Warning or arresting gang members for gathering on a sidewalk will not decrease drug usage and will not answer the socioeconomic or psychological needs of gang members. In fact, whatever the cause of gang violence, anti-loitering laws will obviously only scratch the surface of the problems which give rise to gang violence.
Shakur's book, a personal account of life in a gang, also shows that an anti-loitering law not change the violent propensity of gang members. On almost any page of Shakur's book, the reader will find examples of violence which would not have been affected by such an anti-loitering law. On page 85, picked at random, two guns are mentioned, one being used to shoot out a streetlight. The author writes, "Standing around now unarmed, I felt naked and longed for the comfort of my gun" (Shakur 85). The gang members in Shakur's book would not have been deterred from violence by warnings not to loiter or even
...