The Sunnyside gang law - a cop's perspective

Blogger-with-a-badge The Enforcer was kind enough to fill me in on the implications of the Sunnyside gang membership law:
I read over your blog entry and as I see it from what is written, the powers that be are running an emergency stopgap measure up the flagpole to see if it flies, getting public opinion on their side and gathering arrest stats BEFORE a credible challenge to the law is made.

That being said, There IS a way to prosecute gang members under federal RICO statutes. If it can be proven that they aren't paying taxes (i.e. the Al Capone law), then it can be enforced and if it is done right this can be linked up to it as a tool that provides probable cause. A cop needs probable cause to delve further and gang ink, signs, trademark clothes and mode of dress all give a cop probable cause to believe that there is criminal activity connected to said individual. As for profiling, the way I learned is that small p profiling is a viable tool for police and the public (this includes all the above named gang activities). Capital P Profiling, i.e. racial profiling, is unnacceptable (that would be assuming a person is a gang member because he/she is a minority in a ritzy town).

I hope this helped.

Thanks, Enforcer! It helps a lot.