Free Essay About Gangs Of America

13 February 13, 2015

Question #1
Most commonly gangs are present in army reserves and National Guard however they are not limited to these parts of the military. Gang members do not announce their affiliation and spotting identifiable traits is often not known which makes it difficult to know who is involved. The FBI reports that many of these gang members will join the military for different reasons some just want to get away from the lifestyle being in a gang presents. Others are more dangerous as they join so they can have access to weapons and training and use this against police officers and other gangs. In some cases the gang affiliation has been known by military members as the court system has allowed service enrollment as an alternative to being incarcerated to certain individuals and the military has taken advantage of this by training these individuals to fight in Iraq (Powers).

Question #2

Some people argue that the American Dream act will allow gang members to infiltrate the military which has some relevance to it. The Dream act would allow people who served two years in the military to be given United States citizenship. The problem is that these young people are vulnerable to recruitment as they will have access to another country which expands the gangs operations (Roberts). Another problem is that the issue with gangs has already gone international meaning there is no safe bet that the men and women recruited by the military from other countries do not already have an affiliation with some gangs.

Question #3

Street gangs and Mexican cartels main tie is drug, and weapons trafficking, contract killings as well as money laundering. Street gangs being involved reduces the risk for the cartels being caught because they are able to operate in a larger territory without having to be present there. Reports show that this activity has led to increasing cooperation between rival gangs as they are working on behalf of the drug cartels however it raises questions about what will happen if this goes wrong and the wrong territory is crossed which could lead to severe violence and murderous outcomes. Now that the government in Mexico is cracking down on these cartels they are aiming at relationships across the border more than ever. This is because they are able to find key points to ship drugs and make their money in the United States if they have allies with street gangs in America (Cawley).

Question #4

Mara Salvatrucha are also known as MS13 and are members of a street gang that is becoming one of the most dangerous gangs and biggest threats in America. This gang is made up of mostly immigrants or first generation immigrants from places like El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico. They are currently known to be operating in at least 42 out of 50 of the states in the U.S. The crimes this gang is known for involves a fairly large and mostly all violent crimes list including: “Drug dealing, rape, murder, prostitution, robbery, home invasion, kidnapping, auto thefts and vandalism” (Investigation). Although Ms13 usually directs there violence toward other gangs who are there rivals there violent habits cause serious problems for other innocent people in the communities making them a very huge threat.

Works Cited

Cawley, Marguerite. 'Mexico Cartel-US Gang Ties Deepening As Criminal Landscape Fragments'. Insightcrime.org. N.p., 2014. Web. 14 Feb. 2015.
Investigation, Federal. 'MS-13 Threat Assessment'. FBI. N.p., 2015. Web. 14 Feb. 2015.
Powers, Rod. 'Gang Activity In The U.S. Military'. About.com Careers. N.p., 2015. Web. 14 Feb. 2015.
Roberts, Mathew. 'Gang Warfare'. The American Conservative. N.p., 2015. Web. 14 Feb. 2015.