Posted on 03/08/2006 7:52:54 AM PST by Travis McGee
They have the heft of an ax, a blade nearly as long as a sword, and the intimidation power to make the hair stand up on the back of your neck.
Cheap and easily bought, machetes in America have commonly been reserved for underbrush and sugar-cane cutting. But now, in a spreading trend that so far has drawn little national attention, criminals are using machetes as weapons, striking fear in cities and towns across the country.
Witness these recent incidents:
In the heartland Indiana city of Evansville in February, a robber pulled a machete on a convenience-store cashier, who put up no fight when the bad guy demanded the cash box.
In Corpus Christi, Texas, a 22-year-old gang member pleaded guilty in January to the machete slaying of an 82-year-old man in a drug-addled attack.
And in Greenville, N.J., during a Jan. 20 argument over a borrowed drill, a suspect known as "Shy" slashed an apartment resident so severely with a machete that the victim's shinbone broke.
Although machete-related crimes are occurring from Florida to Washington state and Maine to California, they have only recently begun to reach the radar screens of law-enforcement and government officials nationwide. No official count of the incidence of such crimes exists.
While they are more common in places with sizable Latin American and Caribbean immigrant populations, machete offenses also are cropping up elsewhere. In February alone, crimes involving machetes were reported in San Jose, Calif.; Atlantic City, N.J.; Republic, Wash.; Tampa, Fla.; and Mount Pleasant, Mich. While some of the suspects and victims in those cases had Hispanic or "Island" surnames, others did not. Abetting the spread is the wide availability and low cost of the tool. A machete with a 21-inch-long blade can be bought at most home-improvement stores for $10, sometimes less.
One jurisdiction that is wrestling with machete problem is Fairfax County, Va., a sprawling suburb of Washington. Police there have tallied more than 110 machete cases in recent years. Most were linked to gangs, particularly the notorious and fast-expanding Latino gang Mara Salvatrucha, whose members have been identified in more than two-dozen states. Also known as MS-13, the ga ng has adopted machetes as the weapon of choice, at least partly because of the fear the blades engender with their implied threat of gruesome wounds or even death.
"In the last 10 years, we've seen an increasing number of horrific attacks with machetes," Fairfax County Police Maj. Frank Wernlein told a state legislative committee last month.
One of the worst was the 2005 assault on a 24-year-old man who was jumped by several MS-13 members when leaving a movie theater. An attacker, who was since convicted, sliced off three of the victim's fingers. "They're vicious attacks that cause a great deal of fear," said Virginia House of Delegates member Vivian Watts, one of the few legislators in the country to push for new laws to combat machete-related crime. Watts, who is sponsoring a bill to make it unlawful to brandish a machete with the intent to intimidate, said the machete menace quickly took root in her area, and she warned that the same could happen in other parts of the country.
"In a very short period of time, the use of machetes has become a very serious problem," she said this week. That was the case as well in the Boston area, where a rise in gang violence involving machetes occurred in the past several years. The surrounding towns of Revere, Everett, Lynn and Chelsea have banned machetes, and there is now a bill before the Massachusetts Senate that would prohibit the carrying, sale and manufacture of the tool-turned-weapon.
Law-enforcement experts say that localities with large numbers of immigrants from Latin and Caribbean countries _ where machetes are ubiquitous and commonly imbued with symbolism _ are likely to witness more machete-related offenses.
Bill Johnson, a former prosecutor in Miami in the late 1980s, said that was the case in that city after a mass influx of Haitians occurred when he was there. "My observation was that it was a cultural thing," said Johnson, now executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations.
Alex del Carmen, a criminology professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, agreed. Long a part of daily life in Latin America, where they are considered the tool _ and weapon _ of the poor, machetes became the symbol of the power of the peasantry after their use in revolts against Spanish rule and in the 1959 communist revolution in Cuba. Del Carmen said that romantic history might also add to the allure of the weapon and its spread. But he said it is the machete's inherent menace that is its greatest draw.
"It's very intimidating, particularly in places where you haven't seen them very much before," del Carmen said.
I guess that I'll have to buy a machete now before they're outlawed.
Disagree. With hand to hand weapons, the weapon counts for far less than the hand behind the weapon.
"I much prefer a happy ending!"
Ditto that sentiment. If I owned a chain of convenience stores, one "employee benefit" would be the purchase price of a firearm, and a salary allowance for range time.
I think I like a machete better. I own maybe a dozen, and the best ones are the Ontario U.S. surplus ones. The Tramontina and Collins are the best cheap ones, nearly as good as the Ontario.
I have a Cold Steel Kukri and like it but never thought it was anything special.
A machete is probably the most useful woodsman's tool there is. I like axes, hatchets, and saws but a machete cuts better than any of them until you get up to branches over maybe three inches in diameter.
I also think a machete would make a decent weapon tho not as good as a sword.
Indeed---especially those aluminum "assault bats".
Rock beats scissors.
Paper beats rock.
Gun beats machete.
Say.... I like this game!
WW,
I think that's a terrific idea. Very progressive of you.
"THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!"
Gradisco utilizzare una lama del Buck quando sono sul calcolatore.
In the Washington DC suburbs just about every lawn care-gardening service truck has 2 to 4.
I watched a fellow take one to the 8" dia trunk of an arbor vitae across the way and the chips flew. Done in less time than it would have taken to prep,check and start the chain saw. And in these parts they're about $3.00 at Harbour Freight. It's all about "Cultural Geography" you know.
One of the victims was 82. Most likely with all the infirmities that go along with being an octogenarian. Firearms aren't the sole answer, because it still takes a fair amount of reflex, strength, and coordination to use a firearm in self defense.
Carolyn
Best thing for cutting mesquite trees and tumbleweed.It is a tool like a hammer or saw.Hammers are next.
Oh yeah...almost forgot. After watching that display I've extended my personal Tueller Drill distance by another yard or two.
http://www.theppsc.org/Staff_Views/Tueller/How.Close.htm
I have a compound bow...the model is called Machete made by Diamond Bows. I'd take it to some gun fights.....(vbg)
Perhaps in S. Dakota that's true.
Not in Fairfax County, VA you don't!
It's an enormous problem just waiting for the lid to pop off. Just ask any Fairfax Cty. Deputy or Trooper that works in the area.
I've run into gang members on the highways doing "dubious" things w/ multiple vehicles. I wouldn't want to wager on what drives them.
I would imagine that portions of other metro areas are the same.
Yes they do! Crack Troops!
WE must welcome these savage customs, but the ANOINTED ONES in the White House, the Senate and the House remain protected as they sit in their ivory towers, refusing to represent those who elected them.
All the while we're financially supporting these savages from the third world. Is anyone else outraged?
Yep, more attitudes like that will for all practical purposes end this minor crime wave. It won't stop it all, because there is a terminally stupid element among criminals who would continue anyway, no matter the cost.
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