Very comparable in the Netherlands, fortunately for now still limited to the larger cities but it is also slowly spreading out from there. Most of this is drug related.
Perhaps, but we need to be careful what conclusions (and reactions) we take from that.
People from all walks of life make regular usage of recreational intoxicants, often perfectly legally. Huge, legitimate global industries are dedicated to it. If that association were the primary basis upon which to categorise as a gang, or as morally corrupt, then the Champagne region of France, and the Coca-Cola Corp (associate and maker of many an alcoholic beverage, among their giant stable of products), would be among the world's biggest "gangs". And yes, in some ways they are! but that's another matter.
So, despite the common 'drug' associations of gangs, the unique commonalities which define criminal gangs lie elsewhere, and thus a primary focus upon intoxicants, when attempting to address gang criminality - such as the longterm ineffective War-on-Drugs rhetoric - is doomed to failure, as the proof of reality shows.
Magically take away all drugs and alcohol overnight, and we'd still have a disenfranchised minority social underbelly, realising their discontent in all-new and equally potentially harmful ways.
Yes, that whole war-on-drugs thing was a giant mistake.
And agreed that there is a problem - now - but resolving that will be costly and time consuming and will require a lot of goodwill from all of the parties involved. I've worked in the mailroom of a bank, which was probably close to 70% minorities and it was awesome: I've never seen so much camaraderie anywhere else that I've worked. Turkish neighbors are great people, the young and coming Dutch kids living one door down not so much (vandalizing the property and causing a lot of trouble). It all depends and they're all individuals, as long as people paint whole groups with a single brush it can't ever work.
But free up enough money for education and you just might turn this around. Interesting tidbit: racism is everywhere I've lived, but it all depends on where on the color chart you are offset towards the 'white' end if you have more money and towards the left if you are poorer. It's pretty wild to see how universal this is, I've observed it pretty much everywhere that I've lived, even in places where people of color where the majority. They did the exact same thing. Baffling.
Usage is not the driver. It's the prosecution of drug production and distribution. Netherlands "allow" (yes, it's more complicated, but close enough) drug use, but producing drugs is forbidden. So, who supplies the drugs that people are allowed to consume? Gangs. Sweden has taken the war on drugs and dialed it up to 11, with the result that it has turned into a real war. And each time they dial it up even more you get another round of escalations.
Perhaps, but we need to be careful what conclusions (and reactions) we take from that.
People from all walks of life make regular usage of recreational intoxicants, often perfectly legally. Huge, legitimate global industries are dedicated to it. If that association were the primary basis upon which to categorise as a gang, or as morally corrupt, then the Champagne region of France, and the Coca-Cola Corp (associate and maker of many an alcoholic beverage, among their giant stable of products), would be among the world's biggest "gangs". And yes, in some ways they are! but that's another matter.
So, despite the common 'drug' associations of gangs, the unique commonalities which define criminal gangs lie elsewhere, and thus a primary focus upon intoxicants, when attempting to address gang criminality - such as the longterm ineffective War-on-Drugs rhetoric - is doomed to failure, as the proof of reality shows.
Magically take away all drugs and alcohol overnight, and we'd still have a disenfranchised minority social underbelly, realising their discontent in all-new and equally potentially harmful ways.