An increase in gang violence is being blamed for increased vandalism, theft, violence and fear that are altering the texture of life in parts of Indian Country. "This stunning land of crumpled prairie, horse pastures turned tawny in the autumn and sunflower farms is marred by an astonishing number of roadside crosses and gang tags sprayed on houses, stores and abandoned buildings, giving rural Indian communities an inner-city look," Erik Eckholm of The New York Times reports.
Some reservation gangs have more than 100 members, Eckholm writes, while others have just a few dozen. Indian gangs are more likely than their urban models to fight rivals, usually over some minor slight. "The Justice Department distinguishes the home-grown gangs on reservations from the organized drug gangs of urban areas," Eckholm writes, "calling them part of an overall juvenile crime problem in Indian country that is abetted by eroding law enforcement, a paucity of juvenile programs and a suicide rate for Indian youth that is more than three times the national average."
Attorney General Eric Holder has proposed large increases in money for the police, courts and juvenile programs, and for fighting rampant domestic and sexual violence on reservations, Eckholm reports. The Navajo Nation in Arizona has identified 225 gang units, up from 75 in 1997. Even as police budgets are augmented, some tribal leaders see cultural revival as their best hope for fighting gangs. "We’re trying to give an identity back to our youth," Melvyn Young Bear, the Oglala Sioux tribe’s appointed cultural liaison at its Pine Ridge, S.D., reservation, told Eckholm. "They’re into the subculture of African-Americans and Latinos. But they are Lakota, and they have a lot to be proud of." (Read more)
No comments:
Post a Comment