Free Republic

[NB: this is from March 19, 1996] Salim Muwakkil reports on 21st Century Vote, an organization created by former members of Chicago’s largest street gang, Gangster Disciples. Wallace “Gator” Bradley, a former gang member turned community leader, praises the group for offering a more productive way for disenfranchised youth to channel their energy and take part in the political process. However, the police and mainstream media claim that the organization is simply an illegitimate front allowing the Gangster Disciples to gain more influence. Bradley defends 21st Century Vote as a group sincerely working to bring a stop to gang violence...

LAKE COUNTY -- Two recent convictions highlight the issues of drugs and gangs in the county, according to information from the Lake County District Attorney's Office. Mendocino County resident Anthony Scott Cape, 42, faces the possibility of 14 years in prison after he was convicted Sept. 9 of five felonies in connection with a December 2004 drug-related incident at a Clearlake home. In another case, Lake County Superior Court Judge Arthur Mann sentenced Nice resident Donald Kirk Horne, 32, Aug. 25 to seven years and four months in prison for Horne's involvement in a June 2006 gang-related assault in Lakeport....

WASHINGTON — The federal government's top immigration enforcement officer on Wednesday released a report that showed Houston has fallen short in a nationwide crackdown on violent, predominantly Latino street gangs that draw strength from undocumented immigrants. Houston, the nation's fourth-largest city, accounted for just 71 of the 1,759 arrests in the roundup in 53 cities over the past four months, according to the report provided by Julie L. Myers, the assistant secretary of homeland security in charge of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, or ICE.

WASHINGTON (October 1, 2008) – A new Center for Immigration Studies Backgrounder finds that immigration law enforcement has been highly effective in fighting gang activity around the country. Local law enforcement agencies that shun involvement with immigration law enforcement are missing an opportunity to protect their communities, according to the authors. Since 2005, ICE has arrested more than 8,000 immigrant gangsters from more than 700 different gangs under an initiative known as Operation Community Shield. The Backgrounder,'Taking Back the Streets: ICE and Local Law Enforcement Target Immigrant Gangs,' by Jessica M. Vaughan and Jon D. Feere, was funded by the...

There are a lot of people who have forgotten about the heinous Newark schoolyard killings last year. (Background links.) I haven’t. And neither have law enforcement authorities and prosecutors in New Jersey, who have worked hard over the past year to bring the MS-13-linked barbarians to justice. Six indictments were handed down today. And officials are now formally acknowledging the illegal alien gang ties and motivations behind the brutal crimes: Prosecutors said for the first time today that the slayings of three college students in a Newark schoolyard last year had a “strong gang component” that was downplayed at the...

Yreka, Calif. - Siskiyou County Sheriff Rick Riggins said that approximately 100,000 marijuana plants were discovered at various garden locations in western Siskiyou County last week. Involved in the discoveries were the Sheriff’s Office Marijuana Eradication Team, Siskiyou County Sheriff’s deputies, Jackson County Sheriff’s deputies, the United States Forest Service, the Department of Fish and Game, and the California Highway Patrol Air Division. Riggins noted that a representative from the Fish and Game Department came along to assess the damage to the environment caused by marijuana operations. Riggins said that on Friday, the agencies involved discovered a garden in the...

---snip--- On one side was Joseph McNair, 38, a big-time convicted Philadelphia drug dealer with a long rap sheet who made Schwenksville, a bucolic Montgomery County suburb, his hideaway. On the other were his neighbors wanting peace, saying that McNair terrorized them with threats to kill their families and to sic his three Rottweilers on their children. The feud came to a head about 7:30 Wednesday night and ended with one neighbor, a seasoned off-duty SEPTA police sergeant, pumping several bullets into McNair, killing him, after McNair allegedly made one final threat.

Terrance Aeriel, 18, Dashon Harvey, 20, and Iofemi Hightower, 20 Murdered, execution-style, for the crime of being black. Murdered as a part of an enthic-cleansing program being run by Mexican gangs here in the U.S., with operational control coming from a criminal syndicate in Mexico. The plan? To clear neighborhoods of blacks so that they will be 100% hispanic. No, it's not a joke. It's not overwrought xenophobia (something for which this site is NOT known.) It's very very real, and Harvey, Hightower, and Aeriel and his sister are not the only victims.Michelle Malkin, bless her, has been staying...

PARIS (EJP)---Richard Prasquier, head of CRIF, the umbrella group of French Jewish organizations, confirmed to EJP hat one of the suspected assailant in a recent attack on three Jewish teens in Paris’s 19th district is Jewish. According to police sources, six youths aged from 16 to 23 have been detained for questioning about their involvement in the beating on September 6 of three Jewish teenagers wearing kipas. One of the six was freed but the five others were still being detained Tuesday morning at the police station. Three of them are black. Prasquier said the fact that one of the...

A Texas teen claims she is forbidden from wearing a rosary around her neck in school because the Catholic prayer beads are a gang symbol, MyFOXDFW.com reported. Tabitha Ruiz was stopped by security guards at Seagoville High School in Dallas last week and told to take off the silver and ruby beaded rosary, a gift from her mother. On Monday, the same thing happened when she again came to the school wearing the beads. "I went to school, walked through the metal detectors and they told me to take it off," the teen said. "I asked them why and they...

A Texas teen claims she is forbidden from wearing a rosary around her neck in school because the prayer beads are a gang symbol, MyFOXDFW.com reported.Tabitha Ruiz was stopped by security guards at Seagoville High School in Dallas last week and told to take off the silver and ruby beaded rosary, a gift from her mother. On Monday, the same thing happened when she again came to the school wearing the beads. "I went to school, walked through the metal detectors and they told me to take it off," the teen told MyFOXDFW.com. "I asked them why and they said...

NEWARK, N.J. — Three men and three teenagers were indicted Monday on murder and other charges for the execution-style slayings that shocked New Jersey's largest city more than a year ago. The grand jury charged all six suspects, who have reputed links to the MS-13 street gang, with murder, attempted murder, robbery and weapons offenses related to the Aug. 4, 2007 killings. Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow said the indictments took a year because charges against the three teens were upgraded from juvenile to adult court, and because multiple agencies worked together to make sure the case was airtight Those...

EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Barack Obama will portray himself Thursday night as an agent of change for mainstream America, but his eight-year voting record in the Illinois Senate shows the Democrat was on occasion an agent of isolation who took stands - particularly on anti-crime legislation - that put him to the left of his own party. Mr. Obama was the only member of the state Senate to vote against a bill to prohibit the early release of convicted criminal sexual abusers; was among only four who voted against bills to toughen criminal sentences and to increase penalties for "gangbangers" and dealers...

PHOENIX -- The fastest-growing gang in the world is coming to Arizona -- a trend that makes federal agents along the U.S.-Mexico border uncomfortable. Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, is known for its violence and guerilla warfare training, experts said. "From Oct. 1 until the end of July we've seen over 50 different people involved in not only MS-13, but a number of different gangs affiliated with them," Scioli said. "Just in the past week we've had five." According to law enforcement personnel, MS-13 members come to Arizona because its position on the border makes it a hot spot for drugs...

A warm late summer afternoon on a leafy street in an area colonised by fashionable cafes and shops came to an abrupt end when the peace was shattered by a raw, terrifying eruption of gang violence this week. Armed with spades, screwdrivers, bars and sticks, two gangs clashed and sent locals fleeing into shops for safety. This running battle between black and Asian youths - a sickening example of brutal Britain today - was captured by a photographer who had been waiting in the street to take a photo of the actress Julie Christie, who lives nearby. In one picture,...

Total Is About Double The Death Toll In Iraq CHICAGO (CBS) ― An estimated 123 people were shot and killed over the summer. That's nearly double the number of soldiers killed in Iraq over the same time period. In May, cbs2chicago.com began tracking city shootings and posting them on Google maps. Information compiled from our reporters, wire service reports and the Chicago Police Major Incidents log indicated that 123 people were shot and killed throughout the city between the start of Memorial Day weekend on May 26, and the end of Labor Day on Sept. 1. According to the Defense...

black and Asian youths fight it out in broad daylight on the streets of London. The terrifying scenes were captured by a photographer who had been waiting in the street to take a photo of the actress Julie Christie, who lives nearby. Instead he was faced with a brutal illustration of life in modern Britain as gang warfare erupted around him in broad daylight.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) -- Police are searching for a suspect that shot a man in the buttocks on a Grand Rapids street. The shooting happened around 1:30 a.m. Friday in the 800 block of E. Fulton St. The victim claims he was walking down the street when he was shot in the buttocks. So far police don't have a description of the suspect, but they tell 24 Hour News 8 that the vicitm is being very uncooperative.

The Meade County State’s Attorney said Friday that members of the Hells Angels initiated a bar scuffle that led to the shooting of one of club’s members at the Loud American Roadhouse in Sturgis earlier this month. Meade County State’s Attorney Jesse Sondreal said in an e-mail that the investigation has revealed the Hells Angels “instigated the assault” in a fight with the Iron Pigs on the evening of Aug. 9. The two clubs got into a fight just before the shooting, according to witnesses at the scene and authorities. The Iron Pigs is a national motorcycle organization made up...

(snip) "We're committed to making sure our customers are safe and feel safe in the Loud American Roadhouse," he said. Kinney's comments came Thursday, the day after a Meade County grand jury called for the arrests of the shooting victim, four off-duty law enforcement officers and another biker. (snip) Meade County clerk of courts Lane Keil said no warrants or summonses would be issued Thursday because there were no judges on duty to sign the orders. The grand jury heard testimony from 25 witnesses on Aug. 10 and from 10 more on Wednesday. After considering the evidence, the panel found...

Liberals are far more inclined to see graffiti as a mere nuisance, or even as an example of the downtrodden trying to have a voice in a civilization that oppresses young people who are usually members of historically oppressed minorities. To the conservative, graffiti is an assault on civilization; to the liberal, graffiti is the result of civilization's assault on those who paint the graffiti.

Earlier this month Andrew Sullivan, a well-known writer, once in the center, now on the left, nominated me for what is apparently his lowest badge of distinction for defending citizens who shoot to wound graffiti vandals, or "taggers," while committing their vandalism. Under the heading, "Malkin Award Nominee," Sullivan provides a quote from my radio show:

A San Francisco court set aside a drug-trafficking case Monday against a 14-year-old Honduran immigrant - a ruling that juvenile justice officials fear will undermine Mayor Gavin Newsom's new policy requiring that such offenders be held for possible deportation.

TIJUANA – A special federal task force captured several men believed to be high-ranking members of the Arellano Felix cartel amid gunfire in a pre-dawn raid Friday, according the local Mexican military command. The suspects were gambling around 2 a.m. in a room at Caliente Casino, owned by former mayor Jorge Hank Rhon. Alfonso Duarte Mujica, local military commander, said at a press conference Friday morning that one of those captured was Pedro Ignacio Zazueta, known as “El Pit,” believed to be one of the leaders of the Arellano cartel. Zazueta is a lieutenant to Fernando Sanchez Arellano, known as...

91 percent of readers think S.F. mayor should be charged VICTORVILLE — Local leaders are condemning the San Francisco mayor’s decision to dump illegal alien probationers in the San Bernardino Group homes, and some believe he should be criminally charged. “The actions of Mayor (Gavin) Newsom are unconscionable and a violation of this oath of office where he swore to; uphold and defend the constitution of the United States,” said Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Santa Clarita. “As to whether he should be charged with obstruction of justice, that’s a legal question better answered by the United States Attorney General.” Rep....

Ask virtually any store manager at the Saint Louis Galleria about shoplifting, and you'll invariably get two responses: One, it's out of control; and two, it's gotten exceedingly worse since August 2006, when MetroLink opened a stop just 500 yards from the high-end shopping center. In the first six months of this year, Richmond Heights police made 345 arrests at the mall. That's nearly double the number of arrests made in all of 2005, before MetroLink opened its Shrewsbury line. This year police are on pace to take 276 juveniles into custody for shoplifting and other offenses — a sevenfold...

The man convicted of orchestrating the January 2005 firebombing of the Harwood Community Association president's home has continued to act as a Baltimore gang leader from his prison cell in Beaumont, Texas, a federal prosecutor said in a court hearing Friday. Terrence Smith, 28, returned to Baltimore to be resentenced after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled that U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz did not adequately explain why he exceeded federal sentencing guidelines in sending Smith to prison for 80 years. Friday, the judge again sentenced Smith to 80 years, calling him "a dangerous person."...

Medford teen gets 20 years in prison for drive-by shooting. A man who fired seven rounds into a car full of teenagers in a drive-by shooting was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a Jackson County Circuit Court judge Thursday. It was miraculous that none of the six victims was seriously injured or killed as the bullets blasted through the front windshield of the packed vehicle, said Judge Ron Grensky. "It is a miracle that there isn't somebody dead out of this," said Grensky, adding the phrase, "dodging a bullet" was never more apt. German "Negro" Reyes-Real, 18, of...

Two off-duty female cops yelled, "We are the police!" - and then pistol-whipped a Bronx man in what authorities call a case of road rage. NYPD Officers Michelle Anglin, 37, and Koleen Robinson, 24, were charged with assault, gang assault and criminal possession of a weapon for the Williamsbridge beatdown. It took 25 staples to close the gash in Marlon Smith's head, authorities said. Smith, 35, had pulled up alongside Robinson's black Suburban with his driver's side car door wide open as the two cars sat near E. 218th St. and White Plains Road at 5p.m. Friday. "Close the door,...

This past week, a 10-year veteran of the U.S. Border Patrol shot and wounded a man in the left buttock who assaulted agents at a violent stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border. Despite the fact that the man was among a group that was trying to enter the United States illegally and was throwing rocks and concrete chunks at agents, officials at the Mexican Consulate in San Diego are criticizing the agent and demanding the U.S. conduct a full investigation. Consul General Remedios Gomez Arnau said: "Any kind of shooting toward Mexican territory is rejected by the Mexican government. They should...

American businesswoman Veronica was stepping out of her car in California when two men forced her into the passenger seat at gunpoint, pushed her teenage daughter into the back and drove them into Mexico.Taking advantage of lax Mexican security at the San Diego border, and with U.S. authorities focused mainly on those entering the United States, the kidnappers took the two women to Tijuana in January and held them for a month before their family paid a $100,000 ransom.Snip....Mexican intelligence officials say Veronica is one of around 30 Americans abducted in southern California and taken to Tijuana since last November.

... Superior Court Judge William R. Froeberg then told Tran, 33, and co-defendant Noel Jesse Plata, also 33, that they should suffer the death penalty for the Nov. 9, 1995 torture slaying. Plata kept his eyes cast down during the 30-minute sentencing hearing and did not comment. Froeberg handed down those maximum sentences after he listened to prosecutor Ebrahim Baytieh read a poignant three-page letter from Dongsil Park, Linda's mother, who wrote that the emotional toll of losing her daughter in such a heinous fashion made it unbearable for her to be present. ... Linda Park was 18 when the...

Dozens of illegal immigrant gang members from Mexico and other countries have been swept up in the past two weeks by federal agents and Twin Cities-area police, officials from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced Thursday. Called Operation Community Shield, the ongoing effort netted 50 arrests, including 35 gang members and seven gang associates from 10 Twin Cities-area gangs. Of the 50 arrested, 38 are illegal immigrants, said ICE spokesman Tim Counts. Participating law-enforcement agencies also arrested 10 U.S. citizens and two permanent residents, also known as green-card holders, on various state and federal charges, including weapons possession,...

Former street crew member Ronald Moten initially dismissed as idle talk the rumors that gang members from the notorious Bloods were attempting to infiltrate Washington. The District never had an organized gang problem, said Moten, who is now an anti-violence advocate in the District. The city's crews were homegrown neighborhood cliques while the Bloods were a Los Angeles gang, a huge criminal enterprise widely known for its rivalry with the Crips. But about six months ago, when a teenager showed him the cigarette burns on his arms — an initiation rite the teen endured rather than get a tattoo under...

Hearing from dozens of residents fed up with crimes committed by gang members who are illegal immigrants, the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday asked Sheriff Lee Baca to prioritize and consider expanding a controversial inmate deportation program. Since the program started about two years ago, sheriff's officials trained by federal agents to screen for illegal immigrants in the jails have interviewed more than 20,000 inmates and referred more than 11,000 to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for possible deportation. Under the Tuesday motion, the board asked Baca to direct the 12 custody assistants conducting immigration interviews to give the...

A wolf pack of at least 30 thugs viciously attacked two hero ex-Marines in Brooklyn after they rescued a teenage girl who was being assaulted, police and witnesses said yesterday. And when the brother of one of the former servicemen tried to come to his rescue during the July 25 melee in Coney Island, he was beaten into a coma. The former leathernecks, Valentyn Olenyev, 23, and Boris Bukler, 22, Russian émigrés who served tours in Iraq, were walking a female friend to her parked car on West 23rd Street at 12:30 a.m. when they spotted two men holding the...

For decades, corrections officials assigned inmates of the same race to bunk together to keep the peace among race-based prison gangs. That's about to change as the prison system prepares to comply with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that effectively deemed the practice unconstitutional. A group of white inmates gathers around a bunk bed in a packed prison dormitory at California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi, north of Los Angeles. The dorm is integrated. But each double bunk bed is its own racially segregated island. Steve Cecala, 38, is serving time for drug possession. He says he has no problem with...

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents together with federal, state and local law enforcement partners across Massachusetts, have arrested 52 gang members and associates and 28 other criminals last week as part of the agency’s Operation Community Shield initiative, which targets violent street gangs. Transnational gangs pose a growing threat to the safety of communities in Massachusetts and throughout the country. It is estimated that there are over 900 different criminal gangs roaming US streets and neighborhoods. During the Massachusetts enforcement effort this week, those arrested represent 24 different gangs, including Tiny Rascals, Bloods, Crips, 18th Street, MS-13...

The pastor of the Set Free motorcycle ministry, out of jail on $50,000 bail, spoke about his arrest to more than 100 of his parishioners over the weekend. Pastor Phillip Aguilar, 60, founder of the Set Free church, told the congregation he was not angry about 150 police officers raiding his properties on Wednesday. Officers from police departments throughout Orange County got warrants to search and seize properties from several Set Free homes. He said he knows the image his organization portrays -- one of heavily tattooed motorcyclists who drive fancy bikes and cars -- played a role in how...

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US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, working in conjunction with federal, state and local law enforcement partners across the United States, have arrested the 10,000th gang member under operation Community Shield, according to a report submitted to officials of the National Association of Chiefs of Police. This ongoing operation started in 2005 to curb gang violence and weed out transnational gangs gaining hold in urban and suburban US cities. Transnational gangs pose a growing public safety threat to communities throughout the country. It is estimated that there are over 900 different criminal gangs roaming US streets and neighborhoods. These gangs...

Pentagon Makes Fighting Extremism Top Priority Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue. The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills...

As police continue to hunt members of the Anaheim-based Set Free Soldiers church on suspicion of a murder conspiracy, the church founder's family is trying to regroup in their house raided Wednesday by 150 officers from all over Orange County. The family of Pastor Phillip Aguilar, Sr., 60, the founder and director of Set Free Churches Worldwide, returned to their Archer Street home from hotels Thursday afternoon to find the house a wreck, they said. Police confiscated phones, cash, credit cards, jewelry, autos and motorcycles. Aguilar's son, musician Phillip Aguilar Jr., scoffed at the perception that the Set Free Soldiers...

A young man is being held in the Rowan County Correctional Facility accused in the mob-style beating of a 47-year-old who was simply taking an evening stroll in his neighborhood. Matthew Dwyer's eyes are blackened, his forehead stitched up and his arms scraped up. He said he was beaten by nine black teenagers. Salisbury police said it was a racially motivated and gang-motivated crime. Dwyer is white. Dwyer said it all started when one of his assailants said he wasn't allowed on the street, and then Dwyer was hit in the back of the head with a gun. "And that's...

Authorities early this morning arrested nine members of the motorcycle gangs the Set Free Soldiers and the Hells Angels in connection with a brawl and stabbing at a Newport Beach bar last week, police said. The arrests were made during raids in Anaheim, Rancho Santa Margarita, Costa Mesa, Norco and San Diego County, said Anaheim Police Sgt. Tim Schmidt. Two people are still being sought on arrest warrants. Six members of Set Free Soldiers, a Christian motorcycle gang, have been charged with conspiracy to commit murder and are being held on $1-million bail each, said Sgt. Evan Sailor of the...

ANAHEIM Police were searching today for three more members of a Christian biker gang accused of conspiracy to commit murder in connection with a bloody barroom brawl last month in Newport Beach. Police released few details this morning of the three men, saying only that they are thought to be residents of Southern California and members of the Set Free Soldiers. All three were wanted on outstanding warrants for conspiracy to commit murder, Newport Beach police Sgt. Evan Sailor said. ... Among those arrested was Pastor Phil Aguilar, 60, of Anaheim. The Web site for Set Free Churches Worldwide describes...

COSTA MESA – Three teens, including the son of a former City Council candidate and community activist, have been arrested in connection with a shotgun attack on a teenage girl, police said today. The arrests stem from a July 28 shooting on Shalimar Drive – a notorious area barricaded with concrete stumps at all but one access point because of rampant gang activity – that resulted in a 15-year-old girl being hospitalized with a shotgun wound to the torso. The three suspects - one young man and two juveniles - were booked on suspicion of attempted murder, conspiracy and street...

Audio. Stand back and don the trash bags. Liberal heads will be exploding on this one.

A Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy gunned down Saturday outside his boyhood home in Cypress Park had been assigned to guard the most dangerous inmates in the county, including members of the notorious Mexican Mafia gang, authorities said Sunday. Los Angeles police and sheriff's officials said the prospect that Deputy Juan Abel Escalante was killed because of his work at the jail remained one of three possible motives. Investigators were also considering the possibility that neighborhood gang violence or a personal grudge were behind the killing. As of right now, all of those possibilities are on the table," said Los...

An off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy was gunned down outside his house at sunrise today in the gang-ridden Cypress Park area of Los Angeles, authorities said. Deputy Juan Escalante, 27, was a sheriff's deputy for two-and-a-half years, and was assigned to the county's Men's Central Jail, Los Angeles Police said. Escalante was found by his wife and his mother after a car passed by his house, and someone inside the vehicle fired about five shots, at 5:40 a.m., witnesses said. Police Chief William Bratton and Sheriff Lee Baca rushed to the scene, and Baca called this "a difficult day."...