Tuesday - June 29, 2010

Gang Way

Oh, now isn’t this special?

ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) conducted a threat assessment survey of all field offices:

“The results of the assessment showed that most major metropolitan areas were experiencing a surge in gang activity. Additionally, the survey showed that membership of these violent transnational gangs was comprised largely of foreign-born nationals.”

Source: ICE “Operation Community Shield” Fact Sheet June 6, 2007

• Gang members in the United States: 800,000
• State and local police in the United States: 708,000

Source: Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California); hearing testimony June 5, 2007

Criminal gangs in the USA have swelled to an estimated 1 million members responsible for up to 80% of crimes in communities across the nation, according to a gang threat assessment compiled by federal officials.
...
“A rising number of U.S.-based gangs are seemingly intent on developing working relationships” with U.S. and foreign drug-trafficking organizations and other criminal groups to “gain direct access to foreign sources of illicit drugs,” the report concludes.

The gang population estimate is up 200,000 since 2005.
...

The violent Salvadoran gang MS-13 has cells, or “cliques,” in 42 states. States reporting no MS-13 presence:

• Alaska
• Delaware
• Maine
• Minnesota
• North Dakota
• New Hampshire
• New Mexico
• Vermont

Source: FBI

I’m a bit surprised that New Mexico has no MS-13 activity. The other states mentioned seem obvious; Salvadorans, especially those with wild facial tattoos (an MS-13 affectation) would really stand out there. Maybe they’d stick out like sore thumbs in New Mexico too?

Now, I don’t know how the feds came up with this 80% number. I don’t know how they have “crime” defined, and I don’t know if they have analyzed the data in terms of locality; how much of it is urban and how much is ex-urban. But I’m sure murder/spontaneous homicide must count as one of those crimes, and the last I heard about half of that was committed by “disaffected urban youths” in “economically challenged racially homogeneous urban environments”. Surely all those people can’t belong to gangs?

And the stock response from our local government in nearly all cases is to create more laws that restrict the law-abiding citizens from arming themselves. Gee, that helps a lot, doesn’t it?

Perhaps it is time for the people to rise up and deal with this. Back in days of the Old West the townspeople would just form a posse and take care of things. That’s a bit more difficult to do these days, but the times may call for it.

Update: CRAP. I just noticed that this article was from a year and a half ago. WTF? Serves me right for getting a post idea from some email sent to me by one of those “send us money so we can fight for your gun rights” groups. Still, recent article or old, the gang problem is getting worse by the day. They have filled the criminal niche left open by other organized crime groups. Some solution needs to be created. These are highly violent people with no respect for any kind of law or civilized behavior. I think a national eradication program could be the answer, but to avoid the infinite legal expenses involved a very large part of such a program would have to be sub rosa, a look-the-other-way-and-don’t-ask-questions situation.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/29/2010 at 09:05 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime •  
• Comments (4) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.

Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner