Rosaries Being Used As A Gang Symbol In Tahoe

[Kadie]

Jan 12, 2010 6:40 am US/Pacific
Rosaries Being Used As A Gang Symbol In Tahoe

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE (CBS13) ― A religious symbol cherished by Catholics is taking on new meaning for gang members in South Lake Tahoe. Church officials and South Lake Tahoe police say gang members are buying rosaries in red or blue to signify their gang affiliation.

A Rosary is a string of beads used by Catholics. Each bead signifies a prayer.

Police say they have seen gang members flash the Rosaries to other gangs and even seen gang members holding the Rosaries in their hands as they fight each other.

Since Rosaries are a religious right, police say they cannot take them away unless they are used to intimidate.

snip...
In December, school officials in South Lake Tahoe started questioning students who wore a Rosary to school. Many students protested saying it was their religious right. But police say at least 20 known gang members have told them that the Rosary is being used to signify gang affiliation.

more...
http://cbs13.com/local/rosary.gang.symbol.2.1420504.html

[ccharles000]

1. interesting

[kenny blankenship]

2. Rise of a new religion, or return of the old gods?

A Mexican cult
Death in holy orders

Jan 7th 2010 | MEXICO CITY
From The Economist print edition
Syncretism in the era of the drug baron

THE statue looks at first like a narrow, windowless office building towering over the skyline of Tultitlán, a working-class suburb of Mexico City. In fact it is of Santa Muerte (“Holy Death”), the image of a skeleton, clad in hood and tunic and bearing a scythe and globe, that some 2m Mexicans are said to worship. Surrounding it are three small altars, one placed there after the man who paid for the statue, Jonathan Legaria, murdered in 2008 aged just 26.

Some anthropologists link the cult to Aztec underworld gods. David Romo, the priest at the One and Only National Sanctuary of Santa Muerte—thus called because there are two rivals—insists the image originated in Italy during bubonic plague. Either way over the past decade the cult has grown rapidly.

Mexico has a rich syncretic tradition. Its patron, the Virgin of Guadalupe, is venerated by many Mexican Indians as an Aztec goddess. Santa Muerte is even more accommodating: she accepts offerings of beer and tequila, and is thought by believers to protect criminals and the law-abiding alike and to be amenable to all petitions. “Death to my enemies” is inscribed on the candleholders in Mr Romo’s church. She is very popular in jails. She is sometimes portrayed smoking a joint.

Mexico’s Catholic bishops have denounced Santa Muerte as a satanic cult that promotes violence. The government withdrew official recognition from Mr Romo’s church after he incorporated her into its rituals. Last March the army destroyed some 30 Santa Muerte altars in the northern state of Nuevo Laredo, saying they were linked to drug traffickers. In response, devotees staged rallies in Mexico City demanding religious freedom, and insisting that they come from all walks of life. Indeed, some police and soldiers fighting the narcos ask Santa Muerte to bless their weapons.

[Artie Bucco]

3. Honestly

I have been meaning to go to Mexico buy a bunch of those statues and sell them to hipsters at an insane profit.

[JuniperLea]

7. I'm way ahead of you...

I've got next year's nacimiento building service already in the pipe...



Olvera Street is just down the road from my office... they have loads of this stuff! I love it!

[JuniperLea]

5. Don't Fear the Reaper...

Now is the time the old gods return
Now is the time the old gods return
Exactly when the world is not expecting it
Exactly when we're sure of ourselves
That's exactly when the old gods return
And sweep our cities back into hell

Now is the time that the old gods return
Now is the time that water begins to burn
Now is the time that the apes take wing
And we recognize them from that Oz thing
And we realize it was a prophecy
We realize it was a prophecy
Yeah the old gods laugh, it amuses them
The old gods laugh

[arcadian]

11. Memento mori

[juno jones]

12. Santa Muerte is another dark 'goddess' in red.

Like Kali/Durga, Sekmet, Hecate, etc. she represents the forces of destruction and rebirth. As the black madonna, she even pops up in christian symbology.

It is interesting to see the continuity of symbolism from culture to culture. It goes to show the similarities of human's mental furniture across cultures.

[tularetom]

4. Wow, they have gangs in Tahoe?

I'm more out of it than I thought.

[NightWatcher]

6. you seriously do not want to get between the Snow Bunnies and Latte Sippers in a turf war

the SB's will cut your throat

[TransitJohn]

8. I can't believe that the gang hysteria hasn't abated yet

Oh wait, I can...the drug war is still going strong. :banghead:

[T Wolf]

9. Don't you just love it when competing fundie values clash? Rosaries as weapons. Fantastic. nt

[Political Heretic]

10. Pretty smart. :)

Use a religious icon so it can't be confiscated...

And who says our education system is failing?