HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW)-New numbers show that more children are involved in gangs.Gang investigator Lynn Baker said that 64% of children in the state department of juvenile justice admitted to being in a gang.
Officers say one major problem with gang related activity is that there’s a lot of illegal guns in the streets. Now, officers are seeing even more since more children are joining gangs. Any guns they’re using have to be illegal.
There is a program where repeat gun offenders can be federally prosecuted. The appeal of that is a harsher sentence and a quicker process. But again, that’s just for repeat offenders and with children starting so young, Denis said they’re usually in a gang for a while before they’re caught or before something tragic happens.
Denis said they try to use the federal option as much as possible but it’s not that cut and dry.
“The federal courts are just as overloaded as everyone else’s courts. So they’re kind of strict as for where they draw the line with federal prosecution. There are certain criteria to be met for that case to go to federal court but we have met with the solicitors office locally about it, they’re in agreement with it, it’s a good process and it’s working but the problem didn’t happen overnight so we’re probably not going to solve it overnight.”
The sheriff’s office, county police and Myrtle Beach police have teamed up to address gang problems in the area. So far they know about fifty gangs, have recovered several weapons, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and turned over at least ten cases to be handled federally.
