Gang mayhem grips LA

[Joanne98]

Gang mayhem grips LA
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2036580,00.html

A bloody conflict between Hispanic and black gangs is spreading across Los Angeles. Hundreds are dying as whole districts face the threat of ethnic cleansing. Paul Harris reports from the epicentre of America's new urban warfare

Sunday March 18, 2007
The Observer

Father Greg Boyle keeps a grim count of the young gang members he has buried. Number 151 was Jonathan Hurtado, 18 - fresh out of jail. Now the kindly, bearded Jesuit mourns him. 'The day he got out I found him a job. He never missed a day. He was doing really well,' Boyle says.
But Hurtado made a mistake: he went back to his old neighbourhood in east Los Angeles. While sitting in a park, Hurtado was approached by a man on a bike who said to him: 'Hey, homie, what's up?' He then shot Hurtado four times. 'You can't come back. Not even for a visit,' says Boyle, who has worked for two decades against LA's gang culture.

Boyle's Los Angeles, where daily slaughter is a grim reality, is a world away from the glamorous Hollywood hills, Malibu beaches and Sunset Strip - the celebrity-drenched city that David Beckham and Posh Spice will soon make their home.
Boyle's Los Angeles is where an estimated 120,000 gang members across five counties battle over turf, pride and drugs. It is a city of violence as a new race war escalates between new Hispanic gangs and older black groups, each trying to ethnically cleanse the other. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who has referred to his city as 'the gang capital of America', has launched a crackdown on the new threat.

The latest front is the tiny strip of turf known as Harbor Gateway, a nest of streets between malls and office blocks. It was here, just before Christmas, that Cheryl Green, a 14-year-old fond of junk food and television, died. At school she had just written a poem beginning: 'I am black and beautiful. I wonder how I shall live in the future.' She never found out. As she stood on a corner talking with friends, two Hispanic members of the neighbourhood's notorious 204th Street gang walked up and opened fire, killing Green and wounding three others. They were targeted because they were black. Traditionally the outside view of LA gangs has been of black youths like the Bloods and the Crips and their countless subsets. It focused on the streets of Compton and South-Central and the culture of gangsta rap. But Hispanic gangs are in the ascendant, spreading across America.

They have names such as Mara Salvatrucha, La Mirada Locos and Barrio Van Nuys, and now the 204th Street gang - who made it clear that they will kill innocent girls to force black families off their turf.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2036580,00.html

[Sybil_23mist]

1. Capitalism

The gangs are the symptoms. Controlling the frame of discussion is the language of the oppressor. Perhaps rather than castigating the victims we should observe who is creating the conditions.

[razors edge]

2. The centralized banking institutions

create the conditions, anything short of this acknowledgment of that is a half measure. And they are but the tool of their masters, the Rothschilds.

But there were also gangs in the USSR, as the abandoned will always organize.

[poorinnaples]

3. Absolutely...

Clear as mud. These heathens killed an American kid, because they're "oppressed" by "capitalism". I bet that's exactly what they were contemplating, just before they pulled the trigger.

If there's a hell, hopefully soon, these murderers will soon be rotting in it.

[carla]

4. Wrong!

Clear as fresh springwater. A well considered analysis of the situation will yield a very accurate conclusion. The warfare is a product of rampant capitalist values...whether you are clever enough to see this is up to you.

[poorinnaples]

5. Pardon me...

For not having the luxury of living in your fantasy world, & that being the case, what might be your solution for repairing the real world?

[CJCRANE]

6. "Heathens" ? n/t

[poorinnaples]

7. Yep...

"an irreligious, uncultured, or uncivilized person."

And that's probably more like a compliment, for these thugs...unless, of course you buy the argument, that the savages who killed this kid, were just poor, misunderstood, victims of society, & somehow couldn't seem to help themselves.


"It was here, just before Christmas, that Cheryl Green, a 14-year-old fond of junk food and television, died. At school she had just written a poem beginning: 'I am black and beautiful. I wonder how I shall live in the future.' She never found out. As she stood on a corner talking with friends, two Hispanic members of the neighbourhood's notorious 204th Street gang walked up and opened fire, killing Green and wounding three others. They were targeted because they were black."