2023 - 24 New Rome Gang Crackdown (Valentine)

The **2023 - 24 New Rome Gang Crackdown** is an ongoing crackdown taking place in New Rome issued by governor Andrew Westover. It first began on September 1, 2023, and it is the largest crackdown of gangs in the history of both New Rome and Valentine, and one of the largest crackdowns of any WOU state within the entire Western Outer Union. The crackdown introduced a stringent lockdown and issued heavy punishments towards all citizens within the province who dared to leave their house for any reason other than essential travel.

## History and Background

### Phase 1

On September 1, 2023, Westover declared a state of emergency due to a rise in gang activity and gun violence throughout the province, and to a greater extent, inside the country's capital and other urban cities and anywhere gangs are known to hide and have control of. Almost all legal rights including the right to know of one's charges, the right to speak to an attorney or a judge, the right to a fair trial or speedy trial, and the right to contact family have been completely restricted and all of those caught are banned from having a lawyer or any legal counseling. The chance of release has also been revoked indefinitely during the entire crackdown.

Six days later on September 7, 2023, the state of emergency was upgraded to martial law to increase effectiveness of the crackdown. As a result, all of New Rome's borders have been completely closed off and no one is allowed to enter or leave the province until further notice. All citizens were ordered to stay in their homes and anyone who leaves the house for any reason will be detained and questioned by the province's national guard troops. Only essential workers are allowed to leave their homes, but they can only go out to go to their place of work and then they must go back home afterwards. All non-essential persons who leave their homes were to be arrested indefinitely with no legal rights or chance of release until further notice. On that date mentioned, 12,000 criminals were apprehended.

Additionally, Westover ordered all judges and lawyers to suspend their work and the legal attorneys of gang members have also been arrested to prevent them from getting them out of prison and schools, as well as all non-essential jobs have been shifted to virtual during the crackdown. Rights groups have criticized the crackdown as a shift towards authoritarianism, but Westover dismissed these claims and have accused the groups of trying to defend the gangs. The province also cut off internet access almost completely throughout the entire province, with only virtual learning resources and essential businesses and healthcare sites still being allowed to operate. This measure made it more difficult for criminals to alert each other of police officers, but still allowed citizens to work online (though only essential businesses were allowed to operate) and allowed kids to continue their education.

On September 23, 2023, the province celebrated a new milestone, with an estimated 30,000 more gang members and other cartels arrested, along with more than 100 crime bosses, while millions of dollars' worth of drugs were seized and destroyed. This brings the total of around 42,100 total apprehensions by New Rome police, as well as New Rome Border Enforcement agents, provincial crime stoppers, military police officers, narcotics officers, and various detectives and other law enforcement branches. More than tens of thousands of firearms were also seized as well.

### Phase 2

On December 14, 2023, the province announced that a total of 560,000 gang members and 1,400 crime bosses were captured and are now in prison without trial. At the same time, the province's super prison, which began construction just after the start of the crackdown, is nearing completion and is expected to be open in May of 2024. Additionally, millions of dollars' worth of drugs were seized and destroyed, alongside illegal firearms. After this milestone, the province moved from phase one to phase two. During the second phase, schools have been allowed to reopen again and businesses have been allowed to reopen, but with strict restrictions, and the lockdown still remains, though citizens now have more legal reasons to leave their houses. However, a strict curfew has been imposed and bans all persons from leaving their houses for any reason other than to seek healthcare, and it allows for 20 years in prison for anyone breaching this order for first offense. The internet in the province is also still mostly blocked, but less restrictive than in phase one. Most of the gang members' lawyers have also been arrested and captured as well, alongside all lawyers and legal attorneys of crime bosses and drug cartels.

Martial law still remains in place and most of the legal rights were still restricted, and judges and lawyers were still prohibited from doing any of their work during the crackdown. Civil magistrates however have been allowed to work again but with strict restrictions.

On December 22, 2023, the New Rome National Guard announced that approximately 16,000 more gang members, drug cartels, and traffickers, as well as approximately 300 more crime bosses have been captured. Additionally, the government shut down thousands of organized crime syndicates and more than tens of thousands of gangs. At the same time, the national guard also announced that at least 65% of all of the violent criminals throughout the province (gangs, traffickers, and cartels) have been captured. West Melbourne, an urbanized city on the western coast, has declared that around 70% of all violent criminals targeted in the crackdown have been captured, and the city's mayor stated that he no longer hears gunshots anymore and the town is much safer. New Venice, the province's capital, also saw a significant drop in violent crime and gang activity by almost 80%. However, the governor still refused to lift marital law despite the statistics, stating that gangs are still around in the province and need to be captured for the safety of the public.

On the same day, Andrew Westover ordered schools to teach all students the consequences that they will face if they join gangs and do crime and ordered all counties and independent municipalities to force kids into programs to keep them from doing crime.

### Phase 3

On December 23, 2023, Westover announced that the state would transition to phase three in time for Christmas Eve due to the drop in crime. New Rome's last crime boss was confirmed to be captured by the New Rome National Guard, and around 3,000 gang members were captured, alongside 2,500 drug traffickers and cartels. During the third and final phase, martial law will be removed and the strict curfew will be lifted permanently. However, the borders still remained closed for entry and exit to ensure that all of the gangs had been captured.

### Normalcy

A total of 602,352 criminals have been caught, which would make this almost all criminals captured. As such, the province ended martial law and went back to normalcy, while everyone captured is set to be transferred to the new super prison as soon as it opens in May of 2024. However, the crackdown still continues and the national guard will continue to patrol the streets until the super prison opens.

## Outside New Rome

As New Rome conducted a harsh crackdown against organized crime through martial law, Eastern Valentine and Central Valentine City, the latter being the capital of the country, also announced their intentions to follow suit, with Eastern Valentine starting their crackdown on December 18, 2023, due to continued violence and gangs in major cities, and so far, 600 have been arrested there. Central Valentine City began its crackdown on the following day and has since closed its borders completely in order to allow the CVCPD to capture and imprison cartels and gang members, as well as organized crime figures.

Both of them are set to follow the same plan that New Rome has used by going through different phases of martial law by cutting off internet access (except for essential businesses and other places such as public hospitals, schools and universities) and implementing harsh curfews. Eastern Valentine also plans to build a mega prison similar to the one being built in New Rome to house their cartels, while Central Valentine City will also be building their own.

### Eastern Valentine

As of December 26, 2023, Eastern Valentine implemented martial law throughout the entire province and the province completely closed all of its borders and has banned everyone from leaving or entering. Unlike New Rome however, Eastern Valentine uses a counting system to track exactly how many have been arrested. Between the first days from December 26, 2023 to December 31, 2023, 17,152 persons had been arrested, including gang cartels, gang members, and traffickers, as well as almost all of their legal attorneys. Legal rights such as the right to know of your charges, the right to an attorney, the right to a fair trial, the right to a speedy trial, the right to protest, the right to appeal, the right to legal counselling, etc., have all been almost completely restricted during the crackdown.

### Central Valentine City

Central Valentine City also followed suit on January 1, 2024 and have also implemented a regionwide curfew. Because Central Valentine City is not a province and therefore lacks a national guard, the city's SWAT team is used instead to detain anyone entering or leaving the city. 3,056 persons have been arrested since.