[B.O. Plenty]

.....go after them with teams of police, federal agents, probation officers and prosecutors.....

Oh yeah, this is really going to work....catching and prosecuting the gang members. Scares the hell out of them, no doubt.

There is nothing that will work except make the penalty for joining a gang so horrible that nobody would risk it. This requires execution of gang members...or if killing the people us unacceptable, maybe castration of the gang members might work.

The "authorities" are wasting their time if they do anything else.

[Mr. Jeeves]

There is nothing that will work except make the penalty for joining a gang so horrible that nobody would risk it.

Like having to stand around on a street corner with the same bunch of losers every day with no chance of making a profit...because the piles of white powder you used to move for thousands of dollars can now be had for free at a Federal clinic?

There are no forms of punishment that will work short of deputizing all registered gun owners, permitting them to shoot on sight, and paying a bounty of $500 per dead gang member - much like what would have happened in the Old West. Since that is unlikely to occur, the next best option is to eliminate the major profit motive that atrracts people to gang membership.