Massachusetts state troopers Michael Cutone and Thomas Sarrouf returned to Springfield, Ma., in 2009 after deployments with a Green Beret unit in Iraq...
Read full entry »Portland police investigators are asking gang members to abandon a code of silence that has kept officers from solving two gang-related homicides from last year and one this year where a host of witnesses likely saw something, reports the Oregonian. Assistant Chief Eric Hendricks cited killings in a park last May 16, across the street from a nightclub last June 26, and on Feb. 19 outside the Grand Central Restaurant and Bowling Lounge.
"All three of these are examples of cases where there's folks in the community who could help us get these killers off the street," Hendricks said Friday at a meeting of the city's Gang Violence Task Force, made up of police, city and county leaders, outreach workers and community members. "My plea is to the community: If you know – even if you think you may know what happened -- please call homicide detectives." So far this year, Portland's Gang Violence Response Team has fielded 37 call-outs for shootings, fights or stabbings compared with 26 by the end of April last year. The team was called out 103 times to gang-related violence in 2011, the most in 10 years.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa took issue with a study that said there was no evidence a multimillion-dollar anti-gang program had reduced crime, telling a youth violence summit in Washington, D.C., that Los Angeles is safer than any time since the 1950s, the Los Angeles Times reports. "Not since I was born has L.A. been this safe," Villaraigosa said. Representatives of six cities — Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, San Jose, and Salinas, Ca., — that form the National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention are meeting to share their experiences.
Villaraigosa said he wanted his program in Los Angeles to be a model for other cities. The Urban Institute, which was hired by the city to assess the program's progress, reported last year that there was no evidence that the gang reduction office was responsible for the decline in violent crime, and it said that people enrolled in gang prevention activities were no less likely to engage in "delinquent" or "gang-related" behavior. Villaraigosa rejected that analysis, calling the crime data "incontrovertible." he said there had been a 17 percent drop in gang crime since the program started. The Urban Institute study noted that gang-related crimes were declining before the mayor's programs began.
Read full entry »Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel says he’s outraged by the bloodbath of violence that claimed the life of a 6-year-old playing on her porch in front of her...
Read full entry »Responding to a bloodbath of violence over the weekend, Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said he’s seeing an “uptick” in gang...
Read full entry »In recent years, authorities have arrested more than 200 gang members in an unexpected place: the tree-lined suburbs along the Hudson River in New York state, reports NPR. Drug traffickers with ties to the Bloods, the Latin Kings, and other gangs have put down roots there. Authorities say they brought shootings and stabbings with them.
In Middletown, N.Y., 90 minutes northwest of New York City, last month, a law enforcement task force used helicopters and SWAT teams to find more than two dozen suspected members of the Bloods street gang, accused of racketeering, conspiracy, and drug charges that could send them to prison for a decade. An indictment says the group operated like a criminal machine, pushing cocaine, marijuana, and heroin from the Bronx into New York's northern suburbs. For three months, authorities tracked them using wiretaps and cameras on telephone poles and trees. Preet Bharara, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, is best known for prosecuting Wall Street executives. He says preventing gang bloodshed is his top priority.
Read full entry »A toy Jeep lay among shards of broken glass in the front yard of a Detroit where a shooting left a 9-month-old boy dead and an outraged community searching...
Read full entry »About $100 million worth of PCP was seized this week in the Los Angeles area in what authorities described as a major bust of a national drug-trafficking organization, the Los Angeles Times reports. Officials found huge amounts of PCP — totaling roughly 10 million individual doses, which in the Los Angeles area sell for between $10 and $20 each — at several locations. They recovered nearly $400,000 in cash.
Authorities believe the trafficking organization included at least 10 individuals and that it was distributing to Texas, New York and Washington, D.C., and other U.S. cities. "They were shipping and moving and dealing a huge amount of product," said Lt. Scott Fairfield of the Los Angeles Interagency Metropolitan Police Apprehension Crime Task Force, known as L.A. IMPACT. "It's the largest PCP seizure I've ever heard of." Two suspects were arrested at a UPS store where they were allegedly trying to ship narcotics. One is believed associated with a street gang named Bounty Hunter Bloods.
After a string of violent crimes by teen and adult gang members, Memphis is gearing up to mount its largest war on gangs, reports the Memphis Commercial Appeal. For the first time, local, state and federal law enforcement and prosecutors are teaming to create a multijurisdictional gang task force.
"We want to roll this out as soon as possible, but we want to be successful the first time," said U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton. "Egos have been checked at the door. We all want something that is going to be meaningful, effective and efficient." Federal agents with the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, have agreed to participate. Members of Memphis Police Department's Gang Unit say they're anxious for reinforcements. "With us just having a 12-man unit, we're spread thin," said unit supervisor Lt. Anthony Carter.
Read full entry »Authorities arrested more than 100 suspected gang members in San Diego Wednesday, reports the city's Union-Tribune. They face racketeering and other charges in a series of sweeping federal indictments. U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy called it the largest single take-down of gang members in memory. The early-morning arrests were made by members of local and federal law enforcement agencies. Fifteen members named in indictments or criminal complaints remain at large.
Among those arrested are two high-ranking members of the Mexican Mafia, the prison-based gang that Duffy said controls street gang activities in huge chunks of the county. Also arrested were as many as eight "shot callers," or street gang leaders, who sell drugs and also collect "taxes" that are funneled to Mexican Mafia leaders. The arrests were the product of three separate investigations conducted in North County, East County and central San Diego, Duffy said. The probes lasted more than year and involved extensive wiretaps. The defendants are accused of crimes including drug sales, extortion, assaults and attempted murders.
Read full entry »In another sign that officials are shifting the way they go after gangs, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson says his gang task force will turn much of its focus toward prevention and intervention tactics, reports the Sacramento Bee. Johnson said the task force would embark on a three-year gang prevention effort, putting less emphasis on enforcement strategies.
Some key elements of the strategy will be implemented by dozens of law enforcement officers set to be hired with federal grants this year. Other elements of the plan involve existing literacy and internship programs.The task force is copying gang prevention ideas that have been successful in other cities, including San Jose. The task force was formed after a community outcry when two people – including a young mother – were gunned down outside a barbershop. The anti-gang plan will represent "a paradigm shift," Johnson said. Most plans that tackle gang violence have "a heavy emphasis on incarceration and enforcement, and we don't want that to be the focus." Investing in school-based programs, developing strong connections between neighborhoods and law enforcement officers, job development programs, and regional collaboration among police agencies will make up the strategy.
Read full entry »Thousands of former California gang members have entered tattoo removal programs that cities began offering 15 years ago, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. The programs are seeing a steady increase in participants, officials say. That may not suggest a decline in gang membership but it offers hope that a once-unthinkable action for hardened gang members - erasing the marks of allegiance and loyalty - is becoming more acceptable.
It's also sending a message to younger gangsters that the lifestyle does not have to be permanent. Toni Abraham of Social Advocates for Youth in Sonoma County said 65 people have entered the county's tattoo removal program this year, up from about 30 in 2010. Most are eligible for the program after completing 25 hours of community service and paying a $50 fee.
A team of UCLA researchers has delved into the world of crime fighting, developing a computer program capable of pointing police to potential suspects...
Read full entry »The gang problem in the U.S. is growing and there are 1.4 million members in 33,000 gangs--a 40 percent increase from two years ago--says a new FBI study...
Read full entry »A new paper says the roots of the recent riots in England go far deeper than "gang culture."
Read full entry »
