Posted on 08/12/2006 1:18:42 PM PDT by World_Events
LOS ANGELES - Alejandro "Bird" Martinez and a crew of fellow gangbangers were joyriding in a stolen van when they came upon a black man parking his car — and decided to kill him.
Three of them riddled Kenneth Kurry Wilson and his Cadillac with bullets from a .357-caliber revolver and a 9 mm semiautomatic and blasts from a 12-gauge shotgun.
This month, Martinez and three other members of the Avenues, a Hispanic gang entrenched in one Los Angeles neighborhood, were convicted of federal hate crimes usually tagged on white supremacists.
Although the slaying was seven years ago, the verdict this month was one in a series of reminders that racially motivated black and Hispanic gang violence is still a Los Angeles reality.
While some police, academics and even gang members insist racism isn't a factor in the violence, a pair of headline-grabbing killings — of a Hispanic teen by a black assailant described by witnesses as yelling a gang name as he fled and a drive-by shooting by a pair of black gunmen who killed three Hispanics — suggest otherwise.
"If it's not race motivated, if it's not gang motivated, then what the hell is the motivation?" asked South Los Angeles activist Taylor Mayfield after the June 30 drive-by.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I'd be curious what percentage of the weaponry used by these gangs was gathered during the riots not so many years ago after the Rodney King police abuse trials
More Pulitzer Prize-winning revelationary journalism from the AP...who has now discovered that race is an issue in LA gangs -- where have they been for the last 80 years??
who knew?
Jessie Jackson, Al Sharpton have been trying to gain solidarity between blacks, latinos. Guess the rank & file haven't gotten the word yet.
How about pure evil? Not too many things more evil than gunning down a perfect stranger minding his own business.
I'd like to see all these "hate crime" laws struck down. They add a banality to real crimes that's sickening.
Next the AP will be shocked, SHOCKED, that there's gambling going on at Rick's Cafe Americain.
Captain Obvious must have joined their news staff.
That goodness that Black Supremacists never pose a reacist threat.....!
racist...LOL...(sp)
Would the dead victim be less dead if this were not a hate crime?
Whoever came up with that expression had too much time on his hands.
Bingo! I'm a WASP. If I shoot a black or another WASP; one can assume he's not my best friend, and is the victim any less dead?
Most racism is black against white, as evidenced by crime statistics. Since black racism doesn't follow the action line of the MSM, that will never be stated in a news report. According to them, only Whitey, aka "The Man," can be racist.
The black gangs and Hispanic gangs are in competition for prime drug turf. If the Hispanic gangs can drive the blacks out, then they own the turf
No, the story would be that "Well to do white American bar owner forces black man to play piano for low wages".
Just remember this...
Wow! This isn't in "Breaking News!"
"Hate crimes" legisaltion could be replaced with a good hemp rope - as in this case - and the result would be far more effective.
Ethnic violence are what gangs are all about. It's ever been thus.
Whe I was in school in Los Angeles over 50 years ago it was always mexican gang against mexican gang.
In the same areas today nothing has changed.
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