County takes a needed step against gangs

Even the most striking law enforcement successes against gangs can only be temporary: You can make the law-abiding safer for a while by breaking up a criminal organization and sending its chieftains and their principal lieutenants off to prison, but new gangs ultimately arise. Crooks are usually not the brightest specimens around, but even they can figure out that more can be accomplished as a group than as individuals.

Nonetheless, last week's announcement of a joint task force on gang-related crime - involving Anne Arundel County and Annapolis police, as well as FBI personnel and the State's Attorney's Office - is a welcome response to a real and growing public concern.

It was startling to hear from police in August that a 15-year-old was cornered in a men's restroom at Annapolis High School and warned he would be beaten up if he didn't join Mara Salvatrucha 13, or MS-13, a criminal organization established in Central America and much of the United States, including the Washington, D.C., suburbs. The threatened beating, police said, was later carried out beyond school grounds; in connection with it, an 18- and a 19-year-old, both Annapolis residents, were indicted by a grand jury on multiple gang-related and assault charges.

Federal prosecutors believe some members of the gang live in the county. And last month, when city police held a bilingual meeting at Annapolis Middle School to discuss missing persons cases and give tips on protecting children from gang influence, they were startled by the huge turnout: more than 350 people. There's obviously a demand for both information and action.

The new task force, Altomare said last week, will draw on recently graduated police officers and hopes to make use of new state laws on gang activity that take effect today. "We've made enough headway ... we have a handle on what's going in the county with heroin," he said. "It's time to go after the gangs that were the No. 2 problem I identified before I got into office."

Beyond this, for obvious reasons, officials were circumspect about what the task force will be doing. But Altomare, in answering a question about whether there is a message for the Hispanic community, made an important point: That message, he said, is "we're not going to let somebody terrorize you. You matter to us."

MS-13 originated in Los Angeles in the 1980s, reportedly growing out of efforts by Salvadoran immigrants to protect themselves from other gangs. It has now become an international criminal enterprise that deals in drugs, illegal immigration, arms smuggling, extortion and prostitution. But for all the damage it has done to society at large, immigrant groups - whose reluctance to go to the authorities is reinforced by the gang's reputation for savagery - have always been among its chief victims.

An FBI website offers the dismal estimate that the U.S. has 33,000 street gangs, motorcycle gangs and prison gangs with about 1.4 million active members. So even if officials crush MS-13, there will be successors - as long as there are illegal businesses to exploit, isolated communities to hide among and victimize, and undereducated and under-parented young people to recruit from. But it's up to local officials to go after the problems that are in front of them, and the formation of the joint task force is a welcome step.