March 04, 2010

Come Back, Stonewall Jackson! Hispanic Gangs Invade Shenandoah Valley

By A.W. Morgan

The Shenandoah Valley is justly celebrated in American history as the place where Stonewall Jackson made his name driving back Northern invaders during the Civil War—in battles like Cross Keys and Port Republic. But now, thanks to federal immigration policy, it has serious Hispanic gang problems, dating from the early 2000s.

About a year ago, a student at James Madison University was leaving the 7-Eleven on South Main Street in Harrisonburg, Va., to return to his apartment. It was 2 a.m., hardly an unusual time for a kid in the college town to walk the streets near campus.

Yet walking about the city that late is just as unsafe as it common. Three members of the Mexican SUR 13 gang attacked him, the city’s daily newspaper reported, and beat him unconscious. They took $1 and a cell phone.

After the crime, a friend of the victim texted the cell phone, the newspaper reported, only to receive a scatological, threatening text in return—the printable part said “South Side Sureneos run these 540 streetsâ€