U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced today in Denver the release of $30 million in grants to combat gang and gun violence across the nation.
Gonzales, the opening speaker at the Fourth Annual Project Safe Neighborhoods Conference, told a group of 1,300 that prevention is a key to battling gangs.
“First, we must address the personal, family and community factors that cause young people to choose gangs over more productive alternatives,” Gonzales said. “The more success we have in prevention, the fewer people we’ll have to prosecute for violent activity down the road.”
Federal, state and local prosecutors and law officers together with community leaders and support groups are meeting here as members of Project Safe Neighborhoods, an anti-crime initiative first announced by President Bush in 2001.
Gonzales told the audience at the Colorado Convention Center that their efforts are having a positive affect.
In 2004, there were about 115,000 fewer victims of non-fatal violent crimes than the year before, Gonzales said, and about 200,000 fewer than in 2001.
“That’s enough people to fill nearby Coors Field four times over,” he said.
Violent crime nationwide is at its lowest level since 1973, according to Justice Department statistics.
In 2005, the Justice Department prosecuted a record number of defendants – 13,062 – for federal gun crimes, a 62 percent increase from 2000.
President Bush’s proposed budget for 2007 requests $395 million for PSN programs.
Members of the group will meet in Denver through Thursday and attend meetings and workshops designed to strengthen their efforts in combating gang and gun violence.
Staff writer Kieran Nicholson can be reached at 303-820-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
