Free Republic

Three men were shot after gunfire erupted five times in less than six hours in the southern portion of the city overnight, officials said. Four of the shootings are believed to be related and involve "two groups with a long standing history," Jersey City spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill said. The six-hour stretch of violence came approximately 24 hours after a shooting at a Jersey City church hall left a 17-year-old dead boy dead and two girls injured. Morrill said police do not think the the church hall shooting is connected to the five shootings that followed.

Chris Litherland had never seen anything like it — crowds of juveniles fighting Downtown on Sunday. “They were just running around the streets, blocking traffic, blocking buses, walking on top of people's cars,” Litherland said.

Leaders from three West Side gang factions allegedly met last week to discuss plans to shoot members of the Chicago Police Department in response to the fatal police shooting of Paul O’Neal. The meeting took place Thursday between higher-ups from the Vice Lords, Black Disciples and Four Corner Hustlers, according to an alert issued to department members the day after the meeting. The Four Corner Hustlers “provided guns” and have “a sniper in place” though authorities do not know where, according to the alert. The Four Corner Hustlers also are supplying the other two gangs with automatic weapons, which all...

I-TEAM Prison guards, police warned of possible 'Black August' attacks VIDEO AND IMAGE AT ABC7 By Dan Noyes Thursday, August 04, 2016 07:11PM SAN FRANCISCO -- An urgent bulletin is going out to law enforcement Wednesday, warning of a new threat of attacks against officers on the street and in prisons. It has to do with what's called Black August. A reporter for KGO-TV - KABC's sister station in San Francisco - obtained the bulletin from a law enforcement source. The bulletin from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Sacramento Intelligence Unit and the FBI's National Gang Intelligence Center warns of...

Three men were killed in separate incidents in Philadelphia overnight, bringing a violent end to a weekend in which at least eight people were killed between Friday and early Monday.

CARBONDALE, IL - A Carbondale police officer was last reported in serious condition after being shot late Sunday evening. The Carbondale Police Department says around 11:38 p.m., officers were on patrol in the 700 block of North Robert A. Stalls Street when they determined gunshots were being fired. While driving toward the source of the gunshots, they saw a tan four-door car driving away from the scene. The officers started to pursue the tan car. During the chase, a suspect fired several gunshots from the tan car. The shots hit the police car and one of the officers inside. The...

Suspect Arrested in Shooting of 2 SDPD Officers Identified Jesse Michael Gomez, 52, was arrested early Friday morning in a ravine. By Jaspreet Kaur SDPD Chief Shelley Zimmerman spoke at a press conference Friday evening, identifying the suspect taken into custody in connection to the shooting. A potential suspect was also named. (Published Friday, July 29, 2016) The suspect arrested in connection to the shooting of two San Diego police officers and a potential suspect were identified Friday. Jesse Michael Gomez, 52, was taken into custody after two police officers were shot, San Diego Police Department (SDPD) Chief Shelley Zimmerman...

At least two people were killed and 15 others injured in a shooting at a Florida nightclub, according to a local report.

Two people are dead and at least 13 others injured during a shooting at a Fort Myers, Florida, nightclub, according to Captain Jim Mulligan with the Fort Myers Police. Developing story - more to come

The solution to racial war. All lives matter, but the problem is sin, not skin (though aspects of cultural can be sinful). The Cross and the Switchblade movie (1969, copyright Dick Ross and associates, and which can be seen here) is about the true story which is told in the book, the Cross and the Switchblade written in 1962. The movie (which mostly used local talent) stars Pat Boone as David Wilkerson and Erik Estrada as Nicky Cruz, the teen gang member whose life was dramatically transformed by Christ. Nicky was the leader of the notorious Brooklyn Puerto Rican gang...

Two Dallas-area lawyers who represent bikers in the pending Twin Peaks shootout trial are asking two judges to disqualify the district attorney and appoint a special prosecutor. Nine bikers died and 20 more were injured in the May 17, 2015 shootout between rival biker gangs and law enforcement officers at Waco’s Twin Peaks restaurant. Attorneys Clinton F. Broden and Mick Mickelsen both says District Attorney Abel Reyna should be disqualified from hearing the cases because he has a financial interest in the case, Broden said in a news release Monday. Reyna wasn’t immediately available for comment. Broden is representing Matthew...

Hillary Clinton: "Joining a gang is like having a family. It's feeling like you're part of something bigger than yourself. So we're either going to have gangs that murder and rob … or we’re going to have positive gangs.”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IYyqdH4JzQ    

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK/KBFX) — Fourteen people were wounded in a drive-by shooting early Saturday morning while at a house party in south Bakersfield. No one was killed.The Kern County Sheriff's Office said about 150 people were at the party on Stephens Drive, near Belle Terrace and Wible Road. Many of the partygoers were outside the home when the shooter or shooters drove by.

Two more bikers arrested after the Twin Peaks shootout in Waco filed a civil rights lawsuit Friday, claiming they were improperly arrested with no evidence of wrongdoing and denied due process. Christopher Eaton and Owen Bartlett, both members of the Los Pirados Motorcycle Club, bring the total of bikers who have filed civil lawsuits to 15. The lawsuit lists Eaton as a Dallas County resident and says Bartlett is from McLennan County and names McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna, Waco Police Chief Brent Stroman, Waco police Detective Manuel Chavez and an unnamed Department of Public Safety agent as defendants....

A California man allegedly mistakenly shot and killed a member of his own gang who was wearing the colors of a rival gang. Andrew Chavez, 21, was arrested Wednesday on murder charges several days after police began investigating the death of Michael Sanchez in Madera, California, according to the Los Angeles Times. Chavez reportedly shot and killed Sanchez,who was walking home from a bar while wearing the colors of a rival gang, “in cold blood,” the Madera Police Department told the Times.

The Fourth of July holiday is Monday, and if the long holiday weekend is anything like previous years, it could be one of the most violent of the summer. The total number of Chicago shootings rises significantly during the summer months ­- - June, July and August. Those three months have the most shootings per month of the year from 2012 to 2015 combined, the years the Tribune has tracked the data. June, the lowest of the summer months, has a total of 1,137 shootings from 2012 to 2015, which is nearly 150 more than the nearest month, May.

A Baltimore rapper named Tyriece Travon Watson, who went by the stage name Lor Scoota, was fatally shot in broad daylight at a busy intersection in Friday, police said. He was 23 years old. Watson had just left a charity basketball in Baltimore game calling for "peace in the streets" when he was killed. He was driving in his car when an unknown black male wearing a white bandana stepped into the street and opened fire, Baltimore police said. Watson was brought to a local hospital but died from his injuries.

Baltimore had the highest increase in homicides in the nation last year, a criminologist commissioned by the U.S. Department of Justice reported, with more than twice as many extra killings as the three cities that tied for second. The city suffered 127 more homicides in 2015 than in the previous year, Richard Rosenfeld wrote in "Documenting and Explaining the 2015 Homicide Rise: Research Directions," released this month by the Justice Department. Chicago, Houston and Milwaukee came in second with 61 more killings. Cleveland and Washington had 57 more.

Eleven people were killed and at least 42 more - including a 3-year-old boy - were wounded in shootings across the city between Friday evening and early Monday, according to Chicago Police. The most recent homicide happened early Monday on the South Side. A 22-year-old man was shot in the back about 1:30 a.m. and taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he later died. About 1:30 p.m., someone used a high-powered assault rifle to kill a 17-year-old boy outside a Catholic church in the Back of the Yards neighborhood during Sunday Mass. The boy was walking outside Holy Cross Church...

At least 18 people have been shot so far this weekend and six of those victims are dead. One of the shootings happened in the University Village neighborhood early Saturday morning. Two security guards were called to a large outdoor party at a housing complex in the 1300 block of West Hastings. Someone started shooting and a 24-year-old man was shot in the back and killed. The two security guards were wounded.