Gangs breed in places where basic needs aren't being met. Poverty and economic despair drive people both to join gangs and to buy from them. A big part of this

Gangs breed in places where basic needs aren't being met. Poverty and economic despair drive people both to join gangs and to buy from them. A big part of this movement involves re-allocating the enormous budgets that many of these police departments have, towards social services like affordable housing, education, and rehabilitation programs. In theory, those programs could treat the problem at the source. People in middle-class neighborhoods refrain from stealing and shooting people not because they have superior moral fiber, but because their needs are met, and therefore crime isn't in their best interest.