Fighting Street Gangs With Military Counter-Insurgency Software

An anonymous reader writes "After every major war, technology developed for a conflict gets applied to civilian life. The BBC recently reported that Army researchers have adapted advanced social network analysis software used for counter-insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan to help law enforcement analyze the behavior of street gangs. With the growing problem of gang violence in major U.S. cities, this may provide a fresh perspective. 'Orca can figure out the likely affiliations of individuals who will not admit to being members of any specific gang, as well as the sub-structure of gangs – the gang ecosystem – and the identities of those who tend to dictate the behaviour of others. ... Having some knowledge of the links and affiliations between different gangs can highlight dangers that call for more focused policing. If a gang perpetrates some violent action on a rival gang, police will often monitor the rival gang more closely because of the likelihood of retaliation. But gangs know this, and so the rivals might instead ask an allied gang to carry out a reprisal. Understanding such alliances helps the police stay a step ahead.' The question is: will it work?"

Comments

Or we could just...

[rsilvergun]

give them jobs, families and a hope for the future instead of absolute poverty and a 'nothing to lose' life style. But turning military tactics against a sizable portion of our populace works too I guess.

Re:Or we could just...

[divisionbyzero]

give them jobs

Give them???? How many trillions of dollars have been transfered from the workers to the non-workers, and how effective has it actually been?

Besides, why work mowing grass and digging ditches (what else are they qualified for, given their piss poor grades in their piss poor schools) when (a) that's "Mexican work", and (b) you can make more by selling drugs and living off the dole?

Well, I'm glad we got the two most worn-out stereotypes out of the way so quickly. Now maybe we can have a useful conversation. How about legalizing or decriminalizing those things sold on a black market removing the financial incentives? How about early intervention through more funding for pre-schools in urban areas to provide the structure the kids' parents cannot? Or about a million other things that would be more effective than "hand-outs" or "policing the lazy".

Re:Or we could just...

[rubycodez]

bullshit. people who are self-motivated work hard and get those things. Plenty of illiterate minorities have come to this country and made good lives for themselves starting with NOTHING but with hard work, yet we're to feel sorry for life long lazy welfare recipients who spawn more criminals on our dime and who whine "the man is keeping me down?" They have no one to blame but the one in the bathroom mirror

Re:Or we could just...

[rsilvergun]

And plenty have died horrible deaths in thresher machines. A few outliers doesn't make the average. Most of them live life slaves with no hope for advancement. We remember the ones that made it big, we occasionally read about the ones who were cut to pieces, but we ignore the everyday misery the bulk live in.

Christ, just look up on google what working in a meat packing plant is like. Or look up that article that says a 'temp' agency is America's second largest employer (Walmart's first). You can fall back on your nonsensical capitalism all you want. Reality doesn't work that way. That's just not what happens in the real world. The real world is a horrible place where everything is stacked against all but a lucky few, who use their privileges to the detriment of the rest of us.

Re:Or we could just...

[rubycodez]

outliers??!! fact as example, asian people who immigrate to the USA make more than the median income; they work hard and value education. there are LOTS of them.

Nothing nonsensical about working for a living, that is reality. Nothing nonsensical for paying for things, that's the reality in socialist and communist and capitalist countries alike.

Since my relatives are in agriculture (and some raise hogs), I'll have you know I've been in slaughter and meat packing plants and still love bacon and sausage. The average pay is $24K a year for meat packer and goes to $31K. what's your point?

Re:Or we could just...

[Samantha Wright]

Lazy is not just one racial or ethnic group, it's every racial or ethnic group: the lazy rich whites steal money from the lazy black and Native American poor, while the lazy Chinese steal inventions and secrets and destroy the environment, and the lazy Indians and Hispanics steal jobs instead of fixing their own countries, and the lazy Africans accept aid instead of doing the same. "Lazy" is the ultimate, omni-purpose slur; it even transcends boundaries of race and nationality: lazy men expect the world on a platter from lazy women who can't compete on their own merits; lazy youngsters can't land the jobs that the lazy boomers who selfishly destroyed the economy demand they get; lazy atheists, Christians, and Muslims parrot rhetoric they don't really understand while making broad moral declarations they don't really adhere to.

So, y'know. Take your pick.

Re:Or we could just...

[aaaaaaargh!]

The USA is provably the most injust industrialized country of the world, and its getting worse all the time. On average, an employer used to get a 30 times higher salary than an employee in the 50s, nowadays he gets a 300 times higher salary. The USA is the only modern industrialized country in the world without legally guaranteed vacation - 25% of all Americans have not a single day of paid vacation per year. The top 1% of US households in terms of income own 35.4% of all privately owned wealth (in 2010). You have - before / without Obamacare - one of the most expensive health systems in the world, yet it doesn't even cover the whole population. Your Gini index is 0.49 - only select countries in Africa, parts of South America , and China have a worse Gini index. The list could go on and on. At the same time the US is the 15th richest country in the world in terms of GDP per capita (according to the CIA world fact book), so the country is not poor at all.

Sorry if these facts annoy you, that's not my intention. I'm just mentioning them in orer to illustrate that there might be a social problem in your country. Of course, you could also just ignore it and explain it away as your politicians apparently prefer. But there is a good chance that one day in the more distant future the social justice problem will bite you in the ass.

Better question

[girlintraining]

The question is: will it work?

First; No. Technology doesn't fix social problems, it changes them. Take away guns and people use knives. Take away knives and they use big rocks. And so on. It's the same with any technology, for any social behavior. You can't fix relationships with technology, and fundamentally, all social problems can be expressed in relational pairings.

That said, the better question is -- are we willing to allow the government to change its relationship with us, the citizens, and if so, what will be the new boundaries for such a change? There must be things that are in and out of bounds -- and there needs to be more discussion than is happening now. Otherwise, we're going to wakeup one day and find that we're all wearing the Emperor's clothes, not just with the government, but with each other as well!

Re:Better question

[jma05]

No. Technology does fix social problems. But it also creates new problems. It does not simply change or amplify existing problems. The new social problems that emerge are *fundamentally different* than old problems. Industrialization did solve old problems (Eg: low economic power of women) and the problems it created were of a new kind (Eg: uprooting of cultural communities).

> Take away guns and people use knives.

I am aware of all the US gun vendor propaganda. None of the recent single-person perpetrated mass murders (Colorado, Arizona, Newtown) could have happened with knives. I am in India. We have a lot more people and have a lot more undiagnosed mental illness around (if that is what you mean by underlying social problem). No ones goes to a shrink here, even though we are in a greater social turmoil, with all the change around us. People are still less educated and the police are ineffective. Yet, we don't deal with people going postal, because guns are hard to get and you don't get far with knives (also harder to make rap videos and movies romanticizing untrained people who can solve problems with knives). The two knife attackers in China caused limited harm compared any massacre in US. Yes, people do throw rocks when rioting. But that is a much different problem. We have economically impotent and disaffected young men too, but the window of opportunities within which they may express themselves through violence is much more limited.

If US was a gun free zone, it would not have had much problem with urban gangs. It might have other problems, but not urban gangs. Historically, knife wielding gangs (as brigands) could only operate with force in the wild, not in urban environments. Let's move away from this topic that attracts emotions.

Currently, the relationship between the government and its citizens in indeed changing. And it is entirely due to technology changes. Digital snooping is suddenly cheap. Big data is suddenly cheap. Technology does not overlay social problems. Social problems (or benefits) are a direct consequence of technology. For instance, the only reason US jobs are being exported is because of the emergence of cheap travel & shipping and the Internet (shipping of information products), not because of selfish business men. Colonial era only happened because of the emergence of better shipping technology.

Just like organisms are a mere manifestation of DNA, social problems are often (although not always) mere expressions of technology application.

A military solution?

[Pollux]

Just one more piece of evidence showing how our government is at war with its citizens.

Re:it could be stopped

[sabri]

when gang members are identified, eliminate them. Simple and fully effective. let their worthless parents cry about how they were turning their life around blah blah blah.

I don't think you fully understand the problems of gangs. In some neighborhoods, young kids almost have to join a gang in order not to become a victim. It is a matter of becoming a predator vs prey, and those youngsters don't always have the world view that adults have to distinguish right from wrong in that situation, and the potential impact on their future.

Equally effective and simple would be to isolate these folks by taking them out of that situation. Move them to some flyover state in the middle of nowhere, where they can be drilled in a youth detention center. Not as a punishment, but as a form of education.

While it would be unfair towards the parents who were unable to raise their kids, I'm sure they would prefer to have the state take care of them, rather than execute them. Not to mention the cost of the death penalty, or difficulties in proving gang affiliation.

one small problem

[jfruh]

With the growing problem of gang violence in major U.S. cities...

This is a friendly reminder that violent crime in the U.S. has dropped every year for the past ten years, and in fact we're at the end of a fairly sustained 20-year drop in crime.

Re:one small problem

[cold fjord]

The second amendment isn't ultimately about hunting. It is about the final defense of the American people against tyranny, whether from home or abroad.

Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States. A military force, at the command of Congress, can execute no laws, but such as the people perceive to be just and constitutional; for they will possess the power, and jealousy will instantly inspire the inclination, to resist the execution of a law which appears to them unjust and oppressive. --- Noah Webster

The Swiss have that figured out as well.

In World War II, the Swiss had defenses no other country had. Let's begin with the rifle in every home combined with the Alpine terrain. When the German Kaiser asked in 1912 what the quarter of a million Swiss militiamen would do if invaded by a half million German soldiers, a Swiss replied: shoot twice and go home. Switzerland also had a decentralized, direct democracy which could not be surrendered to a foreign enemy by a political elite. Some governments surrendered to Hitler without resistance based on the decision of a king or dictator; this was institutionally impossible in Switzerland. If an ordinary Swiss citizen was told that the Federal President--a relatively powerless official--had surrendered the country, the citizen might not even know the president's name, and would have held any "surrender" order in contempt. -- Dr. Stephen P. Halbrook

Re:one small problem

[hedwards]

The 2nd amendment is because we didn't have a standing military at the time, nor did most parts of the US have any law enforcement of note. Having those firearms at that time served a legitimate need.

Nice to see that you're pretty much completely ignorant of the reasons behind the 2nd amendment.

Re:one small problem

[cold fjord]

The 2nd amendment is because we didn't have a standing military at the time,

That is false two respect. First, the US Army as a force in being predates the Constitution, which is where the 2nd Amendment is found.

The U.S. Army as a permanent institution began on 3 June 1784, when the Confederation Congress approved a resolution to establish a regiment of 700 officers and men. Intended as a force to assert federal authority in the Ohio River Valley, the regiment deployed at a string of posts along the Ohio where it functioned as a frontier constabulary during the last years of the Articles of Confederation era.

Congress adopted this tiny force after the reorganization of the government under the Constitution in 1789. Responding to the outbreak of Indian war in the Old Northwest—and especially to St. Clair's defeat in 1791, the worst setback at Indian hands in the army's history—the government expanded the military establishment to over 5,000 in 1792. Organized as the “American Legion” and commanded by Maj. Gen. Anthony Wayne, the army defeated the northwestern tribes at Fallen Timbers in 1794. During the same year, in response to European threats, the government launched a program of seacoast fortifications and added a corps of artillerists and engineers to build and man them. -- more

Second, the 2nd Amendment rights were not intended to be time limited.

II. A Permanent Right

Some people suggest the justification clause provides a built-in expiration date for the right. So long as a well-regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free state (or so long as the right to keep and bear arms contributes to a well-regulated militia, or so long as the militia is in fact well-regulated), the argument goes, the people have a right to keep and bear arms; but once the circumstances change and the necessity disappears, so does the right. 12

This reading seems at odds with the text: The Amendment doesn't say "so long as a militia is necessary"; it says "being necessary." Such a locution usually means the speaker is giving a justification for his command, not limiting its duration. 13 If anything, it might require the courts to operate on the assumption that a well-regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free state, since that's what the justification clause asserts. 14

--------

Having those firearms at that time served a legitimate need.

They still do. Besides, whether you recognize it or not, if you are an American man you have almost certainly been a part of the militia.

Sec. 311. Militia: composition and classes

-STATUTE-
(a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.
(b) The classes of the militia are -
(1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and
(2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia.

--------

Nice to see that you're pretty much completely ignorant of the reasons behind the 2nd amendment.

If I have more to learn I don't think you have anything to teach. What you "know" about the matter seems to be wrong.

With fresh information from the NSA

[stox]

This should be easy.

Re:it could be stopped

[hedwards]

We have a system of laws to ensure that the right people are convicted, and we don't execute people for petty shit. Seems to me that you're precisely the type of person that ought to be subjected to that sort of "justice." If you want that sort of thing, there's plenty of hell holes that execute people for petty shit, do us all a favor and find one of them.

Ultimately, we have a constitution that applies to everybody, one of the biggest mistakes we've made as a country was watering it down so cowards like you could sleep well at night.

Very effective

[rsilvergun]

I know you're trolling, but hey, the nonsense you spew is in the backs of people's minds for real. It's a 'Narrative'. A falsehood told to workers to make us fight amongst ourselves while the 1% laugh all the way to the bank with our time and money.

Start by googling the phrase 'working poor'. Then try to get on food stamps if you earn any amount over the poverty line. If you're single, try to get free health care. Won't happen.

And the meat packing plants are happy to hire you. Oh wait, you're a citizen? You can sue us if our dull knifes cause you to lose a finger? You want a steady food supply and health care for your kids? $4/hr isn't enough? 60 hours a week is a bit much? You want overtime? Sorry, you're just not what we're looking for.

All this banging on about gangs and jails..

[benjfowler]

I have to wonder why people are so anti-government, that they live with the idea that while they themselves make a net contribution to society, there are plenty of people who simply lack the ability to manage their own chaotic lives and make everyone else's lives hell.

The libertarian conceit of the middle class, is that everyone else is just as clever, motivated, drug-free and mentally healthy as them, and that the useless are somehow "morally inferior" to their betters. Worse, this conceit goes as far as blaming the useless amongst us, saying they deserve to be dead or rot in jail.

One day, we'll have something between jails (for rehabilitation of criminals) and open society, where people who are too stupid and useless to manage their own chaotic lives can live reasonably well under a highly controlled environment where they can be made to do something useful with their lives and have structure imposed upon them until they can prove that they can properly exercise the rights and responsibilites of citizenship. This may include being compelled to train and work (for pay), and also involve drug rehab, and losing their automatic right to have children.

The "trash" (as people who say) who spawn kids who join gangs belong in sheltered facilities, not on the street.

Ironic, because this arose from police tactics

[HighOrbit]

One of the lessons learned by the military in Iraq was that investigation and interrogation sometimes trumps raw muscle. So the intelligence teams started studying police procedures and thinking like police investigators to establish who was linked to who (in Iraq its usually cousins/tribesmen or people from the same village). They also studied how the French conducted the Battle of Algiers (which the French won despite losing the overall war in Algeria). The French had discovered that figuring out who specifically was running an operation and kicking down his one door was far more effective than randomly kicking down 100 doors . So the French started extensively interrogating (unfortunately with torture) prisoners to figure out who were members of different cells. The French started keeping books of rap-sheets, family trees, organization charts, and mug shots of all suspected insurgents in the city. Once they had a good grasp on a cell's organization, then they merely had to pick them up. The US military learned some of these lessons. For example, if they found finger prints on IED fragments, and the prints matched a guy from the town of Ramadi, then the first place to look for him would be the local house of his cousin who was also originally from Ramadi.

Re:Ironic, because this arose from police tactics

[AHuxley]

The international press and French press seemed to know what was been done with post ww2 French torture.
Like the Germans in ww2 they had a good file system and small numbers of experts per region.
The French used torture as it was what had worked for the Germans in occupied Europe - it bought the French political system time to 'think'.
Night raids and black sites work short term but the number of pick ups that become life changing start to add up.
The http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_Algiers movie and the Pentagon screening was interesting too.

typical smokescreen

[rubycodez]

I quoted a completely true fact as example, could have used other groups but only wished to point out that not being lazy has lasting benefits. but this bothers you and you spout off with "positive stereotypes are harmful"........no, a generally true (in the statistical sense) statement is not a stereotype, it is useful information about reality and might be instructional on how to live life.

you then make irrelevant statement about gangs and lowlifes being of every extraction. the point is that some subcultures have an abundance of them, much more than average percent of them in population. we have subcultures that value laziness, sponging off others, having no regard for fellow man or property, and that in fact commit crimes mostly against others in the same subculture.

Gang members ARE domestic terrorists...

[gestalt_n_pepper]

whose targets are citizens rather than government personnel or buildings. Frankly, this is one case where I'd say the use of this technology is appropriate and overdue.

Re:Gang members ARE domestic terrorists...

[gl4ss]

please don't confuse organized crime with politically motivated terrorism. two entirely different beasts, even if both use terror as a tool.

partially this is why the war on terror is failing, many of the groups targeted are in fact just organized crime cartels, local mafiosos gathering protection money as a racket - they don't want straight cops around but it's not because they actually hate america.

Re:it could be stopped

[VortexCortex]

when gang members are identified, eliminate them. Simple and fully effective. let their worthless parents cry about how they were turning their life around blah blah blah.

I don't think you fully understand the problems of gangs. In some neighborhoods, young kids almost have to join a gang in order not to become a victim. It is a matter of becoming a predator vs prey, and those youngsters don't always have the world view that adults have to distinguish right from wrong in that situation, and the potential impact on their future. Equally effective and simple would be to isolate these folks by taking them out of that situation. Move them to some flyover state in the middle of nowhere, where they can be drilled in a youth detention center. Not as a punishment, but as a form of education. While it would be unfair towards the parents who were unable to raise their kids, I'm sure they would prefer to have the state take care of them, rather than execute them. Not to mention the cost of the death penalty, or difficulties in proving gang affiliation.

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK ARE YOU THINKING?!

You mother fucking McCarthyist. Gods damn. Do I have to spell this shit out for you?!

Are you now, or have you ever been affiliated with a gang?

Son of a fucking bitch. You dumb fools are advocating a secret police style intelligence network be used to arrest anyone for being an ASSOCIATE of someone that NO ONE ADMITS TO KNOWING. That's EVEN FUCKING WORSE. You trust the fucking police?! SERIOUSLY? Those same corrupt assholes who I have on video towing my car while not improperly parked, fucking up, dropping it on its side, totaling it then lying in court saying it was side swiped when they got there, and the judge disallowing the surveillance video? The same governments that goes after whistle blowers with the full force of their armed forces, even destroying relations with other countries for ONE MAN.

YOU FOOLS are ACTUALLY saying that we should let these power hungry elitist mother fuckers create a HUGE internment camp?!?!

Proof once again, that low UIDs don't mean shit. Hurry up and die, you're SERIOUSLY hindering the herd!

Pigeonholing people?

[Camael]

when gang members are identified, eliminate them

But what if the identification was wrong?

Just look at how the profiling is done. From TFA:-

One of the features of Orca is an algorithm – a set of rules – that assigns each member of the network a probability of belonging to a particular gang. If an individual admits to this, the assignment can be awarded 100% probability. But if he will not, then any known associations he has with other individuals can be used to calculate a probable “degree of membership”.

We have no idea what rules are applied, or the weight given to them. The could take into consideration, for example, factors like skin color, race, language spoken, location of birth, marital status, family pedigree etc. I'm certain that the police are already taking some of these factors into consideration in deciding who to pay special attention to. The difference is that this technology is impersonal and can be misused to provide a veneer of legitimacy to otherwise abusive acts , e.g. "I'm shaking him down because the program says he is a gang member".

My point is that people who are born into a gang dominated environment already are severely disadvantaged, and it sits ill that someone who may be innocent may be subjected to undeserved police action/scrutiny simply because he is marked as a criminal by some program.

Re:Pigeonholing people?

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

As our testing in Afghanistan and Pakistan has demonstrated, you can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs; but you can break a fuckton of eggs without making an omelette...

Re:it could be stopped

[fustakrakich]

A gang is nothing less than a microcosm of your average sovereign state. The sole difference amongst them all is the scale.

I know this one!

[Okian Warrior]

give them jobs, families and a hope for the future instead of absolute poverty and a 'nothing to lose' life style.

Wow, how exactly do you do this? It's an example of something easy to say, but hard if not impossible to implement.

Ooh... ooh... I know this one! Teacher, pick me!!!

Start by increasing business opportunities in this country. Businesses start from innovation on infrastructure, so start by improving these.

A national internet and phone service that's fast and cheap. This is trivial to accomplish, just fix the maximum price that the telcos/providers can charge for usage and mandate that there can be no other restrictions. If you choose the price right, the telcos would make the same amount of money under the new rule... but now to make more profit they have to compete for coverage and price. (No early termination fees, no access fees, no roaming charges, choose provider at the time of phone call.)

National health care. Healthy people are happier and less likely to revolt, are less likely to turn to crime, are less likely to be bankrupt from health care bills. This is easy to implement - just copy one of the existing better systems, such as Canada or UK.

Repeal drug laws, get rid of the DEA, put 1/10 the money into education and treatment. (Education and treatment are more effective anyway.) Reduce our prison population by pardoning and/or paroling all non-violent drug offenders. Retroactively downgrade their offense to non-felony, so that they can get jobs. Do this in a graduated way, so as not to raise unemployment.

Revamp patent and copyright law so that creators can profit from and protect their works by starting businesses.

Free schooling through advanced degree for citizens (like Finland). An educated population is more likely to be innovative and take advantage of opportunities. Get rid of H1B visas altogether.

Revamp the tax code so that all businesses pay the same proportional tax with no exceptions. When big corps such as GE pay no taxes it's harder for people to start new businesses. Remove the personal income tax altogether and get revenue from businesses and economic growth (by printing more money, to keep inflation down). Keep inflation a close to zero as possible, so that people can save for big purchases instead of going into debt.

I could go on, but you get the picture. Government has to stop coddling special interests and start benefiting the general population, or else deal with an angry, armed revolt.

Re:it could be stopped

[anagama]

Add to that that the whole problem with gangs will be never ending so long as there is this prohibition on some drugs. Take out the profit and most gangs would dissipate. Worked for Portugal.

http://vimeo.com/32110912

Legalization eliminates the need to go full on KGB, Stasi, Pol Pot, or what have you, and besides, bringing in military solutions will not solve anything. It will just exacerbate the arms race and make the violence worse. Plus, every encroachment on civil liberties we're experiencing, has its roots in the drug war. Prohibition is destroying America.

Re:it could be stopped

[mjwx]

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK ARE YOU THINKING?!

You mother fucking McCarthyist. Gods damn. Do I have to spell this shit out for you?!

I 100% agree with you. But the GP did unwittingly point out that a lot of kids join gangs to prevent themselves from being victims of gangs.

But to say the rest of his post was absolutely retarded is an insult to every genuine window licker throughout the entire world.

All detention centres will do is take them out of one gang and put them into another gang in another place (it would probably make them worse, teach them discipline, motivation and an absolute hatred of authority... That always works right, guys, right?).

If you want to stop gang violence then you need to look at why kids are joining gangs and target the causes, not simply target them once they've joined... Hey kind of like dealing with terrorists.

If this "suceeds"...

[runeghost]

Will it make our cites as safe and peaceful and Afghanistan and Iraq? Will it be as successful here at creating desired outcomes as it was there?

Re:it could be stopped

[DamnStupidElf]

Those same corrupt assholes who I have on video towing my car while not improperly parked, fucking up, dropping it on its side, totaling it then lying in court saying it was side swiped when they got there, and the judge disallowing the surveillance video?

Pics or it didn't happen.

Seriously, stick that video on youtube and get yourself a nice civil lawsuit going when it goes viral.