Lawton Rep.Shannon authors anti-gang bill

Here's my story about Rep. T.W. Shannon's new anti-gang bill, HB 1864, known as the "Delinquincy and Youth Gang Intervention and Prevention Act." It passed this afternoon on the House floor and moves to the Senate for consideration.

Shannon authors anti-gang bill
B Y ANDREW GRIFFIN
Special Correspondent
The Lawton Constitution
Posted: March 13, 2007

OKLAHOMA CITY — A Lawton state representative is concerned about rising gang activity throughout Oklahoma. Rep. T.W. Shannon will present a bill to the full House of Representatives today to address those concerns.
The bill, HB 1864, is known as the “Delinquency and Youth Gang Intervention and Prevention Act.” If it passes in the House and Senate and is signed by Gov. Brad Henry, it could serve as an important tool in the fight against gang activity and violence, Shannon said.
House Bill 1864 would create a steering committee, or task force, to be created to assess where gang activity is most prevalent and problematic and to come back with a plan on how best to reduce gang activity using local, state and federal resources.
“Traditionally, the task force has been made up of law enforcement people, but with this bill we wanted to incorporate more social services people as well,” Shannon said.
He also said that the legislature would not be simply throwing money at the issue but would expect the steering committee to achieve certain benchmarks each year to ensure that progress is being made.
Shannon, a Republican, said he is well-aware of the gang problem in his hometown and elsewhere and that this plan is for the act to cover not just Oklahoma’s larger cities like Oklahoma City, Tulsa and Lawton, but smaller cities as well.
“Lawton saw a decline (in gang activity) a few years ago and now there’s a sudden peak again,” Shannon said, noting that a new generation of gang members is starting to take hold.
“We’re seeing this (gang) problem is places like Duncan and Altus — places where it hadn’t been a problem before.”
Shannon said an annual amount of $1.4 million would be required to address the gang issue statewide.
Recruitment into these gangs, Shannon said, is not only happening on the streets, but over the Internet as well.
The bill, Shannon said, is bipartisan, with his Senate coauthor being Sen. Constance Johnson, D-Oklahoma City. He added that his bill has already received a lot of positive response from fellow legislators.
The bill, Shannon said, is following a national model that “presumes that gangs become chronic and serious problems in communities where key organizations are inadequately integrated and sufficient resources are not available to target gang-involved youth.”
This would involve not only local law enforcement in addressing the gang problem but also social welfare agencies and grassroots organizations. They would then identify problem areas.
This model, put forward by the U.S. Department of Justice, includes five core elements: community mobilization; opportunities provision; social intervention; suppression; and organizational change and development.
Gene Christian, executive director of the Office of Juvenile Affairs, said he is just now becoming familiar with the bill and said he felt it was a good bill and that gang activity in Oklahoma towns and cities is “a major issue.”
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