Gang Violence in America

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CHAPTER 6 History of gangs In the early 1900s, Whyos Menu GANG VIOLENCE IN AMERICA The first gangs in the United States can be gang activity began (Course meets the qualifications for 3 hours traced back to soon after the Revolutionary War. to move west as Punching ... $2 of continuing education credit for MFCs and However, those first groups are characterized Chicago street gangs Break nose & jaw ...$10 LCSs as required by the California Board of more as social clubs, forming among groups formed in earnest, Break leg or arm ... $19 Behavioral Sciences) of like background and ethnicity, devoted to although a few white Shoot in leg ... $25 maintaining some form of homogeneity while the gangs in the area The Big Job $100 and up (Source: OJJDP) Learning objectives nation moved forward into the unknown territory could trace their roots back to the 1860s. Chicago was gearing up as !! Gain knowledge of the history of gangs in of its newly won independence from England. an industrial giant toward the end of the 19th United States. The more serious street gangs did not emerge century, and recruited workers heavily from !! Describe the current state of gang until the early 19th century, and were still mostly 4 southern and Eastern Europe. As with New York, membership and activity. youth fighting over local turf. gangs grew out of this massive immigration and !! Identify the breadth of the gang violence New York City, as the hub of immigration, mirrored the New York patterns. problem. naturally assumed the role as birthplace of gangs !! Describe the role and image of gangs in in America. Some early Chicago gangs sprang out of the popular culture. famous ward politics system. One of the most In a comprehensive report on gang history in !! List programs shown to be effective against infamous was Ragen’s Colts, an offshoot of the America, the U.S. Justice Department’s Office gang violence. Ragen Athletic Club established by Cook County of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Commissioner Frank Ragen. The club, originally Introduction (OJJDP) found that early immigrants encountered formed as an amateur baseball team, made the A 15-year-old Chicago boy is gunned down limited possibilities because of discrimination by news of the day repeatedly in stories about while standing in front of his cousin’s house, native-born Americans and a lack of marketable violence against black Chicagoans.8 receiving his birthday gift.1 skills. Because of the enormous waves of people In St. Louis, during a funeral visitation, a arriving daily, housing was scarce, as were jobs During this period, Chicago had a well-defined dispute between gang rivals erupts in gunfire for the unskilled. Finding themselves living “gangland” that bordered the downtown business on the lawn of the funeral home.2 in the squalor of early American slums, some district on three sides, with Lake Michigan on the In Daytona Beach, Fla., dealers and users immigrants turned to crime out of desperation, fourth side. The area south of downtown included populate a park known for its drug deals and gangs formed as a result. This lack of the turf of the Ragen’s Colts, who claimed 3,000 while on the opposite street corner, families opportunity would raise its head often in the members. North and west of downtown, the and tourists stop in for a dozen Krispy nation’s history as a primary reason for gang gangs used river bridges to battle each other.9 3 Kremes. formation. By the Roaring ’20s, Chicago became the focus All across America, street gangs, and Although some early American gangs formed of gang activity in the U.S. as rival gangs sprayed their activities and violence, have become along ethnic boundaries, many sprouted in areas the streets with machine-gun fire. Young Mr. commonplace. News outlets are filled with daily that were not populated by a single ethnic group. Capone, having moved from New York, had recitations of the violence. No place is immune, Many gang members had jobs, although routinely perfected his craft and stood atop the heap. and even when performing as simple a task as in manual labor. Ethnicity often took a backseat The 1930s through the 1960s saw a second wave stopping off for a dozen donuts on the way to to territoriality with the early gangs. of Chicago gang formation, this time driven not Sunday school, Americans never know when they Forming after the War of 1812, the more serious by immigration but by a different engine, the might become the next innocent victim. gangs began appearing in New York City on the migration of Hispanics and African-Americans Although numbering far less than 1 percent of lower East Side. With mainly Irish membership to the North. Some of the largest gangs of this the American population, gang members, at these gangs, among them the Bowery Boys, era were the Disciples, P. Stones, Vice Lords and minimum, evoke a healthy caution from the were joined after the Civil War by gangs formed Latin Kings. As the 1960s dawned, gang violence average American if not a gut reaction of fear among the Italians and Jewish. However, the exploded again in Chicago as battles raged over over something that seems out of control. Log violence was still along the lines of turf warfare. drug distribution. onto any forum, blog or newspaper comments section on the subject and the American attitude It wasn’t until 1820 and the formation of the Meanwhile, Los Angeles had been gearing up is evident. Anger comes first, then bluster, then Forty Thieves Gang that America got its first with the formation of gangs in the 1930s and frustration and fear of a subsection of American dangerously violent gang that focused on 1940s that grew out of Mexican ethnicity. The society that mainstream America sees as out of criminal enterprise. The latter part of the century earliest Americans of Hispanic descent found control. saw the advent of what many still believe to be themselves left out of opportunities as the western United States grew, but in 20th century And when Americans turn to their leaders, they the most significant street gang in the country’s America, Hispanic Americans organized for see that the officials, too, are frustrated. There history, the Five Points Gang. Named after the different reasons. appears to be no single answer, no single act that area of Manhattan where five streets converged, the Five Points Gang graduated many of its best government, law enforcement or social services The Treaty of Hidalgo, Many gangs can take that will solve a problem allowed to into membership in the Sicilian Mafia, known which ended the Mexican- as La Cosa Nostra. One member in particular with a national fester and grow. Law enforcement, social workers American War in 1848, presence … can and ordinary citizens alike search for answers as learned the lessons well, a teen-aged recruit early created Americans out of in the 20th century named Alphonse Capone.5 trace their roots to the gang problem seems to escalate beyond their whole cloth by virtue of Los Angeles. ability to deal with it. The 2002 Oscar-nominated movie “Gangs of Mexico’s ceding land that Violence prevention coalition Where did these groups come from? Why did New York” told the story of the Five Points is now the Southwestern 6 they spring up? What is the extent of the danger? Gang. U.S. All Mexicans living in the region immediately became American citizens. But as And how do we combat it? In that late 19th century time frame, the Chinese America moved westward, these new citizens Tongs formed in New York, satisfying themselves This course will provide answers to those were treated as interlopers.10 questions, outline solutions that appear to be with running the opium trade and gambling working and offer links to resources for breaking enterprises. That period also spawned The As residents of these areas made their way into the vicious cycle of gang violence. Whyos, a gang that actually had a menu with the cities, and as immigrants crossing the border prices for various “violence-for-hire” activities.7 Elite CME Page 1 from Mexico arrived, they brought with them an some 40 years after being denied membership in the lessons of street life until he lies dead in the intense loyalty to their ethnicity and homeland. the Boy Scouts because of his skin color. street, holding a gun. Acknowledgement of the These loyalties, more than a lack of opportunity “vicious circle” of gang life is brought home “That’s the Boy Scouts of America.” he says, in the East, fueled the early gang movement in through the device of beginning and ending “a racist organization.” Kumasi echoes the the western U.S. the song with almost identical verses about a sentiment, brimming with remembered rage that tearful mother giving birth, sad instead of joyous As millions of Latinos moved into the region, seems to boil easily to the surface even now. because she knows what the child will face. most found their way to Los Angeles, allowing “We couldn’t be Cub Scouts,” Kumasi says. “We it to supplant Chicago as the nation’s second- couldn’t be Boy Scouts; we couldn’t be Explorer America so embraced the song that it became largest city. These immigrants brought with them Scouts. We couldn’t become involved in any kind Presley’s first Top 10 hit in four years. He also pride in their particular part of their homeland. of organization that would bear us good fruit.” made it a staple of his Las Vegas shows. As they settled in the barrios of East Los Angeles, So the youth of South Central Los Angeles As much as Elvis grabbed America by the heart, Mexican-Americans banded through the bonds of formed their own clubs, fueled by the anger two years later, filmmaker Stanley Kubrick this regional pride. Those gangs began as social evident in the documentary’s interviews. The shook it by its sensibilities with the 1971 film groups, but quickly blossomed into violence over many individual groups throughout the area “A Clockwork Orange.” While based in London turf and the honor of their groups. The 1940s also quickly consolidated into two groups, the Crips and telling the story of a gang of British youths, saw the first African-American gangs forming in and the Bloods, with neighborhood “branches.” Kubrick’s film graphically displayed the horrors the L.A. area. of gang rape, violence and murder as no film had Tagging their ’hoods with graffiti, both gangs But in South Central L.A., the early 1970s before. Originally released in the U.S. with an X spread throughout the South Central L.A. region, marked the beginning of what many see as the rating, the film was upgraded to R in 1973 when Crips wearing blue and Bloods wearing red. modern era of gang violence. As a response to Kubrick re-released it with some of the most A map of the region showing neighborhood their belief that they were shut out from the social graphic scenes deleted. He pulled the film from allegiances began to resemble an Election Day and work opportunities available to others, the distribution in Britain after copycat killings were map on network television. African-American youth of that region of Los reported by youths dressing and acting as the Angeles formed the Crips and the Bloods.11 But the result of a red being caught in a blue characters in the film. region, or vice versa, was far more dangerous Two names. Two colors of the spectrum, but as But along with other films of the period, “A than simply a heated political conversation. The synonymous with gang violence in the American Clockwork Orange” had already sparked a debate documentary states that more than 15,000 people lexicon as Band-Aid or Xerox are with the in America about film violence and its influence had been killed as of 2008 in the gang wars of product lines they pioneered. Ask the man on the on society. South Central L.A, claiming that total to be more street about Mara Salvatrucha (considered the than three times the number killed in the violence While that debate was going on, gangs were most dangerous gang currently operating in the of Northern Ireland. mobilizing. U.S.) and he may not know. But he’ll be familiar with the Crips and Bloods and probably be able And after establishing a foothold in South Central No longer satisfied with the income from the drug to tell you which colors they wear. L.A., the two groups fanned out across America, trade and other activities in the major cities, the pioneering the proliferation of gang affiliates large gangs began sending out feelers into the The documentary “Crips and Bloods: Made in throughout the nation. That expansion also suburbs and ultimately into rural areas as well. America” offers reasons behind the formation sparked the spread of gangs, and gang violence, The most active among these were Los Angeles- and surge in popularity of the two gangs through into the South, which prior to the 1970s had based gangs, thus fueling the public perception interviews with current as well as founding experienced little, if any, gang activity. that America’s gang problem began there. In members of both groups. Exclusion from social a Fact Sheet published in 2007, The Violence groups is put forward as one of the main issues. The South became the latest area of expansion Prevention Coalition of Greater Los Angeles for gang activity as the big name gangs branched The movie says the eastern border of the Watts confirmed that: out looking for new turf. Toward the end of the area of South Central L.A. (almost exclusively “Many gangs which today have a nationwide 1970s, only Miami among cities in the Deep populated by African-Americans) is accepted to presence, such as the Bloods, the Crips, South reported significant gang activity, while be Alameda Street, which is also the accepted Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), and 18th Street, New Orleans began seeing some gangs forming.12 western edge of two white-dominated cities, can trace their roots to Los Angeles. The South Gate and Huntington Park. From the ’70s through the ’90s, southern states migration of gang members from Los Angeles measured increased gang activity, but still widely to other regions of the United States has led In the documentary, Kumasi, an early member of spread throughout the region. In measures of to a rapid proliferation of these gangs in the Slausons gang, a precursor of the Crips, said counties with gang activity, the period 1970-1995 many smaller suburban and rural areas not he and others in South Central L.A. knew not saw significant increases in Florida (23 percent), accustomed to gang activity and its related to cross Alameda, that police would enforce the South Carolina (15 percent) and Alabama (12 crimes.” (Quote used by permission of The Violence Prevention boundary between black and white. percent). For the same period, the South led the Coalition of Greater Los Angeles.) “Every day, that’s my diet, a spoonful of country in the number of new cities reporting The U.S. Justice Department’s National Gang hatred,” Kumasi says in the film, referring to his gang activity, a 32 percent increase to the Intelligence Center in January 2009 issued its experience maturing to manhood in South Central Midwest’s 26 percent. The Northeast and West National Gang Threat Assessment outlining L.A. saw increases of only 6 percent and 3 percent, the migration. According to that report, gang respectively.13 Bird, another early gang member, tells of members moved from the cities into suburban searching the social offerings of the time. He About the time the Crips and Bloods were areas beginning in the 1970s, often battling relates the story of his mother taking him to join forming, popular culture and the entertainment among themselves over the new territory. These a local Boy Scout troop. As he speaks, the camera industry took note of the gang issue. Among the new gang lords, forming gangs in the suburbs, pans across the troop’s group picture, showing first was songwriter Mac Davis, who penned recruited members from low-income, single- only white faces. “A Vicious Circle” in 1969. Renamed “In The parent families. Ghetto” and sung by Elvis Presley, the song “Be prepared to be turned down,” he quotes his captured America’s imagination. mother saying at the time. Bird then quotes the Boy Scout oath, anger still heavy in his voice The song followed the short life of a child born into the ghettos of Chicago through his learning Page 2 Elite CME Gangs in pop culture – Part II showed that 17 percent of suburban students those charged with protecting them. Information reported increased gang activity in their schools. on gangs is readily available at the click of a Nowhere was the influence of gang violence Shockingly, rural students reported a 33 percent mouse to youth who might be feeling bullied, and pop culture’s fascination with it more increase after reporting an 8 percent decrease left out or misunderstood. A simple search on evident than the story of the rivalry between only two years before. YouTube brings up dozens of videos where East Coast and West Coast factions in the the gangs can display guns, money, music and According to the NDTS, middle schools and high Gangsta Rap industry. women to attract new members. schools have become prime recruitment fields The West Coast was represented by Death Row and markets for drugs. Law enforcement agencies In fact, a survey conducted in 2009 by a Records (Snoop Dog and Tupac Shakur, et al) even report that gang members who drop out of California state assemblyman said that 70 percent and the East Coast by Bad Boy Entertainment school are encouraged to re-enroll so they can of gang members polled found it easier to make (Puff Daddy and Notorius B.I.G., et al). Death recruit new members and sell drugs. new contacts online than in person.20 Just like Row employed many members of the Bloods, the rest of America, gangland has embraced The Justice report estimated gang membership and Bad Boy aligned itself with the Crips. technology, utilizing Twitter, Facebook, text in the U.S. at more than 1 million as of What began as a war of words escalated into messaging and so on to both communicate within September 2008, consisting of more than 147,000 beatings and robberies, turning fatal on Sept. the ranks and sow the seeds that swell the ranks. documented gang members in custody and 7, 1996. approximately 900,000 walking the streets. They also can use your own social networking That night, Tupac Shakur and others were against you. It’s no longer necessary to stroll Those 900,000 have made the streets a war zone captured on security video as they left a Mike through a neighborhood, looking for an where ordinary citizens doing ordinary things are Tyson fight at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas. accumulation of mail or newspapers as tips to at risk: The video shows them beating, but not killing, which houses are temporarily unoccupied and July 11, 2011: A 34-year-old cook at Alice’s a rival gang member accused of robbing a ripe for burglary. People are telling the crooks Bar-B-Que in Bronzeville, a Chicago member of Shakur’s entourage. themselves who is home and who is not. neighborhood, steps outside for a smoke Less than three hours later, as his car waited at break. He is gunned down – and dies at In a brief article on its website, PC World a traffic light, another car pulled alongside and the scene – when occupants of a silver car magazine points out the danger in tweeting or the occupants opened fire, hitting Shakur four open fire at another man, described as a notifying Facebook friends that you’re going to times in the chest. He died six days later. “gangbanger,” who is walking by.14 spend the weekend in the mountains or at the Persistent reports put Notorious B.I.G. behind July 12, 2011: In Tracy, Calif., a city of beach. It’s not only your friends watching, the the hit as a retaliation for the beating earlier 83,000 about 50 miles east of Oakland, magazine says.21 that night. one group of suspected gang members fires The article outlines a September 2010 cracking into another group standing in front of a Six months later, B.I.G. was in Los Angeles of a burglary ring in Nashua, N.H., that was grocery store. Police suspect it to be gang for the Soul Train Music Awards. After the using Facebook to plan its crimes. More than 50 activity based on eyewitness reports of verbal ceremony, as his car waited at a traffic light, burglaries were reported in the town of 85,000 in exchanges between the groups.15 another car pulled alongside and the occupants one month. Arrests of gang members immediately July 12, 2011: In the coastal community of opened fire. B.I.G. died at the scene from cleared 18 of those, and police recovered between Half Moon Bay, Calif., population 11,324, several gunshots to the chest. $100,000 and $200,000 in stolen items. PC three 17-year-olds are charged with beating World also told of a website that could be used to a member of a rival gang with baseball bats determine when people were home by tracking As the 1980s dawned, the large urban gangs and a shovel.16 Twitter usage. moved into the suburbs in earnest, swallowing July 14, 2011: Police in Caldwell, Idaho, up the smaller gangs to increase profits from the population 43,000, arrest four men after a While not an example of genuine, organized gang drug trade. At the same time, they sent members gang fight. The men were identified as gang violence, flash mobs are a recent phenomenon to locate new drug markets throughout the nation. members by items found in their car.17 gone wild, an example of how the prevalence of Encountering resistance from local gangs already July 11, 2011: Police in Greenville, N.C., gang violence can bleed into society, affecting established, these moves resulted in more killings population 84,000, blame a gang war for a behavior of groups of people who are not and drive-by shootings. The 1990s served to rash of shootings in the city. In one of the necessarily members of a street gang. When they strengthen those gang handholds on America’s cases, police arrested four men after a high- originated, flash mobs were fun get-togethers in towns and cities, prompting law enforcement to speed chase in which one of the suspects shot public places by massive groups of individuals all target key gang leaders in an attempt to defeat the at officers.18 bent on committing public jocularity. problem from the top down. Just an average week in gangland, the above Organized mainly through social networks, the But data from the National Drug Threat Survey incidents reflect the breadth of the gang violence only problems with the first flash mobs were (NDTS) in 2008 show gang activity is still issue, ranging from a bystander death in a drive- temporary disruption of commerce and clogging increasing. Law enforcement agencies reporting by shooting in the nation’s third-largest city to a of e-mail inboxes with videos that went viral and gang activity increased from 45 percent in 2004 brutal beating in a tiny, idyllic community known entertained America. to 58 percent in 2008, with the largest increases for its oceanfront bed and breakfasts and where But it wasn’t long before those prone to violence in the East and Southeast. This migration is 19 the largest employer is the Ritz-Carlton. saw the value of a flash mob. Internet blogs and confirmed by a May 2010 bulletin of the federal The message is clear: beachfront village or inner news websites are full of reports on flash mob Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency city, no place is immune to the issues surrounding violence throughout the country, but the summer Prevention, which states that as early as 1998, gang violence. of 2011 – perhaps fueled by a nationwide heat the southern United States had surpassed the And America’s youth are not even safe from wave – seemed to burn with violence. Northeast in the number of states reporting the gangs in their own homes, in front of their counties with gang violence. Chicago bore the wrath of multiple flash mobs own computers. Media reports abound of gangs assaulting residents throughout the city22 while At the other end of the spectrum, the 2009 Justice venturing into cyber space looking for recruits in Kansas City, bodyguards for the mayor had report includes data from interviewing students and enticing them with stories of gang life along to shove him to the ground when shots rang out as young as 12 years old about gang activity in with photos and videos to back it up. while he was visiting that city’s Country Club their schools. The interviews, conducted in 2005, It’s a risky business for impressionable youth and Plaza area, according to a story published Aug. 14 by the Kansas City Star. The mayor had Elite CME Page 3 been in the area to view personally the weekend members would return as well, increasing Black P. Stone Nation: Alliance of seven crowding issues that had sparked calls for an U.S. membership exponentially and fueling gangs under a single leader. Income derived earlier weekend curfew. the gang’s nationwide expansion. Some gang from sales of cocaine, heroin, marijuana and members were actually deported multiple times, methamphetamine. Estimated 6,000 to 8,000 But it’s likely none of the flash mob violence recruiting new members each time they arrived members, mostly African-American males in shook Americans as much as what occurred at the in their home country.26 The U.S. Department of the Chicago area. Wisconsin State Fair in August of 2011. A report Justice estimates Mara Salvatrucha membership Bloods: Main income from distribution of by WISN television of Milwaukee said three law worldwide at between 30,000 and 50,000, with cocaine and marijuana, with other drugs to enforcement agencies responded when bands of 8,000 to 10,000 of those in the United States.27 a smaller degree. Estimated membership of youths began attacking fair-goers as they were between 7,000 and 30,000 nationwide. Active leaving the midway. Police told the news station Particularly brutal, Mara Salvatrucha reaches in 123 cities in 33 states. that some fair-goers were beaten while walking the heights of violence in exacting retribution Crips: Income mostly from sales of cocaine, out of the fair, while others were pulled from cars from rival gang members and even their own marijuana and PCP. Heavily invested in the and motorcycles first. members who have been viewed as disloyal Los Angeles area, Crips are also active in 221 to the gang. One of the most brutal was the In the days following the violence, initial reports cities in 41 states. Estimated membership of killing of a 17-year-old former gang member, claiming it as a flash mob of African-Americans 30,000 to 35,000 nationwide. four months pregnant when she was stabbed 16 targeting whites was confirmed and reported by Gangster Disciples: Formed in Chicago times, condemned to die because she had agreed major news outlets. At the blog americanthinker. in the mid-’60s, this gang is run like a to testify in murder trials against other gang com, witnesses to the violence were quoted corporation and led by a chairman of the members.28 as telling WTMJ Radio that dozens of young board. Active in 110 cities in 31 states, African-Americans targeted white people leaving The FBI, in its 2008 report entitled “The MS- income derives from sales of cocaine, the fairgrounds at the end of the fair’s opening 13 Threat, A National Assessment,” gives the marijuana and heroin. Estimated membership day. gang its highest threat rating in areas where of 25,000 to 50,000. it is most concentrated. The report says MS- And in a video report, WTMJ television Tiny Rascal Gangsters: One of the largest 13 has a presence in 42 states, with heaviest interviewed a man who rescued a lone white man and most violent Asian gangs, this group concentrations in California, Texas and much of he claimed was being attacked by up to eight numbers between 5,000 and 10,000 members the East Coast, and the largest increases being African-Americans who took turns kicking and involved in sales of cocaine, marijuana, seen in the Southeast and Northeast. Ecstasy and meth. punching him while he lay in the middle of the street. The racial aspect even provided fodder The report also says that when looking for Vice Lord Nation: Primarily in the Great for conservative hosts of national political radio employment, MS-13 members usually present Lakes Region, this gang is active in 74 broadcasts.23 forged documents and select companies that don’t cities in 28 states selling cocaine, heroin check very thoroughly, specifically mentioning and marijuana. Estimated 30,000 to 35,000 Racial tensions also gave birth to Mara construction, restaurant, delivery services and members. Salvatrucha, which is widely considered landscaping companies as employment targets for Outlaw motorcycle gangs: The Justice America’s most dangerous gang. Formed in Los MS-13 members. Department lists five motorcycle gangs it Angeles in the 1980s, MS-13 as it is sometimes considers a threat to safety of the nation known, has the reputation of being the Godzilla Other national gangs the U.S. Justice Department because of their violent and criminal of American gangs because of the shockingly is watching:29 behaviors. The largest are the Bandidos, and violent actions of its members. 18th Street: Formed in Los Angeles, with an Hell’s Angels, with about 900 U.S. members estimated membership of 30,000 to 50,000. Dubbed “The World’s apiece. They are followed by the Mongols Composed mainly of immigrants from Most Dangerous Gang” with 800-850 members and the Outlaws Mexico and Central America, its members in a 2006 National with about 700 members. The last of the five are presumed by the FBI to be mainly illegal Geographic report, is the Sons of Silence with about 250-275 aliens. As with most of the gangs being MS-13 was formed by members. watched, 18th Street engages in a mix of Salvadoran immigrants Prison gangs: About a half-dozen prison drive-by and snatch-and-grab robbery and fleeing the civil wars of that period in Central gangs that also operate outside prison are on drug distribution. The gang traffics mainly in America. The original purpose of MS-13 was the Justice Department radar. Most are small, cocaine and marijuana. Active in 44 cities in banding for protection against other Los Angeles but all trade in violence and drug activity. The 20 states. gangs during the massive growth period of the most well known is the Aryan Brotherhood, a Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation: Crips and Bloods.24 mostly Caucasian group active mainly in the Chicago-born in the 1960s, with membership Southwest and Pacific regions. They eventually met violence with violence, drawn mostly from Mexicans and Puerto and because of their involvement in the civil Ricans, the Latin Kings now accepts Membership numbers and the breadth of wars in Central America, were much better at it. members of any nationality. Membership influence of these gangs brings home the fact that Members of Mara Salvatrucha rained vengeance estimated between 20,000 and 40,000. gang violence has permeated America to even the on the gang’s enemies with guns, blunt objects smallest communities. Income stream primarily from drug and machetes, their favorite instrument of operations, as well as identity theft and In Bunnell, Fla., population 2,676, the retribution.25 money laundering. Operates in 158 cities in leader of the local Bloods gang was charged 31 states. with racketeering and being a principal to The gang, whose members often stand out second-degree murder. According to his because of their overall tattoos, blossomed in the Asian Boyz: Composed mainly of Vietnamese and Cambodian males, this gang former girlfriend, who was testifying at ’90s, fueled by the initial reaction of immigration a pre-trial deposition, the Bloods leader officials to deport members convicted of crimes. was formed in Southern California in the early 1970s. Primary income from sales of ordered his gang to conduct a home invasion But the Los Angeles Times reported in 2005 on in nearby Palm Coast to steal the drugs he how that strategy blew up in officials’ faces. methamphetamine, marijuana and MDMA (Ecstasy). Estimated membership is now believed a man was holding there. One of Deported gang members simply recruited and 1,300 to 2,000 members in 28 cities in 14 the gang members was killed in a shootout, exported more members when they arrived states. and prosecutors contended that because he in their home countries. Often, the deported ordered the home invasion, the head of the

Page 4 Elite CME gang was culpable in the killing. If convicted, drug trade, according to the report. The report joined the department’s gang unit in 1972, the the gang leader could face life in prison.30 also states drug producers utilize the “any port height of the gang explosion in South Central Los In Donora, Pa., population 4,781, a 17-year- in a storm” theory in turning the other way when Angeles. old man from nearby Monesen, population gangs hook up with multiple cartels because the “In Los Angeles County we have hundreds of 8,669, fired at least 20 shots into the home of producers are in desperate need of distributors persons slain every year by gang members,” a man who had been charged in a shooting who can move freely within the U.S. McBride said. “I have watched this number four days earlier in Monesen.31 Even the FBI, in its National Gang Threat grow from less than 200 per year to 807 during In its comprehensive May 2010 history of street Assessment in 2008, acknowledged the symbiotic our record year of 1995. Los Angeles gangs that gangs, the OJJDP summarized the then-current relationship between the transnational gangs and have migrated into the eastern U.S. or Midwest extent of street gang influence by region. the drug cartels. Speaking specifically of Mara are joining forces with the Chicago-based gangs In the Northeast, much of the emerging gang Salvatrucha, the FBI assessment said, “Members with the possibility of uniting into a super-gang activity was along what is known as the 222 smuggle illicit drugs, primarily powder cocaine in the future. Corridor. and marijuana, into the United States and “The malignancy of gang presence kills The Corridor is the region where transport and distribute the drugs throughout the communities just as surely as their bullets kill Pennsylvania Route 222 passes through county.” people,” McBride continued, speaking from the six cities, Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton, Combating gang violence – what works? platform of a lifetime dealing with the issue. Reading, Lancaster and Harrisburg, Sometimes the effort is as simple as the 2007 “Gangs so intimidate the citizens of communities all of which have seen increased gang law in Sunnyside, Wash., that criminalized gang that they are too afraid to testify, or even membership and activity. membership and gave police authority to stop complain about the gang’s activities. The OJJDP also pointed to new activity anyone wearing gang colors. Sometimes the by the Trinitarios, a gang formed as a “The most important weapon in the gang’s action is even more targeted, such as the vote protection device in New York prisons. arsenal is fear,” he said. “Gangs are the master by city fathers in Collinsville, Ill., to ban baggy The East Coast Bloods and Dead Man predators of the urban landscape.” pants that hang below the waistline. Inc. are also prison gangs formed in the McBride told the committee about an alliance mid- to late-1990s, the Bloods at New But to truly combat the violence that is taking that had just been formed between the L.A. York City’s Rikers Island and Dead Man over society requires study, planning and County Sheriff’s Department and the Los Angeles at the Maryland Correctional Adjustment cooperation from all the stakeholders in the Police Department, a regionwide clearinghouse Center, known as Supermax. effort to control a runaway train. One of those of gang-related information, suggesting that such Although pointing out that traditional stakeholders, the U.S. Senate Committee on an organization could also be organized on a Chicago gangs dominate the Midwest the Judiciary, held hearings on the topic of nationwide basis. presence, it said the cities of Cleveland, gang violence in September 2003 as the battle Detroit, Joliet, Ill., Kansas City, Minneapolis, for the streets was gearing up in earnest. The Robert McCulloch, president of the National Omaha and St. Louis all reported serious hearings were chaired by Senators Patrick Leahy, District Attorney Association, commented on gang problems. (D-Vermont) and Orrin Hatch, (R-Utah). the urban sprawl of gang activity. McCulloch In the Western Region, the Crips and the was, and still is, the elected prosecutor for St. In opening comments, Sen. Hatch acknowledged Bloods reign supreme, but the OJJDP also Louis County, Mo., a crescent-shaped suburbia that gang violence was not a new problem, but outlines major Latino gangs as La Eme, of about 1 million people surrounding the city of “the face of the problem has shifted and become 18th Street, Nuestra Familia and Mara St. Louis. severely more troubling in recent years. It is Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13. abundantly clear that this problem is no longer “Suburban kids used to drive into the city to get Because gang emergence is a relatively recent limited to our largest cities. Gangs now plague their drugs,” he said, “but they don’t have to phenomenon in the South, the OJJDP did not even our smallest communities.”32 anymore as the drugs get delivered to the suburbs address that region in its summary of current through regular supply lines. Gang graffiti and Leahy, in his opening comments, expanded on status. costumes are seen in even the most yuppie of the issue. “Headlines in the local sections of our suburbs now. The ‘thug’ culture is romanticized The government agency did point out that MS-13 newspapers depict senseless acts of gang violence in music video and in the movies.” and 18th Street have morphed into transnational only to be followed by reports of retaliatory gangs, defined as gangs with bases in multiple violence. … I am sure that a one-size-fits-all And evidently, suburbia embraces the romance. countries that frequently plan and operate solution for the myriad of communities that are “St. Louis County law enforcement officials criminal enterprises across national borders. faced with a crisis does not exist. I am equally have documented nearly 4,000 gang members The OJJDP considers these gangs particularly sure that the answer to gang violence is not likely in approximately 180 identifiable gangs,” dangerous to America because their Latin to be found in simply enacting new federal laws.” McCulloch told the senators. “While most of heritage provides them with the ability to form The tone thus set, the committee spent a day our gang members are home grown, a significant ties with drug cartels in Mexico and Central listening to more than a half-dozen of the nation’s number have well-documented origins in America. top law enforcement personnel, ranging from established groups from both coasts and the The 18th Street Gang, formed in Los Angeles in district attorneys to U.S. attorneys and life- Chicago area. Increasingly our gang members the 1960s because founders were not 100 percent long gang investigators. Testimony was heavily have migrated to other parts of Missouri, far from Mexican heritage and were refused membership weighted on efforts to contain and diminish then- St. Louis.” in the Clanton Street Gang, has formed current gang populations. Patrick Fitzgerald, U.S. attorney for the Northern alliances with cartels in Mexico and Colombia, “Gangs are the One of the witnesses was District of Illinois, told the panel that, in large according to the OJJDP. And Mara Salvatrucha’s master predators Wesley McBride, president part because of the gang influence, the Chicago international aspect resulted because of the of the urban of the California Gang murder rate in 2002, the year prior to the previously outlined immigration policy of landscape.” Investigators Association – Wesley McBride, President, hearings, was nearly three times that of New York deporting members convicted of crimes. and a 35-year veteran of California Gang Investigator’s City. He told the senators that Chicago’s murder Association. Using those ties, and positioning themselves in the Los Angeles County rate was 22 per 100,000 population, compared to cities all along the U.S.-Mexico border, these Sheriff’s Department. He gave the committee the eight per 100,000 for New York City. Addressing transnational gangs participate heavily in the benefit of his experience in the streets, having the year current to the hearings, he said, “It is

Elite CME Page 5 fairly estimated that 45 percent of the homicides stated and linked to the findings in the gang violence. Although hard statistics were not in Chicago in 2003 are gang-related.” assessment phase. available as of mid-2011, a mayoral spokesman 4. Relevant services and activities: Clearly said officials were already seeing some progress. He outlined a three-prong, enforcement-driven spell out strategies, policies and services each And taking a page from the experience of High approach his department had taken toward organization will provide. Point, a Pittsburgh city councilman in March Chicago’s gang problem. 5. Intervention team: Enforcement and 2011 called for the program to be extended to Project Safe Neighborhoods was aimed at monitoring agencies must have multiple open-air drug markets. increasing federal prosecution of convicted felons weapons in their arsenal to hold gang The package doesn’t stop there. Groups caught carrying a gun. Second, they formed members accountable for their actions while throughout the city, ranging from police to social gang strategy teams in the city’s neighborhoods, also retaining the capability of directing those workers, schools to charitable organizations have drawn from various law enforcement agencies youth to social services available to them. joined hands to combat gang violence. Among to investigate and prosecute gangs. Third was 6. Steering committee: Decision-makers from the programs are the Comprehensive Gang the reliance on word on the street that parolees the various organizations who oversee the Model, the Safety Zone Partnership and the Be A carrying guns were being targeted. collaborating agencies while assuring that 6th Grade Mentor program. But Sen. Leahy had hit on what is widely barriers to those services are broken down. In Pittsburgh, Comprehensive Gang Model has considered the best option for containing and 7. Evaluation and sustainability: An avenue resulted in an intervention program using teams combating gang violence when he said in his for measuring effectiveness is paramount, as of individuals from various disciplines who opening comments, “Unfortunately, there are is ensuring that the mix of programs can be help to set up case plans for individuals wanting far too few programs that would examine why sustained over a long period. to leave the gang lifestyle or those at risk of our youth choose to associate in gangs and prey The program then calls for action in five separate recruitment. on others.” Since that time, such programs have categories, called “strategies,” that can only be sprung up throughout the nation, often thriving implemented after the initial assessment and The school system and the city cooperate in the with the assistance of the Justice Department’s organization period. Safety Zone Partnership to establish a 1,000-foot own Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency 1. Community mobilization: Rallying the zone around city schools that is free of attractants Prevention. troops, as it were. The model calls for to gang members and the associated crime and violence. One success story for that program is Founded in 1974, the OJJDP has positioned involvement of local residents, former gang the area around Faison Elementary School in itself as one of the go-to players in the battle members, community groups and agencies to the Homewood area. The city demolished 17 to control gang violence. According to its own coordinate programs. abandoned homes – prime cover for drug activity mission statement, the OJJDP “provides national 2. Opportunities provision: Development of and prostitution – and carted away 15 tons of leadership, coordination and resources to specific, targeted training, education and debris to give the neighborhood a cleaner look. prevent and respond to juvenile delinquency and employment services for gang youth. Pittsburgh schools also partner with multiple victimization.”33 3. Social intervention: Cooperative outreach involving all of a community’s organizations, agencies, among them the United Way and Big The OJJDP provides downloadable PDF police, church, schools and so on to help Brothers, Big Sisters, for the Be A 6th Grade information on its website, as well as the ability gang youth gain access to services. Mentor program. By contacting one of the to order publications through a shopping-cart 4. Suppression: Monitoring or supervision of participating agencies, a community member style ordering system. Among the wealth of gang members by those same agencies. can become a mentor to a youth who is on the resources are Best Practices, a database of 5. Organizational change and development: verge of his or her first temptation and initial programs that communities nationwide are using Establishing policies and procedures to fascination with gangs. effectively to aid troubled youth, conferences effectively use existing resources. Experts at the National Gang Center and the such as the 2011 National Gang Symposium, held OJJDP are convinced this multi-pronged in Orlando, Fla., the Gang Reduction Program Among the best at implementing the program, approach is the best way to deal with the issue, and the Comprehensive Gang Model. according to the Justice Department’s National Gang Center, is the package of programs in place removing from the streets the most violent gang The OJJDP’s objective, through the use of in Pittsburgh, Pa. Targeted at the Homewood members, helping others to escape the clutches its varied programs, is to help communities section of the city as the area with the highest of their gangs, and keeping pre-teens from determine what programs work best for them, concentration of gang violence, the programs run becoming the gang members of the future. rather than implement methods that may not work the gamut from interdiction to intervention and One intervention program that is astonishingly in a particular setting. To that end, the OJJDP 35 prevention. fast in producing results is the CeaseFire developed the Comprehensive Gang Model, a program. Begun in Chicago in 2000, it has been series of processes by which a community can The Pittsburgh Initiative to Reduce Crime (PIRC) replicated throughout the country because of arrive at a tailored solution to its unique gang was begun in July 2010, and as of mid-2011 its tendency to produce a nearly instantaneous atmosphere.34 there were no statistics yet on its effectiveness. Based on holding an entire gang responsible for decrease in gang violence. The model outlines seven steps in assessment the actions of a single member, the program is Combining community and public education with and preparation that must be followed before patterned after one designed by David Kennedy hands on interdiction methods, CeaseFire was implementation of a gang strategy: of the City University of New York, director of launched in the West Garfield Park neighborhood 1. Acknowledgement of the problem: the university’s Center for Crime Prevention and of Chicago in 2000. According to the program’s Essentially, everybody must be on the same Control. The program is being used in Boston, website, in its first year, shootings dropped 67 page. If there is denial present, it must be and police in High Point, N.C., received a percent. After seeing such results, the program addressed. national award in 2007 for using the program to was rolled out into other neighborhoods, and 2. Assessment of the problem: Organizations virtually eliminate neighborhood drug markets. by 2005 was in place or planned in 15 Chicago that will be involved in the solution cooperate neighborhoods and five other Illinois cities. in determining exactly where the problem In Pittsburgh, the targeted behavior is homicide. lies. Determining who is involved in gang In that July 2010 meeting with city and police While the program provides materials that activity and where it is concentrated allows officials, identified gang members were told help residents assist in taking back their for targeted response. that a homicide by one member would result neighborhoods, CeaseFire’s highest profile comes 3. Goals and objectives: They must be clearly in a crackdown on the entire membership, from The Interrupters, a group of former gang effectively setting up a zero tolerance level for

Page 6 Elite CME members and prisoners who work in the trenches and an extensive process. Removal of a single Twitter, MySpace and so on to stay in contact to prevent shootings and other violence, both tattoo can cost hundreds to thousands of dollar, and plan their lives, the gang members have gang-related and unrelated to gang activity. depending on the size, and require multiple discovered cyberspace as well. visits to the laser center, spaced weeks apart.36 The Interrupters fight the battle on two main And to keep ahead of the game, and gang Many gang members have multiple large tattoos, fronts, going into the streets to stop violence tactics on social media outlined here earlier, law making the cost of removal prohibitive. before it starts and visiting victims of violence enforcement has had to learn new techniques. in the hospital. The second front is more than When desperation meets necessity, the resulting An online article outlines six strategies used by just a mere visit, though. That’s where CeaseFire invention can sometimes be unhealthy as former law enforcement use in the social media to both fights its biggest battle against retaliation gang members attempt to remove their tattoos combat and solve crime:41 violence. Interrupters talk to victims of shootings, by themselves. A Fillmore, Calif., High School 1. Police blotter blogs: This technique allows stabbings and other violence while thoughts of student so feared attacks from other gang police to provide information both to the revenge are still fresh in their minds. Catching members that he used a knife to carve a gang public and news media in a timely manner. that plan of revenge before it is fully hatched and insignia from his hand. And an 18-year-old single In some cases, it involves the police agency planned is an important part of the CeaseFire mother suffered infection and scarring when she writing its own crime story and distributing program. used a flame to heat a spoon and pressed it to her it to the media. Police are finding that cheekbone in an unsuccessful attempt to remove sometimes, media outlets will simply cut and And it appears to work. a gang tattoo under her eye.37 paste the story as is. One of the findings of a three-year Department 2. Digital wanted poster: Far from “Wanted, That’s why some communities have taken of Justice study quoted on the CeaseFire Dead or Alive,” this tactic gets names, faces the creative step of including tattoo-removal website is that there was a 100 percent reduction and often security video of criminals onto programs in their mix of services. QueensCare, in retaliation murders in five of the eight the social media only moments after a crime a faith-based health care organization, sponsors neighborhoods studied. The government study has been committed, with the objective of one of several such programs in the Southern also found that shootings and killings dropped warning the public to keep a watch. California area. QueensCare provides free between 41 percent and 73 percent in areas 3. Anonymous cyber tipsters: There is a health care to qualified residents in a wide area where CeaseFire was active, and that from 16-35 program being marketed to law enforcement of Los Angeles County, which includes the percent of those were directly attributable to that assembles anonymous reports with the South Central L.A. gang stronghold.38 Through CeaseFire’s intervention. ultimate objective of constructing a clickable a program it launched called Next Step, the “crime map” on Google. The program is so success- organization provides free tattoo removal services “The Interrupters” 4. Cyber stakeout: Police scan the social media ful it drew the attention to former gang members referred by parole and tells the story of three outlets, monitoring for gang activity and key of Steve James, director probation officers as well as agencies assisting in violence interrupters, words in Tweets and other messages. of the Oscar-nominated former gang members substance abuse recovery. “Hoop Dreams.” His full 5. Gang infiltration: Law enforcement officers themselves, who According to the QueensCare website, each length documentary can create phony profiles used to gain the ply the streets of tattoo requires from 6-12 treatments, spaced eight “The Interrupters,” trust of gang members online and thus gain Chicago, trying weeks apart, translating to as much as a two- debuted in limited release insider information. to stop violence year commitment on the part of the former gang in August 2011 after 6. Tweets: Law enforcement has found Twitter before it happens. It member. particularly useful for instant communication winning Best Documen- examines a year in tary prizes at the Miami The Los Angeles Business Journal in a March as well as tracking groups. Some entities which Chicago drew concerned about the public nature of the and Minneapolis/St. Paul national headlines for 2007 article described participants on a typical 39 service have set up similar services of film festivals and being violence and murder. day at the QueensCare clinic: chosen as an official A father, years-removed from the gang their own which they can control. One selection of the 2011 lifestyle, seeks removal of his gang tattoos highly visible use of Twitter was the Los Sundance Film Festival, according to the movie’s because he is concerned for the safety of his Angeles Police Department’s reliance on the website. children as he walks down the street with immediacy of the medium to monitor crowds them. during the Michael Jackson funeral. But once a gang member recognizes the truth and A mother who decides to get a referral to the has agreed to accept help and be rescued from the Two stories: The road not taken, and program after finding her 3-year-old drawing streets by being plugged into the right programs redemption from the wasteland on herself so she could be more like mommy. to assist in turning around his or her life, another But no matter how much technology or police A drug counselor and former abuser himself, problem rears its head – presence is thrown at the problem, all the studies who has brought two of his patients for gang tattoos. have shown that, in a nutshell, the way out of the enrollment in the program. vicious circle of gang violence is opportunity, just Not only do their tattoos The California model appears to be making its as the way into gang influence is often the lack leave them open to attack way across the nation, as groups across the nation of opportunity. Coupled with the proper timing from rivals, but they also are jumping on the bandwagon.40 and a willingness on the part of gang members can form a serious barrier or at-risk youth to seize the day, opportunity is to employment. It’s an While concerned citizens, activists and everything. accepted bromide that community groups are banding together to help employers are turned off by multiple tattoos, gang members ready to leave the underbelly of Nothing says that more than the stories of two and coming out of the gang culture, many young society, law enforcement organizations scramble young St. Louis men who grew up within a mile people are heavily inked. to stay on top of the violence and do their own or so of each other in the violence incubator that part in steering willing gang members to the is that city’s north side. Their stories were told in In an economy where there are often dozens of doorway to a better life. articles on stltoday.com, the website of the city’s applicants for every job, former gang members newspaper, on consecutive days in September can be placed at a disadvantage by their tattoos, One of the newest tools is the mix of technologies 2011. thus making them a candidate to return to the known collectively as social media. As America streets for a lack of acceptable options. on the whole has embraced these technologies, Billy (not his real name) had been pictured in the so, too, have the gangs. Just as Uncle Frank, newspaper in September of 2000 at age 8 along But tattoo removal is an expensive proposition Cousin Sue or mom and dad use Facebook, with his sister, 9, when a news photographer Elite CME Page 7 Footnotes recorded their horrified reactions to seeing their 19, Billy was sentenced to life in prison without 1. http://articles.chicagotribune.com uncle wounded as one of four victims of a drive- parole. 2. http://stltoday.com 3. http://www.news-journalonline.com by shooting. Billy’s sister told the photographer 4. National Gang Center Bulletin, 2010, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Resources for combating gang violence Prevention (OJJDP), U.S. Department of Justice. the shooting was gang-related. 5. OJJDP, 2010. Any Internet search engine will produce a 6. http://imdb.com 7. OJJDP, 2010. The article describes a stable, nurturing family wealth of listings for programs to combat gangs 8. http://chicagocrimescenes.blogspot.com life: working mom; five latchkey kids with strict as well as news articles about those programs. 9. OJJDP, 2010 10. OJJDP, 2010 instructions to not open the door until mom got Additionally, the Justice Department’s National 11. Crips and Bloods: Made in America (2008 documentary film) 12. OJJDP, 2010 home from work; regular church attendance; Gang Center at www.nationalgangcenter.gov 13. OJJDP, 2010 14. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-07-13/news/chi-barbecue-restaurant-worker- three children in college and one in a charter provides a link to resources. The Office of killed-in-driveby-shooting-20110713_1_bronzeville-gang-members-cook 15. http://www.tracypress.com/view/full_story/14694036/article-Gangs-involved-in- school. Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Central-Avenue-shooting?instance=home_news_lead_story offers a searchable website crammed full of 16. http://www.hmbreview.com/news/three-teens-charged-in-moonridge-attack/ Meanwhile, growing up along a parallel track, article_093b4334-adaf-11e0-b963-001cc4c03286.html what it considers to be the best programs. It can 17. http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/07/14/1727046/gang-fight-leads-to-charges-in. Richard (not his real name) had a cousin who was html be accessed at www.ojjdp.gov/mpg/ and allows 18. http://www.wcti12.com/news/28518765/detail.html shot and killed and a brother who was shot in the searchers to look by type of program or dozens of 19. City of Half Moon Bay, 2010 Annual Report, Page 104. neck while living only a mile or two from the 20. http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-cyber-thugs,0,6600876.story criteria and demographic data. 21. http://www.pcworld.com/printable/article/id,205295/printable.html neighborhoods where Billy grew up. 22. www.chicagotribune.com 23. http://www.politicususa.com/en/beck-limbaugh-wisconsin Conclusion 24. Gangs, Terrorists and Trade” http://www.fpif.org/fpifxt/4144 As seemingly stable and nurturing as Billy’s 25. FBI Threat Assessment, http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2008/january/ms13_011408 Gang violence has a stranglehold on the nation. 26. “Gang Uses Deportation to Its Advantage to Flourish in U.S.” http://www.latimes. home life was, Richard’s was in a constant com/news/local/la-me-gang30oct30,0,6717943.story?coll=la-home-headlines Once strictly a big city problem, gang violence 27. http://www.justice.gov/ndic/pubs32/32146/appb.htm uproar. Richard was the fifth of 10 kids by 28. “Two convicted, two acquitted in suburban Virginia street gang trial” http:// different fathers, and within days of his brother touches every corner of the nation. From Los articles.cnn.com/2005-05-17/justice/ms13.trial.verdicts_1_ms-13-street-gang-gang- Angeles to Chicago, and from Bunnell, Fla., to members?_s=PM:LAW being shot, Richard and his family were evicted 29. National Gang Threat Assessment, 2009, U.S. Justice Department. Half Moon Bay, Calif., organized gangs visit 30. http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/local/flagler/2011/09/25/ormer-girlfriend- from their home, forced to move in with a flagler-bloods-leader-ordered-robbery-that-turned-deadly.html violence on the people on a daily basis. Whether 31. http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/valleyindependent/news/print_618117.html neighbor. They pulled together enough money 32. http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/hearing.cfm?id=4f1e0899533f7680e78d0328 celebrating a birthday or taking a smoke break 1ff0d6f7 to move back to the house, but then the utilities 33. http://www.ojjdp.gov/faqs.html were shut off, prompting a move back to the at work, innocent Americans are being gunned 34. http://www.nationalgangcenter.gov/Comprehensive-Gang-Model down. 35. Erika Jones, Pittsburgh Public Schools, Gang-Free Schools: phone interview neighbor’s house. 07-07-11 36. http://www.tattoohealth.org/content/whatislaserremoval.asp America must find a way to break the vicious 37. http://www.chuckmuncie.org/tattoo.html Billy seemed to have all the advantages: stable 38. http://www.queenscare.org/about circle of gang membership from one generation 39. http://www.sunriseoutreach.org/PDF/QueensCare1.pdf home, church influence, siblings blazing a trail 40. http://www.tattoohealth.org/blog/2008/05/gang_tattoo_removal_spreads_ac.html down the right road. Richard seemed to have to the next, and it is a daunting task. The problem 41. http://mashable.com/2010/03/17/law-enforcement-social-media/ everything against him. Yet Richard excelled in has been years in the making, and the reasons for school and Billy dropped out at as a sophomore gang membership are deep-seated and not easily when his girlfriend became pregnant. The article overcome. said Billy’s mother believes that is when he But there is hope. succumbed to the allure of the streets. There are tools that work, ranging from Richard somehow avoided those mean streets destroying gangs’ ability to hide their activities, and was accepted into the University of Missouri. to diverting children before they fall under the But having attended schools that were on a list of gang’s influence, to in-the-street, in-your-face poor performers, and with a marginal ACT score, intervention. Prison, while a tool to remove he did not qualify for most scholarships offered at the most dangerous gang members, is not the the Columbia, Mo., institution. ultimate solution. That solution is to mitigate A newspaper columnist wrote about Richard’s current damage while at the same time helping dilemma and magic happened. Two benefactors gang members escape the vicious circle and offered to foot the bill for Richard’s entire college drying up the pipeline of future gang members. education. Also reading the column was a student at the University of Missouri who grew up near Richard and had established a mentoring program at the school and invited Richard to contact him upon arrival on campus. In his September 2011 follow-up, the columnist summarized a campus visit with Richard, who at 18 appears to have overcome the hardscrabble existence of his youth and seized the opportunity given him. The columnist said Richard even sits up front in all his classes because that’s where the smart people sit and it’s the best place to get into a study group. In a news story only one day before publication of the follow-up on Richard, another reporter chronicled what Billy’s life had come to. After all the family support, the church teachings and examples from siblings, Billy was in court, convicted of first-degree murder in the 2010 shooting of a 43-year-old man who had been walking home from a bicycle shop. At the age of

Page 8 Elite CME NOTES GANG VIOLENCE IN AMERICA Final Examination Questions (Course meets the qualifications for 3 hours of continuing education credit for MFCs and LCSs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences)

Choose the best answer for questions 1 through 5 and then proceed to www.elitecme.com to complete your final examination.

1. Which group is considered by gang historians to be the most significant gang in U.S. history? a. Mara Salvatrucha. b. Five Points Gang c. Crips. d. Bloods.

2. The Crips and Bloods were formed for what reason? a. Profits from the drug trade. b. Protection from white school violence. c. Lack of social and work opportunities. d. Neighborhood pride.

3. Gang membership in the U.S. is estimated at: a. Approximately 900,000. b. More than 1 million. c. Less than 500,000. d. More than 2 million.

4. The National Geographic dubbed which group “The World’s Most Dangerous Gang?” a. The Bloods. b. The Vice Lords. c. The Whyos. d. Mara Salvatrucha.

5. After assessment and preparation, the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s (OJJDP) suggests all of the following strategies in its Comprehensive Gang Model EXCEPT: a. A campaign of sweeping arrests. b. Involvement of local residents, local gang members, community groups and agencies. c. Specific, targeted training, education and employment services for youth. d. Cooperative outreach by community organizations, police, church, schools and so on to help gang members obtain social services.

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