A symposium was certainly the first thing that I thought of when wondering how to prevent gang violence. Nothing prevents crime like a lot of mental masturbating. An increased police presence, stiffer penalties, and community sponsored youth activities would be a good start. Of course that all takes money, which the fine citizens of Lane County are clearly not willing to cough up. I know the economy is in the toilet and money is tight, but if every taxpayer in the county started parting with an extra tax dollar a month, at least a couple of million dollars could be raised every year to pay for the items listed above. Lane County taxpayers simply need to decide which is more important--their safety or their savings account.

Why go after the gangs if there isn't a jail to put them in? Scrat ching your heads to do what with them when they get in trouble? Give 'em a spanking? Maularky I say.

First, define gang. Are we talking Bloods & Crips style, or a pack of kids who cause mischief, fight, and scrawl illegible graffiti? Because that's typical teenage mischief. Unless we're talking about drive by's and serious gang violence, turf wars, etc, I don't think we need to worry about gangs.