Posted on 07/11/2006 4:25:02 AM PDT by Oshkalaboomboom
WHEN I FIRST met Duke, he was ironing his shirt. "You gotta look clean, man! You can't go 'round with a creased shirt!" Like many homies, Duke was great at ironing. As I was to find out later, he also was handy with an AK-47.
Duke was 30, handsome and charismatic, with a couple of lovely kids. He spoke his English straight out of the streets of Latino L.A.; he loved to rap, and he talked sentimentally about his homeboys, part of the Hollywood Locos section of the 18th Street gang. Except Duke didn't live in L.A. anymore but in downtown San Salvador, El Salvador.
Like hundreds of other gang members in this small Central American nation, Duke was deported from the U.S. after being convicted of a criminal offense — in his case, robbery. Although he had lived most of his life in Los Angeles, he was never a citizen. As soon as he got into trouble with the law, he was deported to the country where he was born but that he hardly knew. Together with other deported gang members from cities such as L.A. and Houston, Duke helped set up 18th Street in El Salvador, a country awash in weapons from a decades-old civil war but without the means to deal with U.S.-trained gang members. In a few years, the deported gangsters helped give El Salvador one of the world's highest homicide rates.
The authorities viewed the gangs purely as a law-and-order problem. They declared a war on gangs and made gang membership illegal. By the time I arrived in El Salvador in 2004 to make a film about gang warfare there, the prisons were full of gang members. But could this approach solve the problem?
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
First, quit calling them boys, like they are still innocent or something. Second, is the solution to allow them to stay in America and set up gangs here?
Oh that's classic.
It's Bush's fault they kill. /sarsacm
Another effect of allowing illegal aliens to enter and live in the US. It is surprising that a liberal outlet would comment on this.
Watching a 17-year-old gang member phone his mother in the U.S. — who he hasn't seen in 10 years — telling her over and over again how much he misses her and wants to be with her, is heartbreaking.
So let's put a quick stop to this heartache. The house bill is a good start.
As long as the U.S. continues to deport hardened criminals to countries that can't deal with them, as long as millions of Central Americans are forced to abandon their children to search for work in the U.S...
Ahhh. Now I see. The blame falls squarely on the US. It took a while, but it finally came out.
Hey, homies and vatos have feeling too.
Okay, love the article. How in the world can these people turn everything around and always make it the US's fault that these people are bad. No one made these boy's parents come to the US. That's not our fault. Nor is it our fault they now lead a life of crime. We are just supposed to leave them here to kill people? This reporter is delusional.
WHEN I FIRST met Duke, he was ironing his shirt.His firm muscles undulating beneath his bronze skin. A sheen of persperation adorned his forehead........... did I mention he is in a gang.
Ricardo=Dicko
What is your deal man? That is messed up.
It refers to the opening passage and the authors real intentions.
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