Ganging up on gangs

 There are approximately 651 active gang members and their associates in Tacoma, according the 2011 City of Tacoma Gang Assessment published this week. The report also found 140 active criminal street gangs in King County comprised of approximately 10,000 members.

Out of the eight major neighborhoods in Tacoma, five seem to be the hotbeds for gang activity:

• South Tacoma
• South End
• Eastside
• Central
• New Tacoma

Rep. Connie Ladenburg

With these astounding numbers coupled with the fact that middle schools are where many children are recruited for gangs, we’re left asking ourselves, “What can we do?”

Reps. Connie Ladenburg and Luis Moscoso sponsored legislation during the 2012 session aimed at helping find solutions to this ever-growing problem.

House Bill 2535, sponsored by Rep. Ladenburg, encourages the establishment of juvenile gang courts to help young gang members stay out of jail and turn their lives around. This legislation takes effect June 7th, 2012.

Rep. Luis Moscoso

House Bill 2432, sponsored by Rep. Moscoso, sought to create the Criminal Street Gang Prevention and Intervention Grant Program Account to reduce gang violence. While his legislation did not pass this year, Moscoso secured $250,000 in the operating budget to get the ball rolling.

To read about the 2011 Gang Assessment, click here.

New state law halts further child-pornography victimization

Consider, if you will, today's conundrum:

How could it be that our judicial process would actually sanction and contribute to the further production and distribution of child-pornography? 

We'll tell you how: A Washington State Supreme Court ruling five years ago (the oft-discussed Washington v. Boyd decision) required that the defense in a child-pornography case must be allowed access to the pertinent photographs depicting children in sexually explicit conduct.

Rep. Connie Ladenburg

So in this year's legislative session, state Rep. Connie Ladenburg advanced and won support for a measure stopping this further victimization of youngsters whose lives have already been so terribly brutalized.

The successful legislation, House Bill 2177, has indeed been signed into Washington law. Ladenburg's bill bars the copying or creation of additional child pornography during the discovery process in such a trial. Sometimes during this discovery process, as directed in the state high court's ruling, the court is ordered to copy child pornography and even make more copies of it. And that, Mr. or Ms. Concerned Blogster, certainly isn't something done with any other illegal contraband.

"Our state shouldn't sanction any further reproduction of this despicable material in court cases. It's that simple," said Ladenburg. "This new law is about protecting kids."

Specifically, the bipartisan legislation spells out that in child-pornography cases:

• The material can be examined by the defense, but it must remain in the actual custody of law- enforcement people or court people.
• A mirrored hard drive can be made available for expert-examination by the defense if the court determines that such examination is justified.
• When it is no longer needed for the trial, the child pornography in question will be destroyed.

"As a parent of five children and grandparent of 10, my heart goes out to children who have been victims of child pornography. It is one of the worst crimes that can be committed against children, and it has lasting, devastating effects," Ladenburg stated. "Having any of these terrible pictures copied yet again, and viewed by anyone yet again, is unacceptable. We cannot let children be harmed any more than they already have been. This bill protects children from further victimization in child-pornography cases."

"Child pornography is contraband, just like illegal drugs, and we should treat it like contraband,” said Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Lindquist. “We don't duplicate and distribute illegal drugs for trial, and prosecutors shouldn't be required to duplicate and distribute child pornography for trial. This bill will stop this offensive practice." 

Best way to fight gangs? Keep kids off the streets to begin with!

Street gangs are a problem in Washington. Children as young as 10 or 11 are recruited to join gangs and engage in criminal activity to prove they “belong,” and the deeper they go, the harder it is to help them get out.  Are there effective ways to break the cycle of crime before it breaks our kids?

Read this guest column in the Everett Herald by Reps. Connie Ladenburg and Luis Moscoso on the strategies they’re proposing to fight criminal gangs in our state.

To read this story in Spanish, click here.

Breaking the criminal cycle

According to the Violence Policy Center, Washington state is tied for 4th place with states for the most drive-by shootings. Just last week, a multi-agency sweep in Eastern Washington resulted in 25 gang-related arrests. With gang activity an ever-increasing problem, how do we help at-risk youth avoid a life of violence and criminal activity?


Rep. Connie Ladenburg has found a way to break the criminal cycle before it breaks our young people – by encouraging the establishment of juvenile-gang courts. Her legislation calls for "a strategic and collaborative approach" in putting an end to juvenile gangs.

"Gang court is a tool for rescuing kids from a nightmare," Ladenburg emphasized.

Ladenburg's House Bill 2535 received a public hearing in the House Early Learning & Human Services Committee Tuesday afternoon. To watch the hearing on TVW, click here.
   
"Juvenile-gang activities in cities and communities of all sizes are a threat to public safety, as well as being a terrible, dangerous menace for so many children themselves."
   
Another promising measure is Rep. Luis Moscoso’s House Bill 2432, which would promote local intervention and prevention programs to reduce gang violence through the creation of the Criminal Street Gang Prevention and Intervention Grant Program Account.


“This problem will not go away on its own.  We need to start putting effort, money and the collective resources of communities and local law enforcement into strategies that actually work,” Moscoso said. “Let’s focus on preventing our kids from getting into violent gang activity in the first place by creating and increasing opportunities available to youth to keep them off the streets.”


Moscoso’s bill hearing held on Monday can be watched on TVW here.

To read this story in Spanish, click here.

Service members' call of duty honored in flurry of legislative action

Talk about walking the talk.

The House of Representatives today got down to the serious business of standing up for citizens who’ve gone out of their way to stand up for their country. Military folks -- citizens who put their lives on hold, and all too often put their lives on the line -- shouldn't have to look over their shoulders and wonder what's going on with their parental, legal and education rights back home. That's the message hammered home this morning in a trio of measures among the very first bills to win House of Representatives approval in the 2012 legislative session.

House Bill 1050, prime-sponsored by state Rep. John McCoy, protects the rights of military parents. The legislation:

Courtesy www.mcchord.af.mil

* Allows a military parent to ask the court to delegate the parent's residential time with a child if the parent's military orders involve being more than one night away when the parent is scheduled to have time with a child.

* And provides that the delegation provision applies when establishing a parenting plan or court order, not just when modifying an existing plan or order.

House Bill 1615, prime-sponsored by state Rep. Connie Ladenburg, safeguards the legal rights for all of our citizens called up to active duty. The measure makes sure National Guard members can count on the same legal protections when they are called up in response to a state emergency as they now receive when they are called to service by the president.

 House Bill 1221, prime-sponsored by state Rep. Fred Finn, will see to it that colleges and universities provide a chance for reservist students to make up any tests they miss if they're called to active duty or military training for a month or less. This legislation fills a gap in current state law that can adversely impact men and women who are either involved in military drills and training or are called to duty in response to natural disasters that might run less than 30 days.

The three military bills passed the House unanimously and will now receive further consideration in the Senate.

To read this story in Spanish, click here.