THE FACE OF CRIME: Two members of MS-13 in an El Salvador prison
Posted on 02/10/2006 7:58:16 PM PST by seastay
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THE FACE OF CRIME: Two members of MS-13 in an El Salvador prison |
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L.A.'s latest export: gangs
| Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor Los Angeles has long fed the global popular culture with TV and films, but now the city is in the spotlight for a new, more lethal export: Hispanic street-gang violence. Gangs certainly aren't new. But as the National Geographic Channel's upcoming documentary "Explorer: World's Most Dangerous Gang" illustrates, the allure of all things from the Golden State is giving this familiar story a particularly sinister new spin.
"There's an unintended phenomenon in the gang culture," says Al Valdez, a supervisor in the Orange County District Attorney's Gang Unit. "If you're [a gang member] from Los Angeles or Southern California and you end up in another part of the country or another part of the world, you're considered a big fish in a little pond because you're from L.A."
The show profiles Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, a relatively new Los Angeles-based gang that has begun to spread around the world at what the experts call an alarming rate. Using gang-enforcement tactics developed in earlier decades - deportation, in particular - has actually contributed to what one officer calls the gang's "viral" growth. MS-13 began with a small group of young, illegal immigrants. It has grown by reaching out to new members, some as young as 8. "The culture is spreading to the youth very easily, especially with those [who] are impoverished," says Mr. Valdez, "and that's what makes them ... the most active and most dangerous in the country today."
As newly deported gang members find each other in their home countries, new "chapters" of the gang have popped up from Honduras to Spain. Central American countries in particular have been blindsided by this new American export - killings in the streets and entire neighborhoods under the control of an MS-13 "clique," as local sub-groups call themselves.
"There was no MS in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras before the deportation started," says Lisa Ling, host of the documentary. Deported gang members used to turn around and come back to the US. "But because deportation started to happen on such a widespread scale, these guys started wreaking L.A.-style havoc in their respective countries, as well as in different states across the US," she says.
MS cliques have been tracked to 33 US states and six foreign countries. Officials estimate that of the roughly 845,000 gang members in the US, some 10,000 belong to MS-13. While it may have begun as primarily a substitute "family" for young boys far from home, it has grown into a large crime syndicate, says Luis Li, former chief of the criminal branch of L.A.'s district attorney's office. "What's unusual is the degree of violence and the degree of sophistication that these kids engage in," he says. "Young kids used to get into fights over things like sneakers. Now it's over territory and money."
In the documentary, Ms. Ling interviews gang members here and abroad. She visits Central American prisons where both current MS-13 and former gang members are held. They brag about how powerful they are (one heavily tattooed member tells Ling that if he had wanted her dead, she would be), and Ling describes numerous killings.
While these are all chilling, the most striking story here is purely visual. These gang members are practically babies, nearly all recruited in their pre-teens. One former member, a 17-year-old named Brenda, walks and talks like a middle-aged Mafia moll on video clips of her police interviews. She says she turned to the police because her conscience got to her. We also learn during the course of the documentary that she was brutally murdered for becoming an informant, and we hear from her murderer, Oscar, another baby-faced youngster, who talks about how he wishes things hadn't turned out the way they did.
A former gang member discusses youth intervention programs that will help keep youngsters from entering MS-13 in the first place. Law enforcement officials say that social programs are the best way to wipe out gangs. These arguments are compelling, coming from the voices of hard experience. But the most persuasive arguments are the faces of these so-called senior gang members, who live and die before they can legally rent a car. These are a new generation of lost boys and girls. This documentary argues that we must find them before the gangs do. |
"There was no MS in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras before the deportation started," says Lisa Ling, host of the documentary. Deported gang members used to turn around and come back to the US. "But because deportation started to happen on such a widespread scale, these guys started wreaking L.A.-style havoc in their respective countries, as well as in different states across the US," she says.
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Again, we turn to Washington and the administration for their undaunting strength in protecting WHO AND WHAT ENTERS THIS COUNTRY. Thank you again Washington, we can rest easy at night!!!!
Why aren't all gang memebers arrested for RICO violations?
These types are the ones that will hookup with the muzzies and bring in MANPADS in to the US to shoot down some commercial airliners. It's likely they already have smuggled them in.
Round up every MS-13 member and ship em' to Gitmo; orange jump suits, rubber sandals, chains everytime you leave you cell, military police handlers, etc.
Break em' down hard, complete brainwashing and train em' to do suicide missions against muzlimscum insurgents in Iraq.
Lets the spooks at Langley manage the project.
Good bye MS-13.
Gang members ARE terrorists. I've seen what they do to neighborhoods. Parents can't even let their kids outdoors. Then there is the diving onto the floor of their home whenever gunshots are heard. Not to mention the drugs, the graffiti, and all of the other misery and abject fear they cause.
I've always thought that they should be treated like any other terrorists -- guilty by association. If you are a known member of a gang, then you are a known terrorist. And it's bye-bye for you. I wouldn't even mind a military deployment to get rid of them. Let's see how much they strut when put up against the jarheads.
More on our favorite group of illegals....
BTTT....
I say, pick them up and arrest them on GP. They are certainly easy to spot.
Why is it RICO is not used against these gangs? Heck, it was used against the Hell's Angels and even right-to-lifers. While I don't much like the RICO statute as it can be, and has been, badly abused I am at a loss to understand why there is no will to use it where it is really needed.
We're deporting gang members to other states????? The INS definitely needs new maps.
And, as far as wreaking havoc in their respective countries goes.... better there than here.
Makes as much sense as anything, I guess, as you could easily break the back of MS-13 with RICO - I can't imagine an easier prosecution.
What ever happened to the gangs of old, the Jets and the Sharks, where they combined elements of drama, opera, and ballet?
Crap.
Wiping out gangs is the best way to wipe out gangs.
Is this another polite leftist way of saying we should stop deporting illegal aliens back home?
MS13 is mean, mean, mean. They teach recruits to be mean. The worst US prison would be a lark to them.
There was even an element of romance to the Angels. I remember:
Three Angels stopping an anti-Vietnam war march of 1,000's. They just stood in the middle of the road and no one dared even approach them.
Seeing Sonny Barger lead a procession of Hell's Angels through Oakland, must of been around 100 of them, their 'old ladies' on the back of the choppers, everyone with long hair streaming (no mandatory helmets in those days).
Going to an open party at the Fillmore Auditorium to celebrate one of the Angels getting off of probation. I think Janis Joplin provided the music. Anyone could go and everyone had a good time except one stupid drunk kid who tried to provoke an Angel into a fight, who just laughed it off. I imagine things are not quite the same with MS-13.
I understand that, but what I am saying is it would be very easy to get them off the streets - at least the leaders, and in jails for a very long time. Whether it would be a 'lark' or not, at least they would be off the streets. It is not like the authorities are powerless. RICO was meant for exactly this - membership in a criminal organization. All they got to do is prove that MS13 is a criminal organization and that someone is a member - it would be dead easy. If I was living in a city that had a problem with MS13 I would demanding answers as to why they were not being charged under that legislation.
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