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Sunday, 10/15/06

Hispanic gangs bring feud, violence to Nashville streets
They're responsible for disproportionate share of gang crime

By KATE HOWARD
Staff Writer


Not until she watched the mourners who filed by her stepson's casket did Kathy Magallanes let herself consider that the sweet teenager everyone called "Smiley" might have been a gang member.

But after the 16-year-old was shot dead in May 2005 in what police deemed a gang-related dispute, Kathy Magallanes looked around the funeral home and saw it.




His friends all had the same shaved heads, same thin mustaches and patches of goatee, the same big jeans and brown bandannas, and the same hard look as Javier.

"We wanted to believe the boys when they said they'd never been initiated into any gangs, but everyone around them seemed to be," Kathy Magallanes said.

Javier Magallanes was a member of Brown Pride, one of Nashville's mostly Mexican street gangs, police said. His 2005 death was among 69 violent crimes deemed to be gang-related in Metro last year.

And although Hispanic members are less than 10 percent of Nashville's street gang population, they were responsible for about 45 percent of last year's gang-related violence, police said.

Metro's gang unit detectives spent much of their time last year in heavily Hispanic areas to combat the rise. This year, the gang unit has focused its attention on the predominantly black gangs in the north and east Nashville areas. The number of gang-related violent incidents or gun crimes involving Hispanic gangs has gone down to about 30 percent — officially.

"We don't know if they've all been reported," Sgt. Gary Kemper of Metro's gang unit said. "With gangs, you don't always get the truth. The majority of the time we never get the truth."

Gang violence grips Nashville family

Years earlier, Kathy Magallanes shrugged it off when a middle school teacher called to express concern that Javier Magallanes and his friends always wore the same colors. After all, she said, he had never been in any serious trouble.

On May 5, 2005, Javier Magallanes was celebrating Cinco de Mayo at a Mexican restaurant with his friends, most of whom were Brown Pride members. His friends said Javier left the table to move his Honda to the front of the parking lot. He was getting out of the car when Juan Carlos Mendez approached his friends' table.

Mendez, then 18, began to throw up the hand signals that represent the Sur 13, a primarily Mexican street gang that originated in Southern California and considers Brown Pride a major rival in Nashville. An argument began, and Javier was walking toward the group when police say Mendez pulled out a gun and began shooting.

Mendez left the scene and has not been found by police.

Javier was shot through his heartas his cousin, Francisco Hernandez, looked on.

"They said most everyone at their school was involved, and if they didn't have any friends in gangs, there would be nobody to talk to in school," his stepmother said. "He was a really good kid, but he was a follower. We never, ever thought something like this would happen."

On what would have been his 17th birthday, Javier's family gathered for a memorial service at the restaurant where he died. It ended abruptly when someone called in a threat: stop Javier's memorial and leave the restaurant, or more bodies would drop.

Six weeks later, Francisco, who goes by Paco, was stopped at an intersection with a carload of friends when a white car pulled alongside them. An armed man emerged from the sunroof and began shooting, police were told. Francisco, then 17, was shot in the leg.

After that, his family sent him to live with relatives in Mexico.

Their friend Angel Flores, who police said also was a Brown Pride member, would become another victim of the gang violence.

At 17, Floresalready had survived gunshots fired at his house and car. On one occasion, someone approached his bedroom window and shot him in the back while he slept.

But on June 17, Floreswas found dead in the driver's seat of a 1970 Pontiac.

Police said a gunman crept up to the passenger side of the car at a stoplight and fatally shot Flores and his friend Christian Rios, 19. Rios had arrived in the United States from Mexico just two months before.
The deaths of Flores and Rios were among 60 confirmed gang crimes this year — violent and nonviolent — in the Metro Police Department's South precinct, which includes most of south Nashville and Antioch. The precinct's flex unit officers don't have a patrol zone to stick to so they can target problem areas or the small percentage of citizens that are committing most of the crimes, Sgt. Jason Beddoe said.

Often, those targets are members of the Kurdish Pride Gang or Asian Pride Gang, also focused in south Nashville. Other times, the officers target the area's Hispanic gangs.

On a recent night shift, flex officers saturated an area where they believed a homicide suspect and member of the MS 13 gang was staying. Later, the flex officers showed up unannounced at a new club on Nolensville Road that already has a reputation as a gang hangout, and asked patrons for their IDs.

Traffic stops often result in catching unlicensed drivers or people with outstanding arrest warrants, so they frequently stop cars for violations.

"Basically we want them to know we're watching," Officer Jason Mayo said.

Education seen as alternative to gangs

Young Hispanics are more likely to have moved away from their home country and support system, causing them to stick together for a sense of familiarity and belonging, some experts say.

That can make them more vulnerable to gang recruiting, said Josias Arteaga, director of the YMCA Hispanic Achievers program.

About 42 percent of Hispanics attending urban schools reported gang activity in their schools, according to the federal Office of Juvenile Justice.

Arteaga believes the best way to fight the gang problem is to show kids a future that includes a high school diploma and college degree.

"We're trying to motivate them, encourage them and challenge them to see (that) the best way to be successful in the U.S.A. is through education," Arteaga said.

Metro Nashville school officials have expressed concern about the high dropout rate among Hispanic students. While 60 percent of Metro students reach graduation, the rate of Hispanic students graduating within four years and getting a regular diploma is just 40 percent, said Paul Changas, director of assessment and evaluation for Metro schools.

Gang activity in the schools is a well-known problem, with at least some gang members attending virtually every Metro middle and high school. The juvenile probation officer who keeps an eye on the most hardcore gang members keeps an office in Glencliff High School, where Javier attended.

Police estimate there are 1,500 active gang members in the city they know about and thousands of "associate" members they haven't heard of yet. Members of the three major Hispanic gangs probably make up about 10 percent of the city's street gang population, according to police estimates.

Nationwide, membership in Hispanic gangs is much higher. A 2004 study by the Office of Juvenile Justice estimated that 49 percent of all youth street gang members were Hispanic, compared with 37 percent black and 8 percent white.

While hardcore members of larger gangs are often full-time gang-bangers, adult members of the MS 13 or Brown Pride usually hold down jobs, detectives said. Police estimate that the majority of Sur 13 and Brown Pride members are of Mexican descent but American-born.

It's more common to see members of MS 13 or Mara Salvatrucha — traditionally from El Salvador or Honduras — in the country illegally. Often, they are deported for their crimes and quickly return to the U.S., Sgt. Kemper of the gang unit said.

Experts believe an uptick in immigration and the movement of gangs from big cities to smaller, less gang-savvy cities have contributed to the growth of the street gangs throughout the country. Davidson County's Hispanic population has grown more than 37 percent since 2000.

Some join for glamour, others to survive

But while the impact of Hispanic gangs is becoming ever more noticeable on Nashville's streets, it has yet to be realized behind bars, experts said.

Of Tennessee Department of Correction prisoners statewide, just 20 are confirmed members of Hispanic gangs, security director Paul Flanders said. Less than 2 percent of the entire prison population is Hispanic, he said.

"The prison system usually runs a couple years behind in reflecting what's happening on the streets, so we might see an increase over the next couple years," Flanders said.

Metro's jails also have few Hispanic gang-affiliated inmates, security director Kevin Carroll said. Internal gang disputes are rare because all Hispanic inmates tend to stick together because of their small numbers, Carroll said.

One local jail inmate, who grew up in California before moving to Tennessee, said he noticed a distinct difference between Nashville gangs and Southern California gangs.

The inmate, who asked not to be identified, said he moved to Nashville a few years ago and began hanging out with a set of Sur 13.

In Riverside, Calif., he said, he ran the streets because that's where life put him. His father was a heroin addict, his mother a gambling addict. He started committing crimes at age 8 to feed himself and his sisters.

Here, he said, gang members seem to join up deliberately for the lifestyle of gang affiliation and drug running. He doesn't understand the glamour some associate with gang life and the danger of selling drugs.

"I did it to survive because we didn't have anything," he said.

Since middle school, he said he began earning respect in the gang and adding tattoos, like a Mexican flag on his forearm and symbolic 13's. Even if he wanted to leave the gang behind, he couldn't.

"I have this tattooed on my body for a reason," he said. "I may not be active anymore, but I'm in this till I die."





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Chrysalis, I agree with the general idea behind your comment, as I wrote earlier it is important not to lump every group together under broad and innaccurate terms. However, the issue of whether we're talking about "hispanics" or mexicans or columbians or whoever is not really a relevant point to the issue of illegal immigration.

Similiarly, not all crimes perpetrated by "hispanics" are done by illegals. However, the living situation for many illegal immigrants in this country certainly lead to an environment that promotes illegal activity.

I think that by harping on a valid point (don't lump everyone together) but to an extent that is beyond it's relevance to the particular issue is just a way to cloud the greater issue of whether they should be here in the first place or not. It's just a smokescreen.

I also stated that I understand why they come, and do not fault them for trying. However, it is not our obligation to help them when it is to the legitimate detriment to our own nation. It would be like a family that spends all its resources helping another poor family, but then is left with nothing left to take care of itself. It may be an extreme example, but that is generally what is going on. Helping to provide a better life for illegal immigrants is not a cost free situation. It has serious costs for our healthcare system which is already struggling to provide for american citizens as well as our education system.

We must remember that these people don't come from "nowhere". They have native countries that they are leaving because of the unfortunate sociopolitical and economic situations in those countries. What we are acting as right now is a pressure release valve for those countries, taking on the dissatisfied. The practical result is that it's hindering the improvement of the country. There's a reason the Mexican government so strongly supports it's own people illegally crossing into another nation to work. The mexican government is generally corrupt and mexican society is extremely unequal. A very small number of people own and run everything while the vast majority of the people have little to nothing. As long as the US takes on those without opportunity in mexico, it allows the mexican elites to continue screwing their own people. If the US was no longer an avenue of escape, the mexican people might actually look at what's wrong in their own country and work to try to change it. Currently, they just leave for greener pastures. The mexican government loves it. They can stay in power and get money back to boot! It's win win for them and lose for the average mexican.

As a progressive who is greatly troubled by Bush's foreign policy, I am certainly concerned with our image abroad. Abu Gharib and Gitmo definitly has hurt us. However, send illegal immigrants back home is not an issue i think we will suffer much image loss over as long as we do it in a fair and humane way.

The irony is that Mexico has immigration policies that are stricter than ours. They have plenty of "illegals" that move from columbia and other countries south of them into mexico, and they are quick and definitive about sending them back home. Also, most european and asian countries have very strict immigration laws and actually keep many people detained until they can prove asylum status, and if they do not, they are forciby shipped back home.

This is one area where our country is much more permissive than any other in the world.

The solution of working visa's for illegals is no solution at all. It would not stop the flow of illegals from coming here, it would just give them a greater reason to come.

The problem with illegal immigrants is that they're illegal. They have no official status. This allows them to be exploited by employers by being paid slave wages. If employers could not pay them slave wages, the appeal of illegal immigrants would be gone, and the demand for their labor would be too. That would lead to a decline in the number of illegals wanting to come here.

Giving legal status is the key, but we cannot simply give it to whoever wants it south of the border. We have limited resources and must be able to distribute it to our own people according to need. We cannot afford to subsidize other countries with no control.

There are many other countries in the world who have people who wish to immigrate here who are skilled and educated professionals, not just laborers. They could contribute very greatly to the growth and development of our society and economy but are not lucky enough to live south of the US across a porous border. Is it fair to them that they have to wait years to get a visa, while mexicans can just walk across?

Honestly, chrysalis, I am a progressive myself and often spar with the likes of elvis and tree on these boards, but many of the points you make in your post are what give us progressives a bad name.

Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2006 1:41 pm

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Chrysalis, I agree with the general idea behind your comment, as I wrote earlier it is important not to lump every group together under broad and innaccurate terms. However, the issue of whether we're talking about "hispanics" or mexicans or columbians or whoever is not really a relevant point to the issue of illegal immigration.

Similiarly, not all crimes perpetrated by "hispanics" are done by illegals. However, the living situation for many illegal immigrants in this country certainly lead to an environment that promotes illegal activity.

I think that by harping on a valid point (don't lump everyone together) but to an extent that is beyond it's relevance to the particular issue is just a way to cloud the greater issue of whether they should be here in the first place or not. It's just a smokescreen.

I also stated that I understand why they come, and do not fault them for trying. However, it is not our obligation to help them when it is to the legitimate detriment to our own nation. It would be like a family that spends all its resources helping another poor family, but then is left with nothing left to take care of itself. It may be an extreme example, but that is generally what is going on. Helping to provide a better life for illegal immigrants is not a cost free situation. It has serious costs for our healthcare system which is already struggling to provide for american citizens as well as our education system.

We must remember that these people don't come from "nowhere". They have native countries that they are leaving because of the unfortunate sociopolitical and economic situations in those countries. What we are acting as right now is a pressure release valve for those countries, taking on the dissatisfied. The practical result is that it's hindering the improvement of the country. There's a reason the Mexican government so strongly supports it's own people illegally crossing into another nation to work. The mexican government is generally corrupt and mexican society is extremely unequal. A very small number of people own and run everything while the vast majority of the people have little to nothing. As long as the US takes on those without opportunity in mexico, it allows the mexican elites to continue screwing their own people. If the US was no longer an avenue of escape, the mexican people might actually look at what's wrong in their own country and work to try to change it. Currently, they just leave for greener pastures. The mexican government loves it. They can stay in power and get money back to boot! It's win win for them and lose for the average mexican.

As a progressive who is greatly troubled by Bush's foreign policy, I am certainly concerned with our image abroad. Abu Gharib and Gitmo definitly has hurt us. However, send illegal immigrants back home is not an issue i think we will suffer much image loss over as long as we do it in a fair and humane way.

The irony is that Mexico has immigration policies that are stricter than ours. They have plenty of "illegals" that move from columbia and other countries south of them into mexico, and they are quick and definitive about sending them back home. Also, most european and asian countries have very strict immigration laws and actually keep many people detained until they can prove asylum status, and if they do not, they are forciby shipped back home.

This is one area where our country is much more permissive than any other in the world.

The solution of working visa's for illegals is no solution at all. It would not stop the flow of illegals from coming here, it would just give them a greater reason to come.

The problem with illegal immigrants is that they're illegal. They have no official status. This allows them to be exploited by employers by being paid slave wages. If employers could not pay them slave wages, the appeal of illegal immigrants would be gone, and the demand for their labor would be too. That would lead to a decline in the number of illegals wanting to come here.

Giving legal status is the key, but we cannot simply give it to whoever wants it south of the border. We have limited resources and must be able to distribute it to our own people according to need. We cannot afford to subsidize other countries with no control.

There are many other countries in the world who have people who wish to immigrate here who are skilled and educated professionals, not just laborers. They could contribute very greatly to the growth and development of our society and economy but are not lucky enough to live south of the US across a porous border. Is it fair to them that they have to wait years to get a visa, while mexicans can just walk across?

Honestly, chrysalis, I am a progressive myself and often spar with the likes of elvis and tree on these boards, but many of the points you make in your post are what give us progressives a bad name.

Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2006 1:31 pm

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Quote: Of course, many of our Republican friends now claim to be the great savior of the country when the law squarely places the burden of illegal US citizenship on the shoulders of their hero and fellow Republican, President Bush.


Incorrect. Everyone except the Bushbots have dedicated untold reams of print to trying to get Bush to do SOMETHING, ANYTHING about the illegal aliens and so far all he as come up with is amnesty for illegals.

Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2006 1:26 pm

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I agree with your comments,however we have to be honest in our comments and more honest if the comments comes from a writer.
You have to identify the persons who committed the fault and do not take the macro by the micro.

Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2006 1:04 pm