Posted on 04/28/2017 12:18:30 PM PDT by Mark
Brenda Gazzar
bgazzar@scng.com @bgazzar on Twitter
A Los Angeles street gang member who starred in a rap music video about “flocking” — a slang term for breaking into a home in order to steal — has been on the run for months after being charged by Ventura County prosecutors with four counts of residential burglary, authorities said.
After 27-year-old Darren King was arrested in the Simi Valley burglaries, he posted bail of $50,000 last August but failed to appear in court later that month, according to police. A warrant in the amount of $1 million was issued for his arrest.
“Eventually, he’s going to get caught because the warrant isn’t going to disappear,” Simi Valley Police Department Detective Stephen Collett said. “We actively go after people who are wanted, but with our caseloads, we don’t have all the time in the world to go out and try to find him.”
King, who appears to use the name “Cowboy” for the 2011 video “Floccin,” (Warning: The video contains explicit language) was on parole for a 2008 residential burglary in the Los Angeles area when he was taken into custody last August, police and prosecutors said. He was charged in Ventura County with four counts of first-degree residential burglary that include gang and other enhancements for Simi Valley burglaries that took place on Aug. 14, 2015.
“We have an interest in bringing him to justice as soon as possible so a bench warrant has been issued in the system for his arrest,” Ventura County Senior Deputy District Attorney Rameen Minoui said.
“His failure to appear to face the crimes alleged against him is evidence of his consciousness of guilt and refusal to face the consequences for his actions,” he added. King faces up to 18 years in state prison for the first count and additional time for the other three counts, if convicted, Minoui said.
King has seven co-defendants in the knockknock burglary case in which they are together accused of stealing more than $200,000 in mostly cash, jewelry and firearms from Simi Valley homes between August and October of 2015.
Several defendants have already pleaded guilty in the case, which was investigated by Simi Valley police and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Collett said.
The YouTube video “Floccin” glorifies so-called knock-knock burglaries, in which one person will usually knock on the door to see if someone is home before one or more accomplices break in from the side or rear to ransack the home.
The video shows a man, identified by police as King, knocking on a door and then breaking in through a window with the use of a screw driver.
“Ding dong, nobody home, take the cash and the grams and I’m f***in’ gone,” the lyrics say.
The video is a “bad motivator” and goes hand in hand with the way these gangs operate, Collett said.
“A lot of the time they flaunt what they do because they use it as a recruiting tool or they’ll use it as some sort of initiation into the gang,” he said. They are trying to entice youngsters in the gang to participate in the crime, he said, “because it looks good when you’re flashing all the money.”
In the song, King, whose last known address was in Inglewood, boasts about being “on the road to riches” and details some of their techniques, including using nice rental cars, a “box” or police scanner to monitor law enforcement activity and remaining silent if caught.
Well-known Compton rapper YG released his “Meet the Flockers” (Warning: The video contains explicit language) rap in 2014, which also details techniques of knock-knock burglars.
Minoui said the Ventura County DA’s office has noticed an increase in knockknock burglaries in recent years.
“(We’re) heavily focusing on thwarting these crimes before they happen and apprehending these suspects after they take place,” he said.
Anyone with information about King’s whereabouts is urged to call Simi Valley police Detective Collett at 805583-6968.
Was heading to be a movie star!Cowboy?
Rodney King be dead.
[Ding dong, nobody home, take the cash and the grams and I’m f***in’ gone,” the lyrics say.]
And BOOM go Mr. 12 gauge and my brains be flyin’ out into the driveway.
“Eventually, he’s going to get caught because the warrant isn’t going to disappear,” Simi Valley Police Department Detective Stephen Collett said. “We actively go after people who are wanted but with our case loads we don’t have all the time in the world to go out and try to find him.”
Great! Let him bail out, jump bail, and then not have the “resources” to go “find him!” Note to the folks in Simi Valley, “when you’re home, have a loaded gun handy.”
I would guess that about 40% are in law enforcement—at least it was that in the 70s. Home of Reagan Library.
I think you may be on to something.
Rap? Darn, I’ll bet he was turning things around when he unfortunately did burglary.
Remember the sister of one shot dead in a burglary? She said: “How else he gonna get his money?”.
Well, O.K. then. Crime is O.K.
[on the lam]
Hopefully, they’ll cheese him.
I think California is moving towards eliminating bail, so problems with criminals jumping bail will go away.
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