Gangs: Page 18

Criminal Gangs and the Occult

No traditional Hispanic gang member I ever knew would have dug up Grandma from her tomb, or desecrated a church altar or a statue of the Madonna.

How Good Kids are Seduced into Gangs – PART 2 – The Schoolyard Story

The bully "Giant" preyed on more than just your skinny crew. Often he picked on the girls. But now they know that you can protect them from the Giant. Are you a gang? Not yet, but if you continue in this "solution" without some intervention, you are on your way.

Gangs on Meth

The drug is dangerous to law enforcement in several ways. The chemicals utilized are highly toxic and volatile. Clandestine labs are often booby trapped against the police.

How Good Kids are Seduced into Gangs—PART 1

Winning potential gang members' minds and hearts occurs early, often as early as grammar school. It is founded in the common experiences almost all children must endure. These negative experiences include social exclusion, feelings of fear, bullying, and victimization.

Los Angeles Gangs and Hate Crimes

Soon the prison race war spilled into the streets. The first battles were in the Santa Monica and Venice areas at apartment complexes like the Oakwood and Mar Vista Apartments.

How Gangs Use the Justice System

Gang members have found inventive ways of bringing drugs into the courts. Perhaps the most offensive method of delivery was to enlist the help of court officers.

What Not to Do in Anti-Gang Programs

I don't mean to sound like Los Angeles or I personally have all the answers to the world's gang problems, but during my more than three decades fighting gangs, I have seen many programs in Los Angeles that have failed. I have learned what does and what doesn't work.

The Rise and Fall of the Nazi Low Riders

We were waiting for a violent paranoid tweeker we knew was armed with a Glock pistol and running on parole. He told all of his associates that he would not be taken alive. He was also a member of the Nazi Low Rider (NLR) prison gang.

Chuckie, Midget, and the Compton Tortilla Flats Gang

I was there when this monster was spawned. The Tortilla Flats Gang was born in Compton, California, about 1962.

The Tortilla Flats Gang was born in Compton, California, about 1962.

The Mongol Motorcycle Gang and the Mexican Mafia

These outlaw gangs are not known for their adherence to truces and coalitions. When you deal with the Devil you can't expect honesty and fair play. The Mongols had already let the Devil into the deal in the early 1970s.

Mara Salvatrucha

MS is not like any other East Coast, Chicago, or even native Salvadorian gang. This is why reports on the gang written by federal law enforcement and the military analysts who have little or no experience with the Hispanic gangs of Los Angeles are rarely accurate.

Holidays in the Hood

The season brings the same problems to the ghettos and barrios that face the rest of us, except in an exaggerated way. Problems like poverty, lack of education, illness, alcohol and drug abuse, and the desire to give and receive gifts we can’t afford, are all seemingly intensified by the lack of real opportunities. The resulting depression that sets in the minds and spirits of individuals and the community is often temporarily self-medicated with alcohol and drugs. This results in desperate a

Page 18 of 20