Thread: Brutal gang tests officers, cities and FBI

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Brutal gang tests officers, cities and FBI

By BOB BARR

Published on: 07/19/06

A poor soul suspected of cooperating with the authorities is abducted at gunpoint, beaten unmercifully, tortured and decapitated; another is gang-raped and shot repeatedly.

While these might describe the fate of Iraqi citizens suspected of befriending the U.S. military in that war-torn country half-way around the globe, the fact is, it is happening with increasing frequency right here in our country. It is not Muslin extremists in America who are perpetrating such acts of extreme violence within our own borders, but members of a large, highly-organized and well-funded street gang known as MS-13. You'd better watch out, because they may be coming to a neighborhood near you.

Already well-known to the FBI and to law enforcement in Los Angeles, Houston, New York and Washington, D.C., this Central America-based gang is present in at least 33 states across America and in hundreds of communities. With coffers filled by drug trafficking and extortion, MS-13 gang members are spreading their own and frightening brand of "camaraderie" to develop a new generation of restless and rootless immigrants whose only allegiance is to the gang and who will stop at nothing to carry out its nefarious goals.

MS-13 stands for the Spanish term Mara Salvatrucha 13. Experts disagree on the precise derivation of the name — believing it refers to street names in El Salvador and Los Angeles, or perhaps to slang Latin terminology for "mob." Regardless of where the terminology came from, law enforcement see where MS-13 is going, and they are deeply worried. Born out of the strife that befell El Salvador in the 1970s and 1980s as a result of a horrific civil war, and transferred to the United States by immigrants from that country and other nearby Central American countries, MS-13 has developed deep roots across America.

Because many of the immigrants from Central America are young adults without families, and lacking the drive possessed by many other aliens who have come here unlawfully to work in this country to send wages back to their families, these young people tended to band together among themselves and turn inward for support. The gang becomes their surrogate family, so to speak. Initiation rites for MS-13 are particularly brutal according to law enforcement experts — kickings, beatings and gang rapes, regardless of the age of the initiates. Some chapters require also that acts of violence be undertaken by initiates, including murders.

The loyalty demanded by the MS-13 "code" is lifelong and absolute. Those even suspected of providing information to the authorities are almost invariably tortured and killed, even women, regardless of whether they might be pregnant at the time they are called to account. Those members who attempt to leave are hunted down and dealt with similarly, even if they attempt to evade the gang by moving into another country.

While initially MS-13 gang members were easily identified by their garish and obvious tattoos, law enforcement officers are now finding some gang members downplaying such identifying marks, making their identification at least marginally more difficult.

Active in nearly three dozen states, MS-13 concentrations are most heavy in Los Angeles, Houston and several northeastern cities stretching from Baltimore to New York. Drawn to these metropolitan areas by neighborhood concentrations of easily-intimidated illegal aliens and ready access to drugs, MS-13 gangs are taxing the ability of local law enforcement. The FBI has greatly helped coordinate efforts to identify and track the gang's chapters and members. Still, with the illegal alien population across the country exploding, it is easy to grasp the extent of the problem facing law enforcement. Posing at least as serious a risk to communities across our country as Muslim extremist groups, it is clear the threat of MS-13 and similar organizations require much more attention than afforded thus far.

Already, Charlotte is home to hundreds of MS-13 gang members, who reportedly have been involved in a number of brutal murders in that city. The Washington, D.C., area's several thousand MS-13 gang bangers are spilling further and further into the surrounding areas of Virginia and Maryland, communities that until recent years were quiet places known for their Civil War monuments and battlefield sites.

Increasingly, such communities the length and breadth of America will — unless concerted and organized action is taken by law enforcement at all levels — become home to ruthlessly violent gang members from Central America whose only interest in America is not her opportunities, her history or her beauty, but the chance to kill, maim and rob those less able to defend themselves.

• Former congressman and U.S. Attorney Bob Barr practices law in Atlanta. Web site: www.bobbarr.org.

There are known MS-13 gang members in the section of the city of Boston that I live in. I do watch out for them as they are very aggressive.

These known gang members should be picked up off our streets and dropped off in the ocean somewhere maybe on an island if available, if not dropped off anyway!