Thread: Members of Latino gang charged with race-motivated crimes

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... ome-center



Federal prosecutors today charged members of the Latino Florencia 13 street gang with racially motivated crimes against African Americans, including several attempted homicides.

I wonder if the victims of their harrassment were white would there have been this type of action? Where I live there are masses of Mexican... er... Latino gang bangers who harrass and terrorize the community, everything from grafitti and vandalism, car thefts, car jackings, robberies, home invasions, to even shootings and stabbings. But because almost all the victims are whites, there is no huge federal operation, just local police treating them as seperate crimes, with no racial motivations inferred.

Actually local police are pretty much worthless at catching anyone involved. Grafitti is rampant, covering every exposed surface, and not that revolting art type grafitti, but gang banger tagging signs, like dogs marking their territory. Car thefts are epidemic, nearly everyone I know knows someone or has themsleves been the victim of a car theft, myself included. My truck was found by SDPD in the gangland of Barrio Logan after being stolen by an illegal (cops found several fake CA ID's and DLs inside and it had painted styrofoam fake Mexico license plates on it).

It's not unusual to hear gunshots nearly every night. In fact, we often joke about how we are serenaded to sleep each night by the sounds of gunshots, police sirens and Mariachi. But do the cops treat us as the victims of racially motivated crimes, heck no. We're lucky that the cops do anything at all, other than taking crime reports and stuffing them into some filing cabinet somewhere.

And this has all pretty much occured since Bush has been in office. Before 5 or 6 years ago, this neighborhood was a mostly safe, quiet place to live, now it has been turned into gangland. Where once drive by shootings were never even heard of in 2005 there were 13 such shooting deaths, all gang related. From 0 gang related killings in the entire history of the town to 13 in one year, all since Bush has been spouting his amnesty treason. Gee, go figure.

Here is text of story:
Members of Latino gang charged with race-motivated crimes
Federal prosecutors level racketeering and drug charges on more than 60 people who they say targeted African American rivals.
By Ari B. Bloomekatz
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

12:36 PM PDT, October 16, 2007

Federal prosecutors today charged members of the Latino Florencia 13 street gang with racially motivated crimes against African Americans, including several attempted homicides.

Authorities said the gang specifically tried to eliminate rival African American gangs in South L.A. and the Florence-Firestone area in an effort to "cleanse" the neighborhood. In doing so, they mistakenly harassed and attacked innocent African American residents, according to the indictment.

More than 60 members and associates of the Florencia 13 street gang were charged with federal racketeering and drug charges.

"In their attempt to intimidate African Americans in the community, they targeted innocent citizens," U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O'Brien said.

O'Brien said the arrests were the result of a nearly three-year investigation into the gang that culminated in federal indictments at the end of the summer.

The arrests come as both local and federal officials have launched a crackdown on race-motivated gang crime across L.A. Authorities have already filed charges against a different Latino gang in the Harbor Gateway area accused of crimes against African Americans, including the slaying of a teenage girl last year.

Gang crime has been dropping across Los Angeles over the last few years, but Police Chief William J. Bratton and other authorities have expressed concern about isolated instances of racially charged gang violence both on the streets and in L.A. County jails.

According to prosecutors, the defendants are named in two indictments: one that charges violations of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and another on charges of federal narcotics trafficking violations. The indictments were returned by a federal grand jury Sept. 27 and were unsealed this morning, authorities said.