, places where he was shot and stabbed while a member of the Scorpions and later the Americans. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It was a time in my life that I must take a boundary, to say this is finished now. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>His exit from Cape Town’s largest gang came after surviving a bullet to the head. Alfred is not your typical near-death epiphany though. </p>
<p>Revenge was his initial reaction. “I planned again that I must ambush the whole family of them (that shot me),” he admitted. Yet, on the day of planned hit, he had a change of heart and went instead to the hospital that had treated his gunshot wounds to get connected to a safe house. That was the beginning of his transition out of the streets.</p>
<p>Alfred is one of 24 former gang participants whose life histories were included in my study. In it I consider gang disengagement in Cape Town from the perspective of the four phases of <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo5952245.html">role exit theory</a>: first doubts, seeking alternative roles, turning points and new role creation. Doubts are experienced when members start to question their commitment to gangs. The second stage involves evaluating alternative social roles. Turning points activate role exit in stage three. The final transition stage requires accepting the expectations and identities associated with becoming an “ex”. </p>
<p>My <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0891241620915942">study</a> found that many years may pass between first doubts emerging and a person successfully becoming an ex-gangster. Progress through the different phases of gang exit is generally difficult, uneven, and unpredictable. If the right exit opportunities do not exist, social, economic, and security challenges can counteract the desire to get out.</p>
<h2>The uneasy ceasefire</h2>
<p>The story of 37-year-old Ibrahim shows how circumstances can affect opportunities to fully become an ex-gangster. After 13 years as an Americans member, Ibrahim <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0891241620915942">told me</a> that his final turning point came after a deadly dispute with two fellow Americans. “The one who accuse me came in for the second shot (at stabbing me). But at that time he came straight into my knife. I stab him straight into his heart,” he said. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346528/original/file-20200709-38-1gziquf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346528/original/file-20200709-38-1gziquf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346528/original/file-20200709-38-1gziquf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346528/original/file-20200709-38-1gziquf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346528/original/file-20200709-38-1gziquf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346528/original/file-20200709-38-1gziquf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346528/original/file-20200709-38-1gziquf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346528/original/file-20200709-38-1gziquf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many initial inhabitants of the Cape Flats were forcibly evicted from the city centre by the apartheid government.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dariusz Dziewanski</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Violent incidents like this one helped raise doubts and sparked turning points for many study participants. Police ultimately determined that Ibrahim acted in self-defence. The Americans’ leaders agreed. But the siblings of the man he killed – both Americans – vowed retribution.</p>
<p>Because Ibrahim is unable to find steady work, he is stuck in small shack behind his family home. It is directly across from an Americans hideout where one of the siblings stays. Even if they “look every day in each other’s faces,” Ibrahim has little choice but to keep confronting his past. “I’m just doing what I must do, and nothing else”, he says. </p>
<p>The US flag still dominates the wall of his cramped wooded dwelling, but he insists that this important symbol of the Americans gang merely offers cover after disengagement. “I think they (are) going to kill me… This is only a way of showing them the flag is still here, but (really) it does not mean I am an American.” The strategy might keep Ibrahim alive, but it might also keep him partially embedded in his former gang role. </p>
<p>If he does not maintain a safe distance from gang associations and activities, he could be dragged back. Yet, if he does not show the gang that “the flag is still there” he risks being killed. Should this uneasy ceasefire falter, Ibrahim is prepared to fight for the freedom he has secured, returning to a type of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1362480608089238">street violence</a> typically reserved for gangsters. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Just because of me trying to do the right thing, does not mean I am losing this power. I have it. I can still do what I have to do.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Becoming an ‘ex’</h2>
<p>In an ideal world, criminologists <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2014-21723-006">Decker, Pyrooz, and Moule</a> state that when “someone reaches the final stage, postexit validation, the role transition should be complete and the gang member of yesterday should be superseded by the father or mother, husband or wife, and employee or employer roles of today”. </p>
<p>Ibrahim’s situation is unfortunately far from ideal. It demonstrates that declaring oneself an “ex” is not enough to leave gangs. The vast majority of those in this study did disassociate totally. However, all faced restricted movement, threats from former rivals, stigma from community, criminalisation by police and inadequate job prospects. </p>
<p>Gang disengagement programmes are essential to helping individuals like Ibrahim and Alfred out of gangs by overcoming such challenges. But because former gang members are usually left coping with the same circumstances that originally pushed them into gangs, larger <a href="https://issafrica.org/research/books/organised-crime-a-study-from-the-cape-flats">structural reforms</a> are also needed to address the poverty, inequality, dearth of housing, inadequate policing and lack of services. These factors <a href="https://www.amazon.ca/Gang-Town-Don-Pinnock-ebook/dp/B01DMDBPEG">drive gang membership</a> in Cape Town. Interventions need to fight gangs holistically, whether they are trying to get people out of gangs or help them avoid gangs in the first place.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141208/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dariusz Dziewanski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Even after becoming an ‘ex’, former gang members must still negotiate gang associations and activities in the communities they remain in.Dariusz Dziewanski, Researcher, SOAS, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1298652020-02-03T13:52:41Z2020-02-03T13:52:41ZInside Mexico’s war on drugs: Conversations with ‘el narco’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310622/original/file-20200117-118315-z81n0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5997%2C4007&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">More than 35,000 people were killed in Mexico in 2019, the deadliest year on record. Violence has spiked as a result of the government's ongoing assault on drug cartels.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/es/image-photo/mexico-city07-october-2019-various-weapons-1525889897">Leonardo Emiliozzi Ph / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I am from northern Mexico, one of the regions most affected by the global <a href="https://theconversation.com/rising-suicides-in-mexico-expose-the-mental-health-toll-of-living-with-extreme-chronic-violence-99131">war on drugs</a>. </p>
<p>From 2008 to 2012 my hometown – which I’m not naming here for safety reasons – went through one of the most violent times in its history. Shootings between cartels and the military became frequent events, which could happen at any time of the day anywhere in the city. I personally witnessed a shooting just across from the university where I used to teach.</p>
<p>My friends and family had similar experiences. Some of them witnessed shootings from their cars, others from their home. </p>
<p>In addition to the growing violence, the Zetas cartel started to bribe the local businesses. If owners did not pay, the cartel would either destroy their businesses or kidnap a family member. As a result, many businesses had to close their doors. The cartels fueled paranoia on social media. “Do not come out tonight,” a tweet would warn, “because there will be a shooting.” Sometimes, these threats proved to be true.</p>
<p>Similar <a href="http://theconversation.com/mexican-mennonites-combat-fears-of-violence-with-a-new-christmas-tradition-127982">terror</a> is occurring <a href="https://www.milenio.com/mileniotv/policia/cierran-negocios-por-violencia-en-cordoba-veracruz">across Mexico</a> as a <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-record-29-000-mexicans-were-murdered-last-year-can-soldiers-stop-the-bloodshed-90574">result of the war on cartels launched by former President Felipe Calderón</a> in 2006. The violence unleashed by the government’s assault on drug-trafficking groups <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-record-29-000-mexicans-were-murdered-last-year-can-soldiers-stop-the-bloodshed-90574">has wracked a nation</a>.</p>
<h2>Life stories of former drug traffickers</h2>
<p>Not wanting to stay in a country where I felt so vulnerable, I decided to continue my postgraduate studies abroad, in England. There, I channeled my frustration with Mexico’s war on cartels into my <a href="https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/files/193726176/Final_Copy_2018_11_06_Garcia_K_G_PhD_Redacted.pdf">doctoral dissertation</a>, which analyzes drug-related violence through the lens of those who committed the crimes. </p>
<p>Between October 2014 and January 2015, I interviewed 33 men who used to work in the drug trade to understand how their experiences relate to their involvement in drug trafficking. From street drug dealers to hitmen and bodyguards, I found, they all share similar life stories. </p>
<p>These firsthand interviews with former drug traffickers, widely known as “narcos” in Mexico, bring a new perspective to <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/mexican-drug-wars-37657">political science research on Mexico’s drug war</a>: that of the perpetrators. </p>
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<p>This analysis of the narcos’ narratives sheds light on the possible causes of these men’s involvement in the drug trade and elucidates the logic through which they understand the world. </p>
<p>This view is almost entirely neglected by researchers and politicians. To date, Mexican policies to <a href="https://theconversation.com/el-chapo-jailbreak-is-both-a-mexican-and-an-american-story-44679">curb drug trafficking</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/amnesty-for-drug-traffickers-thats-one-mexican-presidential-candidates-pitch-to-voters-96063">reduce violence</a> have been designed using solely the logic of policymakers. </p>
<p>Is it any surprise they’ve failed?</p>
<h2>Neither monsters nor victims</h2>
<p>My research begins with the premise that the narcos are part of Mexican society, just like anyone else. They are exposed to the same messages, values and traditions. </p>
<p>Yet the Mexican government has systematically rejected this notion, preferring to invoke the same binaries present in U.S. policies like the war on drugs and the war on terror. It’s “us” against “them,” this framing goes: the “good guys” versus the “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0094582X13509069">bad people</a>.” </p>
<p>In the movies, the narcos are portrayed as <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/traffic-2001">bloodthirsty criminals</a>. More compassionate views, especially in academia, suggest the drug trade is the “only option” for poor kids in <a href="http://mexicanadesociologia.unam.mx/docs/vol74/num1/v74n1a1.pdf">cartel-infested parts of the country</a>.</p>
<p>Beyond being simplistic, such framing conceals nuances that may actually help to explain the root causes of Mexico’s drug violence. </p>
<p>The narcos I spoke with do not see themselves as victims or monsters. They do not justify their involvement in the drug trade as a survival strategy. They acknowledge that they chose this illegal industry – even when work in the informal economy would have allowed them to support their families – because, they told me, they wanted “more.” </p>
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<p>Despite seeing themselves as free agents who decided to work in the drug trade, the men I interviewed also see themselves as disposable. They shared feelings of social exclusion and a lack of a life purpose, making them feel that their lives are worthless. </p>
<p>“I knew I was alone,” one man, Rigoleto, told me. “If I wanted something, I had to get it myself.” </p>
<p>My research also reveals that these narcos embrace the government’s binary discourse. They identified as “they” – the people excluded from “our” civil society. The former drug traffickers I spoke with also reproduce the individualistic, every-man-for-himself ethos that has permeated Mexican society since the introduction of a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3993429">neoliberal, U.S.-style economic system</a> in the late 1980s. </p>
<p>This ethos is a double-edged sword. Mexico’s narcos may not blame the state or society for their condition of poverty – each is, after all, his own man – but they don’t feel remorse for their crimes, either. They had the “bad luck” of being born in poverty, they told me, and their victims had the “bad luck” to be in their way. </p>
<p>The narco’s logic is simple, according to Yuca, one of the men I interviewed: We are, all of us, bound to the “law of the fittest.” </p>
<p>As Cristian said: “In my neighborhood we all knew the rules: You snooze, you lose. That was the law. You have to be tough, you have to be violent, you have to take care of yourself, because nobody will do it for you.”</p>
<h2>Poverty: A fixed and inevitable condition</h2>
<p>This is one of several shared values I identified in my interviews, which together form what I refer to in my dissertation as “the narco discourse.” </p>
<p>The narco discourse puts poverty in sharp relief. The men I spoke with believe poor people have no future and, therefore, have nothing to lose. </p>
<p>“I knew I would grow up and die in poverty,” said one of my interviewees, Wilson. “I just asked God: Why me?”</p>
<p>Poverty is understood as an inevitable condition. “Somebody has to be poor,” said one man, Lamberto. </p>
<p>“There is nothing you can do to avoid it,” said another, Tabo. </p>
<p>The narco discourse also assumes that poor children will, like them, inevitably become involved with drugs and gangs. It is taken for granted that poor children have no future, that they are disposable. </p>
<p>“When you grow up in a poor neighborhood you know that at some point you will become a drug addict,” said Palomo. “When you are a drug addict you see yourself as rubbish. Who would care about the life of a poor drug addict?”</p>
<p>In this crowd, I learned, an early death is also seen as inevitable. </p>
<p>“When you see so many of your peers dying in street fights, from an overdose, shot by the police, you think that that is your future as well,” a man I’ll call Tigre told me. </p>
<p>The possibility of being killed or killing, then, isn’t necessarily a drawback of the drug trade. The kids who grow up to be drug traffickers assume that death is their destiny. </p>
<p>“I always thought that my destiny was to die from an overdose or by a bullet,” said Pancho.</p>
<h2>Consumerism</h2>
<p>One of the few ways poor kids with this worldview could imagine enjoying life, they told me, is by buying stuff – nice stuff, luxury items, things they couldn’t afford. </p>
<p>The only way to achieve that is with the “easy money” that an “easy life” in the drug business would give them. </p>
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<p>They understood the happiness brought on by easy money to be momentary. But still, they said, it was worth it. My interview subjects assume that “in this world you’re a nobody without money,” as Canastas put it. </p>
<p>Crucially, the narcos recognize that the flip side of the “easy life” is either death or jail.</p>
<p>“One day you are in a nice restaurant, surrounded by beautiful women and important people,” Ponciano told me. “The next day you may wake up in a dungeon.”</p>
<p>That’s why the easy life has to be so fast, so hedonistic – to maximize the benefits of that easy money. </p>
<p>As Jaime told me, “My goal was to live every day as if was the last. I did not pinch pennies when it came to enjoy[ing] myself. [I bought] the best trucks, the best wines [and had] the most beautiful women.”</p>
<h2>‘A real man’</h2>
<p>In the narco discourse, physical violence is essential to survive, literally, in poor neighborhoods which participants referred as “the jungle.”</p>
<p>Violence, I was informed, is learned. Men are not born violent, but they must become violent. As Jorge explained: </p>
<p>“When I was a child, older children hit me, they took advantage of me because I was alone. I was not violent, but I had to become even more violent than them. You must do it if you want to survive in the streets.”</p>
<p>In “the jungle,” men also had to keep a certain reputation as a “real man.” As they see it, that means being an aggressive, heterosexual, violent womanizer. A true man is “good for the party, drugs and alcohol,” said Dávila. </p>
<p>The real man cannot show his fears – no emotions, no weaknesses. The best way to hide them, the narcos I interviewed said, is by proving their strength. This can be done in different ways: within your own gangs, fighting rival gangs or at home, with their family. </p>
<p>A recurrent theme in my interviews was the anger that participants felt against their fathers, most of whom were domestic abusers. </p>
<p>Twenty-eight out of the 33 men admitted that at some point in their lives their greatest aspiration had been to kill their fathers. All said their biggest frustration had been watching their fathers beat their mothers. They wanted revenge not for themselves, but for their mothers.</p>
<p>The men invoked the trauma of witnessing gender violence not only when we spoke about their childhood but also when we discussed their reasons for illegal acts like drug use, vandalism and drug trafficking.</p>
<p>To some participants, a fantasy of making their fathers suffer was their main motivation to work in the drug trade. </p>
<p>“My only thought was to kill my father when I grew up,” Rorro explained. “I wanted to cut him into little pieces.” Being a narco gave him that power. </p>
<p>A man named Ponciano told me that he thought of his father when he was torturing his victims. </p>
<p>“And I made them suffer even more, like he made us suffer.”</p>
<p>Not everyone who had the opportunity to kill their fathers could follow through. Facundo, wishing his father to suffer but unable to kill him, told his dad to leave town. </p>
<p>“If I see you again, I will kill you,” he said. </p>
<h2>What can we learn in Latin America?</h2>
<p>Poverty and toxic masculinity. These are, my research finds, two common themes driving the men who commit <a href="https://theconversation.com/murder-and-the-mexican-state-34286">so much violence not only in Mexico</a> but across Latin America, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-fix-latin-americas-homicide-problem-79731">world’s most violent region</a>.</p>
<p>The everyday life of these narcos are a breeding ground for all sorts of violence, from domestic abuse to gang rivalry. When policymakers focus on “ending drug violence,” this is the view so often missing.</p>
<p>Even when poverty is <a href="http://www.scielo.org.mx/pdf/desacatos/n40/n40a2.pdf">acknowledged</a> as the root of other major social problems in Mexico, as some <a href="https://revistas.uam.es/index.php/relacionesinternacionales/article/viewFile/5115/5568">researchers have done</a>, there is insufficient knowledge of what living in poverty actually means for these people. While many experiences of poverty where shared by my interviewees, each person in each region and each neighborhood had their own problems and specific needs. </p>
<p>Understanding how that background leads to violence would mean listening – really listening – to men like those I interviewed. And it means asking questions that don’t fit within the “us versus them” mentality of presidents, policymakers and police chiefs. To design more effective policies for ending violence, one must understand the logic, the worldview, of its perpetrators. </p>
<p>Where does all this violence come from? Who justifies its use, and how? How is violence reproduced within Mexican families, and echoed within communities? When the government responds to this violence with more violence – by <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-record-29-000-mexicans-were-murdered-last-year-can-soldiers-stop-the-bloodshed-90574">sending soldiers out to fight crime</a>, as Mexico has done for 12 years – what message does that send? </p>
<p>As long as governments maintain their discourse about “good people” versus “bad men,” my research suggests, it will only feed “their” indifference to “us.”</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article was adapted from the <a href="https://ciperchile.cl/2020/01/03/por-que-fracasa-la-guerra-contra-el-narcotrafico-entrevista-a-33-ex-narcos-mexicanos-para-quienes-morir-es-un-alivio/">original version</a>, published on The Conversation España as part of a collaboration with the Centro de Investigación Periodística (<a href="https://ciperchile.cl/">CIPER</a>) in Chile.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129865/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karina Garcia Reyes' PhD dissertation received funding from the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT) and additional support from the Secretaría de Educación Pública (SEP) in Mexico.</span></em></p>A researcher who fled crime-beset Mexico returns to interview the drug cartels behind so much of the violence, asking 33 ‘narcos’ everything about their lives, from birth to their latest murder.Karina G. Garcia Reyes, Profesora de la Escuela de Sociología, Política y Relaciones Internacionales y del departamento de Estudios Latinoamericanos, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1208442019-11-04T17:19:33Z2019-11-04T17:19:33ZWhy do young people join gangs? Members explain the appeal of risk taking<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300063/original/file-20191104-88394-15g09hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C5%2C3864%2C2586&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Searching for more. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/blurry-silhouettes-shadows-three-man-walking-1195923700?src=129f9979-8114-4aec-bd06-63f78568ead7-1-24">Alex Linch/Shutterstock. </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the rate of knife crime <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/crimeinenglandandwales/yearendingjune2019">continues to rise</a>, there have been many <a href="https://revisesociology.com/2016/06/02/sociological-research-on-gangs/">attempts to investigate</a> why some young people resort to <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/why-carry-a-weapon-a-study-of-knife-crime-amongst-15-17-year-old-males-in-london/oclc/299240334">potentially fatal violence</a>: from problems at home, to a lack of opportunity or simply a desire to fit in. But there’s another motivation that has <a href="http://www.observatoriodeseguranca.org/files/crime%20and%20edgework.pdf">powerful effects</a> on the mind and body, and is seldom considered by police or lawmakers because of its sensitive nature. That is, the simple but compelling allure of risk taking. </p>
<p>Since 2008 and the <a href="https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/6254/economics/what-is-austerity/">onset of austerity</a>, many disenfranchised young people have felt the effect of <a href="https://theconversation.com/youth-services-try-to-mould-young-people-how-about-they-help-young-people-mould-society-instead-100142">cutbacks to youth services</a>, which have in turn affected where and how they spend their time. The emergence of street gang culture in many marginalised areas has also seen an increased police presence, which <a href="https://theconversation.com/treating-young-people-like-criminals-actually-makes-violent-crime-worse-91723">further constrains</a> young people’s liberty – whether they are involved in gangs or not. </p>
<p>Faced with the banality of routine existence and limited opportunity, risk-taking behaviour can, for some, become highly alluring and exciting. It’s thought that some people engage in illegal risk-taking – or <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780203005293">“edgework”</a>, as it’s called by criminologists – for the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bjc/article/47/2/196/519161">intense emotional feelings</a> they experience during the act. In effect, a temporary sense of self-empowerment and freedom from society’s rules and constraints. </p>
<p>As part of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/JCRPP-07-2019-0052">new research</a> published in the <a href="https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/jcrpp.htm">Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice</a>, I interviewed 44 young men involved in street gangs on Merseyside – among the UK’s <a href="https://liverpool.gov.uk/council/key-statistics-and-data/indices-of-deprivation/">most deprived areas</a>. Many of them described the “buzz” of badness, in relation to risk-taking behaviour, and the “bad boy” image it projected to others. </p>
<h2>Being ‘bad’</h2>
<p>The status of identifying as a gang member and adopting an all black dress-code; the anticipation of meeting up with the other members and planning antisocial or criminal acts; the exhilaration of the act itself and the thrill of getting way with it – all these elements combine to create a high-intensity emotional experience, according to my respondents, which can be further enhanced when there is some degree of success through material gain, after a drug deal, car theft or robbery. </p>
<p>Another explanation could lie in what psychologist <a href="http://faculty.babson.edu/krollag/org_site/soc_psych/zimbardo_deinvid.html">Philip Zimbardo</a> calls “deindividuation”, or the power of anonymity. The theory suggests that people who dress the same, or cover their faces, may act <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00224540309598458">more aggressively</a> and show <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1981-25739-001">less self awareness and inhibition</a> than they would otherwise. Put simply, people feel a sense of liberation when running with a mob or being involved with a known street gang. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300074/original/file-20191104-88372-17ucsdg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300074/original/file-20191104-88372-17ucsdg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300074/original/file-20191104-88372-17ucsdg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300074/original/file-20191104-88372-17ucsdg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300074/original/file-20191104-88372-17ucsdg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300074/original/file-20191104-88372-17ucsdg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300074/original/file-20191104-88372-17ucsdg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Caught out?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/police-lights-flash-people-silhouetted-background-1481272940?src=a6ef24d3-719c-4109-950a-72dadc8e79dc-1-73">Shayne T Wright/Shutterstock.</a></span>
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<p>The gang members on Merseyside that I interviewed for my research described wearing the same branded clothing, not only because it was a designer brand but also because they believed it made it more difficult for police to identify specific people from CCTV footage. One young interviewee called it “being blacked out”. </p>
<h2>Chasing status</h2>
<p>Being part of a gang can be seen as a <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2481006">pathway to manhood</a>, offering young men social status, acceptance and role models, in the form of more senior gang members. What’s more, the young men who participated in my research said they believed women were attracted to and excited by their “bad boy” image, which reinforced perceptions that being part of a gang helps to fulfil masculine ideals.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/do-women-really-go-for-bad-boys-heres-the-science-that-settles-the-question-59409">Do women really go for 'bad boys'? Here's the science that settles the question</a>
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<p>While research into edgework <a href="https://simplysociology.wordpress.com/2012/05/30/edgework-taking-risks-for-the-fun-of-it/">is growing</a>, it has been slow to feed into practical interventions. The young people in my study valued a range of experiences derived from gang membership – from the sense of anonymity, to the excitement of risk taking and the social status they cultivated among their peers. Any efforts to prevent young people from joining gangs must address these experiences, rather than ignore them. </p>
<p>One idea that emerged from my research, is to focus on the possible life-changing consequences of being injured through violence or being caught. During my interviews, several participants spoke of the shame, embarrassment and guilt they felt when confronted by police officers about gang-related, antisocial acts on the streets. This was particularly evident among younger participants, especially when their parents and siblings were informed. </p>
<p>The work of the <a href="http://actiononviolence.org/">Violent Reduction Unit</a> (VRU) in Scotland has already demonstrated the merits of this approach. The VRU has <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-45572691">worked with partners</a> in the NHS, education and social work to inform young people of the damaging consequences of joining gangs – and offer them alternatives. Similarly, <a href="https://theconversation.com/knife-crime-how-former-offenders-can-make-great-mentors-for-at-risk-teens-105880">research has shown</a> that former gang members can become excellent mentors for teenagers who are at risk of being drawn into crime, because they can empathise with their experiences.</p>
<p>The motives that drive young people to join gangs are complex, and there’s no doubt that marginalisation and a lack of opportunity leaves young people with <a href="https://theconversation.com/knife-crime-and-gangs-how-a-decade-of-bad-policy-left-deprived-young-people-without-real-choice-113681">limited choices</a>. But it’s also crucial to recognise the appeal that risk taking and rebelling can hold for young people living in such circumstances.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120844/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Hesketh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Faced with cutbacks to youth services and limited opportunities, risk-taking behaviour can, for some, become highly alluring.Robert Hesketh, Lecturer in Criminal Justice, Liverpool John Moores UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1244752019-10-10T17:24:11Z2019-10-10T17:24:11ZUS will send migrants to El Salvador, a country that can’t protect its own people<p>The Trump administration is continuing its efforts to keep Central American asylum seekers away from the United States’ border. </p>
<p>On Sept. 20 the U.S. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/20/us/politics/us-asylum-el-salvador.html">signed an agreement</a> with El Salvador to accept asylum seekers sent out of the United States. U.S. officials have avoided specifics in discussing the deal and implied that only Salvadoran migrants would be sent to El Salvador. </p>
<p>The actual text of the agreement, however, is vague. It leaves open the possibility that asylum seekers who never set foot in El Salvador – for example, Guatemalan migrants who <a href="https://theconversation.com/dozens-of-migrants-disappear-in-mexico-as-central-american-caravan-pushes-northward-106287">reach the U.S. via Mexico</a> – could be <a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/09/23/el-salvador-asylum-agreement/">sent there to wait</a> out their U.S. asylum process.</p>
<p>The deal comes soon after <a href="https://nacla.org/news/2019/08/12/guatemala-%E2%80%9Csafe-third-country%E2%80%9D-disposable-people">similar agreements</a> with Guatemala and <a href="https://www.wola.org/2019/09/honduras-asylum-deal-trump/">Honduras</a>. Those three Central American countries are the main sources of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-supreme-court-and-refugees-at-the-southern-border-5-questions-answered-123848">migration to the U.S.</a>. </p>
<p>None of these migration deals has yet gone into effect.</p>
<p>The suggestion that El Salvador can <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/59c4be077.pdf">protect asylum seekers</a> – people who say they were persecuted in their home countries for their race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion – is misleading.</p>
<p>El Salvador may be relatively comfortable for wealthy Salvadorans, who frequently live in secured compounds, replete with razor wire fences and armed guards. But it is a <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-el-salvador-so-dangerous-4-essential-reads-89904">very dangerous country</a> for refugees of violence.</p>
<h2>Roots of impunity</h2>
<p>Roughly the size of New Jersey, El Salvador is densely populated and highly connected by cellphone service and social media. The vulnerable groups <a href="http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/themes/international-migration/glossary/refoulement/">protected under international asylum law</a> cannot easily go under the radar or relocate if targeted by gangs, corrupt police or domestic abusers.</p>
<p>Hundreds of Salvadorans are killed every month. In July, the country went a day without a murder, and it was <a href="https://www.infobae.com/america/america-latina/2019/08/02/el-salvador-tuvo-un-dia-sin-homicidios/">headline news</a>. Murders, disappearances and tortures almost always <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/04/25/latin-america-is-the-worlds-most-violent-region-a-new-report-investigates-why/">go unsolved</a> in El Salvador. Criminals, especially those with access to power, are <a href="https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/EL-SALVADOR-2018.pdf">rarely punished</a> for their wrongdoing.</p>
<p>I have <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=R00JOgwAAAAJ&hl=en">documented this culture of impunity</a> across Central America and Mexico, focusing on the indigenous people, women and political dissidents who are so often victims of political violence. </p>
<p>This violence dates back centuries, to Spain’s bloody conquest of the Americas. As <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/18/reader-center/1619-project-slavery-jamestown.html">in the U.S.</a>, colonial-era brutality has lasting impacts on the region’s race, class and gender divisions.</p>
<p>In 1932, the massacre of indigenous Salvadorans and leftists who rebelled against dictator Maximiliano Hernández Martínez <a href="https://unmpress.com/books/remembering-massacre-el-salvador/9780826336040">left between 10,000 and 30,000 dead</a>.</p>
<p>Communist Party member Farabundo Martí, who led Salvadoran peasant farmers in their revolt against <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17442222.2018.1457006">political corruption and unjust resource allocation</a>, was assassinated after the massacre. But the struggle continued.</p>
<p>By the 1970s, dissident factions had again organized against state oppression. United as the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, these groups eventually waged war on the ruling ARENA party, which they blamed for oppressing the Salvadoran working class.</p>
<p>The subsequent <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1982/01/27/world/massacre-of-hundreds-reported-in-salvador-village.html?pagewanted=all">Salvadoran civil war</a> killed 75,000 people. In 1992, with intensive <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/time-for-a-us-apology-to-el-salvador/">military support from the United States</a>, ARENA defeated the rebels. </p>
<p>The 1992 <a href="https://peacemaker.un.org/elsalvador-chapultepec92">El Salvador peace accords</a>, overseen by the United Nations, were meant to bring national reconciliation. A truth commission documented widespread <a href="https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/file/ElSalvador-Report.pdf">human rights abuses committed by state and paramilitary forces</a> during the war. But days after the report was released, in 1993, El Salvador’s ARENA-controlled congress passed an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1993/03/21/world/rebuffing-the-un-el-salvador-grants-amnesty.html">amnesty law</a> that excused most government and military officials.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296313/original/file-20191009-3872-1wetz9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296313/original/file-20191009-3872-1wetz9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296313/original/file-20191009-3872-1wetz9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296313/original/file-20191009-3872-1wetz9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296313/original/file-20191009-3872-1wetz9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296313/original/file-20191009-3872-1wetz9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296313/original/file-20191009-3872-1wetz9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296313/original/file-20191009-3872-1wetz9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">El Salvador’s Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front transformed into a left-wing political party after the civil war.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Watchf-AP-I-SLV-APHS460298-El-Salvador-Civil-Wa-/0db9d5d82047445ab961eeb97cc18d27/134/0">AP Photo/Luis Romero</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a result, the root causes of El Salvador’s conflict – particularly, unequal access to insufficient resources – still plague society. So does the <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-central-america-gangs-like-ms-13-are-bad-but-corrupt-politicians-may-be-worse-86113">very weak rule of law</a> that allowed civil war criminals to go unpunished.</p>
<p>Neither the rightist or leftist governments that have held power since have managed to change this.</p>
<p>El Salvador’s defense minister recently assessed that there are more <a href="https://www.laprensagrafica.com/elsalvador/Ministro-de-Defensa-dice-que-hay-mas-pandilleros-que-soldados-20151020-0027.html">gang members than soldiers in his country</a>. The resulting dangerous disarray sent <a href="https://elfaro.net/en/201909/el_salvador/23667/El-Salvador-Signs-Agreement-to-Accept-Asylum-Seekers-the-US-Won%E2%80%99t-Protect.htm">46,800 residents to seek asylum in the U.S. last year</a>. </p>
<p>Risking the unknown violence of migration rather than guaranteed violence at home is, for many Salvadorans, a logical decision.</p>
<h2>Human security</h2>
<p>President Nayib Bukele’s new centrist party, the Grand Alliance for National Unity, says combating crime and impunity is a <a href="https://theconversation.com/el-salvadors-new-president-must-tackle-crime-unemployment-and-migration-but-nation-is-hopeful-111499">priority for his administration</a>.</p>
<p>Since Bukele took office in June 2019, murders in El Salvador are down. The president credits his <a href="https://www.insightcrime.org/news/analysis/el-salvador-flirts-with-mano-dura-security-policies-again/">tough-on-gangs</a> policing with improving security in the country. </p>
<p>But some crime analysts say the apparent drop in homicides change is actually <a href="https://www.insightcrime.org/news/brief/el-salvador-omit-key-data-homicides/">a manipulation of crime data</a>. The government recently changed how it counts murders, eliminating deaths that result from <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/07/06/el-salvadors-tough-policing-isnt-what-it-looks-like/">confrontation with security forces</a> – police killings – from the homicide category. </p>
<p>In any case, levels of violence in El Salvador are still <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/el-salvador">among the world’s highest</a>. </p>
<p>Police regularly turn a blind eye to violence by gang members, including both MS-13 and Barrio 18 gangs, either due to <a href="https://globalvoices.org/2014/05/15/how-gangs-have-become-a-trojan-horse-in-el-salvadors-security-forces-part-2/">corruption or concern for their own safety</a>. As a result, Salvadoran police frequently fail to meaningfully protect people from gang violence. </p>
<p>Often, officers themselves victimize Salvadorans, roughing up <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/08/parque-cuscatlan-san-salvador.html">suspected gang members</a> who may just be teenage boys hanging out on the street. </p>
<h2>Human rights law</h2>
<p>In these circumstances, sending migrants from the U.S.-Mexico border to El Salvador may violate an international law called “non-refoulement.”</p>
<p>According to the 1954 <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/wp-content/uploads/1954-Convention-relating-to-the-Status-of-Stateless-Persons_ENG.pdf">United Nations Convention on the Status of Refugees</a>, which both the U.S. and El Salvador signed, states cannot expel refugees to a territory “where his life or freedom would be threatened.” </p>
<p>Migrants know El Salvador can’t protect them from the dangers they flee. Only about <a href="https://rree.gob.sv/gobierno-salvador-entrega-nacionalidades-naturalizacion-dia-mundial-los-refugiados/">50 people have applied for asylum there in recent years</a>. El Salvador has just <a href="https://elfaro.net/en/201909/el_salvador/23667/El-Salvador-Signs-Agreement-to-Accept-Asylum-Seekers-the-US-Won%E2%80%99t-Protect.htm">one asylum officer on staff</a>, according to the Salvadoran investigative news site El Faro.</p>
<p>The future of the U.S.-El Salvador migration agreement is not assured, as the Salvadoran <a href="https://www.voanoticias.com/a/eeuu-el-salvador-firmar%C3%A1n-acuerdo-sobre-asilo/5092135.html">Congress has not yet approved the measure</a>. But if it goes into effect, migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. may soon become collateral damage from this political deal.</p>
<p>[ <em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124475/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mneesha Gellman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Trump officials plan to send asylum seekers from the US to El Salvador while their claims are processed. That would expose these vulnerable people to grave dangers, says a political violence expert.Mneesha Gellman, Associate Professor of Political Science, Emerson CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1217692019-08-27T13:42:36Z2019-08-27T13:42:36ZA new approach to criminalisation could end Cape Town’s drug wars<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288040/original/file-20190814-136199-szaupf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The drug trade is the main source of income for gangs in Cape Town.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/NIC BOTHMA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s not known exactly how many gangs there are in South Africa’s Western Cape province, but gang membership has been <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-24/rising-cape-town-gang-violence-is-yet-another-legacy-of-apartheid">estimated at more than 100 000</a>. Almost all these gangs, most concentrated in Cape Town, make the bulk of their money from procuring and selling illegal leisure drugs such as tik (crystal methamphetimine), heroin, nyaope (a street drug that mixes several illicit drugs) and dagga (marijuana).</p>
<p>Herein lies the conundrum: the criminalisation of possession and use of drugs creates conditions that are conducive for organised crime. This is why understanding the use, misuse and trade of illegal drugs is central to any intervention involving gangs and any policy relating to them.</p>
<p>This discussion is particularly important right now. Soldiers from the South African National Defence Force have moved into various suburbs in what’s known as the Cape Flats – an area of Cape Town racked by gang violence. But it will take more than armed soldiers to solve these seemingly intractable problems.</p>
<p>Criminalisation is a key issue to consider here. While all drugs are potentially harmful, there’s no doubt that criminalisation of possession and use <a href="http://www.sajbl.org.za/index.php/sajbl/article/view/219/228">creates enormous harms</a>. Some of these relate directly to drug use. Others are about the production and supply of drugs. Perhaps the greatest harm is that young people are being caught up in the criminal justice system in huge numbers and ending up in jail where they are inducted into fierce prison gangs. Drug arrests are also wasting police time, clogging courts and filling prisons with young people.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289414/original/file-20190826-8851-f92cg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289414/original/file-20190826-8851-f92cg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289414/original/file-20190826-8851-f92cg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289414/original/file-20190826-8851-f92cg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289414/original/file-20190826-8851-f92cg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289414/original/file-20190826-8851-f92cg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289414/original/file-20190826-8851-f92cg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289414/original/file-20190826-8851-f92cg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Drug-related arrests in the Western Cape are climbing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Statistics South Africa</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s clear this present approach to criminalisation has <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2016-11-21-legalise-it-the-war-on-drugs-has-failed/">failed</a>. Cape Town – and South Africa’s – drug problem is escalating. At present the country is simply placing a potentially dangerous market into the hands of criminal syndicates and international traffickers.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cape-towns-bloody-gang-violence-is-inextricably-bound-up-in-its-history-121384">Cape Town's bloody gang violence is inextricably bound up in its history</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A recalibration is urgently needed. In fact, the thinking around criminalisation is shifting globally. More than 50 years of prohibition, with more than <a href="https://www.drugpolicy.org/sites/default/files/DPA_Fact_sheet_Drug_War_Budget_Feb2015.pdf">a trillion dollars</a> spent on enforcement worldwide in that period, have failed to prevent a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/recreational-drug-use-rise/">dramatic rise</a> in illicit drug use.</p>
<p>According to <a href="https://transformdrugs.org/">Transform</a>, a UK organisation dealing with drug issues, “this is hardly surprising given that research consistently shows criminalisation does not deter use”.</p>
<p>How could South Africa do things differently?</p>
<h2>Mapping drug routes</h2>
<p>There are a few reasons that criminalisation simply doesn’t work.</p>
<p>First, illegal drug markets are characterised by violence between criminal organisations and the police; between rival criminal organisations; or both. The intensification of enforcement efforts simply <a href="https://transformdrugs.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Global-Drug-Policy-Debate_0-1.pdf">fuels</a> this violence.</p>
<p>Second, it is in the interests of criminal organisations seeking to protect and expand their business to invest in corrupting and weakening all levels of government, the police and the judiciary. These problems discourage investment in affected neighbourhoods. Meanwhile, limited budgets are directed into drug law enforcement, and away from health and development.</p>
<p>Another issue is that squeezing the supply of prohibited drugs in the context of high and growing demand inflates prices, providing a lucrative opportunity for criminal entrepreneurs.</p>
<p>A report by analyst and author Simone Haysom traces a heroin route that crosses Southern Africa from the East African “<a href="https://enact-africa.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/2019-04-09-heroin-south-africa-policy-brief.pdf">heroin coast</a>” into South Africa’s cities and on to Europe and the Americas. This is one of three major heroin routes out of Afghanistan, which have their main markets in Europe and North America.</p>
<p>Until recently the southern route was considered to be the poor relation of the Balkan and central routes, which travel overland – and a much shorter distance – from Afghanistan to Europe. However, the southern route has become much more significant since 2000. This is principally because of an increase in opium production in Afghanistan; increased enforcement on the other routes; and persistent “impunity” for traffickers operating in East Africa.</p>
<p>In Cape Town, a significant proportion of street crime is related to the illegal drug trade. Rival gangs fight for control of the market and dependent users commit robbery to pay for drugs. The criminal justice-led approach has also caused a dramatic rise in the prison population of drug and drug-related offenders.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-army-is-being-used-to-fight-cape-towns-gangs-why-its-a-bad-idea-120455">The army is being used to fight Cape Town's gangs. Why it's a bad idea</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Alternatives</h2>
<p>So what might an alternative approach to drug legislation in South Africa look like? International experience and research suggests the goal of any drug policy should be to:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Protect and improve public health;</p></li>
<li><p>Reduce drug related crime, corruption and violence;</p></li>
<li><p>Improve security and development;</p></li>
<li><p>Protect the young and vulnerable;</p></li>
<li><p>Protect human rights; and</p></li>
<li><p>Base policy on evidence of what works.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>In terms of <a href="https://enact-africa.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/2019-04-09-heroin-south-africa-policy-brief.pdf">current discussions</a> worldwide, this means retaking control from and disempowering organised crime syndicates which monopolise the drug trade. This requires markets to be legally regulated, availability controlled and drug over-use to be dealt with as a health problem. This would require an end to criminalisation of people who use drugs. A <a href="https://www.hri.global/what-is-harm-reduction">harm-reduction approach</a> would also have to be adopted.</p>
<p>All aspects of such a market can be regulated – from production through to use. It’s important to note that regulation does not constitute approval. Many of the drugs in question – such as cannabis, amphetamines, cocaine, and various opiates, including heroin – are already produced legally for medical uses without significant problems. Medical production models exist that indicate clearly how drug use can be carried out in <a href="https://transformdrugs.org/regulating-drugs/">a safe and controlled fashion</a>.</p>
<h2>A framework for regulation</h2>
<p>What’s particularly useful about legal regulation, according to <a href="https://transformdrugs.org/product/decriminalisation-of-people-who-use-drugs-reducing-harm-improving-health-helping-the-vulnerable-and-releasing-resources/">research</a>, is that it allows controls to be put in place over everything from products (dose, preparation, price, and packaging) to vendors (licensing, vetting and training requirements); from who has access (age controls, licensed buyers, club membership schemes) to where and when drugs can be consumed.</p>
<p>There is also a legal/policy framework spectrum within which the production, supply and use of leisure drugs can be understood.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289415/original/file-20190826-8880-1smifj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289415/original/file-20190826-8880-1smifj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289415/original/file-20190826-8880-1smifj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289415/original/file-20190826-8880-1smifj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289415/original/file-20190826-8880-1smifj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289415/original/file-20190826-8880-1smifj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289415/original/file-20190826-8880-1smifj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289415/original/file-20190826-8880-1smifj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Transform (www.tdpf.org.uk)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Either end of this spectrum involves effectively unregulated markets – the criminal markets under prohibition at one end and legal, commercial free markets at the other. At both the prohibition and commercial ends, profit is the main driver; other outcomes are of little importance. In the middle lies an optimum level of government regulation – a point at which policy is both ethical and effective, because it represents where overall harms are minimised. This is true for all leisure drugs, including alcohol and tobacco.</p>
<p>Given the reality of continuing high demand for drugs and the resilience of illicit supply in meeting this demand, the regulated market models found in the central part of the spectrum are best able to deliver the most effective outcomes.</p>
<p>Drug market regulation is a pragmatic position that involves rolling out strict government control into a marketplace where currently there is none. And in Cape Town, it will have far greater positive ramifications than using the army to stop drug wars.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121769/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Don Pinnock consulted the Western Cape provincial Department of Community Safety in 2018 coordinating its gang strategy.</span></em></p>At present South Africa is simply placing a potentially dangerous market into the hands of criminal syndicates and international traffickers.Don Pinnock, Research fellow, criminologist, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1207752019-07-23T07:34:16Z2019-07-23T07:34:16ZSouth Africa’s soldiers won’t end gang violence. A co-ordinated plan might<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285298/original/file-20190723-110187-10dh1k1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Deploying the army in the Cape Flats constitutes nothing more than simply sticking band aid on a festering wound.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ground Up - Ashraf Hendricks</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The South African government has taken a decision to <a href="https://www.enca.com/news/sandf-deployed-cape-town-townships">deploy</a> members of the South African National Defence Force to areas that have been ravaged by gang violence. </p>
<p>At least the deployment of the army shows some commitment by government to address the dire security problems these communities face. But it’s too little too late. It constitutes nothing more than simply sticking band aid on a festering wound. </p>
<p>The arrival of the soldiers has made headlines in the country. But will they make any difference? </p>
<p>In the short term they are likely to silence some of the guns. But they are unlikely to net any of the important kingpins behind the violence. Firstly, many of them don’t live in the neighbourhoods in which they conduct their business. Secondly, those who were living there would have decamped long before the soldiers arrived.</p>
<p>Lasting solutions to gangsterism and organised crime on the Cape Flats require a much more comprehensive approach than has been put into action. It requires a plan that pulls together various government agencies as well as different departments. The country in fact <a href="https://nationalgovernment.co.za/department_annual/128/2016-department:-defence-annual-report.pdf">has a framework</a> for joint action. Outlined in the Department of Defence’s review in 2015, it lists how the approach should be implemented. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, four years on, no progress has been made to structure this kind of approach. This pertains not only to issues of future force design and command-and-control, but to the need for better coordination in the sharing, storing and analysis of information and intelligence among all the departments involved. </p>
<p>This coordination is not happening. Soldiers, for instance, collect and process data into actionable intelligence to inform when and where to launch attacks. For their part, the South African Police Service, the Department of Correctional Services and the judiciary collect data and information to translate it into evidence that could be presented in courts of law. These diverse organisational end states limit the chances for lasting success. Unless all the efforts are focused, continually managed and controlled to achieve mutual support, none of the institutions can act effectively.</p>
<p>This won’t be easy. I know this from firsthand experience. As a serving South African Army officer who was deployed with members of the police in cordon and search operations during the 1990s, I can attest to the difficulties experienced in coordinating activities among state departments and agencies. </p>
<h2>A joint approach tested, then abandoned</h2>
<p>In the 1990s joint, interdepartmental and inter-agency structures were established from local, to provincial to national level. These bespoke structures were tailored to serve the operations and intelligence communities from tactical, to provincial to national levels that played a vital role in the collection, processing and dissemination of the intelligence collected. </p>
<p>Intelligence officers were also deployed in specific areas for extended periods of time which provided them with opportunities to gain detail intelligence of their areas of operations, as well as to register sources who provided them with information.</p>
<p>After 1994, a decision was made to disband these networks. The tactical intelligence structures of the Air Force, Navy and South African Medical Health Services were shut down. The South African Army was the only service that retained its tactical intelligence capability, albeit with an extremely limited mandate, namely that of overt collection only. For example, its intelligence corps was not permitted to conduct the processing and dissemination of intelligence anymore. These activities were centralised at Defence Intelligence Headquarters in Pretoria from about 1997. </p>
<p>The implications of these changes for the current deployments is that the South African Army members deployed on the Cape Flats will be depended on information and intelligence that will be mostly re-active and historical. And, although it could be used to provide context to their deployments, it would not necessarily be of any use as actionable intelligence.</p>
<h2>Defence in democracy</h2>
<p>The debates on the topic of the internal deployment of members of the South African National Defence Force has again highlighted the need for South Africans to debate what “Defence in Democracy” actually means. The result is that the military is expected to perform tasks for which it is not trained, funded or structured. The deployment of the army to the Cape Flats can therefore, at least, serve as a reason for debates on the topic of the role and future functions of the army and how it could be restructured.</p>
<p>In the interim, the successes to be achieved by the South African National Defence Force and the South African Police Services on the Cape Flats will be directly linked to the levels of cooperation established on an ad hoc basis by the role-players on a personal, individual level, rather than as a result of the integrated efforts of all the role-players. </p>
<p>There is a need for comprehensive <a href="https://ndupress.ndu.edu/Portals/68/Documents/Books/CTBSP-Exports/Capability-Development-in-Support-of-Comprehensive-Approaches.pdf?ver=2017-06-16-110221-453">approaches</a> that should include all the relevant government departments, as well as all organisations in society that can play a role in fighting the crime and violence which has become endemic.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120775/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laetitia Olivier does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Successes by the army and police on the Cape Flats will depend entirely on levels of cooperation established on an ad hoc basis.Laetitia Olivier, Lecturer at the Department of Strategic Studies, Faculty of Military Science (Military Academy), Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1154852019-06-21T10:43:20Z2019-06-21T10:43:20ZI research slang to help solve gang crime – and it’s clear how little politicians understand<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280700/original/file-20190621-61767-17ln3t9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C428%2C5607%2C3236&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Slang: sometimes difficult to decipher. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/thomashawk/29660769556/sizes/l">Thomas Hawk/Flickr.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Gang-related violent crime continues to affect young people across England and Wales, with the latest <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-48647788">reports suggesting that</a> gang leaders are offering teenagers up to £1,000 pounds to carry out stabbings. In their efforts to curb violence among young people, police and politicians must distinguish between those who are involved in crime and those who are innocent – or risk <a href="https://theconversation.com/treating-young-people-like-criminals-actually-makes-violent-crime-worse-91723">further marginalising</a> deprived communities. </p>
<p>To understand young people’s intentions, authorities have to get to grips with the slang they use to communicate. But the relationship between the street slang used by many young people every day and the secret codes deployed by gang members while planning and boasting about crimes is not always straightforward, and lends itself to misunderstandings. </p>
<p>That’s where I come in. I have collected slang for as long as I can remember, and since the early 1990s I have taught about it too, and published <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/dictionary-of-contemporary-slang-9781408181799/">dictionaries</a> and articles to record and analyse it. Since 2009, I have been assisting law enforcement agencies and defence lawyers to make sense of evidence in criminal trials that hinge on slang terms most people are unable to decipher. Decoding and translating this language can help both young victims of violence and the young people who are wrongly accused of perpetrating it. </p>
<h2>Violence and vernacular</h2>
<p>Most academics and teachers in the UK pay slang little attention: it is, after all, the language of outsiders, of rebellion, of bad behaviour and mockery. But I find colourful, unorthodox language like slang inherently interesting: it creatively exploits English in a way that both renews the language and gives a voice to marginal, misunderstood communities. </p>
<p>This includes ways of speaking that mix local and imported words and pronunciations, that have developed in London as well as other European cities. One of these vernaculars – called “<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/from-the-mouths-of-teens-422688.html">multicultural London English</a>” or Urban British English – has now spread far beyond the capital and can be heard even in rural streets and playgrounds.</p>
<p>Young criminals, of course, share the same accents, intonations, day-to-day vocabulary and grammatical novelties as all the other users of Urban British English. So I get involved when the meanings of slang terms are unclear, or when their interpretation is disputed by defence and prosecution in court. The same slang term may have more than one meaning: “plug”, for instance, may mean stab or shoot, or may refer to a drug contact or drug supply; “toys” can refer to drugs, drug paraphernalia, cars or guns.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280687/original/file-20190621-61756-1ursmyi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280687/original/file-20190621-61756-1ursmyi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280687/original/file-20190621-61756-1ursmyi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280687/original/file-20190621-61756-1ursmyi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280687/original/file-20190621-61756-1ursmyi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280687/original/file-20190621-61756-1ursmyi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280687/original/file-20190621-61756-1ursmyi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Young people all over the UK use slang – that doesn’t make them criminals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/HZGkX1vKJvo">Alex Holyoake/Unsplash.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Since the civil disturbances of 2011, during which <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/aug/09/london-riots-blackberrys-police">electronic surveillance was used</a> to monitor rioters’ conversations, frontline police officers have made themselves much more familiar with the jargon circulating on the streets. New terms are being coined all the time, but contrary to assumptions, slang doesn’t date quickly. Key terms in Urban British English – “bare” for many, “peng” or “piff” for attractive or good, “bait” for obvious, “p’s” or “gwop” or “lizzie(s)” for money, “food” for cannabis have been around for more than a decade.</p>
<h2>In defence of drill</h2>
<p>Law enforcers and social commentators <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jun/15/london-drill-rap-gang-banned-from-making-music-due-to-threat-of-violence">made the connection</a> between the slang used in the darker more violent forms of hip hop and knife crime some time ago. This has resulted in police issuing <a href="https://theconversation.com/making-music-videos-is-not-a-criminal-activity-no-matter-what-genre-97472">Criminal Behaviour Orders</a> to groups that produce this kind of music, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-44281586">asking YouTube</a> to delete such content from its platform and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/jan/31/skengdo-and-am-the-drill-rappers-sentenced-for-playing-their-song">prosecuting two up and coming artists</a> for breaching a gang injunction by performing in London in 2018. </p>
<p>Rap inherited a tradition of boasting, goading and insulting from the earlier dancehall styles, which featured rival MCs or DJs competing with one another. This can sound fantastically menacing to the uninitiated, and is taken to its furthest extremes – death threats, graphic descriptions of violence – by hyper-aggressive, macho drill music. </p>
<p>“Dissing” (insulting) and “bragging” (boasting) tracks reference “skengs”, “ramsays”, “shanks”, “swords” (meaning knives) as well as “spinners”, “mashes”, “burners” (meaning handguns), and celebrate “dipping” or “cheffing” (stabbing), “frying” or “wooshing” (shooting), “gliding” or “touring” (entering enemy territory) and “duppying” (killing).</p>
<p>Drill lyricists take their cues from slang spoken on the street – and slang speakers imitate them in turn. Some rappers are gang members themselves – and a small minority enact the atrocities they rap about in real life. But innocent young people and aspiring rappers also listen to drill music and adopt the violent vocabulary of established performers when writing and recording their own tracks. </p>
<p>It’s hardly surprising, then, that the police crackdown on drill music has met with resistance from <a href="https://theconversation.com/making-music-videos-is-not-a-criminal-activity-no-matter-what-genre-97472">academics</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/akalamusic/status/984784763520249856">activists</a> and artists, including Krept and Konan, who recently <a href="https://www.clashmusic.com/news/krept-konan-just-spoke-in-support-of-drill-in-the-uk-parliament">discussed the topic</a> with MPs in parliament. Writing for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/13/music-banning-drill-black-british-kids-violence">The Guardian</a>, Konan said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>After the murder of my stepdad, it was music that actually pulled me out of my former lifestyle. Before music, there was just jail, gangs and getting arrested. Without music, I do not know if I would be alive today. Best-case scenario, I’d be in prison.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/making-music-videos-is-not-a-criminal-activity-no-matter-what-genre-97472">Making music videos is not a criminal activity – no matter what genre</a>
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<p>Being able to understand the language of criminality may be a legal imperative, but there are social priorities too. Young people should be free to express their feelings, motivations and concerns in their own language. Authorities, teachers, parents and politicians should try to relate to the pressures of inner-city life and the sense of futility that many young people are experiencing – even when the words they prefer to use sound strange or menacing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115485/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tony Thorne does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The relationship between street slang used by young people and secret codes deployed by gang members is not always straightforward.Tony Thorne, Director of Slang and New Language Archive, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1115682019-02-19T14:35:52Z2019-02-19T14:35:52ZWhy a law designed to fight gang violence in South Africa can’t do the job<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259278/original/file-20190215-56204-1w8mi6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the launch of a national anti-gang unit in Cape Town. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">GCIS</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.saps.gov.za/services/crimestats.php">Crime statistics</a> from the
South African Police Service show that gang related murders are increasing sharply, particularly in the suburbs that make up the <a href="http://capeflats.org.za/modules/home/townships.php">Cape Flats</a> in the Western Cape. The area is the <a href="https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Book2006OC_CapeFlats.PDF">epicentre</a> of gang activity in the country. One in every five of the 3 729 people murdered in the province between April 2017 and March 2018 were the victims of gangs.</p>
<p>Los Angeles in the US has a comparable gang problem. But even it has had a lower rate of gang related murders in the <a href="http://www.lapdonline.org/get_informed/content_basic_view/1396">past three years</a>.</p>
<p>Last year I concluded the first comprehensive analysis of the main law designed to deal with gang related crimes. I specifically looked at Chapter 4 of the <a href="http://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/acts/1998-121.pdf">Prevention of Organised Crime Act</a> to investigate the shortcomings of the legislation in combating gang related crimes. </p>
<p>My analysis uncovered several shortcomings – including issues such as sentencing and the fact that the law falls short of being specific on gang related crimes – that frustrate the prosecution and conviction of gangs. </p>
<h2>Research findings</h2>
<p>I <a href="http://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/105032">found</a> that the state’s failure to protect the inhabitants of the Cape Flats can in great part be attributed to the failure of Chapter 4 of the law, which was enacted in 1999 to combat organised crime. That includes gang related crime. </p>
<p>One of the biggest problems is that the law doesn’t have the power to disrupt gangs’ structures and capabilities. This is partly due to weak sentences for gang related crimes. They range between three and six years, mostly with the option of a fine. The sentences are ineffectual in deterring gang members and are also too short to disrupt the organisational structure of the gangs.</p>
<p>My research also highlighted the fact that low sentences were often given to high-ranking gang members or bosses, on whose orders the offences such as drug dealing, assault, robbery or murder are often committed. </p>
<p>This issue is worsened because the Prevention of Organised Crime Act doesn’t contain any offence that is specifically aimed at gang leaders. The closest it comes to targeting them is through the provision for the crime of inducing another to commit gang activities. This carries a maximum sentence of three years, or an unspecified fine. </p>
<p>This is in stark contrast to crimes pertaining to managing criminal racketeering enterprises. These offences carry a <a href="http://justice.gov.za/legislation/acts/1998-121.pdf">R100 million fine</a> or life imprisonment. </p>
<p>A further issue is that proving crimes were committed on the instruction of gang leaders is extremely difficult. That’s because gang leaders are mostly far removed from the actual crimes, which are executed by their subordinates. There’s often no evidence linking the leaders to the actual crimes, making it practically impossible for the state to prove their involvement beyond a reasonable doubt in trials.</p>
<p>Prosecutions based on the act are often derailed due to a lack of evidence, also because of the complex nature of the crimes.</p>
<h2>Ineffective policing</h2>
<p>The Western Cape government has been very vocal in claiming successes in its fight against gangs. For example, it claimed last August that its <a href="https://www.groundup.org.za/article/police-claim-successes-operation-thunder/">anti-crime operation</a> had made over “11,000 arrests including high-ranking gang members on the Cape Flats”. This seems exorbitant, considering that the total number of people awaiting trial in the entire country during 2016 and 2017 was <a href="https://africacheck.org/factsheets/factsheet-the-state-of-south-africas-prisons/">about 43 799</a>.</p>
<p>But the public should be weary of this misleading language. Arrests don’t translate into prosecutions; and prosecutions don’t translate into convictions. In fact, Helen Zille, the Premier of the Western Cape, <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/where-did-zille-get-stats-for-gang-convictions-2031652">criticised</a> the low 0,7% gang conviction rate two years ago. </p>
<p>The gang crisis is aggravated by the <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/crime-stats-call-for-more-police-for-the-poor-as-murder-rate-climbs-20180911">shortage of police officers</a> in the country. In 2015 it was reported that about 85% of South African police stations were understaffed. </p>
<p>Another problem is the unfair allocation of police resources. In December 2018, the Equality Court <a href="http://sjc.org.za/campaigns/police-resources">found</a> that the allocation of police resources unfairly discriminated “against black and poor people on the basis of race and poverty”. Many of those under-served areas are rife with gang activity.</p>
<h2>What can be done?</h2>
<p>The law needs to change to provide for crimes that are simpler to prove, and include provisions that specifically target gang leaders. This should be coupled with harsher sentences.</p>
<p>Ensuring that gang leaders are directly accountable for the crimes committed by their subordinates would solve the problem in providing evidence in court that the crimes were committed on the bosses’ instructions. Proof that the boss controls the gang, for instance, would be enough to secure a conviction. Such models are recognised under <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/nr/rdonlyres/ea9aeff7-5752-4f84-be94-0a655eb30e16/0/rome_statute_english.pdf">international criminal law</a>. </p>
<p>A controversial option, akin to Australia’s <a href="https://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/#/view/act/2012/9/full">New South Wales</a> model, would be to outlaw the formation of gangs and membership. This might, however, lead to the infringement of the constitutional right to freedom of association.</p>
<p>None of the necessary changes will happen without real political will. The establishment of the <a href="https://www.thesouthafrican.com/cape-flats-gang-unit-national-government/">Anti-Gang Unit</a> in the Western Cape in late 2018 was a step in the right direction. But its true value will be reflected in actual convictions for gang-related crimes. </p>
<p><em>This was updated in the light of new developments.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111568/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Delano Cole van der Linde does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The law aimed at fighting gangs lacks the power to disrupt their activities.Delano Cole van der Linde, Lecturer in the Faculty of Law, North-West University, North-West UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1076912018-12-04T11:33:18Z2018-12-04T11:33:18ZWhite nationalist groups are really street gangs, and law enforcement needs to treat them that way<p>Law enforcement has a classification problem, and it’s making America more dangerous.</p>
<p>For the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/03/magazine/FBI-charlottesville-white-nationalism-far-right.html">last two decades</a>, local police and the FBI have categorized the criminal activities of white power groups as isolated incidents or hate-related.</p>
<p>We believe that’s wrong and leads to a <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674286078">lack of understanding</a> of the power of these groups and the direction they are taking. It also leads to the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/du-bois-review-social-science-research-on-race/article/living-histories-of-white-supremacist-policing/E2503031AD0D2A85B464E56D44930166">under-policing of these</a> groups.</p>
<p>As criminologists, our research is based on the rationale that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2018.1467003">“alt-right” groups</a> are no different from <a href="http://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/06/how-the-portland-polices-racist-gang-database-missed-white-supremacist-jeremy-christian.html">conventional street gangs</a>. </p>
<p>A uniform definition for a “gang” does not exist among scholars or law enforcement. However, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/521">criminal codes</a> usually define a street gang as an ongoing group, club or association composed of five or more individuals that participate in either a felony, simple assault or destruction of property.</p>
<p>Categorizing alt-right groups as gangs would increase the attention they get from law enforcement and likely stem their violence. When police use traditional crowd control techniques to <a href="https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/ev3zdm/gritty-inspired-protesters-just-chased-a-right-wing-rally-out-of-philly">corral alt-right gangs</a> at public demonstrations, it only reduces the chances of violence and does not address the root cause of white supremacy.</p>
<p>Unless law enforcement changes their approach accordingly, these groups will likely continue to grow and contribute to <a href="https://qz.com/1355874/terrorism-is-surging-in-the-us-fueled-by-right-wing-extremists/">increases in extremist violence</a>, particularly <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/saviors-of-the-white-race-perpetrators-of-hate-crimes-see-themselves-as-heroes-researchers-say/2018/10/31/277a2bdc-daeb-11e8-85df-7a6b4d25cfbb_story.html">anti-Semitic attacks</a>.</p>
<h2>From tweets to the streets</h2>
<p>In spite of public perception, scholars point out that the alt-right is not composed of “<a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1536504217714269">lone wolves</a>” or a bunch of “<a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1536504218766547">Internet trolls</a>.”</p>
<p>Nor is it a <a href="http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/id/obo-9780195396607-0243">monolith</a> with a unified ideology. </p>
<p>Instead, the alt-right is composed of a variety of factions that oppose multiculturalism, feminism, political correctness, globalism, establishment politics and immigration, and <a href="https://www.voxpol.eu/download/vox-pol_publication/AltRightTwitterCensus.pdf">support President Donald Trump</a>. The group’s core, however, <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/making-sense-of-the-alt-right/9780231185127">is a racist movement</a> revolving around beliefs of <a href="http://ifstudies.org/blog/the-demography-of-the-alt-right">white nationalism</a> including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/21565503.2018.1454330">anti-Semitism and fear of “white racial genocide.”</a></p>
<p>Over the last two decades, the white power movement <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1536504217714269">has adapted</a> to thrive with the growth of the <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1536504218766547">internet and social media</a>. Digital <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/557516/rising-out-of-hatred-by-eli-saslow/9780385542869/">communication platforms</a> such as message boards, blogs and social media have provided an cheap way to promote white supremacy ideology, recruit members and maintain social ties between members.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248566/original/file-20181203-194956-1n4url3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248566/original/file-20181203-194956-1n4url3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248566/original/file-20181203-194956-1n4url3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248566/original/file-20181203-194956-1n4url3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248566/original/file-20181203-194956-1n4url3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248566/original/file-20181203-194956-1n4url3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248566/original/file-20181203-194956-1n4url3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248566/original/file-20181203-194956-1n4url3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Richard Spencer, a leader in the ‘alt-right’ that mixes racism, white nationalism and populism.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Texas-A-amp-M-White-Nationalist/696712a9e0e742d4a707e7e2e838d22c/1/0">AP Photo/David J. Phillip</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even though the alt-right evolved in the <a href="http://theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/12/brotherhood-of-losers/544158/">digital world</a>, it has manifested in the real world. Alt-right gangs are regularly seen demonstrating and rallying in public, as in <a href="https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/qvzn8p/vice-news-tonight-full-episode-charlottesville-race-and-terror">Charlottesville</a>, <a href="https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2017/04/15/proudboys-berkeley-violence-trump/">Berkeley</a> and <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/07/03/portland-far-right-rally-once-again-quickly-turns-violent-march-becomes-riot">Portland, Oregon</a>. All of those events ended in violence. Recently, in <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/proud-boys-nyc-antifa-fight-nypd-738092/">New York</a> alt-right gangs have abandoned the pretense of peaceful gatherings and are now openly participating in street brawls.</p>
<p>Since 2017, the nonprofit Jewish organization, the <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/reports/charlottesville-one-year-later">Anti-Defamation League</a>, has documented 54 far-right extremist <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/08/04/protests-again-convulse-portland-ore-as-groups-on-the-right-and-left-face-off/">protests and demonstrations</a>, particularly in more progressive urban centers across the United States. </p>
<p>In the past year, the ADL has also documented more than <a href="https://www.adl.org/news/press-releases/adl-unveils-first-of-its-kind-interactive-map-pinpointing-extremism-and-hate">900 incidents of</a> white power propaganda on or near college campuses. </p>
<p>Over the last two years, alt-right groups have also engaged in <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/01/the-resurgent-threat-of-white-supremacist-violence/550634/">murder</a>, <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/417239-authorities-find-rocket-launcher-and-pipe-bombs-during-raid-on">stockpiled firearms and explosives</a>, and <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/an-atomwaffen-member-sketched-a-map-to-take-the-neo-nazis-down-what-path-officials-took-is-a-mystery/">plotted terrorist attacks</a>.</p>
<p>The alt-right’s other activities include <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/nypd-looks-to-charge-9-proud-boys-with-assault-for-manhattan-fight">assault and harassment</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/hate-groups-make-unprecedented-push-to-recruit-on-college-campuses/2018/01/12/c66cf628-e4f8-11e7-833f-155031558ff4_story.html">hate-related crimes</a>.</p>
<h2>Proud Boys: An alt-right gang</h2>
<p>Proud Boys is a self-described “Western chauvinist” men’s club that was founded in 2016 by Gavin McInnes. Like <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2018.1479916">conventional street gangs</a>, many of the characteristics used by scholars and law enforcement to identify a member of Proud Boys are used to identify members of a street gang.</p>
<p>Members are initiated with <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/04/25/new-fight-club-ready-street-violence">violent rituals</a>. They routinely gather to <a href="https://www.ttbook.org/interview/proud-boys-drinking-club-or-misogynist-movement">socialize</a> in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/sp.2004.51.1.16">spaces guarded from outsiders</a>. Members are encouraged to <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/nypd-looks-to-charge-9-proud-boys-with-assault-for-manhattan-fight">engage in criminal acts of violence</a>. Finally, McInnes has publicly <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm9lfWTGmDY">called the group</a> a gang – a <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10940-014-9215-8">documented predictor</a> of gang membership.</p>
<p>McInnes claims that Proud Boys have chapters sprouting up all over the globe. There are, however, <a href="http://proudboysusa.com/chapters/">only about 30 chapters</a> documented in the United States. A half dozen exist in Canada. Even fewer exist across Europe, and McInnes has promised that chapters are “coming soon” to the rest of the globe.</p>
<p>Proud Boys are just one example of three known right-wing groups that are emerging as alt-right gangs. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ocregister.com/2018/10/04/rise-above-movement-what-extremism-experts-are-saying-about-these-white-supremacists-in-southern-california/">Rise Above Movement</a> and <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/atomwaffen-division-hate-group-active-duty-military">Atomwaffen Division</a> are two other groups whose members, like Proud Boys, <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/atomwaffen-division-inside-white-hate-group">celebrates anti-Semitic violence</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/12/us/what-is-atomwaffen.html">stockpiles weapons</a> and regularly participates in <a href="https://www.apnews.com/1dc5b060a8294fbd80a836e1d3912e1a">violence against counterprotesters</a>.</p>
<h2>Responding</h2>
<p>Policymakers, law enforcement and analysts have the opportunity to change course and start addressing the lapse in policing of these domestic far-right extremists. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/21565503.2018.1454330">Education and exposure</a> are effective remedies at limiting the racist message of the alt-right. But law enforcement could be more proactive.</p>
<p>A good starting point would be to begin systematically monitoring members of alt-right gangs, particularly individuals that are regularly engaging in <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/white-hate-group-campaign-of-menace-rise-above-movement">street violence</a>. The consistent and responsible collection of information for a <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-gang-activity-on-the-rise-a-movement-to-abolish-gang-databases-makes-it-hard-to-tell-99252">gang database</a> can be a tool to effectively target violent crime while also protecting individual civil liberties. </p>
<p>It is equally important for police agencies to be able to easily <a href="http://pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/documenting-hate-charlottesville/">share such intelligence</a> amongst themselves. This would greatly help police agencies identify those alt-right gang members that are participating in street violence across various jurisdictions.</p>
<p>Next, police agencies could utilize a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0022427811419368">“focused deterrence” approach</a> that targets problematic groups engaging in violence. Such a strategy concentrates on chronic offenders and sends the message that violence will be met swiftly with enhanced sanctions. It also involves offering opportunities and resources to these individuals, such as vocational training, housing and substance abuse treatment to help end their criminal behavior. </p>
<p>Such approaches have consistently produced <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004723520800069X">significant reductions</a> in gang violence and can be part of the process to limit street violence of <a href="https://thecrimereport.org/2018/08/14/to-deter-violence-why-not-consider-alt-right-groups-as-street-gangs/">alt-right gangs</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107691/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Law enforcement’s historical tendency to treat crimes committed by white power groups as isolated incidents has allowed them to flourish.Matthew Valasik, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Louisiana State University Shannon Reid, Assistant professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology, University of North Carolina – CharlotteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1054742018-11-02T17:39:06Z2018-11-02T17:39:06ZRepublican ads feature MS-13, hoping fear will motivate voters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243512/original/file-20181101-83661-18uujyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Screenshot from Republican John Rose's campaign ad 'Build the Wall,' which equates all immigration with the Salvadoran gang MS-13.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=12&v=b27ect2Yu80"> John Rose For Tennessee via YouTube</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Campaign advertisements appearing for this year’s midterm elections include a stream of Republican campaign ads linking immigration to crime. </p>
<p>One-quarter of Republican ads running nationwide this election season denounce immigrant violence, <a href="http://mediaproject.wesleyan.edu/releases/issues-090618/">according to the Wesleyan Media Project</a>, and advocate for President Donald Trump’s draconian anti-immigrant policies, which include <a href="https://theconversation.com/us-zero-tolerance-immigration-policy-still-violating-fundamental-human-rights-laws-98615">separating immigrant children from their parents</a> and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2018/09/20/trump-official-announces-controversial-new-limits-on-refugees/">slashing the number of refugee admissions</a>.</p>
<p>The GOP ads echo the rhetoric of Trump, who on Wednesday tweeted an inflammatory <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/11/01/democrats-let-him-into-our-country-trumps-new-ad-links-opponents-illegal-immigrant-killer-its-far-worse-than-infamous-willie-horton-ad-say-critics/">anti-immigration ad</a> that attacks Democrats as soft on crime. </p>
<p>Republican Geoff Diehl, who is hoping to unseat Sen. Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts, has run ads attacking his opponent’s liberal stance on immigration. They make the unsubstantiated claim that undocumented immigrants “<a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/08/25/without-proof-geoff-diehl-asserts-over-people-every-year-killed-undocumented-immigrants/4VZ9m2imXTZ3EPc3NHiMLK/story.html">kill over 7,000 people a year</a>.”</p>
<h2>MS-13 in the spotlight</h2>
<p>The street gang <a href="https://theconversation.com/ms-13-is-a-street-gang-not-a-drug-cartel-and-the-difference-matters-92702">MS-13</a> plays a starring role in many of the GOP’s ads. </p>
<p>“Gangs like MS-13 exploit our broken immigration system and commit terrible crimes, horrific crimes,” says an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ6750iXSxw&feature=youtu.be">attack ad</a> against Nevada Rep. Jacky Rosen, adding that the Democrat voted against “getting tough” on immigration.</p>
<p>I’ve spent the last seven years researching MS-13, and my <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520297098">2018 book</a> about this Salvadoran street gang examines the way conservative politicians leverage its brutal image to serve their electoral and policy agendas.</p>
<p>Because its membership is primarily Latino, MS-13 helps Republicans make a crucial link between immigration and violence in voters’ minds, my research shows. </p>
<p>That association is factually unfounded.</p>
<p>Numerous studies show that immigrants actually commit crime at a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/06/19/two-charts-demolish-the-notion-that-immigrants-here-illegally-commit-more-crime/?utm_term=.02c9f3931732">lower rate than native-born Americans</a>. Large cities with substantial immigrant populations <a href="https://theconversation.com/immigration-and-crime-what-does-the-research-say-72176">have lower crime rates</a>, on average, than those with minimal immigrant populations.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243673/original/file-20181102-83654-ilv6m1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243673/original/file-20181102-83654-ilv6m1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243673/original/file-20181102-83654-ilv6m1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243673/original/file-20181102-83654-ilv6m1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243673/original/file-20181102-83654-ilv6m1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243673/original/file-20181102-83654-ilv6m1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243673/original/file-20181102-83654-ilv6m1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243673/original/file-20181102-83654-ilv6m1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Central American migrants now traveling through Mexico are fleeing extreme violence to seek asylum in the U.S.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Migrant-Caravan-US-Border/1bb2429a746540859611a94580a8f3a8/6/0">AP Photo/Gregory Bull</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Inflammatory anti-immigration ads</h2>
<p>Nonetheless, the current GOP ads paint Democrats as soft on crime, <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/may/29/nancy-pelosi-hit-with-gop-ad-democrats-midterm-mes/">allies of the Latino street gang MS-13</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-nm0vQwO5c&feature=youtu.be">“complicit” with murderers</a>. </p>
<p>Republican John Rose, who hopes to represent Tennessee’s 6th district, opens a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b27ect2Yu80">TV ad</a> with the question: “Mexican Drug lords, MS-13 gang members, sex-traffickers … Do they run our border? Or do we?” </p>
<p>After a series of garish images – a knife cutting open a bag of heroin, threatening silhouettes, another knife – viewers see Rose and Trump, smiling shoulder to shoulder as the narrator commends White House policies from “build the wall” to “zero tolerance.” </p>
<p>MS-13 began in Los Angeles in the 1990s and later expanded into Central American cities, where it has undermined governance and <a href="https://theconversation.com/ms-13-is-a-street-gang-not-a-drug-cartel-and-the-difference-matters-92702">terrorized local populations</a>. </p>
<p>In the United States, however, it is not the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/06/27/opinion/trump-ms13-immigration.html">largest</a> of the <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/violent-crime/gangs">33,000 criminal organizations operating in the the country</a>. Its membership – an estimated 3,000 to 10,000 people nationwide – is five times lower than the 18th Street, Gangster Disciples and other American gangs. </p>
<p>MS-13 has committed brutal, high-profile murders in Boston, Long Island, Virginia and beyond. While it has been <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/ms-13-immigration-facts-what-trump-administration-gets-wrong">highly, sensationally violent in those communities</a>, the gang is not the most dangerous criminal group in the United States. Evidence suggests there is very little coordination, if any, among MS-13 cells nationwide. Its violence is also typically, though not solely, directed against <a href="https://theconversation.com/ms-13-is-a-street-gang-not-a-drug-cartel-and-the-difference-matters-92702">other gang members</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://cis.org/">Center for Immigration Studies</a>, a right-wing organization known for its <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/center-immigration-studies">anti-immigrant ideology</a>, alleges that MS-13 commits about <a href="https://cis.org/Report/MS13-Resurgence-Immigration-Enforcement-Needed-Take-Back-Our-Streets">35 murders a year</a> – a fraction of murders <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2012-10-03-ct-met-street-gang-bloodshed-20121003-story.html">attributed to other U.S. gangs</a>. The U.S. had <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/fbi-murders-dropped-in-2017/2018/09/24/d9befda6-bffa-11e8-90c9-23f963eea204_story.html?utm_term=.d10523af6269">17,284 homicides</a> in 2017.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243675/original/file-20181102-83641-1kvaq50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243675/original/file-20181102-83641-1kvaq50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243675/original/file-20181102-83641-1kvaq50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243675/original/file-20181102-83641-1kvaq50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243675/original/file-20181102-83641-1kvaq50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243675/original/file-20181102-83641-1kvaq50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243675/original/file-20181102-83641-1kvaq50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243675/original/file-20181102-83641-1kvaq50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Trump administration stokes Americans’ fears about gangs like MS-13 to make false claims linking immigration to crime.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Trump/58e476e0c13b4ac9af9fd04d57df65a8/206/0">AP Photo/Alex Brandon</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But MS-13 has a penchant for gruesome, <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520297098">headline-grabbing killings</a> and elaborate tattoos, which earn it outsized media attention. It also recruits heavily among vulnerable undocumented immigrant youth, tapping into Americans’ <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/07/the-white-strategy/485612/">anxiety about rising crime and shifting demographics</a> in the United States. </p>
<h2>Record low crime</h2>
<p>Republicans know this. As they battle <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/11/01/662794792/heres-why-democrats-are-confident-they-ll-win-the-house">to retain control of the House and possibly the Senate</a>, they see electoral advantage in inflaming those fears. </p>
<p>Trump, who during his 2016 presidential campaign repeatedly blamed the “open border policies of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/02/us/politics/transcript-trump-immigration-speech.html">the Obama administration</a>” for crimes committed by immigrant gang members, has focused intensively on MS-13 as president. </p>
<p>After vicious incidents of MS-13 violence – the 2017 double murder of two teenage girls in <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-ms-13-has-turned-us-into-blood-stained-killing-fields-2017-7">Suffolk County, New York, for instance</a>, and the stabbing of a man in Montgomery County, Maryland – Trump responded with hyperbolic, sweeping statements about immigrants and crime, warning that U.S. cities have become <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/28/opinion/sunday/trump-gangs-soccer-education.html">“blood-stained killing fields</a>.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243674/original/file-20181102-83654-1lsqz2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243674/original/file-20181102-83654-1lsqz2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243674/original/file-20181102-83654-1lsqz2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243674/original/file-20181102-83654-1lsqz2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243674/original/file-20181102-83654-1lsqz2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243674/original/file-20181102-83654-1lsqz2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243674/original/file-20181102-83654-1lsqz2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Attorney General Jeff Sessions has called MS-13 ‘one of the gravest threats to American safety’ and made it a law enforcement priority.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Sessions-Gang-Violence/8a827fc5a1434d42950e3fd6123cb526/47/0">AP Photo/Stephan Savoia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Violent crime in the U.S. is actually the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/9/20/17882172/murder-crime-us-2018">lowest it has been in 30 years</a>, including in most large cities where gangs operate – <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/us/violent-crime-murder-chicago-increase-.html">Chicago</a> being one notable exception.</p>
<p>But Trump’s hyperfocus on MS-13 has helped to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/18/us/politics/immigration-children-sessions-miller.html">drive Republican voter fear</a> over immigration to an <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/237389/immigration-surges-top-important-problem-list.aspx?g_source=link_NEWSV9&g_medium=TOPIC&g_campaign=item_&g_content=Immigration%2520Surges%2520to%2520Top%2520of%2520Most%2520Important%2520Problem%2520List">all-time high</a>.</p>
<p>That has empowered GOP candidates to leverage Americans’ <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/10/15/17979224/2018-midterm-elections-candidates-issues-health-care-immigration">anti-immigration concerns</a> to try to win elections.</p>
<p>Conservative pundits have also <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/29/media/pittsburgh-suspect-invasion/index.html">echoed the president’s anti-immigrant language</a>, suggesting that that MS-13 has infiltrated the <a href="http://insider.foxnews.com/2018/10/22/donald-trump-says-terrorists-ms-13-infiltrated-illegal-immigrant-caravan">migrant caravan</a> and that Central Americans are “<a href="http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=mekxrYxEvEA">attacking the United States’ sovereignty</a>.”</p>
<p>Election Day will show whether fear-mongering with MS-13 will help Republicans keep control of the House and Senate.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105474/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthony W. Fontes is author of Mortal Doubt: Transnational Gangs and Social Order in Guatemala City.</span></em></p>MS-13 is not the biggest or most violent gang in the US. But its grisly murders and Latino membership inflame Americans’ anxiety about immigration. GOP campaign ads stoke those fears to attack Democrats.Anthony W. Fontes, Assistant Professor of Human Security, American University School of International ServiceLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1003122018-10-17T22:55:58Z2018-10-17T22:55:58Z‘Thugs’ is a race-code word that fuels anti-Black racism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241149/original/file-20181017-41138-1tzolc0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In a political world, where words are pregnant with moral meanings, language is not innocent of racist content. Here a young man walks in his neighbourhood in Mississauga, ON.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Steven Van/Unsplash </span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Toronto has seen a stark rise in <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/shootings-toronto-guns-violence-gangs-1.4732393">gun violence and homicides</a> this year. The numbers raise questions about responses to violence by politicians in Canada’s largest city.</p>
<p>Mayor John Tory, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/grenier-toronto-mayoral-election-1.4863466">who seems poised to coast to re-election on Oct. 22</a>, is morally <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/shootings-toronto-guns-violence-gangs-1.4732393">outraged</a>. His knee-jerk response to the violence this summer, however, led him to call young African-Canadian men <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/metro-morning/segment/15555460">“thugs” and “sewer rats</a>.” Tory also used terms such as “profoundly anti-social,” and “gangsters” in reference to specific acts of gun violence.</p>
<p>City councillor Giorgio Mammoliti shortly followed suit. The representative for Ward 7 (the Jane-Finch area) called young Black men in his ward <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/mammoliti-cockroach-comments-1.4786586">“criminals” and “cockroaches” who must be “sprayed.”</a></p>
<p>Racist law-and-order <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=sS4RlPEcFMcC&pg=PA129&lpg=PA129&dq=HABITUS+AND+RETHINKING+THE+DISCOURSE+OF+GHETTO+YOUTH,+GANGS+AND+VIOLENCE&source=bl&ots=jqAPoJzPPQ&sig=AKv_tfj49jfJUhuxjVSSV0pI16U&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiEyMKL_-zdAhVl5YMKHVI5CkIQ6AEwAnoECAcQAQ#v=onepage&q=HABITUS%20AND%20RETHINKING%20THE%20DISCOURSE%20OF%20GHETTO%20YOUTH%2C%20GANGS%20AND%20VIOLENCE&f=false">words like “thugs” are used to justify state-sanctioned violence</a>. With Toronto in mind, it is necessary to decode how <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/report-occupied-territory/">racist slurs like the n-word have been replaced with crime-based terminology like “thugs” to justify anti-Black occupation-style policing.</a> </p>
<h2>Race-code words</h2>
<p>Manufacturing fear of “the other” is an instrument of authoritarian social control. Language is key to the art of governance in a liberal democracy. It is how political elites manage their public impressions. Some of them, as sociologist Charles Tilly explains, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/bringing-the-state-back-in/war-making-and-state-making-as-organized-crime/7A7B3B6577A060D76224F54A4DD0DA4C">are able to conceal totalitarian tendencies this way to maintain a “protection racket.”</a> </p>
<p>George Orwell’s dystopian satire <a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/Nineteen_Eighty_four.html?id=JKe8QgAACAAJ&redir_esc=y"><em>Nineteen Eighty-Four</em></a> accurately described how governing elites can perfect the use of language with visceral meanings that stand in for critical analysis. Fear-mongering, labelling and stigmatizing is useful to disarm a complacent citizenry who don’t demand or exercise vigilance over their liberties and rights. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240694/original/file-20181015-165894-c28vt7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240694/original/file-20181015-165894-c28vt7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240694/original/file-20181015-165894-c28vt7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240694/original/file-20181015-165894-c28vt7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240694/original/file-20181015-165894-c28vt7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240694/original/file-20181015-165894-c28vt7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240694/original/file-20181015-165894-c28vt7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mayor John Tory stands in front of the media in Toronto on April 18, 2017. Tory says there is ‘no easy answer’ or magic wand to reduce gun violence in the city.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In a political world, where words are pregnant with moral meanings, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/523632.Race_Code_War">language is not innocent of racist content</a>. Race-code words can trigger deep seated feelings of revulsion and give permission to vent frustration on targets lacking economic, social and political power. </p>
<p>Words like “criminals,” “thugs,” “cockroaches” and “sewer rats” can serve to <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-mayor-john-tory-playground-gunman-sewer-rats-no-apology-1.4741055">whip up anxiety</a>, fear and to <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=18IWX4hxHNUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=manufacturing+consent+the+political+economy+of+the+mass+media&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi53aOrj-3dAhUp1oMKHecnCxAQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q=manufacturing%20consent%20the%20political%20economy%20of%20the%20mass%20media&f=false">“manufacture consent.”</a> </p>
<p>Such <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/523632.Race_Code_War">words directed at Black people provide ammunition for white public attitudes</a>, justify mass incarceration, excuse police murder of Black civilians and give license to covert and overt racial discrimination. </p>
<p>With Black people as folk-devils, crises — either <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/bringing-the-state-back-in/war-making-and-state-making-as-organized-crime/7A7B3B6577A060D76224F54A4DD0DA4C">concocted</a> or inflamed — are used to manipulate the public into believing that “safety” can be guaranteed by ceding rights to wise politicians and self-restraining police forces. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241146/original/file-20181017-41140-9revqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241146/original/file-20181017-41140-9revqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241146/original/file-20181017-41140-9revqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241146/original/file-20181017-41140-9revqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241146/original/file-20181017-41140-9revqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241146/original/file-20181017-41140-9revqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241146/original/file-20181017-41140-9revqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People gather in Montréal, Thursday, July 28, 2016, to denounce the death of Abdirahman Abdi who was killed after a confrontation with police in Ottawa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>History shows this path can lead to a police state that’s created and emboldened <a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/Policing_America_s_Empire.html?id=QYj6WUGsRuEC&redir_esc=y">through the collective loss of civil liberties and legal rights</a>. The chief tactic to achieve this end is to mobilize the class, ethnic and racial biases of the majority to gain their support for “safety” securing methods. </p>
<h2>Carding and racial profiling</h2>
<p>This current state of affairs has let to racial profiling and “carding.” Racial profiling is the reliance on presumed cultural or racial characteristics in law enforcement, while <a href="http://www.cdpdj.qc.ca/publications/proving_racial_profiling.pdf">“carding” is the collection of biographical and biometric information.</a> </p>
<p>Ontario Superior Court of Justice H.S. LaForme ruled in 2004 that <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/2004/2004canlii5854/2004canlii5854.html">carding could be a tool “utilized for racial profiling.”</a> He noted:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“…the manner in which the police currently use them makes them somewhat menacing…For example, information that a young Black man has just committed a robbery in a given zone does not authorize police officers to stop any young Black man…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>LaForme issued a warning from the bench that no cop or politician will ever listen to:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"If the manner in which these … cards are currently being used continues; there will be serious consequences ahead. They are but another means…to mask discriminatory conduct…”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>He also added:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“…daily tracking of the whereabouts of persons — including many innocent law-abiding persons — has an aspect to it that reminds me of former government regimes that I am certain all of us would prefer not to replicate.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Toronto Mayor John Tory brought in a policy in 2017 intended to restrict arbitrary police checks, but there have been <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/a-year-after-ontario-moved-to-restrict-carding-has-anything-changed-1.4565297">questions</a> about whether anything has actually changed.</p>
<h2>Crime, race and the Canadian media</h2>
<p>Toronto’s corporate print media has been heavily invested in <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=3miEeYxf2YQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Discoursesof+domination:+Racial+bias+in+the+Canadian+English-language+press&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiLp5vetu3dAhVHyYMKHbO7C4AQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=Discoursesof%20domination%3A%20Racial%20bias%20in%20the%20Canadian%20English-language%20press&f=false">stereotyping racially marginalized youth, African-Canadian youth in particular.</a> These racist stereotypes help to <a href="https://www.cjc-online.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/1824/3168">define social conversations and determine public policy.</a></p>
<p>Irresponsible articles and speeches by elite journalists and politicians control what we think about, deepen social conflicts and keep us apart. </p>
<p>The 1990s saw the meteoric rise of op-ed and crime columnists. Christie Blatchford, then a <em>Toronto Sun</em> columnist, <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=3miEeYxf2YQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Discoursesof+domination:+Racial+bias+in+the+Canadian+English-language+press&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiLp5vetu3dAhVHyYMKHbO7C4AQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=Discoursesof%20domination%3A%20Racial%20bias%20in%20the%20Canadian%20English-language%20press&f=false">implied that Black teens were “cockroaches” and “swarms” in her 1995 article,</a> “Facing the Truth: Fear has blocked honest discussion of who commits crime in Toronto.” Michael Valpy was much more urbane. In his 1994 article about the Just Desserts shooting in Toronto <a href="https://www.cjc-online.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/1824/3168">Valpy wrote: “the barbarians are inside the gates” and we have “been brought face to face with alien slaughter.”</a> </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/stanley-trial-highlights-colonialism-of-canadian-media-91375">Stanley trial highlights colonialism of Canadian media</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Writing about a <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2017/05/05/the-yonge-street-riot-of-1992-or-was-it-an-uprising-paradkar.html">1992 Toronto protest against police brutality</a>, Barbara Amiel of <em>Maclean’s</em> wrote a column in which she asserted that Black people in North America feel <a href="http://archive.macleans.ca/article/1992/5/18/racism-an-excuse-for-riots-and-theft">“entitled to vent their unhappiness by stealing or destroying what belongs to others.”</a> These ideas, circulated in the media, contributed to anti-Black racist narratives. They reproduced a view of race and crime that enabled white Canadians to imagine themselves, in <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=Ij-cqnIh-TsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=exalted+subjects&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj988qmpe3dAhWVyIMKHexQAbQQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q=exalted%20subjects&f=false">activist Sunera Thobani’s words, as “exalted subjects,”</a> free from the stigma of moral taint.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241147/original/file-20181017-41138-1y9l1dt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241147/original/file-20181017-41138-1y9l1dt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241147/original/file-20181017-41138-1y9l1dt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241147/original/file-20181017-41138-1y9l1dt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241147/original/file-20181017-41138-1y9l1dt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241147/original/file-20181017-41138-1y9l1dt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241147/original/file-20181017-41138-1y9l1dt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dudley Laws, a founding member of the Black Action Defence Committee, speaks to an anti-racism rally at Queen’s Park in Toronto on May 8, 1992. Laws died in 2011 at the age of 76.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Canadian Press/Hans Deryk</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the white Canadian imagination, there isn’t a type for Paul Bernardo, Russell Williams, Luka Magnotta, Marc Lepine and Justin Bourque, nor for the police who have killed young men like <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2017/06/14/police-officer-who-shot-andrew-loku-describes-the-last-21-seconds-of-his-life-dimanno.html">Andrew Loku</a>, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2015/07/21/no-charges-against-peel-police-in-death-of-jermaine-carby.html">Jermaine Carby</a> and <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2017/08/25/firearm-case-reveals-new-details-in-fatal-toronto-police-shooting.html">Kwasi Skene-Peters</a>. </p>
<p>Both politicians and journalists working in the corporate news media need to be more mindful of how they characterize rare and traumatic events; they require sober rather than salacious descriptions that fan flames of hate. </p>
<h2>Elites define the problems and the solutions</h2>
<p>In the contest between the haves and have-nots, the “winners” end up defining the problems and they also claim ownership of competency to find the solutions to those problems. <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=bd8cBQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=policing+the+crisis&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwinp_Sjxe3dAhUs9IMKHcPxBg4Q6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q=policing%20the%20crisis&f=false">Cultural theorist Stuart Hall calls the winners “primary definers:”</a> they are usually corporate and political elites.</p>
<p>Because “primary definers” have the authority to command and influence, <a href="http://www.sfu.ca/%7Epalys/Becker1967-WhoseSideAreWeOn.pdf">they win the “hierarchy of credibility.”</a> They manipulate reality through derogatory language directed at disfavoured groups to gain consent to diminish rights and constrain liberties. </p>
<p>Within this hierarchy, the number two spot goes to law-makers and enforcers. Down the ladder, next come the activists and grassroots folks. These groups, on the tiers of credibility, publicly debate and privately negotiate who best understands our problems. </p>
<p>The “winning” definitions and solutions — especially when they do not address complexities and contradiction — can spark the next crisis. In other words, it’s “blowback,” where the solution metastasizes and amplifies the initial problem. </p>
<h2>The future is not yet written</h2>
<p>The future of the young men labelled “thugs” is not yet determined.</p>
<p>We have collectively allowed the gutting of the social welfare state. We have allowed the disinvestment of programs for marginalized youth and communities. We have allowed unemployment, poverty and substandard housing to occur by policy. If there are “thugs,” we are surely them.</p>
<p>With the hindsight of history and hard-won rights, we should know that we cannot content ourselves with the comfort that our authoritarian-type leaders will make things right. It is vital that we accept the responsibility and resist giving in to anxiety, fear and hatred. </p>
<p>One place to start is to challenge and resist politicians and media elites who use racist crime discourse to gain the public’s consent.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100312/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tamari Kitossa does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Toronto Mayor John Tory’s use of race-coded words to describe gun violence in Toronto, including “thugs, sewer rats and gangsters,” stokes racism and serves to justify policing Black communities.Tamari Kitossa, Associate Professor, Sociology, Brock UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1009982018-08-07T11:56:06Z2018-08-07T11:56:06ZWhy the UK needs its own Black Lives Matter moment to wake up to police racism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230787/original/file-20180806-191047-v1iw29.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Gang culture, social media, drug-market violence, funding cuts to policing and youth clubs, and poverty and social inequality, have all been blamed for the current <a href="https://theconversation.com/treating-young-people-like-criminals-actually-makes-violent-crime-worse-91723">knife crime</a> “epidemic” in London.</p>
<p>More recently, however, it’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/apr/09/uk-drill-music-london-wave-violent-crime">UK drill</a>, a new black British music genre, that has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/making-music-videos-is-not-a-criminal-activity-no-matter-what-genre-97472">accused of promoting gun and knife crime</a>, much like <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=fatsis+crime+media+culture&rlz=1C1JZAP_enGB718GB718&oq=fatsis+crime+media+culture&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60.7621j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8">UK grime and garage before it</a>. </p>
<p>In the last two months 30 YouTube videos of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-44281586">drill music have been removed</a> by the police, followed by Criminal Behaviour Orders <a href="https://rightsinfo.org/court-says-drill-music-group-banned-from-sharing-music-with-police-permission/">issued against drill artists</a>. Such responses may seem justified especially in the light of some fatal incidents that have been <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/london-stabbing-drill-music-camberwell-killed-incognito-dead-rhyhiem-ainsworth-barton-a8474071.html">linked to drill music</a>. But it remains difficult to prove a direct link between drill lyrics and actual murder(s) beyond a certain degree of speculation and interpretation. </p>
<h2>Controversial crackdown</h2>
<p>Designing crime prevention strategies based on decoding lyrics seems ill-advised to say the least. The commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, however, has <a href="https://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/nick-ferrari/met-police-chief-calls-on-youtube-drill-music/">publicly defended such responses</a>. As has the Met’s gang crime chief, who also supported the revisiting of the Terrorism Act to <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/police-to-treat-gangs-like-terror-suspects-7zms8gsmr">pursue “drillers” as terror suspects</a>. </p>
<p>The use of the act allows the police to bring convictions against people <a href="https://noisey.vice.com/en_uk/article/nek3qm/drill-knife-crime-violence-london-long-read">featured in drill videos</a> without any proof that the targeted music videos are linked to specific acts of violence. The government’s <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/698009/serious-violence-strategy.pdf">Serious Violence Strategy</a>, also adopts a similar stance. </p>
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<p>The Youth Violence Commission’s <a href="http://yvcommission.com/interim-report/">interim report</a>, however, is a welcome alternative. According to this report, “debates around the potential impact of drill music on youth violence are, in the main, a populist distraction from understanding and tackling the real root causes” of youth violence. </p>
<p>These include “childhood trauma and undiagnosed and untreated mental health issues”. But also, “inadequate state provision, deficient parental support, poverty and social inequality”. This is why the report’s authors have called for an approach modelled after Scotland’s <a href="http://actiononviolence.org/">Violence Reduction Unit</a>, which champions a public health approach to youth violence.</p>
<h2>Racist responses?</h2>
<p>Punitive responses to a public health emergency are clearly counterproductive. As is the reluctance of the <a href="http://yvcommission.com/interim-report/">Youth Violence Commission</a> to treat the issue as a racial justice priority – given that discriminatory responses cannot be separated from the mentality that informs them. Popular “crime-fighting” measures, such as arbitrary <a href="http://www.stop-watch.org/uploads/documents/modern_law_review.pdf">stops and searches</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/09/police-gang-lists-racist-black-matrix">police gang lists</a>, for example, routinely <a href="https://theconversation.com/police-are-using-big-data-to-profile-young-people-putting-them-at-risk-of-discrimination-96683">profile young black people</a> who are logged as suspects in police databases on the flimsiest of evidence. </p>
<p>The same goes for other anti-gang operations such as Trident, Shield and Domain and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2009/jan/21/police-form-696-garage-music">event risk assessment forms of policing</a>, which have been declared racially discriminatory by <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bjc/article-abstract/58/1/243/2623973?redirectedFrom=fulltext">academics</a>, <a href="https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/race-britain/stop-and-think">human rights groups</a>, the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23074&LangID=E">UN</a>, <a href="https://www.amnesty.org.uk/london-trident-gangs-matrix-metropolitan-police">Amnesty International</a>, and the <a href="https://twitter.com/sadiqkhan/status/928996350330630144?lang=en">London mayor</a>. </p>
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<p>The 2017 <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/lammy-review-final-report">Lammy Review</a> paints a similar picture although it curiously excluded policing from its remit. Yet in that year <a href="https://www.inquest.org.uk/rashan-charles-opening">five young black men</a> died in police custody, and Avon and Somerset Police police was accused of institutional racism by the <a href="https://www.bristol.gov.uk/documents/20182/35136/Multi-agency+learning+review+following+the+murder+of+Bijan+Ebrahimi">Safer Bristol Partnership Report</a>, following the mishandling of the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-42393488">Bijan Ebrahimi murder</a>. </p>
<p>Recent figures by the <a href="https://www.policeconduct.gov.uk/news/iopc-publishes-figures-deaths-during-or-following-police-contact-201718">Independent Office for Police Conduct</a> also show a higher proportion of black people dying in police custody after the use of force or restraint. Half a century after the term was used in the <a href="https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1981/nov/25/the-scarman-report">Scarman</a> and <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-stephen-lawrence-inquiry">MacPherson</a> reports in response to the 1981 Brixton Riots and in the Stephen Lawrence murder, institutional racism within the police seems to be in rude health. </p>
<h2>Fighting fire with ire?</h2>
<p>Seven years have passed since the fatal police shooting of Mark Duggan that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/dec/08/were-the-riots-about-race">sparked the 2011 riots</a>. Yet British society does not seem to have recovered from or discovered the reality of police racism. Many were alarmed during England’s “<a href="http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/46297/1/Reading%20the%20riots%28published%29.pdf">summer of disorder</a>”, which echoed the 1970s and 1980s when discriminatory policing sparked disturbances in <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Policing-Riots-David-Cowell/dp/0862450810">Notting Hill, Brixton and elsewhere</a>. However, much of this shock should not occasion surprise. As <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1741659018784111?journalCode=cmca">my research shows</a>, the policing of black British culture claims a long history. </p>
<p>As does the stigmatisation, the demonisation, and criminalisation of young black Britons. This is the reality of “post-racial” or “colour-blind” times. And it should be unmasked to reveal the racism that refuses to be seen. This is why it might take another <a href="https://en-gb.facebook.com/BLMUK/">Black Lives Matter</a> moment to wake up to police racism, and recognise that when <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/End-Policing-Alex-Vitale/dp/1784782890">policing is part of the problem</a> it can’t also be the solution to violent crime.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/knife-crime-i-spoke-to-young-people-who-carry-blades-and-they-want-to-stop-the-violence-98202">Knife crime: I spoke to young people who carry blades – and they want to stop the violence</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lambros Fatsis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The policing of black British culture has a long history.Lambros Fatsis, Lecturer in Sociology and Criminology, University of SouthamptonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.