Mobs, Jobs, and the Need for a National Gang Prosecution Law

“Putting Georgia gang membership calculations into chilling context, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia Bobby Christine imparted, ‘Think about that. At its height, ISIS probably didn’t have 35,000 members.'”

On the eve of the 2018 midterm elections, President Trump demonstrated his renowned capacity for branding by declaring at rallies that, “Democrats produce mobs, Republicans produce jobs.” In classic Trumpian fashion, his latest sloganeering, Mobs versus Jobs, polarized both devotees and detractors.

The reactions of the divided camps illustrate. Emblematic of the pro-Trump contingent, Trish Regan of FOX Business Network, effusively characterized Mobs versus Jobs as “brilliant.” Trump adversaries countered with predictably parochial, perfunctory, shrill and superficial sanctimony. Exemplary was an MSNBC host who reportedly exclaimed, “The mobs I see are people who go to Trump rallies.”

Neither of these cadres, however, appears to have explored whether Mobs versus Jobs is factually sustainable on its face. To the extent that the term “mobs” equates with criminal street gangs, recent commentary provides support.

Firebrand conservative opinion-maker Phil Kent recently observed that, “per Obama’s Administration, Eric Holder’s Department of Justice and Robert Mueller’s FBI,” a 2011 federal government study revealed:

• 1.4 million gang members and 33,000 gangs operating in the United States;
• Gang membership increased by 400,000 (40%) in just two years (2009-2011); and
• Gangs are responsible for an average of 48 to 90 percent of American violent crime, depending on the jurisdiction.

Providing potently practical frames of reference, Kent further:

• Explained that the 2011 federal gang calculations parallel the total number of U.S. military troops as of 2017, according to The New York Times journalism;
• Alluded to the fact that critics have chided the 2011 federal gang estimate as “sanitized” due to “extensive cleansing and under-reporting;” and
• Referenced academic research indicating that actual gang membership numbers may triple government calculations.

Upon considering the foregoing, Kent forcefully concluded that federal statistics demand a “call for national action against gangs that President Barack Obama never took.”