By James King in Crime BlotterFri., Dec. 11 2009 @ 2:37PM
Department of Public Safety - Phoenix, AZ
In the past, criminal street gangs have used names that strike fear in the hearts of their rivals. The Bloods, the Crips, the Jets, the Sharks -- all have an intimidating connotation.
As for Scottsdale's latest group of thugs -- busted today as part of the Department of Public Safety's "Operation Triple Threat"-- not so much.
The "Fluffy Bunny Crew" is one of three criminal street gangs busted as part of the DPS' latest gangster roundup, but don't let the wimpy name fool you -- according to DPS officials, these are some pretty bad dudes.
DPS spokesman Steve Harrison tells New Times the gang is called the "Fluffy Bunnies" so that after they beat the crap out of somebody and that person has to tell their friends they got their asses kicked by a couple of "fluffy bunnies."
Gang assaults and home invasions aside -- at least these guys have a sense of humor.
The "Fluffy Bunnies" were part of a larger organization made up of what DPS officials are calling "party crews" coming out of Valley high schools.
Harrison says three "party crews," which came out of Sandra Day O'Connor, Cactus Shadow, and North Canyon high schools, progressed from three groups of party-crashers into a single, organized street-gang -- responsible for drug-dealing, home invasions, and robbery.
Harrison says the three "party crews" began as rivals but came together under the auspices of white supremacy. He says the gang isn't technically considered a white-supremacist organization but that white supremest ideals are what brought the three crews together.
DPS has been watching the gang for more than a year and has seen it go from committing smaller crimes, like serving booze to minors, to more serious offenses, like armed-robbery, kidnapping, and countless assaults.
Harrison says gang members are involved in dealing drugs and have been busted with guns, including an assault rifle and a sawed-off shotgun.
Over the past two days, DPS officers, in collaboration with several other law-enforcement agencies, have taken 22 gang members into custody and have warrants for three additional suspects.
Search warrants have uncovered the recovery of stolen property, 1,017 tablets of Soma, 200 tablets of Xanax, 90 tablets of Valium, and 70 Neo-Pircodan, as well as a collection of weapons and body armor.
Along with the "Fluffy Bunnies," members of the "Dirty White Boyz" were also busted in the sweep.
With pussy names like these, they might as well start a boy band.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Sunday, December 6, 2009
GANGS STAKING OUT NEW TURF ON THE WEB
Los Angeles Daily News
Published: Sunday, December 6, 2009 12:22 AM EST
BY TONY CASTRO,
For a while now, the Barrio Van Nuys street gang has been claiming a version of the New York Yankees' interlocked NY logo as its own.
By trimming the tail off the `Y,' the famous Major League Baseball trademark is turned into an interwoven VN, standing for Van Nuys. The gang is touting its Yankee-esque symbol on social networking Web sites and YouTube.
It's just one example of what law enforcement says is an increasing trend among gangs to use cyberspace to broaden their appeal, boast of illegal exploits, pose threats and recruit new members.
And more than ever, prosecutors are scouring sites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter for potential evidence in gang-related criminal cases.
``Five years ago we would find evidence in a gang case on the Internet and say, `Wow.' Well, there's no more `Wow' any more. Sadly, it's much more routine,'' said Bruce Riordan, director of anti-gang operations for the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office.
Cyberbanging, as authorities call it, can provide prosecutors with the proof they need in criminal cases to demonstrate affiliation in a street gang — something typically denied by defendants at trial.
``When the gang member has basically put his or her admission of gang membership up on the Internet, it can not only help prosecutors prove a case, it can also help us disprove a false defense,'' Riordan said.
George W. Knox, director of the National Gang Crime Research Center, said, however, that proving gang affiliation through cyberspace can be an arduous task. That is one reason he trains law enforcement officials how to cull intelligence on gang membership, rivalries, territory and lingo from their Internet posts.
``Gangs are going to use any form of communication they can, including Twitter, including Facebook,'' Knox said.
``We don't have any laws that prohibit them from doing this, and I don't think we're ready to bar them from the Internet.''
Attempts to contact numerous San Fernando Valley gang members for comment via e-mails through networking sites they use were unsuccessful.
Los Angeles gang expert Alex Alonso said gang members are using social networking sites more than before, but not necessarily to further criminal enterprises.
``From my extensive experience, they use the Internet like any other person does — they're just representing their neighborhoods and not trying to recruit,'' Alonso said.
But law enforcement officials and youth counselors insist that young people who visit social networking sites to download music and pictures glorifying criminal street gangs can unwittingly set themselves up to be recruited by gangs.
Impressionable young people, say authorities, can sometimes be influenced by the secret handshakes, clothing and slang of gang cultures that are commonly found on Web sites created by or heavily used by gangs.
And it's not just MySpace, Facebook and Twitter that parents should be concerned about, warned Douglas Semark, executive director of the Gang Alternatives Program, in San Pedro.
``You can go into special areas of AOL, special areas of Yahoo or special areas of some of the other large Internet presences where (gang members) will go in and they'll target specific topics and specific groups,'' Semark said. ``And kids may be in those areas with their parents' blessing because the parents think they're safe.
``And someone who is looking to victimize a specific individual will track them to those places and create false identities and false accounts.''
Two of the Valley's fiercest gangs — Barrio Van Nuys and Canoga Park Alabama — have also used social networking sites to get around court injunctions secured by the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office that forbid members from meeting in public, law enforcement officials say.
For many Valley gangs, My-Space — though pass0x233 in the era of Twitter and Facebook — appears to be the Internet social network of choice to glorify their lifestyle. Alonso said he believes gangs prefer My-Space because it is easier to search for and find other gang members on the site than others.
Representatives for MySpace and other popular social networking sites, which have come under criticism for their availability to gangs, did not return calls.
On MySpace, the 818 Gangland Musik Page offers free-streaming MP3s and song downloads that authorities say attract young Web surfers.
Among photographs posted by gang members are pictures of assault weapons and bulletproof vests over a white T-shirt with the impression ``Pacoima 818'' and of San Fernando gangbangers wearing San Francisco Giants garb with the famous interlocked SF logo of that team, which they have adopted as their own.
Representatives of the Giants and the Yankees said logos and trademark issues are handled by Major League Baseball Inc., and that they have alerted officials at the league.
A Yankees spokeswoman said that organization is especially concerned about seeing gang Web sites showing the lookalike NY trademark with guns sticking out of the logo.
Given the anonymous nature of the Internet, though, authorities say it is almost impossible to determine whether a posting has come from actual gang members or wannabes.
Law enforcement officials say gangs' use of the Internet has forced authorities to become skilled at reading between the lines of gang postings, looking for clues and hidden meanings of words and symbols.
``To understand any subculture — al-Qaida, cults, devil worshippers or gangs — you have to be able to know their own language and what they are saying,'' said Knox of the National Gang Crime Research Center. ``It takes time to study gang (Web) sites and blogs and pick up on subtle word choices, but that's important.
``These are holy words to these gangs.''
Copyright © 2009 - Indiana Gazette
Published: Sunday, December 6, 2009 12:22 AM EST
BY TONY CASTRO,
For a while now, the Barrio Van Nuys street gang has been claiming a version of the New York Yankees' interlocked NY logo as its own.
By trimming the tail off the `Y,' the famous Major League Baseball trademark is turned into an interwoven VN, standing for Van Nuys. The gang is touting its Yankee-esque symbol on social networking Web sites and YouTube.
It's just one example of what law enforcement says is an increasing trend among gangs to use cyberspace to broaden their appeal, boast of illegal exploits, pose threats and recruit new members.
And more than ever, prosecutors are scouring sites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter for potential evidence in gang-related criminal cases.
``Five years ago we would find evidence in a gang case on the Internet and say, `Wow.' Well, there's no more `Wow' any more. Sadly, it's much more routine,'' said Bruce Riordan, director of anti-gang operations for the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office.
Cyberbanging, as authorities call it, can provide prosecutors with the proof they need in criminal cases to demonstrate affiliation in a street gang — something typically denied by defendants at trial.
``When the gang member has basically put his or her admission of gang membership up on the Internet, it can not only help prosecutors prove a case, it can also help us disprove a false defense,'' Riordan said.
George W. Knox, director of the National Gang Crime Research Center, said, however, that proving gang affiliation through cyberspace can be an arduous task. That is one reason he trains law enforcement officials how to cull intelligence on gang membership, rivalries, territory and lingo from their Internet posts.
``Gangs are going to use any form of communication they can, including Twitter, including Facebook,'' Knox said.
``We don't have any laws that prohibit them from doing this, and I don't think we're ready to bar them from the Internet.''
Attempts to contact numerous San Fernando Valley gang members for comment via e-mails through networking sites they use were unsuccessful.
Los Angeles gang expert Alex Alonso said gang members are using social networking sites more than before, but not necessarily to further criminal enterprises.
``From my extensive experience, they use the Internet like any other person does — they're just representing their neighborhoods and not trying to recruit,'' Alonso said.
But law enforcement officials and youth counselors insist that young people who visit social networking sites to download music and pictures glorifying criminal street gangs can unwittingly set themselves up to be recruited by gangs.
Impressionable young people, say authorities, can sometimes be influenced by the secret handshakes, clothing and slang of gang cultures that are commonly found on Web sites created by or heavily used by gangs.
And it's not just MySpace, Facebook and Twitter that parents should be concerned about, warned Douglas Semark, executive director of the Gang Alternatives Program, in San Pedro.
``You can go into special areas of AOL, special areas of Yahoo or special areas of some of the other large Internet presences where (gang members) will go in and they'll target specific topics and specific groups,'' Semark said. ``And kids may be in those areas with their parents' blessing because the parents think they're safe.
``And someone who is looking to victimize a specific individual will track them to those places and create false identities and false accounts.''
Two of the Valley's fiercest gangs — Barrio Van Nuys and Canoga Park Alabama — have also used social networking sites to get around court injunctions secured by the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office that forbid members from meeting in public, law enforcement officials say.
For many Valley gangs, My-Space — though pass0x233 in the era of Twitter and Facebook — appears to be the Internet social network of choice to glorify their lifestyle. Alonso said he believes gangs prefer My-Space because it is easier to search for and find other gang members on the site than others.
Representatives for MySpace and other popular social networking sites, which have come under criticism for their availability to gangs, did not return calls.
On MySpace, the 818 Gangland Musik Page offers free-streaming MP3s and song downloads that authorities say attract young Web surfers.
Among photographs posted by gang members are pictures of assault weapons and bulletproof vests over a white T-shirt with the impression ``Pacoima 818'' and of San Fernando gangbangers wearing San Francisco Giants garb with the famous interlocked SF logo of that team, which they have adopted as their own.
Representatives of the Giants and the Yankees said logos and trademark issues are handled by Major League Baseball Inc., and that they have alerted officials at the league.
A Yankees spokeswoman said that organization is especially concerned about seeing gang Web sites showing the lookalike NY trademark with guns sticking out of the logo.
Given the anonymous nature of the Internet, though, authorities say it is almost impossible to determine whether a posting has come from actual gang members or wannabes.
Law enforcement officials say gangs' use of the Internet has forced authorities to become skilled at reading between the lines of gang postings, looking for clues and hidden meanings of words and symbols.
``To understand any subculture — al-Qaida, cults, devil worshippers or gangs — you have to be able to know their own language and what they are saying,'' said Knox of the National Gang Crime Research Center. ``It takes time to study gang (Web) sites and blogs and pick up on subtle word choices, but that's important.
``These are holy words to these gangs.''
Copyright © 2009 - Indiana Gazette
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Gang gun law: New statute mandates prison for gang members caught with loaded weapons
Chicago authorities praise law as key tool to battle street crime
By John Byrne
Tribune Reporter
December 4, 2009
Gang members caught with loaded guns would face mandatory prison time under a new law signed Thursday by Gov. Pat Quinn and hailed by Chicago authorities as a unique tool for fighting street crime.
The statute sets a minimum sentence of three years and a maximum of 10 years behind bars for unlawful use of a weapon by a gang member; under previous law such an offense was punishable by probation. Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez, who pushed for the measure, said she believes it is the first state law to include gang membership as an element of the criminal offense.
At a news conference with Quinn and Mayor Richard Daley, Alvarez predicted the law will withstand any legal challenges alleging it unfairly targets a particular group of people.
"There could be a challenge to anything. We can't predict that. But we feel confident," Alvarez said.
Daley likened the law to federal criminal statutes targeting organized crime.
Family members of slain Chicago police Officer Alejandro "Alex" Valadez were also on hand at the Englewood District police station. His June 1 death in a drive-by shooting was cited as giving the measure momentum.
Three people have been charged in Valadez's death. One is a gang member who was on probation for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon at the time of the shooting, the state's attorney's office said. He would have been in jail if the new law were in effect, the office said.
The statute defines a gang as any group of at least three people with a hierarchy that engages in a pattern of criminal activity. The law specifies it is not necessary for prosecutors to show the criminal group has a name, insignias, colors, territory or other symbolism commonly linked with street gangs in order to apply the law to members.
"If they're on a corner throwing up a gang sign or wearing the colors, it's pretty self-evident," Alvarez said. "There's a lot of self-admittance on the police reports themselves, tattoos, prior history. There's a lot that comes into play to support the fact that they are members of a gang."
Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the Illinois chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the group is not taking a position on the legislation because the definition of "gang" in the statute has withstood court challenges in DuPage County, where prosecutors used the same definition in several civil lawsuits against gangs there.
jebyrne@tribune.com
Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune
By John Byrne
Tribune Reporter
December 4, 2009
Gang members caught with loaded guns would face mandatory prison time under a new law signed Thursday by Gov. Pat Quinn and hailed by Chicago authorities as a unique tool for fighting street crime.
The statute sets a minimum sentence of three years and a maximum of 10 years behind bars for unlawful use of a weapon by a gang member; under previous law such an offense was punishable by probation. Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez, who pushed for the measure, said she believes it is the first state law to include gang membership as an element of the criminal offense.
At a news conference with Quinn and Mayor Richard Daley, Alvarez predicted the law will withstand any legal challenges alleging it unfairly targets a particular group of people.
"There could be a challenge to anything. We can't predict that. But we feel confident," Alvarez said.
Daley likened the law to federal criminal statutes targeting organized crime.
Family members of slain Chicago police Officer Alejandro "Alex" Valadez were also on hand at the Englewood District police station. His June 1 death in a drive-by shooting was cited as giving the measure momentum.
Three people have been charged in Valadez's death. One is a gang member who was on probation for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon at the time of the shooting, the state's attorney's office said. He would have been in jail if the new law were in effect, the office said.
The statute defines a gang as any group of at least three people with a hierarchy that engages in a pattern of criminal activity. The law specifies it is not necessary for prosecutors to show the criminal group has a name, insignias, colors, territory or other symbolism commonly linked with street gangs in order to apply the law to members.
"If they're on a corner throwing up a gang sign or wearing the colors, it's pretty self-evident," Alvarez said. "There's a lot of self-admittance on the police reports themselves, tattoos, prior history. There's a lot that comes into play to support the fact that they are members of a gang."
Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the Illinois chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the group is not taking a position on the legislation because the definition of "gang" in the statute has withstood court challenges in DuPage County, where prosecutors used the same definition in several civil lawsuits against gangs there.
jebyrne@tribune.com
Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Authorities: Minn. dad hit son over shirt color
Posted on Sat, Aug. 29, 2009
The Associated Press
A Minnesota man is accused of ripping off his 4-year-old son's shirt and hitting him for wearing a rival gang's color.
Thirty-year-old Kenny T. Jackson of St. Paul is charged with malicious punishment of a child.
According to the criminal complaint, a man who said he was Jackson's stepfather called 911 on Tuesday to say Jackson was yelling and throwing things in the house. The caller said Jackson was angry because he is reportedly a member of the Bloods gang and the boy's blue shirt was the color of a rival gang.
Police say they found the boy shirtless, scratched and crying.
The complaint says Jackson denied the allegations.
It was not clear Saturday if Jackson had an attorney, and a number for him could not be found.
Information from: Star Tribune, http://www.startribune.com
The Associated Press
A Minnesota man is accused of ripping off his 4-year-old son's shirt and hitting him for wearing a rival gang's color.
Thirty-year-old Kenny T. Jackson of St. Paul is charged with malicious punishment of a child.
According to the criminal complaint, a man who said he was Jackson's stepfather called 911 on Tuesday to say Jackson was yelling and throwing things in the house. The caller said Jackson was angry because he is reportedly a member of the Bloods gang and the boy's blue shirt was the color of a rival gang.
Police say they found the boy shirtless, scratched and crying.
The complaint says Jackson denied the allegations.
It was not clear Saturday if Jackson had an attorney, and a number for him could not be found.
Information from: Star Tribune, http://www.startribune.com
Friday, August 21, 2009
Bigger plans help some youngsters avoid local gangs
By Angela Mack,
Staff Writer
Star News Online
Wilmington, NC
Darius Green used to dream about joining a gang.
Mesmerized by music videos glamorizing robberies, drugs and violence, the then 8-year-old became fascinated with one day claiming membership himself.
The sight of drug dealers with wads of cash and flashy rides around his east Wilmington neighborhood only fueled the infatuation.
That was six years ago. Now 14, Darius has decided the gang lifestyle isn't for him.
"I don't see the point in them," Darius said. "If you not trying to get in trouble, why be in a gang?"
Overcoming the temptation, however, can be tough for many inner-city kids and those living in rural areas where trouble is often the most attractive after-school activity available. But whether they associate with gang members, know who they are or have yet to come in contact with one, most students agree that gangs are a path to destruction.
"I know a lot of people in gangs," Darius said, adding that Crips and Bloods are the most popular groups around Wilmington.
For Darius, becoming a gang member is not an option. He has five younger brothers and a younger sister who look up to him.
But more than a year ago, his mom enrolled him into the New Hanover County Juvenile Day Treatment Center after he began getting in trouble at school for skipping eighth-grade science and social studies classes at Noble Middle School.
Now the prospect of graduation, girls and sports motivate the 5-foot-8-inch teen to make it to high school this fall and stay enrolled. Daydreams of becoming a gang member have been replaced with goals of catching passes and making touchdowns in the NFL.
Fifteen-year-old Derek Reese, a freshman at North Brunswick High School in Leland, also has aspirations to become a star athlete.
The Brunswick County native wants to play in the NBA, and he practices by playing center and forward on the school's junior varsity basketball squad.
"I think I have a bright future ahead of me," Derek said. "Why mess that up?"
Still, he doesn't hesitate to say he knows gang members walk the halls of his school.
"You see the flags and the signs being thrown up," he said.
Bloods and Folks are the two gangs represented at North Brunswick by boys and girls, some of whom recently moved to the school from Wilmington's Northside, Eastside and the Bottom neighborhoods, Derek said. In science class, he said, discussions among students often turns to the weekend's gang member initiations.
"It sort of gets kids off topic," he said. "They're just talking out loud about it. Teachers listen to it. They try to figure out what's going on to tell other teachers."
Student leaders at Trask High School in Rocky Point don't believe the school has any true gang members.
"People say that there's gangs here, but I really don't see it," said senior Foster Lee, 17, president of the school's student advisory council.
Miranda Cloninger, 18, also a Trask senior, said she'd be "very stunned" to be approached by a gang member at school and probably wouldn't know how to respond.
"I don't know if it's for real," she said, adding that those claiming gang affiliation at the school are probably imitators. "I don't think they're real."
Jamell Culler, a 16-year-old sophomore at North Brunswick High School, believes his involvement in the school's Student Government Association and status as sophomore class president shield him from gang threats. But the knowledge that gangs are close does make him think.
"I'm just like, 'Why?'●" he says he often asks himself. "What's the benefit of being involved in gang activity?"
Jamell and Derek say they see no advantage to joining a gang.
"He would never be in a gang. He's mentally tough," Culler said of Derek as the two sat together at a table.
Derek pointed at Jamell with a boyish grin, saying confidently, "He could be the first black president."
Angela Mack: 343-2009
angie.mack@starnewsonline.com
Staff Writer
Star News Online
Wilmington, NC
Darius Green used to dream about joining a gang.
Mesmerized by music videos glamorizing robberies, drugs and violence, the then 8-year-old became fascinated with one day claiming membership himself.
The sight of drug dealers with wads of cash and flashy rides around his east Wilmington neighborhood only fueled the infatuation.
That was six years ago. Now 14, Darius has decided the gang lifestyle isn't for him.
"I don't see the point in them," Darius said. "If you not trying to get in trouble, why be in a gang?"
Overcoming the temptation, however, can be tough for many inner-city kids and those living in rural areas where trouble is often the most attractive after-school activity available. But whether they associate with gang members, know who they are or have yet to come in contact with one, most students agree that gangs are a path to destruction.
"I know a lot of people in gangs," Darius said, adding that Crips and Bloods are the most popular groups around Wilmington.
For Darius, becoming a gang member is not an option. He has five younger brothers and a younger sister who look up to him.
But more than a year ago, his mom enrolled him into the New Hanover County Juvenile Day Treatment Center after he began getting in trouble at school for skipping eighth-grade science and social studies classes at Noble Middle School.
Now the prospect of graduation, girls and sports motivate the 5-foot-8-inch teen to make it to high school this fall and stay enrolled. Daydreams of becoming a gang member have been replaced with goals of catching passes and making touchdowns in the NFL.
Fifteen-year-old Derek Reese, a freshman at North Brunswick High School in Leland, also has aspirations to become a star athlete.
The Brunswick County native wants to play in the NBA, and he practices by playing center and forward on the school's junior varsity basketball squad.
"I think I have a bright future ahead of me," Derek said. "Why mess that up?"
Still, he doesn't hesitate to say he knows gang members walk the halls of his school.
"You see the flags and the signs being thrown up," he said.
Bloods and Folks are the two gangs represented at North Brunswick by boys and girls, some of whom recently moved to the school from Wilmington's Northside, Eastside and the Bottom neighborhoods, Derek said. In science class, he said, discussions among students often turns to the weekend's gang member initiations.
"It sort of gets kids off topic," he said. "They're just talking out loud about it. Teachers listen to it. They try to figure out what's going on to tell other teachers."
Student leaders at Trask High School in Rocky Point don't believe the school has any true gang members.
"People say that there's gangs here, but I really don't see it," said senior Foster Lee, 17, president of the school's student advisory council.
Miranda Cloninger, 18, also a Trask senior, said she'd be "very stunned" to be approached by a gang member at school and probably wouldn't know how to respond.
"I don't know if it's for real," she said, adding that those claiming gang affiliation at the school are probably imitators. "I don't think they're real."
Jamell Culler, a 16-year-old sophomore at North Brunswick High School, believes his involvement in the school's Student Government Association and status as sophomore class president shield him from gang threats. But the knowledge that gangs are close does make him think.
"I'm just like, 'Why?'●" he says he often asks himself. "What's the benefit of being involved in gang activity?"
Jamell and Derek say they see no advantage to joining a gang.
"He would never be in a gang. He's mentally tough," Culler said of Derek as the two sat together at a table.
Derek pointed at Jamell with a boyish grin, saying confidently, "He could be the first black president."
Angela Mack: 343-2009
angie.mack@starnewsonline.com
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
L.A.'s 18th Street gang tied to illegal after-hours bars
The clubs, or casitas, in South L.A. are connected to homicides, drug trafficking and gambling, LAPD says.
By Richard Winton
July 25, 2009
A notorious Los Angeles street gang has expanded its criminal enterprises into the night life world, authorities said.
The Los Angeles Police Department and federal agents said the 18th Street gang operated underground after-hours bars, using them as bases for various criminal enterprises. Authorities said the locations have been connected to homicides, drug trafficking and gambling.
A series of recent busts at the bars resulted in the arrests of 34 gang members and associates on local and federal charges, authorities said Friday. The arrests are the culmination of an 18-month federal and local probe into so-called casitas concealed in South L.A. homes and closed stores.
"These were bars operating in the wee hours, putting the community at risk," said LAPD Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese. "These locations resulted in homicides, shootings and other violent crime."
At least three homicides in the 77th Street Division area of South L.A. have occurred in or around the casitas. LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith cited the case of 35-year-old Rosa Garcia, whose body was found in an alley in the 1500 block of Florence Avenue in January. Smith said investigators believe her death was connected to a nearby casita she frequented.
During raids on five bars since late June, investigators seized $142,000 that would have gone to the gang, authorities say. Albanese said it reflects the importance of these bars as sources for funding gang activity.
"These locations were running seven nights a week," he said.
One illegal after-hours club was just a few blocks from the 77th Street police station, next to a tattoo parlor, authorities say. Patrons entered through an unmarked door and the operator had deliberately spray-painted the wrong address outside, authorities said.
Investigators say taxicab drivers and others in the know would direct patrons or deliver customers to the doors.
Investigators suspect that illegal after-hours bars are popping up all over the L.A. region as gangs look for new ways to make money. Gang members were recently caught running an illegal bar in Salt Lake City.
According to authorities, patrons pay to enter the illegal clubs, where they can buy drugs and alcohol and have access to prostitutes and slot machines.
The clubs are often in neighborhoods where the gang members use intimidation to keep residents from notifying authorities, investigators say.
At a bar raided June 25 near the intersection of 60th Street and Vermont Avenue, Albanese said, "we pulled 50 people out of that location at 3 a.m."
During the investigation known as Operation Treadstone, LAPD and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also seized 15 illegal firearms, 18 slot machines and 200 pounds of illegal fireworks from 19 locations.
Investigators say some of the targets of the arrests are key members of the 18th Street gang, one of the oldest, largest and most heavily entrenched gangs in Southern California.
Last month, a federal grand jury indicted nine alleged members and associates of the 18th Street gang.
richard.winton@latimes.com
By Richard Winton
July 25, 2009
A notorious Los Angeles street gang has expanded its criminal enterprises into the night life world, authorities said.
The Los Angeles Police Department and federal agents said the 18th Street gang operated underground after-hours bars, using them as bases for various criminal enterprises. Authorities said the locations have been connected to homicides, drug trafficking and gambling.
A series of recent busts at the bars resulted in the arrests of 34 gang members and associates on local and federal charges, authorities said Friday. The arrests are the culmination of an 18-month federal and local probe into so-called casitas concealed in South L.A. homes and closed stores.
"These were bars operating in the wee hours, putting the community at risk," said LAPD Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese. "These locations resulted in homicides, shootings and other violent crime."
At least three homicides in the 77th Street Division area of South L.A. have occurred in or around the casitas. LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith cited the case of 35-year-old Rosa Garcia, whose body was found in an alley in the 1500 block of Florence Avenue in January. Smith said investigators believe her death was connected to a nearby casita she frequented.
During raids on five bars since late June, investigators seized $142,000 that would have gone to the gang, authorities say. Albanese said it reflects the importance of these bars as sources for funding gang activity.
"These locations were running seven nights a week," he said.
One illegal after-hours club was just a few blocks from the 77th Street police station, next to a tattoo parlor, authorities say. Patrons entered through an unmarked door and the operator had deliberately spray-painted the wrong address outside, authorities said.
Investigators say taxicab drivers and others in the know would direct patrons or deliver customers to the doors.
Investigators suspect that illegal after-hours bars are popping up all over the L.A. region as gangs look for new ways to make money. Gang members were recently caught running an illegal bar in Salt Lake City.
According to authorities, patrons pay to enter the illegal clubs, where they can buy drugs and alcohol and have access to prostitutes and slot machines.
The clubs are often in neighborhoods where the gang members use intimidation to keep residents from notifying authorities, investigators say.
At a bar raided June 25 near the intersection of 60th Street and Vermont Avenue, Albanese said, "we pulled 50 people out of that location at 3 a.m."
During the investigation known as Operation Treadstone, LAPD and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also seized 15 illegal firearms, 18 slot machines and 200 pounds of illegal fireworks from 19 locations.
Investigators say some of the targets of the arrests are key members of the 18th Street gang, one of the oldest, largest and most heavily entrenched gangs in Southern California.
Last month, a federal grand jury indicted nine alleged members and associates of the 18th Street gang.
richard.winton@latimes.com
State unable to combat prison gangs for lack of funding, manpower
State unable to combat prison gangs for lack of funding, manpower
Posted by glubin July 19, 2009 07:14AM
State investigators say they're losing ground in the fight to control gangs in New Jersey prisons because they don't have enough manpower and funding.
The criticism of operations at the prisons, leveled by unions representing investigators and corrections officers, comes two months after the State Commission of Investigation said the state was failing to stop inmates from smuggling drugs, communicating with illegal cell phones and coordinating criminal activity from behind bars
Union leaders said the Department of Corrections' approximately 100-member Special Investigations Division has lost nine people in three years and operates without a chief. Each prison has only one investigator monitoring gang activity, and a single person analyzes confiscated cell phones for the entire department, they said.
"It's becoming very difficult for us to do our job," said Neil Layden, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 174, which represents 92 Corrections investigators. "We don't have the funding nor the people."
In May the SCI, which reports to the Legislature, released a report saying prisons are like a "branch office" for gang members and calling the situation "intolerable."
The SCI also said prison investigators are overwhelmed: "Given the magnitude and multiplicity of its responsibilities, (the Special Investigations Division) is undersized, insufficiently funded and, as currently structured, unable to effectively and efficiently fulfill its vital mission, particularly with regard to suppressing gang activity."
Layden is concerned the SCI report has fallen on deaf ears.
"It seems like it's not going anywhere," he said. "We talked to everyone who would listen."
Corrections Commissioner George Hayman declined to comment for this report, as did the highest-ranking investigator, Assistant Chief Wayne Everett.
After the SCI report was released, Hayman issued a statement saying Corrections is "dealing proactively" with its gang problem. "We continue to house an offender population -- bent toward violence and power struggles -- with a minimum of disturbances," he said.
The department declined to comment on staffing or equipment within the division.
"It would not be in the best interests of safety and security to disclose this information in a public forum," Corrections spokeswoman Deirdre Fedkenheuer said.
Fedkenheuer also said the investigators do not have a set budget and she could not say how much is spent on the division.
Like much of state government, Corrections was hit by the budget crunch. Its funding dropped by about $40 million to $1.156 billion.
Gordon Johnson (D-Bergen), chairman of the Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee, said he intends to hold a hearing following up on the SCI report when the Legislature convenes again later this year.
Johnson said the state should explore new ways to deter cell phone use, but didn't criticize Corrections or Hayman.
"I think he is doing all that he can," Johnson said. "This is a major problem that takes time to address."
Assemblyman David Rible (R-Monmouth) has twice called for a hearing on the report. Echoing SCI's findings, he said prisons "are being run as corporate headquarters for the gangs."
"When you're being sentenced to prison, it's supposed to be a rehabilitation time period, as well as paying time for your crime," Rible said. "I don't think you should be in there accelerating crime outside the jail."
Corrections spokesman Matt Schuman said the department was "among the first" to use dogs to detect cell phones, finding 118 phones, 21 batteries and 121 chargers since October. He also said Hayman supports changes to federal regulations that would allow the jamming of cell phone signals in prisons.
Wayne Robbins, Lodge 174's vice president and a principal investigator in Corrections, said cell phones are so prevalent, inmates don't even worry when one is taken away.
"They'll say all right, I got my next one coming in," he said.
Meanwhile, Robbins said each investigative unit has to share one cell phone among a half-dozen investigators.
"Inmates have better cellular capabilities than we do," he said.
Mike Goodman, vice president of New Jersey Policemen's Benevolent Association Local 105, which represents about 7,000 Corrections officers, said the use of cell phones has made prisons less safe.
"They're getting more skillful in regards to communicating," he said. "It's tough to maintain control."
Fedkenheuer said 19 percent of inmates are formally identified as gang members. In its report, the SCI said a top Corrections official testified under oath that up to half the inmate population "may be involved in some way" with a gang.
The SCI report also said having the same investigators probe gangs in prison and potential corruption of prison employees hampered anti-gang efforts. It said corrections officers shied away from working with investigators "for fear that they will themselves become targets of investigation" while investigators "are leery of establishing a working relationship with many custody officers due to their concern over corruption within the uniformed ranks."
Fedkenheuer said that issue was resolved, citing "a clear line of demarcation" between the two functions the last two years.
But Layden said staffing shortages have forced some investigators to handle both responsibilities.
"We're still doing internal affairs work," he said. "It's a difficult task to one day talk to someone about a situation and the next day investigate them about another incident."
Chris Megerian may be reached at (609) 989-0208 or cmegerian@starledger.com.
Posted by glubin July 19, 2009 07:14AM
State investigators say they're losing ground in the fight to control gangs in New Jersey prisons because they don't have enough manpower and funding.
The criticism of operations at the prisons, leveled by unions representing investigators and corrections officers, comes two months after the State Commission of Investigation said the state was failing to stop inmates from smuggling drugs, communicating with illegal cell phones and coordinating criminal activity from behind bars
Union leaders said the Department of Corrections' approximately 100-member Special Investigations Division has lost nine people in three years and operates without a chief. Each prison has only one investigator monitoring gang activity, and a single person analyzes confiscated cell phones for the entire department, they said.
"It's becoming very difficult for us to do our job," said Neil Layden, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 174, which represents 92 Corrections investigators. "We don't have the funding nor the people."
In May the SCI, which reports to the Legislature, released a report saying prisons are like a "branch office" for gang members and calling the situation "intolerable."
The SCI also said prison investigators are overwhelmed: "Given the magnitude and multiplicity of its responsibilities, (the Special Investigations Division) is undersized, insufficiently funded and, as currently structured, unable to effectively and efficiently fulfill its vital mission, particularly with regard to suppressing gang activity."
Layden is concerned the SCI report has fallen on deaf ears.
"It seems like it's not going anywhere," he said. "We talked to everyone who would listen."
Corrections Commissioner George Hayman declined to comment for this report, as did the highest-ranking investigator, Assistant Chief Wayne Everett.
After the SCI report was released, Hayman issued a statement saying Corrections is "dealing proactively" with its gang problem. "We continue to house an offender population -- bent toward violence and power struggles -- with a minimum of disturbances," he said.
The department declined to comment on staffing or equipment within the division.
"It would not be in the best interests of safety and security to disclose this information in a public forum," Corrections spokeswoman Deirdre Fedkenheuer said.
Fedkenheuer also said the investigators do not have a set budget and she could not say how much is spent on the division.
Like much of state government, Corrections was hit by the budget crunch. Its funding dropped by about $40 million to $1.156 billion.
Gordon Johnson (D-Bergen), chairman of the Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee, said he intends to hold a hearing following up on the SCI report when the Legislature convenes again later this year.
Johnson said the state should explore new ways to deter cell phone use, but didn't criticize Corrections or Hayman.
"I think he is doing all that he can," Johnson said. "This is a major problem that takes time to address."
Assemblyman David Rible (R-Monmouth) has twice called for a hearing on the report. Echoing SCI's findings, he said prisons "are being run as corporate headquarters for the gangs."
"When you're being sentenced to prison, it's supposed to be a rehabilitation time period, as well as paying time for your crime," Rible said. "I don't think you should be in there accelerating crime outside the jail."
Corrections spokesman Matt Schuman said the department was "among the first" to use dogs to detect cell phones, finding 118 phones, 21 batteries and 121 chargers since October. He also said Hayman supports changes to federal regulations that would allow the jamming of cell phone signals in prisons.
Wayne Robbins, Lodge 174's vice president and a principal investigator in Corrections, said cell phones are so prevalent, inmates don't even worry when one is taken away.
"They'll say all right, I got my next one coming in," he said.
Meanwhile, Robbins said each investigative unit has to share one cell phone among a half-dozen investigators.
"Inmates have better cellular capabilities than we do," he said.
Mike Goodman, vice president of New Jersey Policemen's Benevolent Association Local 105, which represents about 7,000 Corrections officers, said the use of cell phones has made prisons less safe.
"They're getting more skillful in regards to communicating," he said. "It's tough to maintain control."
Fedkenheuer said 19 percent of inmates are formally identified as gang members. In its report, the SCI said a top Corrections official testified under oath that up to half the inmate population "may be involved in some way" with a gang.
The SCI report also said having the same investigators probe gangs in prison and potential corruption of prison employees hampered anti-gang efforts. It said corrections officers shied away from working with investigators "for fear that they will themselves become targets of investigation" while investigators "are leery of establishing a working relationship with many custody officers due to their concern over corruption within the uniformed ranks."
Fedkenheuer said that issue was resolved, citing "a clear line of demarcation" between the two functions the last two years.
But Layden said staffing shortages have forced some investigators to handle both responsibilities.
"We're still doing internal affairs work," he said. "It's a difficult task to one day talk to someone about a situation and the next day investigate them about another incident."
Chris Megerian may be reached at (609) 989-0208 or cmegerian@starledger.com.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Lee County (FL) struggles to keep school resource officers
Budget cuts hit program
By DENES HUSTY III
dhusty@news-press.com
Educators, parents and law enforcement officials are lining up to oppose budget cuts that would scrap school resource officer programs at the Lee County Sheriff’s Office and the Cape Coral Police Department.
School resource officers are stationed in high schools, middle schools and elementary schools throughout Lee County, and officers are expected to interact with students and generally enforce law and order. They also counsel parents, coordinate police presence at school events and teach students how to combat gangs and substance abuse.
But economic difficulties and declining property values are forcing officials to look at all options for saving money, no matter how popular the program.
Cape Coral’s program costs $848,000 per year and has 13 officers and a sergeant. The sheriff’s $1.3 million program, which has 17 deputies, covers seven high schools and 10 middle schools in Bonita Springs, Estero, North Fort Myers and Lehigh Acres.
The Fort Myers Police Department plans to keep its $1.1 million program, which has seven full-time officers and nine part-time retired officers.
The Cape Coral City Council and the Lee County commission are expected to vote on the proposed cuts in September. Both budgets go into effect Oct. 1.
“The school resource officer program is extremely critical to the school system,” said James Browder, superintendent for Lee County public schools. Browder said he’ll meet with Sheriff Mike Scott and Cape Coral Police Chief Robert Petrovich in the next few weeks to discuss the proposed cuts and options.
“We’ll figure out something to keep that program in our schools,” Browder said.
Scott believes the school resource program is worthwhile, and he wants to keep it, according to sheriff’s spokesman Tony Schall.
Petrovich said he hopes the Cape Coral City Council can come up with at least some partial funding for the city’s program. He said, at minimum, at least eight officers and a supervising sergeant should be kept for the city’s four high schools, one alternative learning center and to rotate among the middle schools.
County Commissioner Bob Janes, who represents Cape Coral, said the Lee County School Board should pick up the tab for the entire program. The school board this year provided $595,000 on top of the amount the county paid to the sheriff’s office. The school district gave Cape Coral $409,000 besides the city’s contribution.
“I think it’s a sad day when we have to look at making these kind of cuts that affect our children. I hope we don’t go this route,” said Cape Councilman Tim Day.
Eric McFee, principal of Cape Coral High School, said the program goes far beyond keeping students in line.
“The school resource officer acts as a confidant, someone that students and parents can talk to. It would be a real shame to lose that program,” McFee said.
Tommy O’Connell, principal at South Fort Myers High School, agrees.
“The school resource officers have a working relationship with the kids at the schools. It makes a difference to have someone the kids know at games, dances and homecomings,” O’Connell said.
Some parents also oppose the proposed cuts.
“I think it’s important to have a law enforcement officer at the school to serve as a role model and to have someone present with the authority to enforce the law and handle situations beyond the scope of school officials,” said Shawn Harvey of Cape Coral, whose son, Alex, 16, attends Cape Coral High School.
By DENES HUSTY III
dhusty@news-press.com
Educators, parents and law enforcement officials are lining up to oppose budget cuts that would scrap school resource officer programs at the Lee County Sheriff’s Office and the Cape Coral Police Department.
School resource officers are stationed in high schools, middle schools and elementary schools throughout Lee County, and officers are expected to interact with students and generally enforce law and order. They also counsel parents, coordinate police presence at school events and teach students how to combat gangs and substance abuse.
But economic difficulties and declining property values are forcing officials to look at all options for saving money, no matter how popular the program.
Cape Coral’s program costs $848,000 per year and has 13 officers and a sergeant. The sheriff’s $1.3 million program, which has 17 deputies, covers seven high schools and 10 middle schools in Bonita Springs, Estero, North Fort Myers and Lehigh Acres.
The Fort Myers Police Department plans to keep its $1.1 million program, which has seven full-time officers and nine part-time retired officers.
The Cape Coral City Council and the Lee County commission are expected to vote on the proposed cuts in September. Both budgets go into effect Oct. 1.
“The school resource officer program is extremely critical to the school system,” said James Browder, superintendent for Lee County public schools. Browder said he’ll meet with Sheriff Mike Scott and Cape Coral Police Chief Robert Petrovich in the next few weeks to discuss the proposed cuts and options.
“We’ll figure out something to keep that program in our schools,” Browder said.
Scott believes the school resource program is worthwhile, and he wants to keep it, according to sheriff’s spokesman Tony Schall.
Petrovich said he hopes the Cape Coral City Council can come up with at least some partial funding for the city’s program. He said, at minimum, at least eight officers and a supervising sergeant should be kept for the city’s four high schools, one alternative learning center and to rotate among the middle schools.
County Commissioner Bob Janes, who represents Cape Coral, said the Lee County School Board should pick up the tab for the entire program. The school board this year provided $595,000 on top of the amount the county paid to the sheriff’s office. The school district gave Cape Coral $409,000 besides the city’s contribution.
“I think it’s a sad day when we have to look at making these kind of cuts that affect our children. I hope we don’t go this route,” said Cape Councilman Tim Day.
Eric McFee, principal of Cape Coral High School, said the program goes far beyond keeping students in line.
“The school resource officer acts as a confidant, someone that students and parents can talk to. It would be a real shame to lose that program,” McFee said.
Tommy O’Connell, principal at South Fort Myers High School, agrees.
“The school resource officers have a working relationship with the kids at the schools. It makes a difference to have someone the kids know at games, dances and homecomings,” O’Connell said.
Some parents also oppose the proposed cuts.
“I think it’s important to have a law enforcement officer at the school to serve as a role model and to have someone present with the authority to enforce the law and handle situations beyond the scope of school officials,” said Shawn Harvey of Cape Coral, whose son, Alex, 16, attends Cape Coral High School.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
A Few Bad Men: Racist Extremists Infiltrating US Military
The Peoples Voice @ thepeoplesvoice.org
07/11/09
01:33:50 pm
David Holthouse
Before the U.S. military made Matt Buschbacher a Navy SEAL, he made himself a soldier of the Fourth Reich.
Before Forrest Fogarty attended Military Police counter-insurgency training school, he attended Nazi skinhead festivals as lead singer for the hate rock band Attack.
And before Army engineer Jon Fain joined the invasion of Iraq to fight the War on Terror, the neo-Nazi National Alliance member fantasized about fighting a war on Jews.
"Ever since my youth -- when I watched WWII footage and saw how well-disciplined and sharply dressed the German forces were -- I have wanted to be a soldier," Fain said in a Winter 2004 interview with the National Alliance magazine Resistance. "Joining the American military was as close as I could get."
Ten years after Pentagon leaders toughened policies on extremist activities by active duty personnel -- a move that came in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing by decorated Gulf War combat veteran Timothy McVeigh and the murder of a black couple by members of a skinhead gang in the elite 82nd Airborne Division -- large numbers of neo-Nazis and skinhead extremists continue to infiltrate the ranks of the world's best-trained, best-equipped fighting force. Military recruiters and base commanders, under intense pressure from the war in Iraq to fill the ranks, often look the other way.
Neo-Nazis "stretch across all branches of service, they are linking up across the branches once they're inside, and they are hard-core," Department of Defense gang detective Scott Barfield told the Intelligence Report. "We've got Aryan Nations graffiti in Baghdad," he added. "That's a problem."
The armed forces are supposed to be a model of racial equality. American soldiers are supposed to be defenders of democracy. Neo-Nazis represent the opposite of these ideals. They dream of race war and revolution, and their motivations for enlisting are often quite different than serving their country.
"Join only for the training, and to better defend yourself, our people, and our culture," Fain said. "We must have people to open doors from the inside when the time comes."
Soldier Shortage
In 1996, following a decade-long rash of cases where extremists in the military were caught diverting huge arsenals of stolen firearms and explosives to neo-Nazi and white supremacist organizations, conducting guerilla training for paramilitary racist militias, and murdering non-white civilians (see timeline), the Pentagon finally launched a massive investigation and crackdown. One general ordered all 19,000 soldiers at Fort Lewis, Wash., strip-searched for extremist tattoos.
But that was peacetime. Now, with the country at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the military under increasingly intense pressure to maintain enlistment numbers, weeding out extremists is less of a priority. "Recruiters are knowingly allowing neo-Nazis and white supremacists to join the armed forces, and commanders don't remove them from the military even after we positively identify them as extremists or gang members," said Department of Defense investigator Barfield.
"Last year, for the first time, they didn't make their recruiting goals. They don't want to start making a big deal again about neo-Nazis in the military, because then parents who are already worried about their kids signing up and dying in Iraq are going to be even more reluctant about their kids enlisting if they feel they'll be exposed to gangs and white supremacists."
Barfield, who is based at Fort Lewis, said he has identified and submitted evidence on 320 extremists there in the past year. "Only two have been discharged," he said. Barfield and other Department of Defense investigators said they recently uncovered an online network of 57 neo-Nazis who are active duty Army and Marines personnel spread across five military installations in five states -- Fort Lewis; Fort Bragg, N.C.; Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Stewart, Ga.; and Camp Pendleton, Calif. "They're communicating with each other about weapons, about recruiting, about keeping their identities secret, about organizing within the military," Barfield said. "Several of these individuals have since been deployed to combat missions in Iraq."
Every year, the Army's Criminal Investigation Division conducts a threat assessment of extremist and gang activity among army personnel. "Every year, they come back with 'minimal activity,' which is inaccurate," said Barfield. "It's not epidemic, but there's plenty of evidence we're talking numbers well into the thousands, just in the Army."
Last July, the white supremacist website Stormfront hosted a discussion on "Joining the Military."
"There are others among you in the forces," wrote one neo-Nazi in the Army. "You are never alone."
Nazi SEAL
Not all military commanders fail to give known extremists the boot. "The response differs from command group to command group," Barfield said. "Most put up a front and say, 'Oh, this guy's in big trouble,' but actually do nothing unless he commits a felony. But some kick their ass out right away."
During the heyday of the White Patriot
Party, leader Glenn Miler, a former Special
Forces operative, led hundreds of his men
in paramilitary formations through the
streets of several southern cities.
Barfield noted that commanders are far more likely to take immediate action if the soldier is stateside in a non-combat role, rather than fighting overseas. In late June, Airman First Class Andrew Dornan, who was assigned to the firing party in the U.S. Air Force Honor Guard, was sentenced to nine months confinement and dishonorably discharged after he posted messages glorifying Adolf Hitler on his personal webpage and threatened to detonate a bomb on a military base.
But the military took no such action against former Navy SEAL Matt Buschbacher, who continued to fight in Iraq after the Southern Poverty Law Center had alerted officials to his active support of neo-Nazi groups.
Buschbacher told the Intelligence Report he joined the neo-Nazi movement "for the same reason everyone joins: I was angry and looking for some answers. I wanted to belong to something that made me feel good about myself."
In 1998, when Buschbacher was still a teenager living in Terrace Park, Ohio, a wealthy, almost exclusively white suburb of Cincinnati, he was ordained as a reverend in the World Church of the Creator, a violent neo-Nazi organization. He rose fast. In 1999, he was the head of the hate group's Cincinnati chapter when Chicago member Benjamin Smith went on a three-day, two-state shooting spree that targeted Jews, Asians and blacks. Smith killed two people and wounded nine before committing suicide as police closed in.
Afterward, Buschbacher praised Smith as "a dedicated activist for our racial cause" in The Cincinnati Inquirer. "We have pride in our race, heritage, and culture, and we will do anything to prevent it from being destroyed," he said. "White man is the creator, the creator of civilizations."
In May 2000, Buschbacher attended Nordic Fest, an annual skinhead festival sponsored by the Imperial Klans of America in Kentucky, where he posed in front of a flaming swastika, seig heiling. He joined the Navy shortly afterward. Again, Buschbacher advanced quickly. In October 2001, he completed 26 weeks of SEAL training at the Naval Special Warfare Center in Coronado, Calif.
In August 2002, while an active duty SEAL but not yet stationed in Baghdad, Buschbacher attended the National Alliance's invitation-only "leadership conference" at the neo-Nazi group's West Virginia compound. The conference was held just weeks after the death of National Alliance founder William Pierce, author of The Turner Diaries, the fantasy novel about revolution and race war that inspired Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. Pierce also wrote the seminal pamphlet, "What is the National Alliance?" It was in that tract that Pierce explained that a National Alliance member in the military "[u]ses his daily interactions with career personnel to select exceptional individuals who are receptive, and he then gives them the opportunity to serve their race while carrying out their military functions."
'Heroes Among Us'
Today, Matt Buschbacher denies recruiting Navy personnel into the Alliance. What's clear is that for years after becoming a SEAL, he violated military regulations without repercussions by staying active in the neo-Nazi movement.
Military intelligence officer James Douglas
Ross Jr. was thrown out of the armed forces
after being caught shipping AK-47s to the
United States from Iraq in 2004. Today,
military officials say, he's a leader of the
neo-Nazi Eastern Washington Skins.
Using the online pseudonym "Mattiasb88" [88 is neo-Nazi code for "Heil Hitler"] to hide his identity, Buschbacher designed and distributed National Alliance fliers, white power screen savers, and a photo montage of Pierce on the Internet via his website, racialpride.com, which displayed a logo of a burning swastika and this mission statement: "The purpose of this website is to provide white patriots with a large database of information for recruiting and self-improvement." Buschbacher also posted messages to the white supremacist website Stormfront and the website of Resistance Records, a hate rock music company owned by the National Alliance. In the fall of 2003, the National Alliance magazine Resistance even published a collage of "Scene Shots" that included a small photo of Buschbacher wearing a Turner Diaries T-shirt and giving a Nazi salute.
Buschbacher hasn't been the only neo-Nazi to fight in Iraq. Forrest Mackley Fogarty, a member of the Tampa, Fla., unit of the National Alliance, was deployed for 18 months during Operation Iraqi Freedom with his Army National Guard unit. "There are some dirty Arabs enjoying their 70 virgins because of my actions and that of my fire team," Fogarty boasted in the Winter 2005 issue of Resistance. (Fogarty was identified in the article only as "Forrest of Attack.")
Jon Fain, a neo-Nazi who currently lives on the National Alliance compound, was part of the original Iraq invasion force in 2003, as a U.S. Army engineer. Shawn Stuart, the Montana state leader of the National Socialist Movement, another neo-Nazi group, served two combat tours in Iraq as a U.S. Marine before he was discharged in 2005. Stuart told the Missoula News that he joined the NSM in 2004, while he was still a Marine, because he "came to believe the United States is fighting the war on Israel's behalf."
None of these men, it appears, were ever disciplined for neo-Nazi activities. All were honorably discharged.
James Douglas Ross Jr. was not so fortunate. Ross, a military intelligence officer stationed at Fort Bragg, was caught shipping disassembled AK-47s to the United States from Iraq in 2004, officials said. When investigators searched his off base housing, they found a weapons arsenal, thousands of rounds of ammunition, and hate group materials. Ross was forced to return from Iraq and given a bad conduct discharge. "But they let him keep the weapons [he kept in his house]," said Department of Defense investigator Barfield, adding that Ross has since relocated to Washington, where he's a leader of the Eastern Washington Skins, a neo-Nazi gang. "He kept his military connections, and he's still trying to recruit soldiers, so we're still dealing with him."
For his part, despite his sometimes brazen activities, Matt Buschbacher tried hard to avoid exposure as a neo-Nazi in the military. But his identity became clear after he posted a photo of himself in a "Mattiasb88" Yahoo profile in 2004, and then advertised his neo-Nazi E-mail address in a July 2004 posting to a currency trading forum. "I am in the military and currently in Iraq," he wrote there. "If anyone would like to purchase some Iraqi dinars I have access to as much as you would like." That September, Buschbacher was profiled in his hometown Terrace Park community newspaper, Village Views. The article, "Heroes Among Us," reported he was fighting terrorism with a SEAL unit based in downtown Baghdad.
Two years later, Matt Buschbacher is back from Iraq -- also with an honorable discharge, despite the fact that the Southern Poverty Law Center informed the military of his background while he was still on active duty. He lives in Denver, Colo., and teaches classes on how to pick up women. "I have no connection with any neo-Nazi anything any more," Buschbacher told the Intelligence Report. Photographed holding a red rose, he was recently splashed across the cover of a weekly newsmagazine in Denver promoting his new book, Date the Women of Your Dreams. The cover story made no mention of his neo-Nazi past.
Training for Race War
According to a 1998 study commissioned by the Department of Defense, "Young civilian extremists are encouraged by adult leaders to enlist in the military to gain access to weapons, training, and other military personnel."
On his web page, Robert Lee West stands
in front of a swastika and Iron Eagle banner
holding an assault rifle and a shotgun.
The reasons are obvious: Soldiers are trained to be proficient with weapons, combat tactics, and explosives, to train others in their use, and to operate in a highly disciplined culture that is focused on the organized violence of war. This is why military extremists present an elevated threat to public safety, and why extremists groups both recruit active duty personnel -- especially those with access to classified information or sophisticated weaponry -- and influence their members to join the armed forces.
"The threats posed by extremism to the military are simultaneously blatant and subtle," the Defense Department study said. "On the one hand, high-profile terrorist acts and hate crimes committed by active and former military personnel can have seriously detrimental effects on the civil-military relationship as well as on the morale and security of military personnel. On the other hand, even the non-violent activities of military personnel with extremist tendencies (e.g., possessing literature and/or artifacts from the extremist 'movement'; dabbling in extremism through computerized telecommunications activities; proselytizing extremist ideologies, etc.) can have deleterious consequences for the good order, discipline, readiness, and cohesion of military units."
Special Forces soldiers who double as extremist operatives present a special danger, since they have commando skills gained at huge taxpayer expense -- often including urban warfare, long-range reconnaissance, and combat demolitions.
"Hate groups send their guys into the U.S. military because the U.S. military has the best weapons and training," said T.J. Leyden, a former racist skinhead and Marine who recruited inside the Marine Corps for the Hammerskins, a nationwide skinhead gang. He later renounced the neo-Nazi movement and now conducts anti-extremism training seminars on military bases.
"Right now, any white supremacist in Iraq is getting live fire, guerilla warfare experience," Leyden said. "But any white supremacist in Iraq who's a Green Beret or a Navy SEAL or Marine Recon, he's doing covert stuff that's far above and beyond convoy protection and roadblocks. And if he comes back and decides at some point down the road that it's race war time, all that training and combat experience he's received could easily turn around and bite this country in the ass."
Department of Defense investigator Barfield confirmed that threat assessment. "Today's white supremacists in the military become tomorrow's domestic terrorists once they're out," he said. "There needs to be a tighter focus on intercepting the next Timothy McVeigh before he becomes the next Timothy McVeigh."
'White Soldier's Burden'
In April 1995, the same month Timothy McVeigh detonated a 7,000-pound truck bomb outside a federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people, the National Alliance erected a billboard on the main road leading into Fort Bragg, an Army base in Fayetteville, N.C. The billboard's message read, "Enough! Let's Start Taking Back America," and listed the neo-Nazi group's toll-free number.
The billboard was the work of Robert Hunt, a National Alliance recruiter and active duty member of the Army's elite 82nd Airborne Division, which is based at Fort Bragg. By late 1995, a large neo-Nazi skinhead gang had formed within the 82nd Airborne. Members saluted a Nazi flag in their barracks, distributed National Alliance literature on base, and held drunken barracks parties where they blasted "Third Reich," a rockabilly white power anthem by the band Rahowa (short for "Racial Holy War") with lyrics about killing blacks and Jews.
In December 1995, two members of the 82nd Airborne skinhead gang gunned down a black couple in a random, racially motivated double murder that shocked the nation and sparked a major investigation of extremism in the military as well as congressional hearings. The killers were eventually sentenced to life in prison, and 19 other members of the 82nd Airborne were dishonorably discharged for neo-Nazi gang activities.
"The fallout from the skinhead killings was immediate," racist skinhead Steve Smith recalled in his 2005 essay, "The White Soldier's Burden." Smith was in the Army from 1991 to 1996 and was stationed at Fort Bragg at the time of the murders. "White soldiers at Fort Bragg were inspected to see if they had any 'racist' tattoos. The Army also held mandatory classes on 'extremist' organizations."
Before the Fort Bragg slayings, military regulations on extremist activity by active duty soldiers were ambiguous. There were no specific regulations on extremism at all until 1986, when it came to light that active duty soldiers were providing guerilla training and stolen military weapons to a paramilitary Ku Klux Klan faction led by a former Green Beret. The Southern Poverty Law Center then urged Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger to "prohibit active-duty members of the armed services from holding membership in groups like the Klan or from taking part in their activities." Weinberger responded by issuing this directive: "Military personnel must reject participation in white supremacy, neo-Nazi and other such groups which espouse or attempt to create overt discrimination. Active participation, including public demonstrations, recruiting and training members, and organizing or leading such organizations is utterly incompatible with military service."
Though sternly worded, many commanders interpreted that order to mean that while active participation in extremist groups was prohibited, so-called "passive support," such as distributing propaganda, listening to hate rock, displaying flags or symbols, and "mere membership," were still allowed. After the Fort Bragg slayings, however, the Department of Defense toughened military policy somewhat to read, "Engaging in activities in relation to [extremist] organizations, or in furtherance of the objectives of such organizations that are viewed by command to be detrimental to the good order of the unit is incompatible with Military Service, and is, therefore, prohibited."
Then-Defense Secretary William Perry used even stronger language to describe the intent of the updated regulation. "Department of Defense policy leaves no room for racist and extremist activities in the military," Perry stated. "We must -- and we shall -- make every effort to erase bigotry, racism, and extremism from the military. Extremist activity compromises fairness, good order, and discipline. The armed forces, which defend the nation and its values, must exemplify those values beyond question."
Lowering Standards
Neo-Nazis have no respect for the values of a free democracy or the shining example of equal opportunity its military is meant to be. When Jon Fain, the Army engineer, was interviewed in 2004 for a Resistance article titled, "On the Front Lines for the Jews," he advised neo-Nazis considering a military career to "[n]ever allow yourself to be brainwashed into the 'everybody's green' lie." In the Stormfront discussion on joining the military, neo-Nazi "Ulfur Engil" wrote that he was stationed with the Army in Europe and offered this guidance: "Nothing will change what you are. If you join, you are still the same enlightened white man (or woman) you always have been."
Hundreds of neo-Nazis online identify themselves as active duty soldiers. "When you are in, after you finish basic training, your discretion is very important," Ulfur Engil wrote in a recent Internet posting. "If you are someone who wears boots and braces keep a second pair that's neutral looking (black). Remove any obvious pins from your jacket (runes by themselves are okay, though. They don't take issue with them, providing there is no obvious [racist] arrangement. The USO in Keflavik, Iceland, actually sold runes!) Do NOT use any Internet connection offered by the base or do ANYTHING on a military server. NOTHING. Get an Internet connection that is private and off-base, invest in EvidenceEliminator, and set up an email account with Hushmail and/or Ziplip."
Extremists in the military are tricky to unmask. "They're a lot smarter about it than street gang members," said Barfield. "They don't brag and boast like gang bangers." The best way to reduce the number of extremists in the armed forces is to prevent them from entering the military in the first place. "But now we're lowering our recruiting standards. We're accepting lesser quality soldiers," Barfield said. In a move to boost enlistment, the military is allowing more and more recruits with criminal records to sign up. A recent Chicago Sun-Times article revealed the percentage of recruits granted "moral waivers" for past misdemeanors had more than doubled since 2001. The military also revised its rules on inductee tattoos earlier this year to allow all tattoos except those on the front of the face. Both changes in the rules made it easier for extremists to join. And while military regulations prohibit (PDF) all gang-related or white supremacist tattoos, many recruiters are ignoring such tattoos, or even literally covering them up. "I had one case where a recruiter and his wife took a guy to their house and covered up his tattoos with make-up so he could pass his [physical examination]," Barfield said.
Military regulations also call for any superior officer who spots a soldier with a neo-Nazi or white supremacist tattoo to refer the soldier to a commander, who then is supposed to demand the soldier have the tattoo removed. If the soldier refuses, he's supposed to be kicked out.
"But there's a loophole," Barfield said. "If they never refer them, they can't refuse, so they just never refer them, and they stay in."
"If you have any kind of tattoo prior to going in, they will require you to write out a statement as to what it is, and what it means to you," advised a neo-Nazi in the Stormfront military forum. "If it's something obvious like a swazi [swastika], then they will probably say, 'No go.' But, something more obscure, like a Schwarze Sonne [a "black sun," another Nazi symbol] or a Celtic cross would probably be okay, so long as no phraseology accompanies it."
"The average Joe recruiter can spot the most obvious tattoos," said Leyden, who trains the military in identifying hate group members. "But the vast majority of them don't know what 'White Power' in German looks like, they don't know what 88 in Roman numerals means, and now, they may not even care, because they're under this extreme pressure to fill the void, and who are they filling the void with? Therein lies the danger."
'Switchblades and Smeared Blood'
The large tattoo on the right arm of Air Force airman Robert Lee West depicts a menacing wizard with a scythe. His recruiter probably saw no problem there, but the photo of himself West has up on his EveryonesSpace web page should wave a red flag. In it, West, with his head shaved, is standing in front of a swastika and Iron Eagle banner, holding an assault rifle and a shotgun. West, 23, who's stationed at Warner Robins Air Force Base in Georgia, lists his general interests as "switchblades and smeared blood."
In his "About Me" section, he writes: "I train most days for marksmanship, combat, demolition, politics, economics, religion, military tactics, oratory, and propaganda. I will give my life for a cause greater than my own. My mind and spirit shall ensure life for my people, and death for yours. I shall fight until I have achieved victory. Just remember when you speak to me that I don't play by ZOG [Zionist Occupation Government] rules and I will not hesitate to sever your subclavian artery."
Special Agent Will Manuel of Air Force's Office of Special Investigations at Warner Robins said he's "well aware" of West's neo-Nazi identity. "We've seen all his pictures, we've read his website, and we know what's he doing." Yet despite the toughened policy declared by the Pentagon a decade ago, Manuel says, "We're not going to go after him just based on what he says he believes, or on him making a lot of claims. There has to be an overt act first. He has to actually organize or recruit or commit a crime. But even his pictures and writings raise concerns, obviously, because we know that where you have one [neo-Nazi], there's usually another, and what he claims to represent totally goes against the core values of the military."
Ten years after the military crackdown on extremism, it's clear that there are still a great many Robert Lee Wests in the U.S. armed forces. And that should worry all Americans. In 1996, the Ft. Bragg murders sparked Congressional hearings on extremism in the military. Then-Air Force Secretary Sheila E. Windall said in her testimony, "We have an absolute obligation, and the American people have an absolute right to expect, that military members will use their expertise and the lethal tools of their trade to protect them and never to harm them."
But some in the military appear to have lost sight of that obligation in the fog of war. "The regulations could use some fine tuning, but they're already on the books," Barfield said. "They're just not being enforced. My fear is that it's going to take another Fort Bragg before that changes."
Anthony Griggs, Joseph Roy Sr., and Laurie Wood contributed to this report.
07/11/09
01:33:50 pm
David Holthouse
Before the U.S. military made Matt Buschbacher a Navy SEAL, he made himself a soldier of the Fourth Reich.
Before Forrest Fogarty attended Military Police counter-insurgency training school, he attended Nazi skinhead festivals as lead singer for the hate rock band Attack.
And before Army engineer Jon Fain joined the invasion of Iraq to fight the War on Terror, the neo-Nazi National Alliance member fantasized about fighting a war on Jews.
"Ever since my youth -- when I watched WWII footage and saw how well-disciplined and sharply dressed the German forces were -- I have wanted to be a soldier," Fain said in a Winter 2004 interview with the National Alliance magazine Resistance. "Joining the American military was as close as I could get."
Ten years after Pentagon leaders toughened policies on extremist activities by active duty personnel -- a move that came in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing by decorated Gulf War combat veteran Timothy McVeigh and the murder of a black couple by members of a skinhead gang in the elite 82nd Airborne Division -- large numbers of neo-Nazis and skinhead extremists continue to infiltrate the ranks of the world's best-trained, best-equipped fighting force. Military recruiters and base commanders, under intense pressure from the war in Iraq to fill the ranks, often look the other way.
Neo-Nazis "stretch across all branches of service, they are linking up across the branches once they're inside, and they are hard-core," Department of Defense gang detective Scott Barfield told the Intelligence Report. "We've got Aryan Nations graffiti in Baghdad," he added. "That's a problem."
The armed forces are supposed to be a model of racial equality. American soldiers are supposed to be defenders of democracy. Neo-Nazis represent the opposite of these ideals. They dream of race war and revolution, and their motivations for enlisting are often quite different than serving their country.
"Join only for the training, and to better defend yourself, our people, and our culture," Fain said. "We must have people to open doors from the inside when the time comes."
Soldier Shortage
In 1996, following a decade-long rash of cases where extremists in the military were caught diverting huge arsenals of stolen firearms and explosives to neo-Nazi and white supremacist organizations, conducting guerilla training for paramilitary racist militias, and murdering non-white civilians (see timeline), the Pentagon finally launched a massive investigation and crackdown. One general ordered all 19,000 soldiers at Fort Lewis, Wash., strip-searched for extremist tattoos.
But that was peacetime. Now, with the country at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the military under increasingly intense pressure to maintain enlistment numbers, weeding out extremists is less of a priority. "Recruiters are knowingly allowing neo-Nazis and white supremacists to join the armed forces, and commanders don't remove them from the military even after we positively identify them as extremists or gang members," said Department of Defense investigator Barfield.
"Last year, for the first time, they didn't make their recruiting goals. They don't want to start making a big deal again about neo-Nazis in the military, because then parents who are already worried about their kids signing up and dying in Iraq are going to be even more reluctant about their kids enlisting if they feel they'll be exposed to gangs and white supremacists."
Barfield, who is based at Fort Lewis, said he has identified and submitted evidence on 320 extremists there in the past year. "Only two have been discharged," he said. Barfield and other Department of Defense investigators said they recently uncovered an online network of 57 neo-Nazis who are active duty Army and Marines personnel spread across five military installations in five states -- Fort Lewis; Fort Bragg, N.C.; Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Stewart, Ga.; and Camp Pendleton, Calif. "They're communicating with each other about weapons, about recruiting, about keeping their identities secret, about organizing within the military," Barfield said. "Several of these individuals have since been deployed to combat missions in Iraq."
Every year, the Army's Criminal Investigation Division conducts a threat assessment of extremist and gang activity among army personnel. "Every year, they come back with 'minimal activity,' which is inaccurate," said Barfield. "It's not epidemic, but there's plenty of evidence we're talking numbers well into the thousands, just in the Army."
Last July, the white supremacist website Stormfront hosted a discussion on "Joining the Military."
"There are others among you in the forces," wrote one neo-Nazi in the Army. "You are never alone."
Nazi SEAL
Not all military commanders fail to give known extremists the boot. "The response differs from command group to command group," Barfield said. "Most put up a front and say, 'Oh, this guy's in big trouble,' but actually do nothing unless he commits a felony. But some kick their ass out right away."
During the heyday of the White Patriot
Party, leader Glenn Miler, a former Special
Forces operative, led hundreds of his men
in paramilitary formations through the
streets of several southern cities.
Barfield noted that commanders are far more likely to take immediate action if the soldier is stateside in a non-combat role, rather than fighting overseas. In late June, Airman First Class Andrew Dornan, who was assigned to the firing party in the U.S. Air Force Honor Guard, was sentenced to nine months confinement and dishonorably discharged after he posted messages glorifying Adolf Hitler on his personal webpage and threatened to detonate a bomb on a military base.
But the military took no such action against former Navy SEAL Matt Buschbacher, who continued to fight in Iraq after the Southern Poverty Law Center had alerted officials to his active support of neo-Nazi groups.
Buschbacher told the Intelligence Report he joined the neo-Nazi movement "for the same reason everyone joins: I was angry and looking for some answers. I wanted to belong to something that made me feel good about myself."
In 1998, when Buschbacher was still a teenager living in Terrace Park, Ohio, a wealthy, almost exclusively white suburb of Cincinnati, he was ordained as a reverend in the World Church of the Creator, a violent neo-Nazi organization. He rose fast. In 1999, he was the head of the hate group's Cincinnati chapter when Chicago member Benjamin Smith went on a three-day, two-state shooting spree that targeted Jews, Asians and blacks. Smith killed two people and wounded nine before committing suicide as police closed in.
Afterward, Buschbacher praised Smith as "a dedicated activist for our racial cause" in The Cincinnati Inquirer. "We have pride in our race, heritage, and culture, and we will do anything to prevent it from being destroyed," he said. "White man is the creator, the creator of civilizations."
In May 2000, Buschbacher attended Nordic Fest, an annual skinhead festival sponsored by the Imperial Klans of America in Kentucky, where he posed in front of a flaming swastika, seig heiling. He joined the Navy shortly afterward. Again, Buschbacher advanced quickly. In October 2001, he completed 26 weeks of SEAL training at the Naval Special Warfare Center in Coronado, Calif.
In August 2002, while an active duty SEAL but not yet stationed in Baghdad, Buschbacher attended the National Alliance's invitation-only "leadership conference" at the neo-Nazi group's West Virginia compound. The conference was held just weeks after the death of National Alliance founder William Pierce, author of The Turner Diaries, the fantasy novel about revolution and race war that inspired Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. Pierce also wrote the seminal pamphlet, "What is the National Alliance?" It was in that tract that Pierce explained that a National Alliance member in the military "[u]ses his daily interactions with career personnel to select exceptional individuals who are receptive, and he then gives them the opportunity to serve their race while carrying out their military functions."
'Heroes Among Us'
Today, Matt Buschbacher denies recruiting Navy personnel into the Alliance. What's clear is that for years after becoming a SEAL, he violated military regulations without repercussions by staying active in the neo-Nazi movement.
Military intelligence officer James Douglas
Ross Jr. was thrown out of the armed forces
after being caught shipping AK-47s to the
United States from Iraq in 2004. Today,
military officials say, he's a leader of the
neo-Nazi Eastern Washington Skins.
Using the online pseudonym "Mattiasb88" [88 is neo-Nazi code for "Heil Hitler"] to hide his identity, Buschbacher designed and distributed National Alliance fliers, white power screen savers, and a photo montage of Pierce on the Internet via his website, racialpride.com, which displayed a logo of a burning swastika and this mission statement: "The purpose of this website is to provide white patriots with a large database of information for recruiting and self-improvement." Buschbacher also posted messages to the white supremacist website Stormfront and the website of Resistance Records, a hate rock music company owned by the National Alliance. In the fall of 2003, the National Alliance magazine Resistance even published a collage of "Scene Shots" that included a small photo of Buschbacher wearing a Turner Diaries T-shirt and giving a Nazi salute.
Buschbacher hasn't been the only neo-Nazi to fight in Iraq. Forrest Mackley Fogarty, a member of the Tampa, Fla., unit of the National Alliance, was deployed for 18 months during Operation Iraqi Freedom with his Army National Guard unit. "There are some dirty Arabs enjoying their 70 virgins because of my actions and that of my fire team," Fogarty boasted in the Winter 2005 issue of Resistance. (Fogarty was identified in the article only as "Forrest of Attack.")
Jon Fain, a neo-Nazi who currently lives on the National Alliance compound, was part of the original Iraq invasion force in 2003, as a U.S. Army engineer. Shawn Stuart, the Montana state leader of the National Socialist Movement, another neo-Nazi group, served two combat tours in Iraq as a U.S. Marine before he was discharged in 2005. Stuart told the Missoula News that he joined the NSM in 2004, while he was still a Marine, because he "came to believe the United States is fighting the war on Israel's behalf."
None of these men, it appears, were ever disciplined for neo-Nazi activities. All were honorably discharged.
James Douglas Ross Jr. was not so fortunate. Ross, a military intelligence officer stationed at Fort Bragg, was caught shipping disassembled AK-47s to the United States from Iraq in 2004, officials said. When investigators searched his off base housing, they found a weapons arsenal, thousands of rounds of ammunition, and hate group materials. Ross was forced to return from Iraq and given a bad conduct discharge. "But they let him keep the weapons [he kept in his house]," said Department of Defense investigator Barfield, adding that Ross has since relocated to Washington, where he's a leader of the Eastern Washington Skins, a neo-Nazi gang. "He kept his military connections, and he's still trying to recruit soldiers, so we're still dealing with him."
For his part, despite his sometimes brazen activities, Matt Buschbacher tried hard to avoid exposure as a neo-Nazi in the military. But his identity became clear after he posted a photo of himself in a "Mattiasb88" Yahoo profile in 2004, and then advertised his neo-Nazi E-mail address in a July 2004 posting to a currency trading forum. "I am in the military and currently in Iraq," he wrote there. "If anyone would like to purchase some Iraqi dinars I have access to as much as you would like." That September, Buschbacher was profiled in his hometown Terrace Park community newspaper, Village Views. The article, "Heroes Among Us," reported he was fighting terrorism with a SEAL unit based in downtown Baghdad.
Two years later, Matt Buschbacher is back from Iraq -- also with an honorable discharge, despite the fact that the Southern Poverty Law Center informed the military of his background while he was still on active duty. He lives in Denver, Colo., and teaches classes on how to pick up women. "I have no connection with any neo-Nazi anything any more," Buschbacher told the Intelligence Report. Photographed holding a red rose, he was recently splashed across the cover of a weekly newsmagazine in Denver promoting his new book, Date the Women of Your Dreams. The cover story made no mention of his neo-Nazi past.
Training for Race War
According to a 1998 study commissioned by the Department of Defense, "Young civilian extremists are encouraged by adult leaders to enlist in the military to gain access to weapons, training, and other military personnel."
On his web page, Robert Lee West stands
in front of a swastika and Iron Eagle banner
holding an assault rifle and a shotgun.
The reasons are obvious: Soldiers are trained to be proficient with weapons, combat tactics, and explosives, to train others in their use, and to operate in a highly disciplined culture that is focused on the organized violence of war. This is why military extremists present an elevated threat to public safety, and why extremists groups both recruit active duty personnel -- especially those with access to classified information or sophisticated weaponry -- and influence their members to join the armed forces.
"The threats posed by extremism to the military are simultaneously blatant and subtle," the Defense Department study said. "On the one hand, high-profile terrorist acts and hate crimes committed by active and former military personnel can have seriously detrimental effects on the civil-military relationship as well as on the morale and security of military personnel. On the other hand, even the non-violent activities of military personnel with extremist tendencies (e.g., possessing literature and/or artifacts from the extremist 'movement'; dabbling in extremism through computerized telecommunications activities; proselytizing extremist ideologies, etc.) can have deleterious consequences for the good order, discipline, readiness, and cohesion of military units."
Special Forces soldiers who double as extremist operatives present a special danger, since they have commando skills gained at huge taxpayer expense -- often including urban warfare, long-range reconnaissance, and combat demolitions.
"Hate groups send their guys into the U.S. military because the U.S. military has the best weapons and training," said T.J. Leyden, a former racist skinhead and Marine who recruited inside the Marine Corps for the Hammerskins, a nationwide skinhead gang. He later renounced the neo-Nazi movement and now conducts anti-extremism training seminars on military bases.
"Right now, any white supremacist in Iraq is getting live fire, guerilla warfare experience," Leyden said. "But any white supremacist in Iraq who's a Green Beret or a Navy SEAL or Marine Recon, he's doing covert stuff that's far above and beyond convoy protection and roadblocks. And if he comes back and decides at some point down the road that it's race war time, all that training and combat experience he's received could easily turn around and bite this country in the ass."
Department of Defense investigator Barfield confirmed that threat assessment. "Today's white supremacists in the military become tomorrow's domestic terrorists once they're out," he said. "There needs to be a tighter focus on intercepting the next Timothy McVeigh before he becomes the next Timothy McVeigh."
'White Soldier's Burden'
In April 1995, the same month Timothy McVeigh detonated a 7,000-pound truck bomb outside a federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people, the National Alliance erected a billboard on the main road leading into Fort Bragg, an Army base in Fayetteville, N.C. The billboard's message read, "Enough! Let's Start Taking Back America," and listed the neo-Nazi group's toll-free number.
The billboard was the work of Robert Hunt, a National Alliance recruiter and active duty member of the Army's elite 82nd Airborne Division, which is based at Fort Bragg. By late 1995, a large neo-Nazi skinhead gang had formed within the 82nd Airborne. Members saluted a Nazi flag in their barracks, distributed National Alliance literature on base, and held drunken barracks parties where they blasted "Third Reich," a rockabilly white power anthem by the band Rahowa (short for "Racial Holy War") with lyrics about killing blacks and Jews.
In December 1995, two members of the 82nd Airborne skinhead gang gunned down a black couple in a random, racially motivated double murder that shocked the nation and sparked a major investigation of extremism in the military as well as congressional hearings. The killers were eventually sentenced to life in prison, and 19 other members of the 82nd Airborne were dishonorably discharged for neo-Nazi gang activities.
"The fallout from the skinhead killings was immediate," racist skinhead Steve Smith recalled in his 2005 essay, "The White Soldier's Burden." Smith was in the Army from 1991 to 1996 and was stationed at Fort Bragg at the time of the murders. "White soldiers at Fort Bragg were inspected to see if they had any 'racist' tattoos. The Army also held mandatory classes on 'extremist' organizations."
Before the Fort Bragg slayings, military regulations on extremist activity by active duty soldiers were ambiguous. There were no specific regulations on extremism at all until 1986, when it came to light that active duty soldiers were providing guerilla training and stolen military weapons to a paramilitary Ku Klux Klan faction led by a former Green Beret. The Southern Poverty Law Center then urged Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger to "prohibit active-duty members of the armed services from holding membership in groups like the Klan or from taking part in their activities." Weinberger responded by issuing this directive: "Military personnel must reject participation in white supremacy, neo-Nazi and other such groups which espouse or attempt to create overt discrimination. Active participation, including public demonstrations, recruiting and training members, and organizing or leading such organizations is utterly incompatible with military service."
Though sternly worded, many commanders interpreted that order to mean that while active participation in extremist groups was prohibited, so-called "passive support," such as distributing propaganda, listening to hate rock, displaying flags or symbols, and "mere membership," were still allowed. After the Fort Bragg slayings, however, the Department of Defense toughened military policy somewhat to read, "Engaging in activities in relation to [extremist] organizations, or in furtherance of the objectives of such organizations that are viewed by command to be detrimental to the good order of the unit is incompatible with Military Service, and is, therefore, prohibited."
Then-Defense Secretary William Perry used even stronger language to describe the intent of the updated regulation. "Department of Defense policy leaves no room for racist and extremist activities in the military," Perry stated. "We must -- and we shall -- make every effort to erase bigotry, racism, and extremism from the military. Extremist activity compromises fairness, good order, and discipline. The armed forces, which defend the nation and its values, must exemplify those values beyond question."
Lowering Standards
Neo-Nazis have no respect for the values of a free democracy or the shining example of equal opportunity its military is meant to be. When Jon Fain, the Army engineer, was interviewed in 2004 for a Resistance article titled, "On the Front Lines for the Jews," he advised neo-Nazis considering a military career to "[n]ever allow yourself to be brainwashed into the 'everybody's green' lie." In the Stormfront discussion on joining the military, neo-Nazi "Ulfur Engil" wrote that he was stationed with the Army in Europe and offered this guidance: "Nothing will change what you are. If you join, you are still the same enlightened white man (or woman) you always have been."
Hundreds of neo-Nazis online identify themselves as active duty soldiers. "When you are in, after you finish basic training, your discretion is very important," Ulfur Engil wrote in a recent Internet posting. "If you are someone who wears boots and braces keep a second pair that's neutral looking (black). Remove any obvious pins from your jacket (runes by themselves are okay, though. They don't take issue with them, providing there is no obvious [racist] arrangement. The USO in Keflavik, Iceland, actually sold runes!) Do NOT use any Internet connection offered by the base or do ANYTHING on a military server. NOTHING. Get an Internet connection that is private and off-base, invest in EvidenceEliminator, and set up an email account with Hushmail and/or Ziplip."
Extremists in the military are tricky to unmask. "They're a lot smarter about it than street gang members," said Barfield. "They don't brag and boast like gang bangers." The best way to reduce the number of extremists in the armed forces is to prevent them from entering the military in the first place. "But now we're lowering our recruiting standards. We're accepting lesser quality soldiers," Barfield said. In a move to boost enlistment, the military is allowing more and more recruits with criminal records to sign up. A recent Chicago Sun-Times article revealed the percentage of recruits granted "moral waivers" for past misdemeanors had more than doubled since 2001. The military also revised its rules on inductee tattoos earlier this year to allow all tattoos except those on the front of the face. Both changes in the rules made it easier for extremists to join. And while military regulations prohibit (PDF) all gang-related or white supremacist tattoos, many recruiters are ignoring such tattoos, or even literally covering them up. "I had one case where a recruiter and his wife took a guy to their house and covered up his tattoos with make-up so he could pass his [physical examination]," Barfield said.
Military regulations also call for any superior officer who spots a soldier with a neo-Nazi or white supremacist tattoo to refer the soldier to a commander, who then is supposed to demand the soldier have the tattoo removed. If the soldier refuses, he's supposed to be kicked out.
"But there's a loophole," Barfield said. "If they never refer them, they can't refuse, so they just never refer them, and they stay in."
"If you have any kind of tattoo prior to going in, they will require you to write out a statement as to what it is, and what it means to you," advised a neo-Nazi in the Stormfront military forum. "If it's something obvious like a swazi [swastika], then they will probably say, 'No go.' But, something more obscure, like a Schwarze Sonne [a "black sun," another Nazi symbol] or a Celtic cross would probably be okay, so long as no phraseology accompanies it."
"The average Joe recruiter can spot the most obvious tattoos," said Leyden, who trains the military in identifying hate group members. "But the vast majority of them don't know what 'White Power' in German looks like, they don't know what 88 in Roman numerals means, and now, they may not even care, because they're under this extreme pressure to fill the void, and who are they filling the void with? Therein lies the danger."
'Switchblades and Smeared Blood'
The large tattoo on the right arm of Air Force airman Robert Lee West depicts a menacing wizard with a scythe. His recruiter probably saw no problem there, but the photo of himself West has up on his EveryonesSpace web page should wave a red flag. In it, West, with his head shaved, is standing in front of a swastika and Iron Eagle banner, holding an assault rifle and a shotgun. West, 23, who's stationed at Warner Robins Air Force Base in Georgia, lists his general interests as "switchblades and smeared blood."
In his "About Me" section, he writes: "I train most days for marksmanship, combat, demolition, politics, economics, religion, military tactics, oratory, and propaganda. I will give my life for a cause greater than my own. My mind and spirit shall ensure life for my people, and death for yours. I shall fight until I have achieved victory. Just remember when you speak to me that I don't play by ZOG [Zionist Occupation Government] rules and I will not hesitate to sever your subclavian artery."
Special Agent Will Manuel of Air Force's Office of Special Investigations at Warner Robins said he's "well aware" of West's neo-Nazi identity. "We've seen all his pictures, we've read his website, and we know what's he doing." Yet despite the toughened policy declared by the Pentagon a decade ago, Manuel says, "We're not going to go after him just based on what he says he believes, or on him making a lot of claims. There has to be an overt act first. He has to actually organize or recruit or commit a crime. But even his pictures and writings raise concerns, obviously, because we know that where you have one [neo-Nazi], there's usually another, and what he claims to represent totally goes against the core values of the military."
Ten years after the military crackdown on extremism, it's clear that there are still a great many Robert Lee Wests in the U.S. armed forces. And that should worry all Americans. In 1996, the Ft. Bragg murders sparked Congressional hearings on extremism in the military. Then-Air Force Secretary Sheila E. Windall said in her testimony, "We have an absolute obligation, and the American people have an absolute right to expect, that military members will use their expertise and the lethal tools of their trade to protect them and never to harm them."
But some in the military appear to have lost sight of that obligation in the fog of war. "The regulations could use some fine tuning, but they're already on the books," Barfield said. "They're just not being enforced. My fear is that it's going to take another Fort Bragg before that changes."
Anthony Griggs, Joseph Roy Sr., and Laurie Wood contributed to this report.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Investigation of Varrio Hawaiian Gardens Gang and Associates is Largest Gang Case in U.S. History
Crime Blotter July 08, 2009
In the nation's largest-ever gang investigation and prosecution, a law enforcement task force this morning arrested an additional 11 defendants named in federal charges that are linked to the Hawaiian Gardens gang that was previously the subject of a sweeping racketeering indictment. The 11 defendants arrested today are among 24 people named in a federal narcotics-trafficking indictment that outlines a drug pipeline to and from members of the Varrio Hawaiian Gardens gang.
In related developments across four Southern California counties today, another nine defendants were arrested and are expected to be charged in state court. Authorities also seized eight firearms, more than 400 rounds of ammunition, one pound of methamphetamine and a ballistic vest. Seven additional defendants charged in federal court were recently taken into custody.
With the investigation dubbed Operation Knock Out drawing to a close, federal authorities have unsealed indictments charging 192 defendants, and 132 of those defendants have been taken into custody. With dozens of arrests leading to charges being filed in state court, Operation Knock Out has led to more than 300 gang members and associates being taken off the street.
"This extremely successful investigation has led to a series of federal indictments against nearly 200 defendants who face the potential of lengthy prison sentences in federal penitentiaries, where there is no parole," said United States Attorney Thomas P. O'Brien. "The experience of conducting the largest gang sweep in U.S. history has taught us the power of law enforcement joining together to target criminal organizations that cause so much pain in our communities. As we have seen in other areas, such as the Drew Street section of Los Angeles, law enforcement can have a lasting impact to improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods."
Today's action is the second phase of Operation Knock Out, a coordinated investigation targeting Varrio Hawaiian Gardens and other gangs, including East Side Paramount, 18th Street, Morton Town Stoners, Santanas, Carmelas, Varrio Grape Street Watts, Compton T-Flats and Nazi Low-Riders. In May, in the first phase of Operation Knock Out, approximately 1,400 law enforcement officers arrested scores of defendants named in a racketeering indictment and related cases. A 57-defendant RICO indictment of the Hawaiian Gardens Gang unsealed in May describes the gang´s war against the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, as well as systematic efforts to rid the community of African-Americans with a campaign of shootings and other attacks.
The investigation into the Varrio Hawaiian Gardens gang began after the fatal shooting of Los Angeles Sheriff's Deputy Jerry Ortiz, who was gunned down four years ago by a gang member he was attempting to arrest on suspicion of shooting an African-American man. While the gang member, Jose Orozco, was quickly apprehended and currently sits on death row, the shooting of Deputy Ortiz sparked Operation Knock Out. To date, 132 defendants have been arrested on federal charges, and authorities are continuing to identify and apprehend additional defendants named in the federal indictments.
In addition to the murder of Deputy Ortiz, the racketeering indictment discusses other violent attacks, drug trafficking, carjackings and kidnappings. For example, George Manuel Flores, the lead defendant in the RICO indictment and a longtime member of the Hawaiian Gardens gang, allegedly ordered the murder of another gang member who was believed to be cooperating with law enforcement. Flores is also accused of providing a young gang member with a weapon and instructing him to shoot African-Americans who lived nearby.
During this investigation, approximately 33 pounds of methamphetamine were seized, along with lesser quantities of other narcotics and approximately 125 firearms.
The 11 defendants arrested today on federal charges are expected to make their initial appearances this afternoon in United States District Court in Los Angeles.
An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
Operation Knock Out was an investigation into Varrio Hawaiian Gardens, as well as other gangs and individuals who were involved in criminal activity, conducted by the Los Angeles High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force, which is comprised of agents and officers with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); and IRS-Criminal Investigation. The following agencies provided extraordinary support during both investigations and operations: the United States Marshals Service, the California Department of Justice's Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, the Long Beach Police Department, the Ridgecrest Police Department, the Downey Police Department, the Kern County Sheriff's Department, the Bell Gardens Police Department, the Buena Park Police Department, the Costa Mesa Police Department, the California Highway Patrol, the Joint Forces Joint Training Base at Los Alamitos, the Los Angeles Police Department, the South Gate Police Department, the Hawthorne Police Department, the Montebello Police Department, the Santa Monica Police Department, PROAC, the Ontario Police Department, the San Diego Narcotics Task Force, the Riverside Sheriff's Department, LA Impact, the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, and the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services' Multi-Agency Response Team.
In the nation's largest-ever gang investigation and prosecution, a law enforcement task force this morning arrested an additional 11 defendants named in federal charges that are linked to the Hawaiian Gardens gang that was previously the subject of a sweeping racketeering indictment. The 11 defendants arrested today are among 24 people named in a federal narcotics-trafficking indictment that outlines a drug pipeline to and from members of the Varrio Hawaiian Gardens gang.
In related developments across four Southern California counties today, another nine defendants were arrested and are expected to be charged in state court. Authorities also seized eight firearms, more than 400 rounds of ammunition, one pound of methamphetamine and a ballistic vest. Seven additional defendants charged in federal court were recently taken into custody.
With the investigation dubbed Operation Knock Out drawing to a close, federal authorities have unsealed indictments charging 192 defendants, and 132 of those defendants have been taken into custody. With dozens of arrests leading to charges being filed in state court, Operation Knock Out has led to more than 300 gang members and associates being taken off the street.
"This extremely successful investigation has led to a series of federal indictments against nearly 200 defendants who face the potential of lengthy prison sentences in federal penitentiaries, where there is no parole," said United States Attorney Thomas P. O'Brien. "The experience of conducting the largest gang sweep in U.S. history has taught us the power of law enforcement joining together to target criminal organizations that cause so much pain in our communities. As we have seen in other areas, such as the Drew Street section of Los Angeles, law enforcement can have a lasting impact to improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods."
Today's action is the second phase of Operation Knock Out, a coordinated investigation targeting Varrio Hawaiian Gardens and other gangs, including East Side Paramount, 18th Street, Morton Town Stoners, Santanas, Carmelas, Varrio Grape Street Watts, Compton T-Flats and Nazi Low-Riders. In May, in the first phase of Operation Knock Out, approximately 1,400 law enforcement officers arrested scores of defendants named in a racketeering indictment and related cases. A 57-defendant RICO indictment of the Hawaiian Gardens Gang unsealed in May describes the gang´s war against the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, as well as systematic efforts to rid the community of African-Americans with a campaign of shootings and other attacks.
The investigation into the Varrio Hawaiian Gardens gang began after the fatal shooting of Los Angeles Sheriff's Deputy Jerry Ortiz, who was gunned down four years ago by a gang member he was attempting to arrest on suspicion of shooting an African-American man. While the gang member, Jose Orozco, was quickly apprehended and currently sits on death row, the shooting of Deputy Ortiz sparked Operation Knock Out. To date, 132 defendants have been arrested on federal charges, and authorities are continuing to identify and apprehend additional defendants named in the federal indictments.
In addition to the murder of Deputy Ortiz, the racketeering indictment discusses other violent attacks, drug trafficking, carjackings and kidnappings. For example, George Manuel Flores, the lead defendant in the RICO indictment and a longtime member of the Hawaiian Gardens gang, allegedly ordered the murder of another gang member who was believed to be cooperating with law enforcement. Flores is also accused of providing a young gang member with a weapon and instructing him to shoot African-Americans who lived nearby.
During this investigation, approximately 33 pounds of methamphetamine were seized, along with lesser quantities of other narcotics and approximately 125 firearms.
The 11 defendants arrested today on federal charges are expected to make their initial appearances this afternoon in United States District Court in Los Angeles.
An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
Operation Knock Out was an investigation into Varrio Hawaiian Gardens, as well as other gangs and individuals who were involved in criminal activity, conducted by the Los Angeles High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force, which is comprised of agents and officers with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); and IRS-Criminal Investigation. The following agencies provided extraordinary support during both investigations and operations: the United States Marshals Service, the California Department of Justice's Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, the Long Beach Police Department, the Ridgecrest Police Department, the Downey Police Department, the Kern County Sheriff's Department, the Bell Gardens Police Department, the Buena Park Police Department, the Costa Mesa Police Department, the California Highway Patrol, the Joint Forces Joint Training Base at Los Alamitos, the Los Angeles Police Department, the South Gate Police Department, the Hawthorne Police Department, the Montebello Police Department, the Santa Monica Police Department, PROAC, the Ontario Police Department, the San Diego Narcotics Task Force, the Riverside Sheriff's Department, LA Impact, the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, and the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services' Multi-Agency Response Team.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Public Enemies
Examiner.com - Baltimore
Johnny Depp has a new film coming out, PUBLIC ENEMIES, where he plays John Dillinger. For those of us ages 35-50, that’s our first thought when we think of gangs: guys in fedoras with Tommy Guns, driven to desperate measures due to the Depression. Or, if we’re more musically inclined, we may imagine the Sharks and Jets snapping fingers in WEST SIDE STORY. Or we develop a sudden penchant to watch our “Godfather” director’s-cut collection of DVDs.
We generally don’t think about kids from affluent neighborhoods. But the times, they are a’changin…as the BALTIMORE SUN reports today in the story, “Gangs flourish in suburbs: Ex-gang member says 'fatherless generation' just as susceptible in affluent areas.”
As is all too (sadly) often the case, it took a tragedy to place this issue on the media’s front burner, the death of 14-year-old Christopher David Jones this past May in Anne Arundel County.
Why does this happen? The Sun notes that gang members “tend to be at-risk youth struggling with family problems, such as divorce or separation, physical abuse or dysfunctional parents,” or the lack of guidance from any adult at all. And old, but true formula, as may be seen in William Golding’s fiction classic, LORD OF THE FLIES.
So, what can be done? In the mid-90s I was the Public Information Officer for Thornton, a city in Colorado’s Front Range where gang activity was an increasing problem due to what was called the “smashed tomato” phenomenon. As police cracked down on gangs in Los Angeles and other major California cities, like a smashed tomato, members trickled outward, finding new homes in Colorado. Gangs sought new recruits and spawned “wannabes” from the ranks of area high schools.
One thing the City did to combat the problem was to assign police officers as full-time members of the high schools’ faculty where they taught, among other things, the D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program. As PIO, my job was to help promote the City’s efforts which I did through articles in the city’s magazine and through Thornton's cable network.
These same tactics may be effective today in helping deal with the gang problem, if the idea of paying an officer to be a full-time teacher would fly in today’s budget-constricted-restricted times.
Perhaps another way to come at this problem would be to take a page from many hospitals’ playbooks. More doctors and nurses than ever are being trained in spotting signs of abuse, whether physical, emotional, or other form, to help patients get help that they may need beyond whatever landed them in the ER in the first place. Perhaps teachers, school nurses/doctors could receive the same sort of training from accredited counselors to help spot kids who may be in trouble.
In addition, many kids may want help, but don’t know how to ask for it—due to ignorance, fear, peer pressure, etc. Perhaps there might be a website where students could anonymously post their concerns and receive input back through a secure online mailbox. And/or go “old school” with a 24-hour phoneline.
It seems to me the best way to make a difference is to address the social issues at the root of the problem. When things escalate to the point that law enforcement must be called, it’s gone too far. It is the role of public relations people, whether in city government, education, or law enforcement to think locally-and-globally, to provide perspective, and help develop ideas to to help community/government leaders address these challenges. Which is one of the reasons I find PR to be a stimulating career, as one must be a bit of a “everyman”—that is, to cultivate insights and connections with all manner of audiences, and to “know a little bit of everything”…and to apply that knowledge creatively for the betterment of the clients we serve.
Johnny Depp has a new film coming out, PUBLIC ENEMIES, where he plays John Dillinger. For those of us ages 35-50, that’s our first thought when we think of gangs: guys in fedoras with Tommy Guns, driven to desperate measures due to the Depression. Or, if we’re more musically inclined, we may imagine the Sharks and Jets snapping fingers in WEST SIDE STORY. Or we develop a sudden penchant to watch our “Godfather” director’s-cut collection of DVDs.
We generally don’t think about kids from affluent neighborhoods. But the times, they are a’changin…as the BALTIMORE SUN reports today in the story, “Gangs flourish in suburbs: Ex-gang member says 'fatherless generation' just as susceptible in affluent areas.”
As is all too (sadly) often the case, it took a tragedy to place this issue on the media’s front burner, the death of 14-year-old Christopher David Jones this past May in Anne Arundel County.
Why does this happen? The Sun notes that gang members “tend to be at-risk youth struggling with family problems, such as divorce or separation, physical abuse or dysfunctional parents,” or the lack of guidance from any adult at all. And old, but true formula, as may be seen in William Golding’s fiction classic, LORD OF THE FLIES.
So, what can be done? In the mid-90s I was the Public Information Officer for Thornton, a city in Colorado’s Front Range where gang activity was an increasing problem due to what was called the “smashed tomato” phenomenon. As police cracked down on gangs in Los Angeles and other major California cities, like a smashed tomato, members trickled outward, finding new homes in Colorado. Gangs sought new recruits and spawned “wannabes” from the ranks of area high schools.
One thing the City did to combat the problem was to assign police officers as full-time members of the high schools’ faculty where they taught, among other things, the D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program. As PIO, my job was to help promote the City’s efforts which I did through articles in the city’s magazine and through Thornton's cable network.
These same tactics may be effective today in helping deal with the gang problem, if the idea of paying an officer to be a full-time teacher would fly in today’s budget-constricted-restricted times.
Perhaps another way to come at this problem would be to take a page from many hospitals’ playbooks. More doctors and nurses than ever are being trained in spotting signs of abuse, whether physical, emotional, or other form, to help patients get help that they may need beyond whatever landed them in the ER in the first place. Perhaps teachers, school nurses/doctors could receive the same sort of training from accredited counselors to help spot kids who may be in trouble.
In addition, many kids may want help, but don’t know how to ask for it—due to ignorance, fear, peer pressure, etc. Perhaps there might be a website where students could anonymously post their concerns and receive input back through a secure online mailbox. And/or go “old school” with a 24-hour phoneline.
It seems to me the best way to make a difference is to address the social issues at the root of the problem. When things escalate to the point that law enforcement must be called, it’s gone too far. It is the role of public relations people, whether in city government, education, or law enforcement to think locally-and-globally, to provide perspective, and help develop ideas to to help community/government leaders address these challenges. Which is one of the reasons I find PR to be a stimulating career, as one must be a bit of a “everyman”—that is, to cultivate insights and connections with all manner of audiences, and to “know a little bit of everything”…and to apply that knowledge creatively for the betterment of the clients we serve.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Law Enforcement Breaks Up Hispanic Street Gang
Law Enforcement Breaks Up Hispanic Street Gang
Posted: June 3, 2009 09:07 PM EDT
Updated: June 3, 2009 10:07 PM EDT
Meghan Youker
OMAHA (KPTM) - Federal agents team up with Omaha police to haul in nearly 70 guns and bust three-dozen alleged gang members and their associates. The 14-month-long investigation targeted members of the Hispanic street gang known as the Surenos.
22 handguns, 14 assault rifles, 16 shotguns and 17 other rifles, including a Barrett .50-caliber sniper rifle, are now out of the hands of criminals. "The removal of these weapons from the streets makes everyone safer and demonstrates that we will not tolerate criminals who provide the illegal firearms that reek so much havoc in our community," said Chief Eric Buske of the Omaha Police Department.
A joint effort by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Omaha Police Department resulted in the arrest Tuesday of 36 people known to law enforcement as members or associates of the Sureno street gang. All but five were in the U.S. illegally. "They've committed a lot of violent acts in Omaha alone, but across the country and in Mexico, they're involved in drug trafficking, weapons trafficking, you name the criminal act and they've probably touched it in some way," said William Wallrapp, ICE resident agent-in-charge.
Court documents show a confidential informant working with federal agents bought drugs, guns and ammunition from suspects, mostly in homes and parking lots outside businesses in south Omaha. "During the course of virtually every transaction, the informant told the seller that the guns were destined for Mexico's violent drug cartels," said Claude Arnold, regional ICE special agent-in-charge.
Guns that are now evidence against alleged members of the Hispanic gang, who police say have been active in Omaha since the mid 90s. "There are certain cliques of this gang that I believe we have disseminated," Wallrapp said. "The effect that it's had on this particular gang, they're going to be quiet for quite a while," added ATF special agent Paul White.
Federal agents believe most of the recovered guns are stolen. At this point, they're still trying to trace them and find their rightful owners. Ballistics testing is also underway to see if any of the guns can be tied to a specific crime.
Many of the suspects have been convicted of past crimes including burglary, assault and drug charges. Now 20 have been charged or indicted at either the state or federal level on drug and weapons charges. The other 16 are being held on immigrations violations.
Posted: June 3, 2009 09:07 PM EDT
Updated: June 3, 2009 10:07 PM EDT
Meghan Youker
OMAHA (KPTM) - Federal agents team up with Omaha police to haul in nearly 70 guns and bust three-dozen alleged gang members and their associates. The 14-month-long investigation targeted members of the Hispanic street gang known as the Surenos.
22 handguns, 14 assault rifles, 16 shotguns and 17 other rifles, including a Barrett .50-caliber sniper rifle, are now out of the hands of criminals. "The removal of these weapons from the streets makes everyone safer and demonstrates that we will not tolerate criminals who provide the illegal firearms that reek so much havoc in our community," said Chief Eric Buske of the Omaha Police Department.
A joint effort by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Omaha Police Department resulted in the arrest Tuesday of 36 people known to law enforcement as members or associates of the Sureno street gang. All but five were in the U.S. illegally. "They've committed a lot of violent acts in Omaha alone, but across the country and in Mexico, they're involved in drug trafficking, weapons trafficking, you name the criminal act and they've probably touched it in some way," said William Wallrapp, ICE resident agent-in-charge.
Court documents show a confidential informant working with federal agents bought drugs, guns and ammunition from suspects, mostly in homes and parking lots outside businesses in south Omaha. "During the course of virtually every transaction, the informant told the seller that the guns were destined for Mexico's violent drug cartels," said Claude Arnold, regional ICE special agent-in-charge.
Guns that are now evidence against alleged members of the Hispanic gang, who police say have been active in Omaha since the mid 90s. "There are certain cliques of this gang that I believe we have disseminated," Wallrapp said. "The effect that it's had on this particular gang, they're going to be quiet for quite a while," added ATF special agent Paul White.
Federal agents believe most of the recovered guns are stolen. At this point, they're still trying to trace them and find their rightful owners. Ballistics testing is also underway to see if any of the guns can be tied to a specific crime.
Many of the suspects have been convicted of past crimes including burglary, assault and drug charges. Now 20 have been charged or indicted at either the state or federal level on drug and weapons charges. The other 16 are being held on immigrations violations.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Crips and Bloods: Made in America
Crips and Bloods: Made in America
A gang mentality for no good reason
Former Crips gang member Scrap is profiled in ''Crips and Bloods.'' (Bryan Wiley)
By Wesley Morris
Globe Staff / April 24, 2009
Stacy Peralta's documentary "Crips and Bloods: Made in America" means well, I suppose. It sits one or two academics down in front of a vibrantly graffitied wall and lets them explain the provenance of Los Angeles's gang wars. It permits community activists and "gang interventionists" to say a word or two. And the montage of people who've lost someone to gang violence is touching, as each stands before a similar vibrant background and fights back tears. To this the film adds somber narration by Forest Whitaker.
But for every somewhat intelligent thought about black power and every angry remark about the double scourge of drugs and racism, there is the movie's own scourge: a steady stream of what must be hundreds of gang photos. The pictures keep coming - black men with bandanas over their faces, with teardrops tattooed below their eyes, crouching, their fingers and hands fixed in the palsied contortions we've come to know as the gang sign. These photographs look old, from an era when rap music was still urgent and dangerous.
The photos also look authentic and personal - like someone with a bandana and gold fronts took them of his friends. How they came into Peralta's possession is unclear, but they come in flurries amid all the teary eyes, outrage, and talk of history, that last largely courtesy of Josh Sides, a fratty-looking professor whose book on blacks in Los Angeles appears to be the only one the filmmakers have read. The photos fade in and out of view, like a slide show, while a cheap beat stutters on the soundtrack. This is not the stuff of reasonable documentary filmmaking. It's what happens when you arrive at a MySpace page.
Peralta has made other nonfiction films. His previous two focused on skate culture ("Dogtown and Z-Boys") and surfing ("Riding Giants"). Those were well within his professional ambit; Peralta is a legendary name in board sports. Gangs are another matter. He stands off-camera as the men justify their vocation with received wisdom ("It's kill or be kilt"). Peralta listens, but the tough questions go unasked. "Did you have a normal childhood?" is the best he can do.
The role gangs play in the drug wars never comes up. The role they play in the fashion wars does - one photo shows a gangsta ironing his jeans. Drugs, we're told, have made junkies of so many mothers. Those women had babies with men who are now missing. What else is a kid to do besides shoot other kids? The movie tries to say something cogent about how South Los Angeles became a war zone. But sensationalistic overproduction sullies all. (When is a sniper's target positioned in front of Martin Luther King's head followed by a "blam!" ever necessary?)
The film seems afraid or incapable of locating the men behind the bravado (they can't even spare a real name) or what the city is doing to curb or, if you're so inclined, foment the violence. "Crips and Bloods" hasn't been made out of moral anger or a sense of conspiracy. As matters of journalism, sociology, and humanitarianism, the movie is incurious at best. At worst, it's a recruitment video.
A gang mentality for no good reason
Former Crips gang member Scrap is profiled in ''Crips and Bloods.'' (Bryan Wiley)
By Wesley Morris
Globe Staff / April 24, 2009
Stacy Peralta's documentary "Crips and Bloods: Made in America" means well, I suppose. It sits one or two academics down in front of a vibrantly graffitied wall and lets them explain the provenance of Los Angeles's gang wars. It permits community activists and "gang interventionists" to say a word or two. And the montage of people who've lost someone to gang violence is touching, as each stands before a similar vibrant background and fights back tears. To this the film adds somber narration by Forest Whitaker.
But for every somewhat intelligent thought about black power and every angry remark about the double scourge of drugs and racism, there is the movie's own scourge: a steady stream of what must be hundreds of gang photos. The pictures keep coming - black men with bandanas over their faces, with teardrops tattooed below their eyes, crouching, their fingers and hands fixed in the palsied contortions we've come to know as the gang sign. These photographs look old, from an era when rap music was still urgent and dangerous.
The photos also look authentic and personal - like someone with a bandana and gold fronts took them of his friends. How they came into Peralta's possession is unclear, but they come in flurries amid all the teary eyes, outrage, and talk of history, that last largely courtesy of Josh Sides, a fratty-looking professor whose book on blacks in Los Angeles appears to be the only one the filmmakers have read. The photos fade in and out of view, like a slide show, while a cheap beat stutters on the soundtrack. This is not the stuff of reasonable documentary filmmaking. It's what happens when you arrive at a MySpace page.
Peralta has made other nonfiction films. His previous two focused on skate culture ("Dogtown and Z-Boys") and surfing ("Riding Giants"). Those were well within his professional ambit; Peralta is a legendary name in board sports. Gangs are another matter. He stands off-camera as the men justify their vocation with received wisdom ("It's kill or be kilt"). Peralta listens, but the tough questions go unasked. "Did you have a normal childhood?" is the best he can do.
The role gangs play in the drug wars never comes up. The role they play in the fashion wars does - one photo shows a gangsta ironing his jeans. Drugs, we're told, have made junkies of so many mothers. Those women had babies with men who are now missing. What else is a kid to do besides shoot other kids? The movie tries to say something cogent about how South Los Angeles became a war zone. But sensationalistic overproduction sullies all. (When is a sniper's target positioned in front of Martin Luther King's head followed by a "blam!" ever necessary?)
The film seems afraid or incapable of locating the men behind the bravado (they can't even spare a real name) or what the city is doing to curb or, if you're so inclined, foment the violence. "Crips and Bloods" hasn't been made out of moral anger or a sense of conspiracy. As matters of journalism, sociology, and humanitarianism, the movie is incurious at best. At worst, it's a recruitment video.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Affidavit Places Spotlight On Gang (BGF)
Smuggling Alleged In Md. Prisons
By Henri E. Cauvin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 18, 2009
An unlikely meeting unfolded this week not far from the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore.
About 100 people gathered in a park for what authorities say was an open-air meeting of the Black Guerilla Family, the gang at the center of a newly disclosed federal investigation into smuggling in Maryland's state prisons.
After police broke up the gathering in Druid Hill Park, a leader of the gang scolded a subordinate for holding the meeting in such a way that it drew the attention of police, federal prosecutors said in an affidavit.
"I been tellin' you and tellin' you and you ain't listenin'," Eric Brown, speaking from a Baltimore prison, told Rainbow Williams in a phone conversation.
Federal agents were listening, though -- on wiretaps.
Informants had given investigators cellphone numbers for several imprisoned BGF members, including Brown, according to an affidavit filed in court.
Federal prosecutors thrust a spotlight on the gang Thursday by unsealing indictments against 24 alleged members and associates, including Brown, Williams and four current or former state prison employees.
BGF, as it is known, was founded in 1966 in San Quentin State Prison in California. It is the biggest and most powerful prison gang in Maryland, where its smuggling operation is unrivaled, authorities said.
"The BGF runs the prison system when it comes to controlling contraband," said Capt. Phil Smith, assistant director of the state prison system's intelligence unit.
In Maryland, BGF has been involved in extortion and the smuggling of drugs and other contraband, sometimes with the help of guards, often for the purpose of selling to other inmates, prosecutors say. The gang's leaders have also indulged more decadent tastes, arranging for deliveries of champagne, salmon and crab imperial.
But after decades of operating primarily behind bars, BGF has been establishing a bigger presence on the streets of Baltimore, expanding its footprint into the city's volatile narcotics trade, prosecutors said.
Like some other prison gangs, BGF fashions itself as a movement, Smith said.
"I think you do have some who generally want to educate and want to teach the guys, but . . . you have a certain group or certain faction that's all about the criminal element," Smith said.
Traditionally, the gang's members have been older prisoners, in their 30s and 40s, who are serving longer sentences, Smith said. They remain its leaders, but as the group has branched out into Baltimore, it has recruited younger members as well, Smith said. "You have to have your foot soldiers who you need to do the work," he said.
Like other prison gangs, it is also enlisting people without criminal backgrounds who can, for example, obtain jobs in prisons, Smith said.
"I strongly believe that the majority of our staff are good," he said, "but it only takes a few bad seeds to make everyone look bad."
Organized along paramilitary lines, the BGF has a charter, code of ethics and oath of allegiance, according to government documents.
Brown recently published "The Black Book -- Empowering Black Families and Communities." According to the publishing company's Web site, the book is designed to make people "aware of the vision of comrade George Jackson" -- the founder of BGF -- "and the struggle that he lived and died for."
A BGF member who is cooperating with investigators told them that the book is a ploy to make the group appear legitimate, according to an affidavit filed in support of the charges.
When the crowd dispersed from Druid Hill Park on Monday, police found copies of "The Black Book" and a gun.
By Henri E. Cauvin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 18, 2009
An unlikely meeting unfolded this week not far from the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore.
About 100 people gathered in a park for what authorities say was an open-air meeting of the Black Guerilla Family, the gang at the center of a newly disclosed federal investigation into smuggling in Maryland's state prisons.
After police broke up the gathering in Druid Hill Park, a leader of the gang scolded a subordinate for holding the meeting in such a way that it drew the attention of police, federal prosecutors said in an affidavit.
"I been tellin' you and tellin' you and you ain't listenin'," Eric Brown, speaking from a Baltimore prison, told Rainbow Williams in a phone conversation.
Federal agents were listening, though -- on wiretaps.
Informants had given investigators cellphone numbers for several imprisoned BGF members, including Brown, according to an affidavit filed in court.
Federal prosecutors thrust a spotlight on the gang Thursday by unsealing indictments against 24 alleged members and associates, including Brown, Williams and four current or former state prison employees.
BGF, as it is known, was founded in 1966 in San Quentin State Prison in California. It is the biggest and most powerful prison gang in Maryland, where its smuggling operation is unrivaled, authorities said.
"The BGF runs the prison system when it comes to controlling contraband," said Capt. Phil Smith, assistant director of the state prison system's intelligence unit.
In Maryland, BGF has been involved in extortion and the smuggling of drugs and other contraband, sometimes with the help of guards, often for the purpose of selling to other inmates, prosecutors say. The gang's leaders have also indulged more decadent tastes, arranging for deliveries of champagne, salmon and crab imperial.
But after decades of operating primarily behind bars, BGF has been establishing a bigger presence on the streets of Baltimore, expanding its footprint into the city's volatile narcotics trade, prosecutors said.
Like some other prison gangs, BGF fashions itself as a movement, Smith said.
"I think you do have some who generally want to educate and want to teach the guys, but . . . you have a certain group or certain faction that's all about the criminal element," Smith said.
Traditionally, the gang's members have been older prisoners, in their 30s and 40s, who are serving longer sentences, Smith said. They remain its leaders, but as the group has branched out into Baltimore, it has recruited younger members as well, Smith said. "You have to have your foot soldiers who you need to do the work," he said.
Like other prison gangs, it is also enlisting people without criminal backgrounds who can, for example, obtain jobs in prisons, Smith said.
"I strongly believe that the majority of our staff are good," he said, "but it only takes a few bad seeds to make everyone look bad."
Organized along paramilitary lines, the BGF has a charter, code of ethics and oath of allegiance, according to government documents.
Brown recently published "The Black Book -- Empowering Black Families and Communities." According to the publishing company's Web site, the book is designed to make people "aware of the vision of comrade George Jackson" -- the founder of BGF -- "and the struggle that he lived and died for."
A BGF member who is cooperating with investigators told them that the book is a ploy to make the group appear legitimate, according to an affidavit filed in support of the charges.
When the crowd dispersed from Druid Hill Park on Monday, police found copies of "The Black Book" and a gun.
Prison Guards Accused of Supplying Gang Members
Reported by: Jeff Hager
Reported by: Delia Goncalves
Last Update: 4/16 10:52 pm
Manager of troubled nightclub involved in gang arrests.
Police said it was a string of violent crime that led them to crack down on Club 410. They successfully padlocked the trouble spot last week, when manager Tomeka Harris vowed to fight the closure. She told us, “There is no drug activity going on here it's all rumors it's all lies."
Come to find out Harris, who so openly defended the club, was under investigation herself. “I'm a law abiding citizen I do what I'm supposed to do so I don't commit crime," she said on April 8th. Now investigators say Harris was a member of the Black Guerrilla Family. They arrested her - and 23 others - on drug, extortion and conspiracy charges. The indictment even alleges members coordinated hits from their jail cell - where the gang, which dates back to the 1960’s, originated. “Gang members of BGF when they're incarcerated continue to involved in gang activities using contraband cell phones in our prisons to call out to fellow members outside the prison," explained U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein.
A major crack in the case, came just a few days ago when police spotted nearly 200 gang members at Druid Hill Park. Two were arrested. Baltimore Police Commissioner Fred Bealefeld said, “It's a great opportunity for us not to wait for fire. Someone smelled smoke and we went and were able to get some bad guys off the streets."
Police won't comment on the link between Tomeka Harris' gang arrest and their efforts to shut down Club 410 but neighbors are relieved it looks like the club is gone - for good.
It’s a prison gang that dates back to the sixties, but the federal indictments suggest the Black Guerilla Family, or BMF, used modern-day, state-of-the-art technology to continue operating its drug trade and to order hits from behind bars.
"Using contraband cell phones in our prisons to call out to fellow members outside the prison... even to call other members that are located in other prisons," said U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein.
Among the two dozen gang members or associates arrested in prisons across the state, the feds busted four current or former corrections employees.
"These are bad examples of the profession and they need to be weeded out... rooted out for everybody's safety," said Maryland Public Safety and Correctional Services Secretary Gary D. Maynard.
In addition to contraband cell phones, here at the Metropolitan Transition Center in Baltimore, we're told gang leaders would courier in fancy food and liquor including champagne, vodka and seafood.
As the investigation inside the prisons came to a head, it left gang members on the outside in chaos.
City police, acting upon information provided by state and federal agents, broke up a Black Guerilla Family gang meeting in Druid Hill Park on Monday.
"We got great intelligence,” said Baltimore City Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld, “We responded in a good comprehensive way and we were able to capture some of the guys with guns."
In an effort to further crack down on active gang operations behind bars, prison officials are using phone-sniffing dogs to locate contraband cell phones, and in a few months, proposed federal legislation may lead to signal-blocking devices for those, which remain in the inmates’ hands.
Copyright 2009 The E.W. Scripps Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Reported by: Delia Goncalves
Last Update: 4/16 10:52 pm
Manager of troubled nightclub involved in gang arrests.
Police said it was a string of violent crime that led them to crack down on Club 410. They successfully padlocked the trouble spot last week, when manager Tomeka Harris vowed to fight the closure. She told us, “There is no drug activity going on here it's all rumors it's all lies."
Come to find out Harris, who so openly defended the club, was under investigation herself. “I'm a law abiding citizen I do what I'm supposed to do so I don't commit crime," she said on April 8th. Now investigators say Harris was a member of the Black Guerrilla Family. They arrested her - and 23 others - on drug, extortion and conspiracy charges. The indictment even alleges members coordinated hits from their jail cell - where the gang, which dates back to the 1960’s, originated. “Gang members of BGF when they're incarcerated continue to involved in gang activities using contraband cell phones in our prisons to call out to fellow members outside the prison," explained U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein.
A major crack in the case, came just a few days ago when police spotted nearly 200 gang members at Druid Hill Park. Two were arrested. Baltimore Police Commissioner Fred Bealefeld said, “It's a great opportunity for us not to wait for fire. Someone smelled smoke and we went and were able to get some bad guys off the streets."
Police won't comment on the link between Tomeka Harris' gang arrest and their efforts to shut down Club 410 but neighbors are relieved it looks like the club is gone - for good.
It’s a prison gang that dates back to the sixties, but the federal indictments suggest the Black Guerilla Family, or BMF, used modern-day, state-of-the-art technology to continue operating its drug trade and to order hits from behind bars.
"Using contraband cell phones in our prisons to call out to fellow members outside the prison... even to call other members that are located in other prisons," said U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein.
Among the two dozen gang members or associates arrested in prisons across the state, the feds busted four current or former corrections employees.
"These are bad examples of the profession and they need to be weeded out... rooted out for everybody's safety," said Maryland Public Safety and Correctional Services Secretary Gary D. Maynard.
In addition to contraband cell phones, here at the Metropolitan Transition Center in Baltimore, we're told gang leaders would courier in fancy food and liquor including champagne, vodka and seafood.
As the investigation inside the prisons came to a head, it left gang members on the outside in chaos.
City police, acting upon information provided by state and federal agents, broke up a Black Guerilla Family gang meeting in Druid Hill Park on Monday.
"We got great intelligence,” said Baltimore City Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld, “We responded in a good comprehensive way and we were able to capture some of the guys with guns."
In an effort to further crack down on active gang operations behind bars, prison officials are using phone-sniffing dogs to locate contraband cell phones, and in a few months, proposed federal legislation may lead to signal-blocking devices for those, which remain in the inmates’ hands.
Copyright 2009 The E.W. Scripps Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Gang-related bus murders rattle Guatemala capital
Fri Apr 17, 2009 5:13pm EDT
* Dozens of bus employees attacked so far this year
* Extortions said to generate nearly $10,000 a day
* Guatemala president points to international traffickers
By Sarah Grainger
GUATEMALA CITY, April 17 (Reuters) - Guatemalan police have arrested a street gang leader on suspicion of organizing the murders of dozens of bus drivers, part of a wave of attacks on the capital's public transport system.
Police say 21-year-old Axel Ramirez, alias "El Smaily" ("Smiley"), belongs to the "Mara 18" gang and ordered more than 20 shootings of bus drivers and fare collectors for not paying extortionists.
Ramirez, arrested on Thursday after a shootout, had been released from prison in December after serving about four years for murdering a rival gang member.
"He was doing a lot of harm, not just extorting our country but organizing murders and generating terror wherever he lived," Interior Minister Salvador Gandara told local radio.
Gangs have attacked more than 40 bus employees this year. Usually the killers pull up to rickety city buses on motorcycles and open fire, or climb aboard and shoot the drivers.
Some 135 bus drivers were slain last year, 50 percent more than in 2007 and more than twice the number murdered in 2006.
Buses often crash after the shootings and passengers are killed or injured in the mayhem. Some bus companies have staged transit strikes in protest.
A 2-month-old baby recently was killed by a stray bullet when gunmen boarded a bus and shot the driver. The same week, an 85-year-old man died in a similar incident.
With more than 6,000 murders last year in a country of 13 million people, Guatemala is one of Latin America's most violent countries. Still scarred from a 1960-96 civil war, it is struggling to contain youth gangs and drug cartels.
Gangs like the "Mara 18" and the rival "Mara Salvatrucha" have thousands of members in vast criminal networks spanning Los Angeles to Central America. They live off extortion, armed assault and drug dealing. Many are adolescents.
Bus extortions in Guatemala City now generate close to $10,000 a day, according to the head of the bus owner's association, and murders of drivers have exploded.
The government is phasing in a $35 million program to replace cash fares with prepaid plastic cards on buses.
This week President Alvaro Colom linked the murders with increased drug smuggling into Guatemala as Mexican cartels move south to avoid an army crackdown at home and seek new trafficking routes.
"The violence is planned and managed by those with political and economic interests who participate in organized crime and international narco-trafficking," Colom said. (Editing by Xavier Briand)
© Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved
* Dozens of bus employees attacked so far this year
* Extortions said to generate nearly $10,000 a day
* Guatemala president points to international traffickers
By Sarah Grainger
GUATEMALA CITY, April 17 (Reuters) - Guatemalan police have arrested a street gang leader on suspicion of organizing the murders of dozens of bus drivers, part of a wave of attacks on the capital's public transport system.
Police say 21-year-old Axel Ramirez, alias "El Smaily" ("Smiley"), belongs to the "Mara 18" gang and ordered more than 20 shootings of bus drivers and fare collectors for not paying extortionists.
Ramirez, arrested on Thursday after a shootout, had been released from prison in December after serving about four years for murdering a rival gang member.
"He was doing a lot of harm, not just extorting our country but organizing murders and generating terror wherever he lived," Interior Minister Salvador Gandara told local radio.
Gangs have attacked more than 40 bus employees this year. Usually the killers pull up to rickety city buses on motorcycles and open fire, or climb aboard and shoot the drivers.
Some 135 bus drivers were slain last year, 50 percent more than in 2007 and more than twice the number murdered in 2006.
Buses often crash after the shootings and passengers are killed or injured in the mayhem. Some bus companies have staged transit strikes in protest.
A 2-month-old baby recently was killed by a stray bullet when gunmen boarded a bus and shot the driver. The same week, an 85-year-old man died in a similar incident.
With more than 6,000 murders last year in a country of 13 million people, Guatemala is one of Latin America's most violent countries. Still scarred from a 1960-96 civil war, it is struggling to contain youth gangs and drug cartels.
Gangs like the "Mara 18" and the rival "Mara Salvatrucha" have thousands of members in vast criminal networks spanning Los Angeles to Central America. They live off extortion, armed assault and drug dealing. Many are adolescents.
Bus extortions in Guatemala City now generate close to $10,000 a day, according to the head of the bus owner's association, and murders of drivers have exploded.
The government is phasing in a $35 million program to replace cash fares with prepaid plastic cards on buses.
This week President Alvaro Colom linked the murders with increased drug smuggling into Guatemala as Mexican cartels move south to avoid an army crackdown at home and seek new trafficking routes.
"The violence is planned and managed by those with political and economic interests who participate in organized crime and international narco-trafficking," Colom said. (Editing by Xavier Briand)
© Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved
Friday, April 17, 2009
Gang Quintet Guilty of Racketeering
Wichita, Kansas
April 15, 2009
Five members of Crips street gangs in Wichita have been found guilty on conspiracy to engage in racketeering and other charges; a sixth defendant was convicted on a firearms charge.
A federal jury returned a verdict Wednesday morning in Wichita, ending a trial that began Feb. 24, and went to the jury on March 30. The verdict marks the second time in Kansas that a jury has found street gang-members guilty of racketeering. Last November, the first trial ended in the convictions of three members of the Crips: Clinton A.D. Knight, Tracy Harris, and Chester Randall, Jr.
Both trials were the result of charges brought after a major investigation by the Wichita Police Department into gang crimes. Last May 2008, Wichita police and the U.S. Attorney’s office teamed up to file the first federal indictments in state history under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).
The indictments alleged that the defendants and other members of Crips street gangs in Wichita conspired to create and maintain through acts of violence and intimidation a drug trafficking operation.
“The Wichita Police are encouraged by today’s guilty verdicts,” said police chief Norman Williams. “Over the past 21 years, these criminal gangs have used fear, intimidation, and violence to terrorize our community. Today’s verdicts reflect the tremendous partnership between federal, local and state law enforcement agencies that have worked together for many years to bring these people to justice.”
The jury returned the following verdicts:
*Jonearl Smith, 30, Wichita: guilty on one count of conspiracy to engage in racketeering, and one count of conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine. He was found not guilty on one count of conspiracy to distribute marijuana. The jury did not reach a verdict on one count of participating in a racketeering influenced and corrupt organization.
*Lonnie Wade, 29, Wichita: guilty on one count of conspiracy to engage in racketeering, one count of maintaining 1815 E. 23rd in furtherance of drug trafficking, and two counts of conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine. He was found not guilty on one count of maintaining 505 N. Rock Road, Apt. 1111 in furtherance of drug trafficking. The jury did not reach a verdict on one count of participating in a racketeering influenced and corrupt organization.
*Corey Cornelius, 30, Wichita: guilty on one count of conspiracy to engage in racketeering, one count of conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine and one count of conspiracy to distribute marijuana. The jury did not reach a verdict on one count of participating in a racketeering influenced and corrupt organization.
*Darryn Frierson, 36, Wichita: guilty on one count of conspiracy to engage in racketeering, one count of distribution of cocaine, one count of distribution of crack cocaine, two counts of possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine, one count of maintaining 2249 N. Minneapolis in furtherance of drug trafficking, and two counts of conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine. He was found not guilty on one count of conspiracy to distribute marijuana. The jury did not reach a verdict on one count of engaging in racketeering.
*Calvin Williams, 29, Wichita: guilty on one count of conspiracy to engage in racketeering. He was found not guilty on one count of threatening a witness, and one count of threatening a person for information relating to a crime against a law enforcement officer. The jury did not reach a verdict on one count of conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine and one count of conspiracy to distribute marijuana.
*Jermall Campbell, 27, Wichita: guilty on one count of unlawful possession of ammunition after a felony conviction. He was found not guilty on one count of racketeering, one count of conspiracy to engage in racketeering, and one count of murder.
Some defendants are facing mandatory minimum sentences because of prior convictions.
The Wichita Police Department led the federal investigation. The police department’s Cold Case Task Force also included members from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Drug Enforcement Administration; Housing and Urban Development - Office of Inspector General; Health and Human Services - Office of Inspector General, the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office; the U.S. Marshal Service, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Also assisting with the investigation were the Kansas Department of Health and Human Services; the state Bureau of Alcohol Beverage Control; the Kansas Attorney General’s Office; the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office and other agencies.
April 15, 2009
Five members of Crips street gangs in Wichita have been found guilty on conspiracy to engage in racketeering and other charges; a sixth defendant was convicted on a firearms charge.
A federal jury returned a verdict Wednesday morning in Wichita, ending a trial that began Feb. 24, and went to the jury on March 30. The verdict marks the second time in Kansas that a jury has found street gang-members guilty of racketeering. Last November, the first trial ended in the convictions of three members of the Crips: Clinton A.D. Knight, Tracy Harris, and Chester Randall, Jr.
Both trials were the result of charges brought after a major investigation by the Wichita Police Department into gang crimes. Last May 2008, Wichita police and the U.S. Attorney’s office teamed up to file the first federal indictments in state history under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).
The indictments alleged that the defendants and other members of Crips street gangs in Wichita conspired to create and maintain through acts of violence and intimidation a drug trafficking operation.
“The Wichita Police are encouraged by today’s guilty verdicts,” said police chief Norman Williams. “Over the past 21 years, these criminal gangs have used fear, intimidation, and violence to terrorize our community. Today’s verdicts reflect the tremendous partnership between federal, local and state law enforcement agencies that have worked together for many years to bring these people to justice.”
The jury returned the following verdicts:
*Jonearl Smith, 30, Wichita: guilty on one count of conspiracy to engage in racketeering, and one count of conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine. He was found not guilty on one count of conspiracy to distribute marijuana. The jury did not reach a verdict on one count of participating in a racketeering influenced and corrupt organization.
*Lonnie Wade, 29, Wichita: guilty on one count of conspiracy to engage in racketeering, one count of maintaining 1815 E. 23rd in furtherance of drug trafficking, and two counts of conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine. He was found not guilty on one count of maintaining 505 N. Rock Road, Apt. 1111 in furtherance of drug trafficking. The jury did not reach a verdict on one count of participating in a racketeering influenced and corrupt organization.
*Corey Cornelius, 30, Wichita: guilty on one count of conspiracy to engage in racketeering, one count of conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine and one count of conspiracy to distribute marijuana. The jury did not reach a verdict on one count of participating in a racketeering influenced and corrupt organization.
*Darryn Frierson, 36, Wichita: guilty on one count of conspiracy to engage in racketeering, one count of distribution of cocaine, one count of distribution of crack cocaine, two counts of possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine, one count of maintaining 2249 N. Minneapolis in furtherance of drug trafficking, and two counts of conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine. He was found not guilty on one count of conspiracy to distribute marijuana. The jury did not reach a verdict on one count of engaging in racketeering.
*Calvin Williams, 29, Wichita: guilty on one count of conspiracy to engage in racketeering. He was found not guilty on one count of threatening a witness, and one count of threatening a person for information relating to a crime against a law enforcement officer. The jury did not reach a verdict on one count of conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine and one count of conspiracy to distribute marijuana.
*Jermall Campbell, 27, Wichita: guilty on one count of unlawful possession of ammunition after a felony conviction. He was found not guilty on one count of racketeering, one count of conspiracy to engage in racketeering, and one count of murder.
Some defendants are facing mandatory minimum sentences because of prior convictions.
The Wichita Police Department led the federal investigation. The police department’s Cold Case Task Force also included members from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Drug Enforcement Administration; Housing and Urban Development - Office of Inspector General; Health and Human Services - Office of Inspector General, the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office; the U.S. Marshal Service, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Also assisting with the investigation were the Kansas Department of Health and Human Services; the state Bureau of Alcohol Beverage Control; the Kansas Attorney General’s Office; the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office and other agencies.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Graffiti tagger David Miera sentenced to life in prison for 2006 shooting death
WestWord.com
By Jared Jacang Maher in Follow That StoryFriday, Apr. 3 2009 @ 2:25PM
Battles between tagging crews can sometime get violent in West Denver.
A member of a West Denver tagging crew will have lots of time to work in his blackbook after being sentenced to life in prison yesterday.
A Jefferson County judge slapped twenty-year-old David Miera Jr. with a life sentence plus 32 years for being the triggerman in a 2006 shooting that killed one man and caused serious injury to another.
Miera belonged to EMS, a loose collection of as many as 200 taggers known for scrawling their insignia on property across Denver's west side. Such crews are known within the graffiti community and among law enforcement as "tagbangers" for their low spray can skills -- no "pieces," just ugly tags -- and propensity for gang-like violence. For the past several years, EMS has been in heavy competition with rival crew WKS for turf and respect. In 2006, this escalated from the walls (the traditional way crews do battle) into stabbings and shootings.
Westword chronicled some of the drama in the June 2007 story, "Tagging up Denver." Here's an excerpt from that article:
At last summer's Taste of Colorado festival, a rumble between more than two dozen WKS and EMS members resulted in one teen getting stabbed. And on December 17, Jonathan "Roman" MacLagan was shot to death at a Littleton house party after breaking up a fight between rival crews. The twenty-year-old Kennedy High School grad "was a peacemaker at heart," says one of MacLagan's friends. "He wasn't down for fighting. He was a good homie like that."
Miera, then nineteen, was arrested five days later by Jefferson County deputies for the shooting death of MacLagan. According to an arrest affidavit, he told police that he and other EMS members became angry after not being admitted to a party. As they left, Miera says he fired a shotgun from the back window of an SUV intending to hit Moke, a member of WKS. Instead, the blast hit MacLagan in the head, killing him. "It wasn't meant for Roman, it was meant for Moke," Miera told investigators. He is currently awaiting a plea hearing on charges of first-degree murder.
In February, a jury found Miera guilty on several charges, including the first-degree murder of MacLagan and the first-degree assault of Carlos Sanchez, who was also shot but survived. The judge's sentence makes certain that the only walls Miera will be tagging up anytime soon will be prison walls.
Meanwhile, the City of Denver is banking on public art as a way to cut down on graffiti and related violence. Will it work for crews like EMS? Weigh in on our blog "City announces program to fight graffiti by paying for murals."
By Jared Jacang Maher in Follow That StoryFriday, Apr. 3 2009 @ 2:25PM
Battles between tagging crews can sometime get violent in West Denver.
A member of a West Denver tagging crew will have lots of time to work in his blackbook after being sentenced to life in prison yesterday.
A Jefferson County judge slapped twenty-year-old David Miera Jr. with a life sentence plus 32 years for being the triggerman in a 2006 shooting that killed one man and caused serious injury to another.
Miera belonged to EMS, a loose collection of as many as 200 taggers known for scrawling their insignia on property across Denver's west side. Such crews are known within the graffiti community and among law enforcement as "tagbangers" for their low spray can skills -- no "pieces," just ugly tags -- and propensity for gang-like violence. For the past several years, EMS has been in heavy competition with rival crew WKS for turf and respect. In 2006, this escalated from the walls (the traditional way crews do battle) into stabbings and shootings.
Westword chronicled some of the drama in the June 2007 story, "Tagging up Denver." Here's an excerpt from that article:
At last summer's Taste of Colorado festival, a rumble between more than two dozen WKS and EMS members resulted in one teen getting stabbed. And on December 17, Jonathan "Roman" MacLagan was shot to death at a Littleton house party after breaking up a fight between rival crews. The twenty-year-old Kennedy High School grad "was a peacemaker at heart," says one of MacLagan's friends. "He wasn't down for fighting. He was a good homie like that."
Miera, then nineteen, was arrested five days later by Jefferson County deputies for the shooting death of MacLagan. According to an arrest affidavit, he told police that he and other EMS members became angry after not being admitted to a party. As they left, Miera says he fired a shotgun from the back window of an SUV intending to hit Moke, a member of WKS. Instead, the blast hit MacLagan in the head, killing him. "It wasn't meant for Roman, it was meant for Moke," Miera told investigators. He is currently awaiting a plea hearing on charges of first-degree murder.
In February, a jury found Miera guilty on several charges, including the first-degree murder of MacLagan and the first-degree assault of Carlos Sanchez, who was also shot but survived. The judge's sentence makes certain that the only walls Miera will be tagging up anytime soon will be prison walls.
Meanwhile, the City of Denver is banking on public art as a way to cut down on graffiti and related violence. Will it work for crews like EMS? Weigh in on our blog "City announces program to fight graffiti by paying for murals."
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Five arrested in robbery of pizza deliverer charged with violating street gang act
Published: March 31, 2009 07:40 pm
Rome News-Tribune (GA)
Five arrested in robbery of pizza deliverer charged with violating street gang act
Mark Millican
Four more people have been arrested in the March 26 armed robbery of a pizza delivery man at gunpoint near 306 N. Henderson St.
Dennis Shammad Love, 17, of 715 Trammel St., and three juveniles were arrested Tuesday by officers with the Dalton Police Department. Damarion Johnson, 17, was arrested on Friday. All are charged with armed robbery and violation of the Georgia Street Gang Act. Police spokesman Bruce Frazier said officers believe some of the youth are part of a gang but do not want to publicize a gang name over concerns that other gangs may commit crimes to gain publicity.
Investigating officers found a pellet gun in the area where the robbery occurred and believe it was used in the holdup, Frazier said.
Love and Johnson are students at Northwest Whitfield High School, according to a spokesman at the Whitfield County Jail. They remained in custody Tuesday afternoon. Frazier said the juveniles were taken to the Regional Youth Detention Center where a decision would be made about incarceration or releasing them to their parents.
Punishment by the school system could include suspension or expulsion under the school system’s code of conduct. Spokesman Eric Beavers said Northwest principal Carolyn Towns could take the students before a discipline tribunal hearing.
The delivery driver was robbed in the area of apartments at 306 N. Henderson St. after someone called in an order for an address where the resident was not home, police said. As the driver was about to leave, he was approached by a group of young males who claimed to have made the order. He went to his truck to retrieve a change bag when one of the males pulled out a gun and demanded money.
The driver left after giving up $25 and the pizza.
Rome News-Tribune (GA)
Five arrested in robbery of pizza deliverer charged with violating street gang act
Mark Millican
Four more people have been arrested in the March 26 armed robbery of a pizza delivery man at gunpoint near 306 N. Henderson St.
Dennis Shammad Love, 17, of 715 Trammel St., and three juveniles were arrested Tuesday by officers with the Dalton Police Department. Damarion Johnson, 17, was arrested on Friday. All are charged with armed robbery and violation of the Georgia Street Gang Act. Police spokesman Bruce Frazier said officers believe some of the youth are part of a gang but do not want to publicize a gang name over concerns that other gangs may commit crimes to gain publicity.
Investigating officers found a pellet gun in the area where the robbery occurred and believe it was used in the holdup, Frazier said.
Love and Johnson are students at Northwest Whitfield High School, according to a spokesman at the Whitfield County Jail. They remained in custody Tuesday afternoon. Frazier said the juveniles were taken to the Regional Youth Detention Center where a decision would be made about incarceration or releasing them to their parents.
Punishment by the school system could include suspension or expulsion under the school system’s code of conduct. Spokesman Eric Beavers said Northwest principal Carolyn Towns could take the students before a discipline tribunal hearing.
The delivery driver was robbed in the area of apartments at 306 N. Henderson St. after someone called in an order for an address where the resident was not home, police said. As the driver was about to leave, he was approached by a group of young males who claimed to have made the order. He went to his truck to retrieve a change bag when one of the males pulled out a gun and demanded money.
The driver left after giving up $25 and the pizza.
Mississauga (Canada) homes raided in street gang bust
Mississauga.com
April 2, 2009 09:48 AM -
A series of pre-dawn raids yesterday, including two in Mississauga, have resulted in more than 100 people being arrested in what police described as the biggest street gang takedown in Ontario's history.
About 1,000 police officers executed more than 100 search warrants during a bust of "unprecedented scale," Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair said this morning.
Police from across the province, including OPP officers, burst into apartment buildings and homes as early as 5 a.m. in an effort to dismantle both high and low-level operatives of various criminal organizations.
Two Mississauga homes were raided, with four people being arrested.
"We have achieved the purpose that we set out to do today," Blair said.
Police continued to make arrests and seize property throughout the day.
Project Fusion, as police are calling Wednesday's takedown, began last year and focused on crimes dating back to 2003, Chief Bill Blair told a news conference at police headquarters today.
The investigation focused on two street gangs: MNE (Markham Road/Eglinton Ave. E.) and the 400 Crew (400 McCowan Rd.) located in southeast Toronto, Blair said.
"But there is an overarching criminal enterprise that supplies weapons and drugs to the street gangs, " Blair said. They don't have a name but "they have been extremely well organized and sophisticated in their operation."
One hundred homes and 61 vehicles around the GTA were the targets of search warrants.
Police arrested 125 people. Some face weapons trafficking and criminal organization charges while some facing less serious offences already have been released from custody. Prosecutors will try to detain the accused who face the most serious charges. No names have been released.
"This is the culmination of a complex and obviously successful organized crime investigation," Blair said.
lrosella@mississauga.net
April 2, 2009 09:48 AM -
A series of pre-dawn raids yesterday, including two in Mississauga, have resulted in more than 100 people being arrested in what police described as the biggest street gang takedown in Ontario's history.
About 1,000 police officers executed more than 100 search warrants during a bust of "unprecedented scale," Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair said this morning.
Police from across the province, including OPP officers, burst into apartment buildings and homes as early as 5 a.m. in an effort to dismantle both high and low-level operatives of various criminal organizations.
Two Mississauga homes were raided, with four people being arrested.
"We have achieved the purpose that we set out to do today," Blair said.
Police continued to make arrests and seize property throughout the day.
Project Fusion, as police are calling Wednesday's takedown, began last year and focused on crimes dating back to 2003, Chief Bill Blair told a news conference at police headquarters today.
The investigation focused on two street gangs: MNE (Markham Road/Eglinton Ave. E.) and the 400 Crew (400 McCowan Rd.) located in southeast Toronto, Blair said.
"But there is an overarching criminal enterprise that supplies weapons and drugs to the street gangs, " Blair said. They don't have a name but "they have been extremely well organized and sophisticated in their operation."
One hundred homes and 61 vehicles around the GTA were the targets of search warrants.
Police arrested 125 people. Some face weapons trafficking and criminal organization charges while some facing less serious offences already have been released from custody. Prosecutors will try to detain the accused who face the most serious charges. No names have been released.
"This is the culmination of a complex and obviously successful organized crime investigation," Blair said.
lrosella@mississauga.net
Injunction targets O.C. (CA) street gang
Lps Angeles times
6:19 PM | March 27, 2009
An Orange County judge issued a court order today that bars dozens of alleged members of a street gang from assembling with each other, authorities said.
Superior Court Judge Kazharu Makino signed the preliminary injunction against the Orange Varrio Cypress gang, which claims territory in the city of Orange, according to the district attorney’s office. The court order is the sixth signed in Orange County in the last 2½ years. The last injunction was issued against a rival gang, also in Orange, in July.
Law enforcement authorities served 108 alleged gang members with injunction notices starting last month, and 55 of them were named in Friday’s injunction.
The judge’s order demarcates a 3.8-square-mile area, mostly in downtown Orange west of the 55 Freeway, in which alleged gang members are not allowed to congregate together, drink or use drugs in public, or wear gang attire. They must also obey a curfew and other laws or face increased penalties.
“They’ve been committing violent crime and really been a nuisance to the community,” said Orange Police Sgt. Dan Adams, who added that the gang dates back to at least the 1970s.
More recently, police said, the gang's members have been involved in dozens of attempted homicides, weapons violations, assaults and drug crimes from 2005 to 2008.
As in Los Angeles and San Diego counties, gang injunctions have become more common in Orange County as a way to step up the fight against gangs in Anaheim, Orange, San Juan Capistrano, San Clemente and Santa Ana.
Gang injunctions are somewhat controversial, with civil libertarians saying they cast too wide a net and can amount to racial profiling.
But law enforcement officials say that they pursue court orders in response to fears and concerns by law-abiding residents, and that they include only the most active and well-documented gang members, such as those who have admitted to gang membership, dress in gang colors, bear gang tattoos or have committed crimes on behalf of the gang.
--Tony Barboza
6:19 PM | March 27, 2009
An Orange County judge issued a court order today that bars dozens of alleged members of a street gang from assembling with each other, authorities said.
Superior Court Judge Kazharu Makino signed the preliminary injunction against the Orange Varrio Cypress gang, which claims territory in the city of Orange, according to the district attorney’s office. The court order is the sixth signed in Orange County in the last 2½ years. The last injunction was issued against a rival gang, also in Orange, in July.
Law enforcement authorities served 108 alleged gang members with injunction notices starting last month, and 55 of them were named in Friday’s injunction.
The judge’s order demarcates a 3.8-square-mile area, mostly in downtown Orange west of the 55 Freeway, in which alleged gang members are not allowed to congregate together, drink or use drugs in public, or wear gang attire. They must also obey a curfew and other laws or face increased penalties.
“They’ve been committing violent crime and really been a nuisance to the community,” said Orange Police Sgt. Dan Adams, who added that the gang dates back to at least the 1970s.
More recently, police said, the gang's members have been involved in dozens of attempted homicides, weapons violations, assaults and drug crimes from 2005 to 2008.
As in Los Angeles and San Diego counties, gang injunctions have become more common in Orange County as a way to step up the fight against gangs in Anaheim, Orange, San Juan Capistrano, San Clemente and Santa Ana.
Gang injunctions are somewhat controversial, with civil libertarians saying they cast too wide a net and can amount to racial profiling.
But law enforcement officials say that they pursue court orders in response to fears and concerns by law-abiding residents, and that they include only the most active and well-documented gang members, such as those who have admitted to gang membership, dress in gang colors, bear gang tattoos or have committed crimes on behalf of the gang.
--Tony Barboza
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Alliance marshals for war on gangs
The Republican
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
By PETER GOONAN
pgoonan@repub.com
SPRINGFIELD - Law enforcement and youth service agencies - assisted by a $1.4 million state grant - have announced plans for a series of neighborhood deployments to combat gang and youth violence.
Representatives of the participating agencies gathered on Tuesday at City Hall, saying that the coordinated effort is aimed at stepping up gang prevention, intervention, and suppression efforts. The initial deployment will be in the Forest Park and lower Forest Park area, said officials.
The grant, announced last fall, was awarded under the state Sen. Charles E. Shannon Jr. Community Safety Initiative grant program.
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
By PETER GOONAN
pgoonan@repub.com
SPRINGFIELD - Law enforcement and youth service agencies - assisted by a $1.4 million state grant - have announced plans for a series of neighborhood deployments to combat gang and youth violence.
Representatives of the participating agencies gathered on Tuesday at City Hall, saying that the coordinated effort is aimed at stepping up gang prevention, intervention, and suppression efforts. The initial deployment will be in the Forest Park and lower Forest Park area, said officials.
The grant, announced last fall, was awarded under the state Sen. Charles E. Shannon Jr. Community Safety Initiative grant program.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Violence broke out as rival gangs fought for territory
Violence broke out as gangs fought for turf
By Mark Cowan
Mar 24 2009, Birmingham Mail
THE murders of teenage party-goers Letisha Shakespeare and Charlene Ellis six years ago brought into sharp focus the gang problem that had plagued the city for a decade.
The innocent girls were caught in the crossfire as members of notorious street gangs, Burger Bar Boys and the Johnson Crew, fought a deadly battle on the streets.
Investigators believe the gangs’ roots can be traced back to the 1980s when groups of young black men banded together to counter threats to their community from the Far Right. They soon evolved into criminal street gangs battling each other and Jamaican Yardies for control of the booming crack cocaine market.
The Johnson Crew’s territory was Aston and Nechells while the Burger Bar Boys claimed Handsworth, Lozells and Perry Barr.
By the late 90s, the gangs had become chaotic and the city saw a rise in gun crime and stabbings as they brazenly targeted each other in public, with shootings developing from organised hits in conflicts over the drug trade to tit-for-tat issues of “respect, revenge and revenue”.
Their street war came to a head in January 2003 when members of the Burger Bar Boys went hunting rival Johnson Crew members at a party at a hairdressers in Aston. Letisha, aged 17, and 18-year-old Charlene, were murdered in a drive-by shooting. Their murders galvanised the city into action.
Within three years the gangs were splintered as almost all of the 50 ‘Most Wanted’ members of the two gangs were behind bars with members of the Burgers jailed over the girls’ murders and members of the Johnson Crew imprisoned for the murder of doorman Ishfaq Ahmed, killed in 2004.
A raft of new measures were also introduced to mediate between the warring factions to stop the tensions from spilling over onto the streets and give gang members an option to escape their lifestyle.
While it is debatable whether the two street gangs exert the same control they once did, the influence on youngsters attracted to what they see as a glamorous lifestyle is undeniable.
Younger gangs, made up mostly of teenagers attracted by the lure of being part of a gang, emerged with names such as Slash For Money Crew and the Bang Bang Crew. A trivial row between members of those gangs led to the stabbing of Odwayne Barnes in Birmingham city centre in March 2007.
Despite a drop in shootings, the gang problem has not disappeared. Last summer police saw an increase in tensions on the streets that led to an increase in gun crime and two murders.
By Mark Cowan
Mar 24 2009, Birmingham Mail
THE murders of teenage party-goers Letisha Shakespeare and Charlene Ellis six years ago brought into sharp focus the gang problem that had plagued the city for a decade.
The innocent girls were caught in the crossfire as members of notorious street gangs, Burger Bar Boys and the Johnson Crew, fought a deadly battle on the streets.
Investigators believe the gangs’ roots can be traced back to the 1980s when groups of young black men banded together to counter threats to their community from the Far Right. They soon evolved into criminal street gangs battling each other and Jamaican Yardies for control of the booming crack cocaine market.
The Johnson Crew’s territory was Aston and Nechells while the Burger Bar Boys claimed Handsworth, Lozells and Perry Barr.
By the late 90s, the gangs had become chaotic and the city saw a rise in gun crime and stabbings as they brazenly targeted each other in public, with shootings developing from organised hits in conflicts over the drug trade to tit-for-tat issues of “respect, revenge and revenue”.
Their street war came to a head in January 2003 when members of the Burger Bar Boys went hunting rival Johnson Crew members at a party at a hairdressers in Aston. Letisha, aged 17, and 18-year-old Charlene, were murdered in a drive-by shooting. Their murders galvanised the city into action.
Within three years the gangs were splintered as almost all of the 50 ‘Most Wanted’ members of the two gangs were behind bars with members of the Burgers jailed over the girls’ murders and members of the Johnson Crew imprisoned for the murder of doorman Ishfaq Ahmed, killed in 2004.
A raft of new measures were also introduced to mediate between the warring factions to stop the tensions from spilling over onto the streets and give gang members an option to escape their lifestyle.
While it is debatable whether the two street gangs exert the same control they once did, the influence on youngsters attracted to what they see as a glamorous lifestyle is undeniable.
Younger gangs, made up mostly of teenagers attracted by the lure of being part of a gang, emerged with names such as Slash For Money Crew and the Bang Bang Crew. A trivial row between members of those gangs led to the stabbing of Odwayne Barnes in Birmingham city centre in March 2007.
Despite a drop in shootings, the gang problem has not disappeared. Last summer police saw an increase in tensions on the streets that led to an increase in gun crime and two murders.
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