Of Course Gangs Are A Public Nuisance

  • Monday, September 26, 2016

Now, I don't know it all.  Beginning with my parents, folks of all sorts have been actively pointing out my ignorance for more than seven decades now.  So I'm well aware that I don't know it all. 

In recent months I've begun to develop an appreciation for the local work of Mr. Neal Pinkston; I've been impressed with several things he's been doing in his official capacity, according to news reports. 

But when I saw this headline, DA Pinkston Files Petition To Declare 2 Gangs A Public Nuisance, I reminded myself that I'm not the only ignorant person on Earth.  Or in Chattanooga.  Obviously I have plenty of company. 

First of all, who doesn't know that gangs are a public nuisance?  Good grief.  I suspect even the gangs know that--it's probably one of their primary goals to make a nuisance of themselves. 

Then, what about all of these line items that will be prohibited within the D.A.'s one little local designated Safety Zone? 

Associating with other gang members
Intimidating others
Possessing guns or other dangerous weapons
Possessing graffiti tools
Acting as a lookout 
Being with anyone who has illegal drugs
Being near alcohol
Forcibly recruiting
Preventing a member from leaving the gang 

I don't know it all, but I strongly suspect that every one of those bulls-eyed activities is already on the local law books as being absolutely illegal.  Some of those things are probably covered by multiple laws and the judge can throw the whole book at any perpetrators who face him.  So why on Earth should it be necessary to make a big deal about it right now?  Besides, the petition really makes it sound like the man plans to allow such goings-on elsewhere in town, just not in shady little old East Lake. 

Why make a big deal out of such a thing?  Well, that's one question I may be able to answer. 

More than half my life ago, during the decade I taught at now-defunct Tennessee Temple College, every two or three weeks the powers-that-be who met on Saturday morning would develop and post a new rule or two for everyone in the organization to memorize and follow.  It's not that there weren't already plenty of rules written and posted and well known; lack of rules wasn't the problem, and the most basic handful of them covered just about every detail of personal and campus life. 

No, the problem wasn't with the rules.  The problem was that those same powers-that-be just didn't have the personal strength of character and the collective determination to apply their own rules and thus eradicate trouble and trouble-makers.  It was simpler for them just to make a loud and proud fuss about certain things every now and then, and then go on to other more important things. 

But most folks in Chattanooga know that Tennessee Temple College died a slow, lingering death and doesn't exist any more.  And I'll contend as long as I live that it's primarily because the powers-that-be were never really willing to do what they claimed they would do.  They talked big but didn't enforce the most basic of their own rules, even amongst themselves, and they eventually lost the whole works. 

So how is the local district attorney's latest petition a step forward for Chattanooga?  Is it a step forward, or just another nail in the coffin of a city where most folks are pretty much decent and law-abiding? 

And are we to expect a similar petition for every little mile-square portion of our city, until everybody around here realizes that violent gangs are a public nuisance, and that illegal drugs and alcohol and intimidation are prohibited, etc.? 

Good grief.  But, remember, I don't know it all. 

Larry Cloud
Chattanooga 

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