Pre-Emptive Means

Greenhouse's article covers the argument of the lawyers for the city of Chicago who argued before the Supreme Court that the city's efforts to stop gang violence and crime through pre-emptive means were constitutional. Specifically, the lawyers "defended an anti-loitering law that permits arrests not only of suspected gang members but of anyone else who, standing with 'no apparent purpose' on a public street near a gang member, defies a police order to move on" (Greenhouse 1). The basic argument against the law is that it is vague in naming the conduct which specifically allows an order from the police to "move on". The article is useful in explaining the current status of the law, but the law itself will not do much to prevent gang violence.

Whether the law is ruled constitutional by the Supreme Court or not, it is at least an effort by a major city to deal with the gathering of gang members and to put a damper on gang activities which include violence.

However, Martin Sanchez Jankowski and Sanyika Shakur present arguments which show that the Chicago law examined by Greenhouse and debated by legal authorities is at best a band-aid for a much bigger problem.

Jankowski writes that there are at least two major theories having to do with the violence of gang activity. The first theory argues that violent activity is brought on by drugs. The second theory is that vio

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k he seems to have finally seen that violence leads nowhere but to the morgue or prison. In fact, the book ends with the author in prison. Still, Shakur does not seem to have come to a position in which he completely swears off violence. He still seems ambivalent about violence, which would indicate that he has indeed learned that violence does not pay, as Lardner writes, but at the same time Shakur still seems to see violence as inevitable and carries with it some measure of justice. For example, he writes that when he heard about the beating of Rodney King, his "rage and appetite for destruction rose." When the post-Rodney King verdict riots left many businesses burned, Shakur writes: "No matter how many Toms try to paint a different scenario, there was a collective consciousness among the oppressed that is evidenced in their selection of targets and items taken" (Shakur 381). In other words, those businesses which were burned deserved to be burned, according to Shakur. This shows that he is hardly finished with seeing violence as a tool of rebellion, despite the way it has destroyed his life and the lives of so many he knows and knew in gangs. Jankowski writes that gang members steel themselves against the threat of death, wh
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1643
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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