The State : Report Urges War on Gangs

A state task force report said that the California National Guard should join the fight against drug-selling gangs, and that unused military bases should be turned into temporary prisons. The report by the Task Force on Drugs and Gangs also asked for new laws to allow large-scale drug dealers 16 and 17 years old to be tried and punished as adults. It said that people convicted of assault with an automatic weapon should be sentenced to life in prison. “The house is on fire,” said former Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Robert H. Philibosian, who presented the task force’s report in Sacramento. “Today’s gangs are urban terrorists.” The task force was organized by the state Council on Criminal Justice.