Sacramento is undergoing as surge in violence, it’s either gangs or roving bands of Democratic representatives, to the extent that there is a difference, and so the Sacramento City Council is employing a tried and true progressive solution: throwing taxpayer money at the problem.

Following a fatal shooting last weekend in a city park, the Sacramento city council unanimously approved a controversial program called Advance Peace in an effort to address a recent spike in violence.
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The program offers gang members cash stipends for graduating from school and generally staying out of trouble.

https://twitter.com/DougJohnsonFX40/status/902691585208467456/photo/1

This is how it is supposed to work. The thugs selected to receive the extortion payments are known to police and neighbors but, thus far, no one has had the ambition to make a criminal case against them:

In Sacramento, the program would target 50 young men who were identified as being responsible for much of the gun and gang violence in the city.

“Fifty is a huge number. That’s 50 shooters who have the possibility of taking a life,” Clavo said. “If we can reach those 50, how many lives have we changed?”

These people are known to the city, as well as their neighbors, Mayor Steinberg explained. However, there is not enough evidence to prosecute them.

“If you commit a crime and you are caught committing a crime or there’s evidence against you, you’re going to be fully prosecuted even with this project,” Steinberg said. “But, there are people who we think we can turn them around.”

“It gives us the resources to target the individuals we know are the drivers behind what’s going on,” Brookins said.

And then an army of social workers will descend upon them:

Members of the Advance Peace outreach teams, which could include former convicts, will perform what’s called street outreach, according to Chief Executive DaVone Boggan.

It’s a part of an 18-month fellowship, where participants, known as fellows, are provided access to an array of mentoring, educational and job-training opportunities. They can also receive up $1,000 per month for nine months after six successful months in the program.

“The strategy itself has seven daily touch-points that includes working with each of these fellows to create an 18-month life map, which is essentially an assessment to a goal development sheet and a map that helps the individual connect the dots,” Boggan said.

The outreach teams will fan out on two different tracks. One track is focused on the 50 young men identified by the gang prevention and intervention task force. The second focuses on those who could one day find themselves choosing to pull the trigger instead finding more productive and nonviolent ways to resolve their conflicts.

This sounds amazingly like what “parole” should sound like.

A couple of thoughts here.

1. What this program does is employ enhanced supervision and the Hawthorne effect to achieve changes, perhaps transitory in nature because we don’t know what happens a few years after the cash stipend and supervision ends, in the behavior of a handful of street toughs.

2. Any gangland kingpin whose removal from “the game” actually reduces net street violence is not going to be enticed into a program for $1,000/month. That, quite honestly, is fast-food worker money but without the government bureaucrats crawling up your butt.

3. Paying off thugs to stop being thugs does not create respect for law and order. It gives the illusion of the police being put in the position of paying protection money to street criminals.

4. As Ronald Reagan said, “if you want more of something, subsidize it.” This program subsidizes criminality. Don’t be surprised when you get more of it.

Applications for the program are coming in even as we speak.

The post WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Sacramento to Pay Gang Members to Not Commit Murder appeared first on RedState

so,i think i'll join a gang now...


Source:

Its a numbers game

do they spend more on supporting victims and prosecuting suspects or on efforts to PREVENT the crimes in the first place?

How about just paying parents to properly raise their children?
To take care of the immediate problem just shoot everyone involved and call it a day. California doesn't want to run out of Soylent Green.

thats not actually a bad idea, except that the flawed state of the human ego would make it difficult to find a common ground of what should constitute 'proper raising'

investments in communities is not a bad idea though, because of the changing times where both parents often have to work or one parent has to hold it all down by themself....

there should be more community investment in having safe areas for children to be supervised in productive activities and more investment in exposing children to more than just their backyard so they may see other realities and possibilities

Im all on board for 'preventative' measures as well,,,

You know we expend a lot of time, money and energy into policing our problem. I'm sure that if people put their minds to it and dedicated their resources parenting issues could be rendered moot.

Luckily I live in a community where there are many community family support endeavors in place. One of the things I have seen that really seems to be beneficial is problem children maintaining the local community greenhouses (with supervision). Greenhouses that donate their food to food banks as well as having stands at the local farmer's market.
I pay my water bill in person at city hall. Everytime I go I read all the postings on the bulletin board. There is an abundance of social groups that offer assistance with raising children and offering councelling to families. Not just, but including, churches of multiple denominations.
Ethnically my neighborhood is predominately both black and Mexican with a sprinkle of whites. We all seem to get along just fine. There is no extreme police presense and groups of hoods don't roam the streets. The parents seem to be in full control of their offspring for the most part. I've SEEN it with my own eyes.

I'm sure others have simlar neighborhoods.
If we can do it within a neighborhood what prevents us from doing it on a larger scale?

resources like money and time and the interest AND ability of the residents to contribute them,,,,

so I see you think criminals should be paid for being a criminal?...

Can't think of a better way to spend $50,000 a month.

It reminds me of when I worked as a substitute teacher for special education. We were in a music class and the children were all getting turns to go up on stage to play an instrument. It was a little girls turn next....she had sat patiently and was well behaved for around 30 minutes.

A little boy, at the back of the line was acting out, screaming and throwing things because he wanted to go next. The teacher let him go ahead of the little girl to get him to quiet down.

I commented to her that doing so only teaches the well behaved girl that good behavior doesn't pay, if you want to be next, all you have to do is act out!

In my opinion, what they are doing with the criminals is backwards and wrong!

Everything is backwards out their today. Now the want to fine students for being tardy.

Well I suppose the money they want to give criminals has to come from somewhere

In all seriousness though, that's crazy! Talk about giving them an incentive to drop out rather than pay.

Completely sensible right?
Just goes to show the wonderful upbringing there is anymore and the views of our officials from the government on down. Unhinged loonicy

Based on what's in the OP I don't think it does.
IMO it looks kind of more like a lottery system with a terrible payout.

It would be one thing if "thugs" had to go down to the crime welfare office, find the proper form, and fill a quota in order to receive benefits like "you are only eligible to receive money to stop killing if you've killed at least 10 people. How many people have you killed in the last 5 years?"

From the OP the system seems more like "our group has identified certain people. We are targeting these specific people and directly offering them these benefits for our own purposes."
From the "thugs" perspective it seems it would be like "what? Oh, I'm the baddest person, I killed enough people for you to contact me and offer me these services and money? Okay!"

And with the caveat “If you commit a crime and you are caught committing a crime or there’s evidence against you, you’re going to be fully prosecuted even with this project,” I can't see a lot of people saying "what? Pete was contacted by the authorities and offered $1,000 a month for 9 months in a 6 month program, life plan assistance, and access to self improvement resources with a lot of bureaucrat oversight and supervision? Damn! I better start committing more crimes so I can be next weeks Powercrime winner! I'll send in my name, crimes, and proof I did them to make sure they get them all on record for my score!"


IMO I think at best it gives some people in Sacramento the feeling that they're "doing something."

Based on what is offered to the criminals the only people the program will help or affect are those that are already actively attempting to fulfill the same goals as the program.

If they're criminals because they want to be or they've just accepted it as who they are, the program won't do anything.
If they're criminals because they have to be and are constantly looking for a way out, then the program could be somewhat beneficial.


IMO I think the program is focusing more on the job and life development services rather than just the (up to) $9,000.


Maybe the little girl shouldn't have been taught to only behave a certain way for the sake of being paid?
The squeaky wheel gets the grease, but are we teaching people that the only thing that matters is how much grease you get?

No, I think high risk individuals should be targeted for preventive measures instead of waiting for them to progress into lifetime patterns of harm to others and sticking them in 'the system' forever, obstructing their chances of EVER becoming productive,,,

yes, it's called prison, where criminals belong...

only if they have been PROVEN guilty..

until then, the merely suspicious, might be turned around,,

they're in a gang, theyre guilty...not hard to figure out

being 'in a gang' is not a crime

unless you are committing crimes yourself,, which has to be PROVEN

We call it guilty by association I think!

yes, a flawed concept,,,

why would someone join a gang? are the bloods helping out society? do they help old ladies cross the street? is MS13 helping out with hurricane relief? what purpose does joining a gang serve?