No SOE for Recent Spate of Gang Violence

Chester Williams

What about a State of Emergency, is it an option that law enforcement is contemplating?  According to Commissioner of Police, it is not a solution favored by the present administration.  The preferred approach, he says, is to identify and pursue individual perpetrators of crime and violence.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“The law does not give us the authority to just lock up somebody or criminals because they believe that they are gang members.  The law takes a certain course.  As much as I wish that we can take them and lock them up, I don’t have that power and I cannot exercise powers that I don’t have.  So we work within the confines of the law in ensuring that whatever we do is well within the law.  And so, whenever we have these incidents we certainly will respond in whatever way we can, lawfully, and do what needs to be done to address the issue.  One lawful way in which we would normally do is to look at those persons who are involved in gang activity or are actively involved and then we go after them with gang legislation.  It is either we apply the gang law or we do an SOE.  I am sure that the latter would be preferable to some, but at the same time too, I also think that the former is more legally done and in terms of just going after specific persons, as opposed to declaring an entire area and then we go in there and operate.  That gives some law-abiding citizens some discomfort that they don’t like.  So we just try to use the gang law, we just pick out who needs to be picked out and then we charge them.”