"Operation Detour 2" tells the story about how easily young people, even good kids, can get seduced into the drug-trafficking world. How doing or receiving a favor from someone can hook you into the game. How drug use can subtly ensnare you and ruin your life.
May 7, 2013
Two recent investigations show us the value of gang task forces that combine resources from law enforcement, prosecutors, and corrections to take down Mexican Mafia "carnals" in Southern California.
March 14, 2013
The worst of these 155th Street members were usually high on "red devils" (Seconal) and drunk on wine. They were dangerous to everyone and lethal to rivals. They were as bad as any Willowbrook gang such as the Compton Varrio Tres, Tortilla Flats, Willowbrook Winos, or any black gang.
February 27, 2013
Even in the murderous world of gangs, the most wicked killings are perpetrated by individuals who seem motivated by some other dark, twisted presence within their troubled souls.
January 17, 2013
I don't remember any of these holiday truces actually working, but like those classic holiday movies they seem to make us all feel good for the moment, even if they are works of fiction.
January 11, 2013
Today, it's the street gangs, primarily black and Latino that are the real problem, and until law enforcement and the public puts these gangs in check, they'll continue to destroy lives and communities while motivated by blind hate.
December 28, 2012
There seems to be an illogical perception in the U.S. that "bad guys," especially those associated with criminal gangs, are dumb—or at least uneducated. But education is not an elixir to cure the diseases of immorality or an upbringing steeped in situational ethics. It can't teach the gift of empathy for another human being.
June 13, 2012
Can you imagine what a gang formed from all aligned Crip and Blood gangs or between the Mexican Mafia and the Nuestra Familia might be capable of?
April 17, 2012
Sureños identify with the color blue and use tattoos with the number 13, sureño, sur, south sider, or "kanpol" (a word taken from the ancient Aztec language of Nahuatl that means southerner).
March 14, 2012
Operation Black Flag was another "staggering and comprehensive blow" to California's most powerful gang, according to U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte. However, the La EME prison gang has proved to be resilient to extermination. Mexican Mafia leaders have managed to operate their criminal enterprise from the most secure housing units in the most secure prisons in America.
August 9, 2011
If I worked a gang unit in your area, I would send plainclothes officers inside to monitor any Lowrider shows near your jurisdiction. I would also watch carefully and stop in unannounced at your local Lowrider custom shop. These shops are often also stolen car chop shops.
July 5, 2011
To Bryan Stow and the rest of the sane world, his Giants baseball gear represented his love of baseball and his support for his team. To that cowardly pack of gang thugs, it was the symbol for the rival Norteño gangs and the Nuestra Familia prison gang. To them, this is like wearing a Nazi uniform to the Auschwitz survivors' reunion.
April 11, 2011
Gang members belong to a gangster culture, believing that only lame punks do menial work for "the man." Why be a lowly worker, when you can be the boss? As a carjacker, burglar, armed robber, or drug dealer, you are the boss. You own your own business. You call the shots.
February 15, 2011
In prison, forms of black slang and African languages are used to code conversations to prevent non-black inmates and staff from understanding the communication. They also serve as a racial recruiting tool.
January 25, 2011
The Black Panther Press' underground "New Afrikan Swahili Dialect Dictionary" is a guide to words and phrases used by black gang members in prison. Break the code by learning these translated terms.
January 25, 2011