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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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It is in the breaking news sidebar! |
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Posted on 10/12/2003 5:21:35 AM PDT by sarcasm
Immigrant street fighters have brought their violent turf wars to within earshot of the White House
The urgent call crackled over the radio as the unmarked police car cruised down the street. Gunfire had been reported a few blocks away: precisely where a gang-related killing had taken place the day before. Was this payback time?
Officer Carol Sullivan placed a flashing siren on the car roof and sped off to answer the call.
It was just another night on gang patrol. In the heart of Washington DC, two miles from the White House, Latino gangs are on the rise, ruling their neighbourhoods through fear and the gun. They have brought the problems of gang-ridden cities such as Los Angeles to the heart of America's capital.
But as Sullivan and her partner, Officer Andre Marcucci, weave through the traffic and peer down dark alleys, they are diverted by another gang incident. A 15-year-old girl has been badly beaten at a school. When they arrive, she is lying on a classroom floor. She was attacked by female gang members. She already has a bullet wound in her leg, from being hit in a drive-by shooting a month ago.
It has been a summer of gang violence in Washington's Latino community. At least five people have been shot dead in the feuding. Some of the attacks, including one in which a five-year-old girl was wounded, have occurred in daylight in suburbs just north of the capital's city centre.
Last week, a shoot-out between gangs took place on one of the city's most prominent shopping avenues, Mount Pleasant Street. One man was killed and a bus driver injured as more than 15 shots were fired, sending shoppers and pedestrians diving for cover. The attacks have sent a wave of concern through the city's political elite, who usually ignore the poor, inner-city neighbourhoods.
Latino gangs are a new phenomenon in Washington. They spring from the capital's growing immigrant population, which is replacing older black neighbourhoods. But, unlike the casual 'crews' that dominated crime in poor black areas, Latino gangs use extreme violence and are keen to expand their criminal operations. That leads to battles over turf, drugs and 'street respect', with the gunfire echoing almost within earshot of Capitol Hill.
There are four main gangs - Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13, the Street Criminals, Vatos Locos and Mara R - and many 'sub-gangs' that have splintered from the main groups. MS-13, the largest gang, began life in the slums of El Salvador and is made up of ex-guerrilla fighters. It has a terrible reputation for brutality and violence.
Gang graffiti covers the walls, pavements and roadsigns of many Latino areas. It marks out territory and can signal a shift in borders and allegiances. Police and community leaders follow it closely, tracking the movements of the gangs.
But the most valuable police work is done through contact with the gangs themselves. And that is where Marcucci comes in. The former Marine has spent two years getting to know Latino gang members in Washington. He spends hours talking to them every day, sharing a drink or just sitting on their porches.
He walks a tightrope. 'I have to get to know them, but at the same time, they have to know that if they do something wrong it is going to be me coming after them,' he said.
Driving through the streets of Columbia Heights, a Latino community riven by gang activity, Marcucci monitors the gang members on the streets. He waves and smiles as he drives by. They are easily spotted by the colours they wear - a scarf or shirt that denotes which gang they belong to. He knows hundreds by name, and sometimes stops and talks to them in Spanish.
The key, Marcucci says, is respect. 'I respect them, I respect their colours and, as a result, they show respect to me,' he said. Part of his job is to try and dissuade young Latinos from joining gangs. He tries to help them get jobs, gives advice and warns them of the perils of life inside a gang. 'I try and find out if they have kids. I tell them what good will they do their kid when they are in jail, or when they are dead,' he said.
But some gang members cannot leave. They have too many enemies, and to step outside the protection of their gang would be a virtual death sentence.
Luis Cardona, a former gang member turned youth counsellor, also tries to help young Latinos move away from violence. He acts as a mediator in gang disputes, arranging truces on the streets. He spent years as a gang member, and his body still carries the bullet wounds. 'I have been left for dead,' he said.
Cardona says gangs will always exist and what needs to be tackled is the underlying poverty, unemployment and discrimination. 'Gangs are as American as apple pie. The reality is we will not stop the violence without involving gang members themselves, bringing them to the table too,' he said.
The gangs target local schools in search of members and often hold parties where people are initiated into the gangs. Some of the rites can be brutal: men are beaten by their new comrades, while new women members can be gang-raped.
At the moment, the summer feud that ripped across Washington is over and an uneasy peace is in place. But few believe that more violence won't break out.
Sitting on his porch in Columbia Road, Ramon, 17, is a typical gang member. He wears his colours proudly. 'This is not just a gang, this is my family,' he said.
For Marcucci such attitudes are no surprise. 'Some of them don't care,' he said 'They die, but they die as a gang member - and that's what matters to them.'
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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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It is in the breaking news sidebar! |
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Secondly, these are more Democratic voters that they want to keep importing so that they can stay in power.
Bzzzt. Wrong. The destruction of the lower class family is the culprit. Whoops. Can't say that. Silly me.
How did they get green cards?
Oh. Never mind.
How can this be?!?! Guns are strictly prohibited in Washington.
Could it possibly be that firearms are not responsible for shootings ?
We should keep poor people from entering this country now that we have set up a welfare state. - Tom
It's a good thing we have all these laws to protect us.
Thank goodness the government ENFORCES all its laws as well!
Pretty soon, the gangs will be quiet, and people will be shot for bringing attention to the gang...
Latino gangs are a new phenomenon in Washington. They spring from the capital's growing immigrant population, which is replacing older black neighbourhoods. But, unlike the casual 'crews' that dominated crime in poor black areas, Latino gangs use extreme violence and are keen to expand their criminal operations. That leads to battles over turf, drugs and 'street respect', with the gunfire echoing almost within earshot of Capitol Hill.
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True. 'Course, GW thinks he can play the same game.
Wonder how he thinks those problems should be "tackled." More massive government bureaucracies? Redistribution of wealth?
Our biggest road-blocks:
NEA and their $$$
Race-baiters
Illegal immigrants
Corrupted unions
The Democrats have had to completely sell out to these (and many more) groups to try and cling to power.
Too bad we couldn't have kept our government the way it was founded where the congressmen were regular folks who took time out from their regular occupations to serve a term or two and then went back home.
The birth of the "career politician" began the slow death of our freedom. "Getting elected" became more important than doing the right thing.
When our lawmakers get together in the halls between sessions, it is rarely the good of the country that they are discussing. It will more likely have something to do with fund-raising, deal-cutting or some other discussion aimed at staying in power.
One - The overall grand reason - the Immigration Act of 1965, which put this nation onto suicide-by-chain-migration autopilot. How this could still be on the books post-9-11 can only be explained by the fact that Bush would rather pander than preserve the Republic.
Two - As you pointed out: The endless phony TSPs issued by clowns Clinton and Bush
Three - DC Mayor Tony Williams' preference for dead Washingtonians over hurt Hispanic feelings, i.e., his continued no-tell policy in which DC officials, as a matter of policy, conspire with illegal aliens to conceal their status from federal immigration officials.
Fourth - the "catch and release" practices of Bush and Tom Ridge's "new" INS, which lets illegals circulate through their hands without ever getting deported.
Fifth - Weak tourist-visa-issuing practices by left-leaning, bleeding-heart State Dept officers in Tegucigalpa, San Salvador and Guatemala City - of the sort that allows hoards of visa-overstayers into the USA in the first place.
What a crock!
Notice how the leftists subtly hijack our language and culture? We use the phrase "as American as apple pie" to denote basic cultural values, like family and friends, good food, having fun and enjoying life. "Baseball, hotdogs, and apple pie."
Gangs are NOT a valued element of our society! They are evil, destructive, despised, and feared! Are they prevalent in most poor inner American cities? Yes. Is the lawlessness and violence they engage in often discussed in the news? Yes. "As American as apple pie?" Like I said, what a crock.
Gangs aren't as American as apple pie. You really don't see too many American kids joining up with gangs.
I agree. I think also, our freedom took a big hit with the imposition of the income tax. Not only did that give politicians the ability to buy votes through the redistribution of wealth, it gave them access to tremendous power, the power to directly control the wealth of the citizenry. In other words, the income tax was instrumental in moving the power base from the people to the government.
It's hard to imagine how the "leviathan" of big government that now watches over us could ever have existed without the income tax. Nor could our rather rapid drift toward socialism have occurred without it, IMO.
It seems radical, yet I am increasingly finding myself opposed in principle to the income tax. Not that we will ever be without it, no way will government and politicians willingly give up such power. Many of our rulers, in fact, are currently calling for even higher taxes.
The gangs are all part of the foreign drug cartels' vast network of drug distribution. Their wars are bloody because there is a lot of big drug money involved. These people are very dangerous and will do anything at all for money, greed is their biggest motive. They love money above all else but they don't believe much in hard work.
Bingo!!!
New Zealand has a law that prevents you from obtaining any welfare during your first year as an immigrant.
Klintoon actually signed similar GOP legislation in 1996, though it was partially undone by Jorge, who restored SSI welfare benefits to recent immigrants.
Excuse me but this is sheer bullsh**. What the problem is, is dysfunctional families where PRAENTS lack a moral compass and don't spend the time needed with their children. Kids look to gangs to be part of something - a family - with rules. Being poor, unemployed and touchy - discriminated against, is NO excuse for this kind of behavior. Besides Hispanics are NOT discriminated against. At one time blacks were but not Hispanics UNLESS they are illegal.
We have to have "undocumented immigrants" coming into this country by the millions to fill these jobs that lazy Americans won't do.
ok,im putting armed_in_sydney as my occupation on my next visa application....maybe then i wont have to go through so much hassle to get into the states.
The very idea of taxing the most productive more than you tax the least productive, is insane. It stands the whole idea of the free enterprise system upside-down.
I guess that's why the liberals love it.
They seem to be bent on destruction of themselves and everyone else in their path.
This attracts them and brings them in by the thousand and it is the life-blood of the liberals.
What's up with that?
And this is reported as a fact, is it? A little bias, anyone?
I raised my family in a similar area. It got worse until one day a gang member shot at a cop. The next day, all the getting along with gang members paid off. Before dawn they had arrested 80 members of both gangs and never let them back into the area. I do not recall lots of trials, so it may have been just "get out of town or else". Whole apartment houses were evicted and rents were raised. (The very liberal city council and police dept looked the other way as this profiling took place.) The local area got better and better after this, and the community took on the look of a diverse lower income to middle income community.
I am convinced that the police in any city can do this, and they had the support of hispanic business owners and hispanic home owners who also wanted this gangland business gone. A black gang tried to argue that their rights were being taken away, but it was all over before the ACLU could get a lawsuit filed. Good for San Mateo California. I have since sold the house and left the area, but when I drove back through, I saw no evidence that the gangs were back.
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