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  1. #1
    Senior Member Darlene's Avatar
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    Enough is Enough

    http://lang.presstelegram.com/gangs/index-d1.asp

    This is an 8 part series of crime wave in Southern Calif. to read the other parts go to Link.

    This series is so extensive, I am still wading my way through it. There is much more at the site.


    Part 1


    Homegrown terror


    By Beth Barrett, Staff Writer
    Fueled by drug money and revenge, street gangs have flourished and spread across Southern California and beyond, thanks to sporadic and ineffective law enforcement efforts and inadequate intervention strategies.

    In the face of those tepid efforts, gang membership has exploded across Southern California since the 1960s. At the same time, gangs have grown more brutal _ engaging in a level of violence that holds many poor and minority communities in near constant terror.

    There are about 100,000 gangsters in more than 1,300 gangs in Los Angeles, Ventura and San Bernardino counties. They make up less than 1 percent of the population but commit at least half the region's homicides _ taking the lives of nearly 3,100 people in Southern California since 1999, more than three times the number of U.S. casualties in the war in Iraq.

    In interviews over the last three months, law enforcement officials, community activists and gang experts agree the "celebration of the culture of violence" among gang members is the region's top crime problem and becoming a national problem as transplanted Los Angeles gangs and their imitators take hold in inner cities across the country.

    Echoing the view of many, Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton said more police officers are needed to "secure the beachheads" but they must be combined with greatly expanded intervention, prevention and other community programs.

    "The irony is we can fix it," Bratton said. "It's all about more police and keeping at it. It's about resources."

    An estimated 4 percent to 10 percent of gang members are responsible for most of the violence _ a fact that causes gang intervention specialists, community activists and others to press for a distinction that lessens the stigma on and humanizes the many poor, uneducated, mostly minority young people who join gangs to be part of "surrogate families" in the absence of other services or support.

    "It's what we'd call a situation out of control; it's like war ... It's like 'Apocalypse Now,"' said Dr. Gary Slutkin, director and professor of epidemiology and international health at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

    "They are living in a pressure cooker and the way society has managed this group is by adding more pressure. The only way to relieve this is to put something around them that allows them to release it that doesn't push back. Our outreach workers are trained to do that ... Somebody has to make sense to them about what's going on."

    While the worst gang violence and the most deep-rooted problems are in the poorest, most impacted parts of Los Angeles, no part of the Southland is untouched by gang terror:

    * In Pomona last April, California Highway Patrol Officer Thomas Steiner was shot in the head and killed as he left the local courthouse. Valentino Arenas, 16, who wanted to join Pomona 12th Street, the city's oldest and largest gang, was charged with his murder _ one of 50 gang-related slayings in the city since 1999.

    * The banks of the San Gabriel River near Los Nietos and Pico Rivera have become gang killing fields. In the last few years, at least 20 men have died in gang violence there.

    * In the West San Gabriel Valley, the generations-long feud between Latino gang Duarte Eastside and black gang Duroc Crips escalated to a several-weeks war during March and April of 2003 with four separate gunbattles and one death.

    * Long Beach has seen 127 gang-related murders since 1999. The city counts approximately 6,000 gang members in a complex mix of ethnicities. There are 48 Hispanic gangs in the city, 28 black gangs, 12 Asian gangs and two white gangs.

    * Ventura County authorities won an injunction against the Colonia Chiques to disrupt contact among the estimated 1,000 members of the half-century-old gang blamed for dozens of murders in the Oxnard area.

    Cities throughout the Southland have seen an escalation in the violence of street gangs who have grown more brazen, mobile and lethal, law enforcement leaders from around the region say.

    Pomona police Chief James Lewis said gangs are no longer just a neighborhood problem, with members engaging in street crimes and protecting their home turf. Financed with drug money and aided by an effective communication system through widespread use of cell phones, they have formed regional alliances that pose a greater threat than ever.

    "Los Angeles and our gangs influence each other. They don't see the boundaries of Pomona and East Los Angeles. They may live in Pomona and have families in East Los Angeles or Riverside. They feed off each other's habits. What's acceptable in Los Angeles is acceptable elsewhere."

    The geographic interconnectivity often is strengthened in prison, where the Mexican Mafia and other jail gangs set standards that affect the behavior of "shot callers" and other gang members when they get out.

    Oxnard, in Ventura County, saw 14 gang killings where the victims or suspects belonged to Colonia Chiques _ a gang with Mexican Mafia affiliations that has an estimated 1,000 members _ in 2003 and early 2004 before a gang injunction slowed the violence, said Oxnard police Chief Art Lopez.

    "They come back (from prison) much more schooled, polished, more brutal gang members," said Lopez, a former deputy chief in Los Angeles.

    The gangs throughout the Southland are adopting a more deadly killing style, too _ pioneered in L.A.'s inner-city neighborhoods _ where shooters walk up to victims before firing at close range.

    "It was new for us, it's pretty brazen," Lopez said. "They started instead of drive-bys, really causing havoc. They'd walk up and get involved in a shooting, or go to parties (and shoot)."

    Added Craig Husband, Ventura County undersheriff: "(The walk-ups) make them more accurate. We think it's a different tactic by gang members, a statewide trend."

    San Bernardino County sheriff's Sgt. Phil Brown said the gangs are growing more violent in the farthest reaches of the county, including the high desert.

    "It's getting out in more remote areas," Brown said. "They go gang against gang. There's more gang violence to the general public and it's becoming more random, particularly in the Victorville area ... there are large outlaw motorcycle gangs in the high desert, and the East Side Victoria, an old Hispanic Victorville gang, is becoming more prevalent."

    Los Angeles' Bloods and Crips also have emerged in the high desert, he said.

    "The fear of retribution of incarceration doesn't concern them ... the gangs are functioning well in the correctional setting. Gang life is too profitable. They make good money and that's what it's about."

    Fontana police Chief Larry Clark said soaring populations in outlying communities of San Bernardino County and elsewhere have attracted urban gangsters who move with their families for jobs, housing or to set up criminal operations.

    Fontana, with 26 gang-related homicides since 1999, has tripled in size since the mid-1980s, growing to 158,000 residents.

    "If you look over a period of time ... the last 10 years, there's no question that there's not only been an increase in violence, but a drastic increase in the number of gang members and crimes associated with gang members," Clark said.

    Offshoots of Los Angeles Hispanic and black gangs, including Blood and Crips sets, homegrown Hispanic gangs, and youngsters whose families moved to the suburbs to try to get them out of inner-city gangs, create an explosive mix in communities not always prepared with police, and intervention and prevention programs, to deal with them.

    "Some of it has to do with when gang members feel it's hot in one area, they move to another where they might not be as visible to the law enforcement community," Clarke said.

    West Covina police Chief Frank Wills said there's been an upsurge in gang violence, and a mobility to the gangs that leaves "no city immune from it," pointing to the fatal Aug. 9 gang-related shooting in a West Covina condominium park's "tot lot" of Anthony Abranjain, 32 of Valinda.

    "You would not expect to find that in a middle-class area ... in suburban West Covina."

    Studies put the cost of each gang murder to taxpayers at $1 million, which includes an estimate for the loss of business and tourism to the region.

    Factoring in prison, and the cost rises to about $1.75 million per gang-related homicide.

    The five-year regional tally: $5.2 billion.

    A recent report by State Attorney General Bill Lockyer said that in the past 20 years, 75 percent of all gang murders in the state occurred within Los Angeles County.

    The death toll: 10,000.

    That's more American deaths than were caused by the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the bombing of the USS Cole and two American embassies, the conflict in Yugoslavia, the Oklahoma City federal building bombing, Operation Desert Storm and the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.

    Father Gregory J. Boyle, executive director of Homeboy Industries, said he has seen a growing willingness among hardened gangsters to cross old lines of behavior, such as shooting at a rival with a child or other innocent people nearby.

    The violence, he said, is fueled by "a lethal absence of hope."

    "The 95 percent (not involved in the shootings) are always fleeing something," said Boyle, who recently saw two former gang members working on graffiti abatement for his program shot and killed in separate incidents. "Most gang members would walk toward the light if there was a light, and boy would that have an impact on this town."

    A one-half percent sales tax proposal on the November ballot that would generate $560 million a year for public safety has helped galvanize law enforcement officials, workers in anti-gang programs and former gang members who have joined efforts to develop intervention programs and find alternatives to gang life.

    They see the chance to get more money for their efforts to combine more effective law enforcement with a growing emphasis on intervention and prevention.

    "You've got leadership across the board in terms of the sheriff, and the other county chiefs who are willing to work together," Bratton said. "We've got extraordinary cooperation from the feds. So in some respects if this referendum passes in November we will have created a perfect storm; a perfect storm in the sense all the elements are coming together at just the right time."

    Retired Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Wes McBride, president of the California Gang Investigators Association, said gangs have for decades been society's dirty little secret.

    "It's nasty. Nobody wants to talk about that stuff. ... It's like cancer. If you're not on it early, it can be fatal; if you do get on it early and stay on it, you can survive."

    After a dip in gang homicides _ the peak year for L.A. County was 1995 with 807 gang killings versus 556 last year _ many communities now are experiencing a resurgence. In the city of Los Angeles, for instance, violent crime has dropped but gang-related homicides have risen by over 20 percent.

    At the same time, cuts are being made to federal and state grants that pay for more police officers, advanced technology _ including sophisticated interstate computer tracking _ and an array of intervention programs designed to crack down on hard-core gangbangers, intervene with more marginal members and prevent younger children from ever joining up.

    Bratton said his force of 9,120 sworn officers operates more like a fire department than a police department, with officers "continually running from fire to fire" at the expense of consistent patrols in the same neighborhoods.

    Historically, police have tried to overpower the gangs with force in the form of raids like "Operation Hammer" that swept up some residents along with gang members in shows of might with military-style battering rams.

    "It's night and day since I was suing them (LAPD) 15 years ago," said civil rights attorney Connie Rice, who is working closely with the LAPD on developing reform policies.

    "Then no one questioned the paramilitary approach. While everyone wants to get rid of these crazy psychopaths driving by and terrorizing us, the cost was you brutalized everyone. Now they admit the costs of that."

    Los Angeles County counts between 80,000 and 85,000 gangsters in over 1,000 gangs; Ventura County, 5,500 in 43 gangs; and San Bernardino County, 11,600 gangster in 287 gangs.

    "The problem with indifference if someone doesn't live in a gang area and says 'Why should I care?' is that randomness is one problem with gangs. They're in vehicles," Sheriff Lee Baca said said. "Gang members have guns and they're not afraid to use them."

    Daude Sherrills, CEO/Chairman of 100K Man March For Peace and an architect of the gang truce, believes the tragedy of gangs is perpetuated by a system of law enforcement and others who have benefited financially "while we were swimming in our own blood."

    "They've put us in a box so they can plunder the money," said Sherrills, who left the Grape Street gang in Watts in 1988 convinced if he didn't his baby boy would grow up without a father.

    Several federal, state and LAPD task forces have been or are under way to monitor the activities of some of the area's most violent gangs.

    "This has highlighted the realization that gangs are a national problem," said retired LAPD Lt. Ed Wilson, who oversaw the South Bureau gang unit. "They've moved from territory to narcotics to getting a large amount of income which has (added) to their mobility. I can't imagine any city in the nation not recognizing the gang cancer."

  2. #2
    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
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    The "feds" are very supportive....sure why not spend another $500,000,000 on these people. They are murderers. In our society, there is no second chance for murder. In very rare exceptional cases, they get a parole...this is for Americans. We do not even have legal jurisdiction over the gang members who are alien. Most of the gang members are alien.

    Get the aliens out. Spend $500,000,000 rounding them up, putting them on a bus and bus by bus by bus by bus....deliver them to the home address of VINCENTE FOX....because from whatever nation is their nation of origin, VINCENTE let them into his country and because he wanted all his people to come here, he allowed the others to come with his.

    Then, cut off all aid to Mexico.

    What in the heck is going on? Do people care so little about each other in California that they would allow a condition to progress to 10,000 deaths and their response is to try and pass a referendum for more money to do WHAT???

    That Father who thinks these people just need an environment to see the "light" is in the dark himself, because this situation is way beyond afternoon meetings with the Father once a week to guide them toward the "light."

    If the "feds" know about the referendum, then obviously the Administration is fully aware of the 10,000 deaths in California.

    The borders are still open; the President on a holiday holding hands with the Prince of Oil; and I'm sure more Americans have died since yesterday.

    The Sheriff is happy and hoping for alot of money from the Referendum which won't change a thing.

    The Feds are happy because someone else is going to get some higher taxes from American Citizens so when the bubble burst the end of this year, more will lose their homes on Tax Liens....more property for the Globalists The gangs are probably happy too because this is going to be a great deal of money floating around......and gangs know the payola game.....you know, BECAUSE THEY'RE GANGSTERS. Gang = gangster.

    Hmmmm.

    These people have all lost their minds.

    GET National Guard Troops to the Border Now to Help the Border Patrols and the Minutemen.

    ANYTHING else is like batting flies with the door open and a open jar of honey sittin' on the table.

    GET TROOPS TO THE BORDER NOW!!

    Tell the Father...not to worry....it's not his problem.

    Tell the Sheriff...it's not more money you need, its less gangsters.

    Tell the Feds....YOU'RE FIRED!!!
    A Nation Without Borders Is Not A Nation - Ronald Reagan
    Save America, Deport Congress! - Judy

    Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at https://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  3. #3
    Senior Member dman1200's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Judy
    The "feds" are very supportive....sure why not spend another $500,000,000 on these people. They are murderers. In our society, there is no second chance for murder. In very rare exceptional cases, they get a parole...this is for Americans. We do not even have legal jurisdiction over the gang members who are alien. Most of the gang members are alien.

    Get the aliens out. Spend $500,000,000 rounding them up, putting them on a bus and bus by bus by bus by bus....deliver them to the home address of VINCENTE FOX....because from whatever nation is their nation of origin, VINCENTE let them into his country and because he wanted all his people to come here, he allowed the others to come with his.

    Then, cut off all aid to Mexico.

    What in the heck is going on? Do people care so little about each other in California that they would allow a condition to progress to 10,000 deaths and their response is to try and pass a referendum for more money to do WHAT???

    That Father who thinks these people just need an environment to see the "light" is in the dark himself, because this situation is way beyond afternoon meetings with the Father once a week to guide them toward the "light."

    If the "feds" know about the referendum, then obviously the Administration is fully aware of the 10,000 deaths in California.

    The borders are still open; the President on a holiday holding hands with the Prince of Oil; and I'm sure more Americans have died since yesterday.

    The Sheriff is happy and hoping for alot of money from the Referendum which won't change a thing.

    The Feds are happy because someone else is going to get some higher taxes from American Citizens so when the bubble burst the end of this year, more will lose their homes on Tax Liens....more property for the Globalists The gangs are probably happy too because this is going to be a great deal of money floating around......and gangs know the payola game.....you know, BECAUSE THEY'RE GANGSTERS. Gang = gangster.

    Hmmmm.

    These people have all lost their minds.

    GET National Guard Troops to the Border Now to Help the Border Patrols and the Minutemen.

    ANYTHING else is like batting flies with the door open and a open jar of honey sittin' on the table.

    GET TROOPS TO THE BORDER NOW!!

    Tell the Father...not to worry....it's not his problem.

    Tell the Sheriff...it's not more money you need, its less gangsters.

    Tell the Feds....YOU'RE FIRED!!!
    I absolutely love your post. You are just as pissed off as I am about this. We need more patriots like you around. I wish most women I know were as well informed, courageous and intelligent as you are. You know if Jorge Bush actually cared about doing his job then we wouldn't be in this situation. I know impeaching him will be next to impossible, but isn't there any way we could start a national referendum and recall Jorge Bush like California did to Gray Davis and resite Malfeasance of Office and Dereliction of Duty as reasons for the recall? I'd love to know what it would take to get it done if possible. If Congress won't impeach him for obvious reasons, then why can't we the people do it? It's our government, not theirs. It's suppose to be of the people, by the people and for the people. Not of the government, by the government and for the government. Not of the illegal, by the illegal and for the illegal. Besides aren't we the people suppose to be like a de facto fourth branch of government after the other three inept brances of government fail us like they obviously have hear?

    Obviously I'd love to recall Jorge Bush and about at least 200 Congressman and at least 60 Senators. I also think we need a national referendum to make campaign contributions by lobbyists of all types (especially foreign and big business) illegal with punishment being immediate removal of office, imprisonment of up to 20 years in jail and all campaign contributions ceased. Make it to where these politicans have to run on their own merits and the only campaign contributions they can get are from their constituents and it can't be any more than one thousand dollars per person. That would solve the problem of these corporate whores selling us out for dollars.

    Finally I think we need a national referendum making it law stating that we the people can automatically override by a majority vote any legislation and terrible decision made by our government whether it be through Congress, the President or the Judges. So that way if these crooks vote in to amnesty illegal aliens, we can override it and tell Congress and the president to go pack it in their (you know where).

    We need to stop these clowns before they do to the rest of America what they've already done to California, Arizona and Texas.
    Please support our fight against illegal immigration by joining ALIPAC's email alerts here https://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  4. #4
    Senior Member
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    I also think we need a national referendum to make campaign contributions by lobbyists of all types (especially foreign and big business) illegal with punishment being immediate removal of office, imprisonment of up to 20 years in jail and all campaign contributions ceased.
    Silly people actually thought McCain/Feingold Bill would be WONDERFUL Not only is it unconstitutional, it actually gave the big guys more of an advantage!! Silly People
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

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