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Chicago Anti Gang Loitering Laws Essay

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Doing nothing is illegal: Milwaukee Anti-gang Loitering laws
What does a gang member look like? We as a class were asked that question the first day of school to highlight our group naivetés of what a gang member is. The class spouted of stereotypes of what the media has told us was the appearances of gang members, the clothes, tattoos, the walk, the ethnicity. We were not born knowing these stereotypes; we were taught by society that we should be careful of people who have these certain traits, like they were predators of our society. Society as a whole paints people whom they fear in a negative light, people generalize appearances as a common denominator of a person’s character. People who wear certain colors, wear baggy clothes, or Nike Cortez, for example, are generalized by society because it does not matter the socioeconomic or culture that inspires their expression, it is the fact that these supposed gang members appearance has a connection to gangs and thus anyone who wears it is a gang member. That is the issue with anti-gang loitering laws, these ordinances breeds ignorance of communities, and generalizes individuals in it. These laws spout convictions, not by the crimes they commit, but the crimes that they might commit in the future. Loitering laws have been deemed controversial in the past, as they are criticized for their racial profiling, and their targeting of very specific individuals in a community. Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 2007 passed a loitering law that
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