Have you ever worn a colored shirt? Gotten a tattoo? Stood on a corner with two or more friends? Posted a photo to social media? If so, it may be easier than you think to get labeled as a "gang member" in New Jersey and dozens of other states, a report says.
Across the country, gang enhancement laws are allowing police and prosecutors to add years to a person's prison sentence. These laws can potentially treat how someone looks, who they know and where they come from as "proof" of gang affiliation.
The result? A shadowy system of punishment built on allegations – not evidence, advocates charge.
Labeled for Life, a national campaign led by Campaign Zero, a project of nonprofit organization, WeTheProtesters, recently released a scorecard for every state, including New Jersey. The scorecards rate each state on how harsh their gang enhancement laws are. View the full map and learn about its methodology here.
New Jersey's score rated 14 out of 17, placing it on the higher end of the spectrum alongside states like Mississippi, Tennessee, Virginia, Utah, Nevada, Minnesota and Illinois.
Some highlights for New Jersey include:
Nationwide, 28 states currently build their gang definitions around a "common name, identifying sign or symbol," and rely on the same familiar markers: colors, tattoos, graffiti, handshakes, associations and online activity. It has become the rule – not the exception, advocates say.
But when the criteria for guilt are subjective, everything comes down to who applies them. And overwhelmingly, that's a police officer.
"There is no accepted empirical definition of gang membership that any of these actors can apply consistently," advocates said. "So the same clothing, the same corner, the same social media post can mean one thing to one officer and something else entirely to another. That is not a standard. It's an assumption with an enhanced prison sentence attached."
Alleged gang affiliation is also being used to identify people for deportations – meaning that a subjective decision by a local law enforcement officer can be used to remove someone from the country entirely, advocates said.
"No one should face a lifetime of consequences because of a label," they insisted.
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