Zero tolerance for gang activity

When Kalispell police discovered a group of boys calling themselves the 406 Crips, officers acted vigorously.

The boys now deny that they were designing a home-grown Flathead Valley gang, but the damage they caused was real. Four were arrested after they allegedly spray-painted their logo on businesses, churches and houses.

One of the boys has a broken arm he says he received during an initiation rite for the gang, Garner said. They wore blue bandanas to designate their affiliation with Crips, as members of the gang do nationwide.

The boys are ages 14-17.

It would be easy to write off their antics as kids looking for some identity and solidarity with others in a kind of adolescent phase.

Police Chief Frank Garner didn't see it that way.

"They're playing big-boy games. They're in for big-boy consequences," he said.

The consequences begin with restitution for the property they damaged.

Since their names and crimes were made public, two of the boys have renounced their activities. Good for them. We hope they get their lives in order, but whether there was a real gang or not, the results were the same - vandalism and fear.

We don't think Garner overreacted in shutting down the problem before it grew. As he points out, it is easier to stop a fledgling gang than to eradicate it once it takes hold.

"We aren't going to dismiss it as kids being kids," he said.

We're glad he didn't.

Fifty states, with 50 separate registries of sexual and violent offenders.

That's where we've been until now.

The time came long ago for a comprehensive, nationwide sex offender registry. Otherwise, the loophole for each potential predator to escape detection is as close as the nearest state border.

Currently, the U.S. Department of Justice hosts a web site with the individual registries of 24 states. That's at www.nsopr.gov.

But even that's only helpful if you know which state your new neighbor comes from. It's woefully inadequate for the way the real world works.

The Flathead Valley has its share of sex offenders from across the country. When they leave other states, in theory they're expected to contact a law-enforcement agency there and file their destination. They don't always do that and even if they do, not all states forward the information along with the prisoner. It's easy for an offender to skip registering at his new address and essentially vanish from the system.

A national registry would mean the information is as mobile as the offender. You could look him up and find out if he has a record anywhere in the country.

Our congressmen and senators need to know that we expect them to pull together a database that is navigable and useful. It can't be that hard.