House approves tough anti-gang legislation

Thursday, May 12, 2005 | 10:42 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

Republicans shocked by true-crime tales of beheadings and machete assaults sped legislation through the House to make gang attacks federal crimes and put gang members in line for long federal prison sentences or even the death penalty.

A bill approved 279-144 on Wednesday would expand the range of gang crimes punishable by death, establish minimum mandatory sentences, authorize the prosecution of 16- and 17-year-old gang members in federal court as adults, and extend the statute of limitations for all violent crimes from five to 15 years.

Clark County Sheriff Bill Young said the bill will help police officers work against the specific crimes related to gangs.

"We need every resource possible to battle gangs and to ensure the safety of Nevadans," Young said in a statement issued by Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev.

Gibbons and Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., voted in favor of the Gang Deterrence and Community Protection Act Wednesday.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., did not vote. She is in Nevada with her eldest son Max, who underwent an emergency appendectomy Tuesday morning.

"If you join a violent criminal gang and you commit a gang crime, you'll go to jail for a long time or you'll help us bring down that network," said Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va., the bill's author. "If it fails, we might as well put a sign on billboards that says 'Coming to a neighborhood near you soon,' because that's the growth we're seeing in gangs."

Democrats who opposed the bill said it puts too much emphasis on punishment and neglects prevention.

While the bill authorizes $387.5 million over the next five years to fight street crimes, opponents said the cost of accommodating new prison inmates alone would exceed $9 billion over the next decade.

"Passing this bill will do nothing to stem the tide of gang violence throughout this country," said Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y. "What this bill will do is worsen our youth violence behavior by enslaving our youngsters into prison."

Under the bill, federal prosecutors would share about $50 million a year to designate areas of high-intensity interstate gang activity and create law enforcement teams to go after gangs.

Forbes aides said the intent is to produce an estimated 200 new federal anti-gang prosecutions a year that would strike at gang networks much like the federal government has pursued organized crime syndicates.

The bill defines criminal street gangs as groups of three or more people who commit two or more gang crimes, one of them violent.

Minimum mandatory sentencing guidelines would impose death or life imprisonment for any crime resulting in death; at least 30 years in prison for kidnapping, aggravated sexual abuse or maiming; and at least 20 years for an assault resulting in serious bodily injury.

Convictions for other gang crime -- defined as violent crimes and other felonies committed to further the activities of a street gang -- would result in a term of at least 10 years.