Conservative Media Falls Short in Covering Gang Crime

“There are white gangs, Asian gangs, black gangs, Hispanic gangs, and gangs of all nationalities. To focus only on illegal immigrant gang members, as many conservatives do, is to take the easy way out.”

The lack of media reporting on America’s Gang Crisis is truly perplexing, particularly as the level of gang crime soars in the United States. While this may be expected from the mainstream media, which tends to lean left, it is now happening in conservative media, as well. Several right-leaning journalists continue to look away when it comes to gang crime, rather than promote meaningful suggestions for change.

The first major issue that conservative commentators should discuss—if they are truly as tough on crime as they purport to be—is the fact that federal prosecutors currently have no mechanism to directly dismantle gangs. Instead, United States Attorneys often find themselves only able to  prosecute gang members who commit federal crimes, as well as having to rely upon immigration courts to prosecute illegal immigrant gang crime. But the latter strategy only applies to a minority of gang members; most gang members, after all, are American citizens.

When prosecution is possible, many gang prosecutions get lumped in with other criminal charges such as RICO and drug trafficking. As such, what we really need is a federal gang prosecution law, which would allocate specific resources to disabling and dismantling gang crime by directly prosecuting organizers (and those who support organized gang activities). This type of legislation would also create systemic accountability and reliable statistics for anti-gang activity, which could be used by federal law enforcement personnel as well as prosecutors.

Returning to the media side of things, two recent columns by Conservative Review political commentator and senior editor Daniel Horowitz exemplify how conservative media misses the mark when it comes to covering gang crime. While Horowitz’s work is noble in its efforts to report on the victims of gang crime, he continues to focus on seemingly everything except robust anti-gang legislation.