VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — In an effort to combat gangs and gang violence, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced on Wednesday that he signed a new executive order.
“Executive Order 41 takes all of these efforts to combat gangs and gang violence to a whole new level,” stated Youngkin. “It establishes the Governor’s Task Force for gang intelligence so that we can collaborate on investigations and prosecution. It establishes state police as the central repository for all gang data and requires everyone to report it, so we know what’s going on across the state.”
The governors office says Commonwealth law enforcement agencies are currently combating over 650 identified criminal street gangs and criminal organizations. According to officials the executive order will establish a centralized repository for gang-related data, create a gang intelligence task force, bolster anti-gang awareness and youth prevention strategies, and deter criminal gang activity through criminal justice personnel training, enhanced prosecution and investigations.
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“We know that we’ve had an 800% increase in youth participation in gangs over the past few years, so the gangs are recruiting even younger members.”
This comes about two years after the initiative called Operation Ceasefire was launched.
“While we’ve made incredible strides in crime reduction through our Operation Bold Blue Line, Operation Free Virginia, and Operation Ceasefire, we are focused on gang activity prevention because it is a significant contributor to criminal activity across the Commonwealth.”
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Azeem Majeed, of Norfolk, hopes officials will remember to recruit people like him to help deter youth from a life of crime. Majeed says he was never part of a gang, but explained that he spent more than 25 years in jail starting when he was 17. He says he’s been out for about three years and is committed to helping at-risk youth.
“You need people like me who have lived those types of lifestyles, right, and overcome it and came out on the other side successful… in order to curb this violence. We are the cure,” stated Majeed. “They can resonate with them in a way that other people can’t.”
For more on Executive Order 41, click here.
