Gang violence is an extreme predicament facing the entire world. No single parent or guardian would like to picture their kids handling weapons or being endangered by them. In the gang movement, recruitment of multiple individuals and most young age occurs for several reasons for instance family traditions, bribery, among others (Skolnick and Currie 45). Gang violence has been a big problem on Long Island in New York whereby multiple cases of youths being murdered have been so rampant.
Long Island community is presently fighting back against gang violence in the community. Community leaders have been holding meetings to try and find the precise solutions to the current uptick of gang activities in Central Islip and Brentwood. At least four teenagers have been reported dead in the month of August 2016 in Brentwood, Long Island
.... The whole town is said to have been plagued by gang violence that is comprised of young teens. The police and the community are very concerned with this matter and are greatly interested in holding consecutive meetings to tackle their growing fears. MS-13, which is gang group that is tattooed in Los Angeles and El Salvador is being blamed for the killings that have been reported recently (Skolnick and Currie 65).
MS-13 was founded in Los Angeles in the early years of the 1980s by refugees from El Salvador evading the civil war. The MS abbreviation stands for Mara Salvatrucha that more or less translates to “Salvadoran street posse” (Robbins 1). The gang group has been terrorizing the town, and particularly targeting the young generation in New York. The gang group has been reported to be in Suffolk County since the year
1998 and has been organized in cliques whereby they bear the names such as Salvatruchas and Brentwood Locos. Their primary business involves robbery, extortion, drug dealing, as well as prostitution. The leaders of this gang go the extreme extents of authorizing the killings of other rival gangs in the neighborhood (Campo-Flores et al. 23).
Several cases have been reported of teens having been murdered in different locations along the Long Island. In Brentwood New York, the police made an arrest of 35 suspected members of the Long Island gang (Robbins 1). This followed after the skeletal remnants of a teenage boy was discovered by the police. The reports from the authorities showed that the remains located in the Suffolk County town of Brentwood were those of Jose Pena, an 18-year-old boy. According to the county assistant of police Justin Meyers, the teenager was regarded to be a member of the MS-13 gang group that has been linked to El Salvador (Robbins 1). Besides, four other teenagers were reported dead whereby they were believed to be from Brentwood High school. This was said to have resulted from the string of brutal killings tied to the MS-13 gang group within the community (The Associated, Press 1).
Pena-Hernandez was discovered on October 17 206 on the grounds of Pilgrim Psychiatric Center according to the Suffolk County Police Department. The grisly finding came as result of the police enduring to investigate the gang linked deaths of at least other gangs in the similar neighborhood. Further, another gang syndicate that has raised concerns along the west coast is referred to as Sur 13, which has been moving on Long Island. According to
the Guardian Angels, the gang members have been seen in distinct communities. Sur 13, which is an abbreviation for Southern United Raza has been regarded to be influential amid the gang bangers. The gang has tattoos and blue tags with the 13 binary numbers that represent the Mexican Mafia (Robbins 1). The gang group is extremely influential since it has been making efforts to recruit young Long Islander youths into its group. MS-13 is an important gang group in Long Island, but Sur 13 is rapidly gaining force since its affiliates are more brutal and well-organized.
The situation at Long Island is not better at all since rampant killings have been reported of late. With the most recent reports from the police regarding the murders of Pena-Hernandez who was a member of the MS-13 gang group, the findings have added to the reflective unease of the community besieged to think of renewed gang violence. The present wave of violence linked with MS-13 to indicate that the situation is not getting better even after frequent discussions is the case of Nisa and Kayla who were 15 and 16 years respectively (Robbins 1). The event that occurred in mid-September 2016 contributed heavily to the two friend’s bodies to be found 50 feet apart from each other in an elementary school (The Associated, Press 1). According to police reports, their bodies revealed that they were badly beaten before they died. Also, in the same month in September, another Brentwood resident by the name Dewan aged 34 years was found brutally murdered on the street, a situation that led the police to believe that the MS-13 group was behind it.
In
conclusion, the figure of teens joining the gang groups is indeed a horrible problem in the New York state. Considering the situation in this contemporary world, parents are more afraid because they are losing more teenagers to gang violence on a daily basis. The communities in the New York state, and specifically Long Island require to be cleaned up and more alternatives ought to provide for the teens to engage themselves in to facilitate significant reduction of the alarming gang violence.
Work Cited
- Campo-Flores, Arian, et al. "The most dangerous gang in America." (2005): 22-25.
- Robbins, Liz. "35 Arrests In Long Island Gang Case As Another Body Is Found". The New York Times 2016. Web. 24 Oct. 2016. Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/22/nyregion/brentwood-ms-13-gang-case-arrests-long-island.html?_r=0
- Skolnick, Jerome H, and Elliott Currie. Crisis in American Institutions. Boston, MA:
Pearson/Allyn and Bacon, 2007. Print. - The Associated, Press. "Police Arrest 35 Suspected Members Of Long Island Gang." AP
- Regional State Report - California (2016): Newswires. Web. 24 Oct. 2016. Retrieved from: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/police-arrest-35-suspected-members-long-island-gang-42980223
