Hacker News Reader

After reading the article, I still do not know what is actually meant by "legalizing" gangs. Exactly in which way was the mere existence of a gang, compared to maybe the crimes it did perform, illegal before in Ecuador?

The only specifics the article gets into sound more like increased money for streetworkers.

Does anybody have any details on the situation there?

View on HN

I would assume it was a paragraph about membership itself being prosecuted. Parts of the US seem to have a similar concept https://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/gang-affiliat...

>Gang Participation: Some states, such as Georgia and Texas, make it unlawful for anyone to form, associate with, or profit from a street gang.

Germany has such a thing with membership in a criminal or terrorist organization in §129 stgb. Being part of such an organization is in itself a crime. So individual members dont have to commit any crimes them self to be prosecuted. How ever I only know of the paragraph being used against terrorists, as well as outlawed political associations.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com