I want to applaud your paper for putting the article, “Are Gangs Making a Comeback?” on the front page of the Fairfax County Times. This has been an issue of great concern for me and all the members of the Courts of Justice Committee in the Virginia House of Delegates for many years now.
Even with all of the disturbing facts your article points out about the presence of gangs in our schools, I think there is some good news that should also be noted. The Commonwealth of Virginia’s anti-gang laws are the most comprehensive and toughest in the United States. And this was not by accident.
In 2003, your state legislators became aware of a sudden increase in gang activity in Virginia, and a precipitous increase in the violence of these gangs. Then Attorney General Jerry Kilgore formed a gang task force made up of the leading legislators and law enforcement officers in the state. As Chair of the Criminal Laws sub-committee, I was selected for this task force. Together we studied every gang law in the entire United States, and concentrated specifically on those states which have had criminal street gang problems for years. We looked at each law and inquired whether the law was actually leading to results in those states. From this study, we pulled all the laws that were working, and incorporated all of them into the Virginia Code.
Here are a few examples of laws that were put in place. In 2004, the General Assembly passed my bill HB 569 that makes it illegal to recruit a person into a gang, making it a Class 1 misdemeanor to recruit an adult, and a felony to recruit a minor. In addition, this bill makes subsequent offenses Class 3 felonies which are punishable by five to 20 years in jail. The bill also allows for any forfeiture of property related to gang activity. The obstruction of justice statute was also amended to include gang-related crimes. Then in 2005, we passed my HB 1573. This bill made sure the Board of Education addressed gang-related activities in its student code of conduct. HB 2217 in 2005 also established recruitment on school grounds as a Class 6 felony with a minimum punishment of two years in prison. If the person being recruited is a juvenile, the charge is raised to a Class 5 felony.
These landmark pieces of legislation are now being used by our Fairfax County Gang Unit. As pointed out in your article, the MS-13 leader, Dennis L. Gil Bernandez, is being tried on the Felony Recruitment statute mentioned above.
And our efforts did not end in 2005. Each year we listen to Gang Unit Police and Gang Crime Prosecutors on what new tools they need. In 2006, Gang Unit Police found that MS-13 members were using machetes to intimidate victims because machetes were not specifically delineated weapons in Virginia’s Concealed Weapon law. The new 2006 bill made it illegal to brandish such a weapon in the intent to intimidate or punish another person. Furthermore, by listening to prosecutors, we found that it was difficult for prosecutors to compile the necessary information to prove a group is an actual criminal gang. To solve this, we enacted legislation that required the Departments of Corrections and Juvenile Justice to collect information on gang members and give it to the Commonwealth’s Attorneys’ Services Council so that they can use the information to prove that an organization is a “criminal street gang.”
But all the laws and all the police can’t fight gangs as well as a concerned parent. Thus, getting the word out there like your paper did is a great way to inform everyone of the situation. It is important for parents to know that there are gang members out there, and possibly pressuring their kids to join. We all need to let our children know that joining a gang will not only break their parents’ hearts, but place the young person eventually in a jail cell or a casket.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact Delegate Dave Albo at (703) 451-3555 or visit my website Dave Albo on Gangs.
Delegate Dave Albo's Constituent Corner 