My hometown has been classified for one of the most dangerous places to stay, but if you were to take a trip there, would you believe it? Any person could drive down I-20 on Sunday morning to enter Longview and it would seem like another ordinary visit to a nice, appealing, small town. Longview may seem beautiful from the outside in, but there is a continuous problem with gang influences. This would be something you expect from bigger cities such as, Houston or Dallas. I was once held at gunpoint, to this day my mother does not know about it. There are plenty of young people who live here who are terrified to talk about their personal experiences with gang members. In Longview, gang intimidation starts with younger children, but will Longview ever address the conflict?
The answer to this question is no! Longview's top priorities are mainly on education and employment. It is never primarily focused on children or gangs. Gang members constantly try and increase the amount of members within the gang, but it becomes a dangerous act towards community. According to the Violence Prevention Institute, the process of gang recruitment is …show more content…
Gang violence has traditionally been considered a public safety issue, but it is also a public health problem (Center for Health Journalism). Because of gangs the crime rate has increased because of gang membership. There are proven facts that state that 29.4% of girls and 32.4% of boys in high-risk, high-crime neighborhoods claimed gang membership (Violence and Gangs). That is more than half of our youth that are a part of fighting, drugs, and crime. More than 50 percent of the next generation will only know about violence. Longview has a population of 80,455 people. Out of the 80,000 6,380 people are between the ages of 10 and 21. Which means 3,000 kids to teens have a possibility to join or are already involved in gangs. If those numbers don’t scare Longview then nothing