CRIME-FIGHTING PLAN REVIVED TO TAKE AIM AT GUNS, GANGS

WASHINGTON U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Thursday he is reviving a Bush-era crime-fighting strategy that emphasizes aggressive prosecution of gun and gang crimes.

Similar efforts fizzled in recent years due to funding cuts and concerns that they focused too heavily on common street criminals as opposed to major players.

But Justice Department officials insist they are drawing from lessons learned since Project Safe Neighborhoods was initially launched in 2001.

Part of the program’s focus is on sending certain gun crimes to federal court, where they carry longer sentences in faraway prisons. The department will station 40 additional federal prosecutors in districts that are struggling with spikes in crime.

It’s the latest move by the Trump administration as it enacts its tough-on-crime agenda and a cornerstone of Sessions’ promised crackdown on violence.

“We cannot afford to be complacent in the face of violence that threatens too many of our communities,” Sessions wrote in a memo to the nation’s federal prosecutors, lamenting recently released federal data showing violent crime rose in 2016 for the second straight year.

The Justice Department has asked Congress for US$70 million for the effort, but officials say it could be implemented without the money.