Nation Business-Black Souls Gang Arrest

Chicago police say a new gang violence plan that holds all gang members responsible if one commits a murder or crime is working. Police say dozens of members of one gang were arrested following the August shooting death of a teenager.

Two weeks after the police superintendent forewarned a small group of gang leaders about the new strategy came a murder. Eighteen-year-old Anthony Carter was shot to death near his West Side home. A day later police arrested and charged Sharod Pierce, a reputed member of the Black Souls Street Gang, with the murder.

And then they turned up the heat. In two months time they arrested 60 alleged members of the Black Souls Gang, not in connection with the murder, but for drug and weapons charges, most of them felonies.

About half of those arrested remain in jail. One of the alleged gang members in that mid-August surprise meeting with Weis was among the 60 who where arrested.

A gang member gets pinched for a serious crime and the law puts the squeeze on the whole gang. That is most definitely not a new concept, but only within the past decade has it emerged as an organizational strategy.

Criminologist David Kennedy says he learned it from street cops and has become the idea's chief disciple.

"When the gang individuals learn that when someone does a stupid respect homicide, that everybody in the gang that is doing crimes is going to pay for it, the gang starts to police itself. It's every simple," said Kennedy.
-CHICAGOWLS