Sweeping proposal co-sponsored by Yakima lawmaker
Chanel Replica Handbags By MANUEL VALDES
The Associated Press
EVERETT, Wash. -- Just a day before 17-year-old Antonio Marks was stabbed and beaten to death on the streets of a rural town on the Cascade foothills, Snohomish County Sheriff's Deputy Bud McCurry had spoken to the teen.
As a member of the sheriff office's gang unit, McCurry often chats with young men and women who are involved or associated with gang activity. Through his patrols, he knew Marks by his street name of "Speedy," and that he often walked Everett streets with known gang members. He remembers Marks as a polite boy.
He also knew the teens who killed Marks: They were all members of the Brown Pride Gang in Sultan.
"I'll never forget that. We were just talking to (Marks)... now he's dead," McCurry said. "All we can do is make our presence known."
As gangs spread around the state, state legislators have tried to curb their growth by writing new laws and rules. In this year's short legislative session, a handful of more than a dozen proposals have survived.
"There wasn't a lot of money to spend this year; we knew this from day one," said state Rep. Christopher Hurst, D-Enumclaw, chair of the Public Safety & Emergency Preparedness committee.
Gangs have reached small towns such as Sultan, are reappearing in Skagit County and running rampant in rural outposts like Outlook, police said.
In Central Washington, established gangs have evolved, maturing into organized criminal enterprises, dealing in drugs and guns, and all the while entrenched urban gangs in the Seattle-Tacoma area maintain their presence, officials said.
"It bothers me when I see a young family and the father is wearing gang attire and he's dressing his babies that way," said state Rep. Norm Johnson, R-Yakima, who has sponsored gang bills this year.
Johnson is a co-sponsor of one of the most sweeping of this year's proposals, which would allow restraining orders, preliminary injunctions and abatement orders in a gang nuisance action. The bill also classifies gang activity as a nuisance, which allows residents within a one-block radius to file complaints. The measure is now being considered in the Senate.
Hurst said that the bill empowers local governments with tools they can use at their discretion, and credits similar laws passed in California with reducing crime rates.
replica breitling Concerns about the power of that bill have been raised by the American Civil Liberties Union, which argues that the measure, as written, circumvents due process for people, and that existing laws can be used to combat gang problems.
The bill "actually interferes with gang intervention," said Shankar Narayan, the ACLU's legislative director. "These kinds of gang laws, push gang members into fringes of society."
Ideas that are apparently dead for the year include allowing law enforcement officers to seize property of gang members and sell it to pay for enforcement, increased penalties for gang intimidation and graffiti tagging, and creating school safety zones that would allow school officials to exclude suspected gang members.
replica balenciaga handbags No new laws concerning gangs in schools have been passed in more than a decade and a hal
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