"Call Me Bwana" <oog@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:IsadnS3TjYoUokXbnZ2dnUVZ_qGknZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> *[W]ith the Mexican Mafia's shadow looming over Los Angeles, it may be a
> long time before the rapidly growing number of streets claimed by Latino
> gangs are safe for blacks, if ever. "It's not just Highland Park. It's
> almost anywhere in L.A. that you could find yourself in a difficult
> position
> [as a black person]," says Lewis, the LAPD probation officer. "All
blacks
> are on green light no matter where."*
>
>
in real life, you putos need to realize that blacks and mexicans can and
do
get along just fine, especially when united around fighitng assholes.
>
> By Brentin Mock
>
> Acting on orders from the Mexican Mafia, Latino gang members in Southern
> California are terrorizing and killing blacks.
>
> Los Angeles, Calif. -- Ascending the steep steps that lead from the
street
> to the scene of her son's murder, 47-year-old Louisa Prudhomme is
charged
> by
> a Doberman Pinscher. Prudhomme reaches over a gate and gives the guard
dog
> a
> rough pat on the head.
>
> "Sam doesn't seem to remember me," she says.
>
> What Prudhomme will never forget is that just past the snarling Doberman
> is
> the apartment on a hill where six years ago her 21-year-old son Anthony
> was
> shot in the face with a .25-caliber semi-automatic while lying on a
futon
> she had purchased for him from IKEA. He died wearing a shirt that read,
> "Keep the Peace."
>
> Anthony Prudhomme was slain by members of the Avenues, a Latino street
> gang.
> But he was not a rival gang member, or a police informant, or a drug
> dealer.
> The Avenues did not target him for the content of his character, or even
> the
> contents of his apartment.
>
> They targeted him for the color of his skin.
>
> Prudhomme was murdered because he identified himself as black (he was in
> fact mixed-race) in a neighborhood occupied by one of the many Latino
> street
> gangs in Los Angeles County. Incredibly, even though these gangs are
> fundamentally criminal enterprises interested mainly in money, gang
> experts
> inside and outside the government say that they are now engaged in a
> campaign of "ethnic cleansing" -- racial terror that is directed solely
at
> African Americans.
>
> "The way I hear these knuckleheads tell it, they don't want their
> neighborhoods infested with blacks, as if it's an infestation," says
> respected Los Angeles gang expert Tony Rafael, who interviewed several
> Latino street gang leaders for an upcoming book on the Mexican Mafia,
the
> dominant Latino gang in Southern California. "It's pure racial animosity
> that manifests itself in a policy of a major criminal organization."
>
> "There's absolutely no motive absent the color of their skin," adds
former
> Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Michael Camacho. Before he
> became a judge, in 2003, Camacho successfully prosecuted a Latino gang
> member for the random shootings of three black men in Pomona, Calif.
>
> "They generally don't like African Americans," Pomona gang unit officer
> Marcus Perez testified in that case. "If an African American enters
their
> neighborhood, they're likely to be injured or killed."
>
> A comprehensive study of hate crimes in Los Angeles County released by
the
> University of Hawaii in 2000 concluded that while the vast majority of
> hate
> crimes nationwide are not committed by members of organized groups, Los
> Angeles County is a different story. Researchers found that in areas
with
> high concentrations, or "clusters," of hate crimes, the perpetrators
were
> typically members of Latino street gangs who were purposely targeting
> blacks.
>
> Furthermore, the study found, "There is strong evidence of race-bias
hate
> crimes among gangs in which the major motive is not the defense of
> territorial boundaries against other gangs, but hatred toward a group
> defined by racial identification, regardless of any gang-related
> territorial
> threat."
>
> Six years later, the racist terror campaign continues.
>
> A pervasive attitude
>
> Anthony Prudhomme presented no threat to the Avenues. Even so, he was
> murdered two months after he moved into Highland Park, a neighborhood in
> northeastern Los Angeles that is home to many gang members. "He didn't
> have
> anything [to steal]," his mother says. "He had nothing when they broke
in.
> So to shoot him, I'm sure it was a stripe. They get stripes for killing
> black people."
>
> "Stripes" are a gang-soldier's badges of honor. Latino gang members in
> Southern California earn them by doing the bidding of their godfathers
in
> the Mexican Mafia, a powerful criminal syndicate based in the California
> state prison system that controls most Latino street gangs south of
> Bakersfield.
>
> According to gang experts and law enforcement agents, a longstanding
race
> war between the Mexican Mafia and the Black Guerilla family, a rival
> African-American prison gang, has generated such intense racial hatred
> among
> Mexican Mafia leaders, or shot callers, that they have issued a "green
> light" on all blacks. A sort of gang-life fatwah, this amounts to a
> standing
> authorization for Latino gang members to prove their mettle by
terrorizing
> or even murdering any blacks sighted in a neighborhood claimed by a gang
> loyal to the Mexican Mafia.
>
> "This attitude is pretty pervasive throughout all the [Latino] gangs,"
> says
> Tim Brown, a Los Angeles County probation supervisor. "As long as
[street]
> gangs are heavily influenced by the prison gangs, particularly the
Mexican
> Mafia, racism is just part and parcel of why they come into being and
why
> they continue to exist."
>
> Last fall, four members of the Avenues were convicted of federal charges
> for
> conspiring to deprive blacks of their civil rights in Highland Park.
Three
> of them were sentenced to life in prison, without the possibility of
> parole,
> in late November; a fourth was to be sentenced the following month.
>
> But the problem is far more widespread than a single gang in a single
> neighborhood.
>
> Random, racially motivated crimes have been committed across the 88
cities
> of Los Angeles County by the members of Latino gangs, including the
Pomona
> 12 in the city of Pomona, the 18th Street Gang in southwest Los Angeles,
> the
> Toonerville gang in northeast L.A., and the Varrio Tortilla Flats in
> Compton.
>
> In one typical case, three members of the Pomona 12 attacked an
> African-American teenager, Kareem Williams, in his front yard in 2002.
> When
> his uncle, Roy Williams, ran to help his nephew, gang member Richard
Diaz
> told him, "Niggers have no business living in Pomona because this is
12th
> Street territory." According to witnesses, Diaz then told the other gang
> members, "Pull out the gun! Shoot the niggers! Shoot the niggers!" No
> shots
> were fired.
>
> The violence is not even limited to Los Angeles County. This November,
six
> members of a Latino gang in Carlsbad, Calif., were arrested and charged
> with
> hate crimes for allegedly hurling racial slurs at a black teenager --
who
> police said was not a gang member -- while kicking and punching him. The
> same month, two members of the Fresno Bulldogs, a Latino gang in Fresno,
> Calif., were convicted of attempted murder in what police described as
the
> random hate-crime shooting of a 41-year-old black man. According to
> police,
> the shooters used racial epithets and told the victim, "We don't like
your
> kind of people on our street."
>
> Ten years of terror
>
> Anti-black violence conducted by Latino gangs in Los Angeles has been
> ongoing for more than a decade. A 1995 Los Angeles Police Department
> (LAPD)
> report about Latino gang activity in the Normandale Park neighborhood
> declared, "This gang has been involved in an ongoing program to
eradicate
> Black citizens from the gang neighborhood." A 1996 LAPD report on gangs
in
> east Los Angeles stated, "Local gangs will attack any Black person that
> comes into the city."
>
> But while the Latino gangs' racial terror campaign is not new, gang
> experts
> and law enforcement authorities say the intensity and frequency of
> anti-black terrorism is now escalating, as the amount of turf in Los
> Angeles
> claimed by Latino gangs continues to increase rapidly. And, as more and
> more
> blacks leave inner-city L.A. for safer neighborhoods, those who remain
are
> more vulnerable.
>
> "I don't see much history left for blacks in Los Angeles," says LAPD
> probation officer James Lewis, who is himself black and deals
specifically
> with Latino gang members in northeast Los Angeles, including the
Avenues.
> "It plays out not just with the gang members, but also the way things
are
> going [for blacks] throughout Los Angeles."
>
> Since 1990, the African-American population of Los Angeles has dropped
by
> half as blacks relocated to suburbs, and Latinos have moved into
> historically black neighborhoods. Traversing South Central L.A. today,
> it's
> obvious that the urban landscape has changed radically since the
> Bloods-versus-Crips era depicted in movies like Colors, Boyz N The Hood,
> and
> Menace II Society. Not only are there vastly fewer black people walking
> the
> streets, there are vastly fewer obvious black gang members. Beige skin
and
> baggy khakis have displaced the red and blue bandannas of the Bloods and
> the
> Crips.
>
> The LAPD estimates there are now 22,000 Latino gang members in the city
of
> Los Angeles alone. That's not only more than all the Crips and the
Bloods;
> it's more than all black, Asian, and white gang members combined. Almost
> all
> of those Latino gang members in L.A. -- let alone those in other
> California
> cities -- are loyal to the Mexican Mafia. Most have been thoroughly
> indoctrinated with the Mexican Mafia's violent racism during stints in
> prison, where most gangs are racially based.
>
> "When I first started working the gangs, they would be mixed. You could
be
> black and Latino and be in the same gang," says Lewis, the LAPD
probation
> officer. "But when they went to prison, they had to be Latino instead of
> from the gang, so their enemies became African Americans."
>
> A landmark case
>
> In Highland Park, located just north of downtown and one of oldest
settled
> areas in Los Angeles, there have been at least three racially motivated
> "green light" murders committed by members of the Avenues since 1999.
>
> Besides Anthony Prudhomme, the victims included Christopher Bowser, a
> black
> man who was bullied and sporadically assaulted for years by Avenues
> members,
> then gunned down in broad daylight at a bus stop, and Kenneth Kurry
> Wilson,
> who didn't even live in the vicinity. Wilson was simply parking his car
to
> drop off his nephew after a late night at a bar when he crossed paths
with
> Avenues gang members riding in a stolen van. According to later court
> testimony, one of the gang members in the van spotted Wilson and said,
> "Hey,
> wanna kill a nigger?" The group opened fire on Wilson, killing him
> instantly.
>
> The murders of Bowser and Wilson resulted in a groundbreaking criminal
> case
> brought by the U.S. Department of Justice, in which Alejandro "Bird"
> Martínez, Fernando "Sneaky" Cázares, Gilbert "Lucky" Saldana, and
Porfirio
> "Dreamer" Avila were convicted last August of violating federal hate
crime
> laws, and later sentenced to life in federal prison. (Avila was already
> serving life in prison after being prosecuted by the state of California
> for
> his role in the killings, while Saldana was incarcerated for his role in
> another murder). In the past, federal prosecutors have typically used
> civil
> rights violation conspiracy laws against members of white supremacist
> groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan. The federal case against the Avenues
> gang
> marked the first time the Department of Justice used such laws against
> members of a non-white criminal organization, officials said.
>
> "In a diverse community such as Los Angeles, no one should face
race-based
> threats and acts of violence, such as those committed by [the Avenues],"
> U.S. Attorney Debra Wong Yang said in a statement released after the
> verdicts were rendered.
>
> The victims, Yang added, "were killed by the defendants simply because
> they
> were African Americans who chose to live in a particular neighborhood."
> During the trial, federal prosecutors also detailed a series of
> less-than-lethal hate crimes committed by Avenues members in recent
years
> to
> establish a pattern of violent racial harassment.
>
> The evidence showed that Avenues members pistol-whipped a black jogger
in
> Highland Park; used a metal club to beat a black man who had stopped to
> make
> a call at a pay phone; shot a 15-year-old black youth riding a bicycle;
> and
> drew outlines of human bodies in chalk in the driveway of a black family
> that had moved into the neighborhood.
>
> Prosecutors brought the federal hate-crimes case against the Avenues to
> send
> all Latino gangs in Los Angeles County a message that ethnic cleaning
will
> not be tolerated. (Federal prison time is a greater threat to gang
leaders
> than California state prison time, both because there is no parole in
the
> federal system and because the federal government routinely transfers
gang
> leaders to penitentiaries far from home, where they are cut off from the
> support and protection of their gang.)
>
> "We were concerned about the violation of people's civil rights," U.S.
> Attorney's Office spokesman Thom Mrozek said. "Being shot at a bus stop
> just
> for being black, obviously that should not be taking place." The
> government's message may have been received, but it's not being obeyed.
> Shortly after the federal hate crimes trial ended this fall, Avenues
> member
> James "Drifter" Campbell, 47, was charged with criminal threats for
> pointing
> a gun at a 17-year-old African-American high school student in Highland
> Park, the second such incident that month.
>
> Mrozek said there are currently no plans to bring more federal hate
crimes
> charges against other Latino gang members, though he acknowledges that
> similar crimes "are probably still going on."
>
> Lawless avenues
>
> Despite all the highly publicized gang activity, Highland Park is no
> ghetto.
> It's a hilly area with beautiful, historic homes, where the painted-lady
> color schemes on fully restored Queen Anne Victorians compete for
> attention
> with the vibrant murals found on nearby food markets. "El Alisal," the
> famed
> hand-built, stone home of Charles Lummis, the first city editor of the
Los
> Angeles Times, is tucked just off the Pasadena Freeway, on Avenue 43.
>
> Because Avenue 43 is one of the main roads in Highland Park, "43" is the
> signifier of the Avenues, also known as "Avenues 43." The gang goes back
> at
> least to World War II, when Highland Park was populated with a mixture
of
> European and Latino immigrants. Now, about 75% of Highland Park
residents
> are Latinos. Only 2% are black. The rest are white and Asian.
>
> Highland Park has long had a reputation for gang problems that community
> boosters argue is undeserved. Their cause wasn't helped in 1986, when
one
> of
> Highland Park's most famous residents, songwriter Jackson Browne,
released
> the song, "Lawless Avenues," about the neighborhood's multi-generational
> gang: "Fathers' and sons' lives repeat/And something there turns
them/Down
> those lawless avenues."
>
> Although the Avenues gang goes back a half century, it only fell heavily
> under the control of the Mexican Mafia in the 1980s, eventually becoming
> fundamentally racist as a result. (Police point out that, ironically,
the
> Avenues now sling dope for the Mexican Mafia, which the gang's leaders
in
> decades past looked down upon as a "black thing.")
>
> Still, at least some of the relatively few black Highland Park residents
> who've lived in the area for more than a decade don't report the same
> level
> of fear as others. "We love our neighbors. We love living in Highland
> Park,"
> says Vernita Strange, who moved to Highland Park with her husband Al in
> the
> mid-1970s. "We've been treated warmly. We've been here 30 years, and
> that's
> all I have to say."
>
> But Angel Brown, an African American, didn't experience that same kind
of
> neighborly love when she and her teenaged son Christopher Bowser moved
to
> Highland Park in 1998, in large part to get away from the black gangs in
> the
> Hoover Street area where he grew up. There, he caught a bullet in the
leg
> in
> a drive-by and was beaten up and harassed by the Hoover Crips, who
> pressured
> him to join their set. "He knew early on that [gangbanging] was
something
> he
> did not want to do," says Brown.
>
> The pair was hoping to leave gang trouble behind, but soon after they
> relocated to Highland Park the Avenues targeted Bowser. "My son had
> problems
> because he's a young black man. The Avenues up there called him 'nigger'
> and
> stuff and chased him," Brown says. "He didn't bother nobody out there,
all
> he did was walk around with his radio, singing and rapping. They didn't
> want
> him in their territory."
>
> Testifying in the federal hate crimes trial against his former gang
> brethren, ex-Avenues member Jesse Diaz confirmed the Latino gangbangers
> were
> infuriated by the way Bowser bopped down the street, blasting rap music
on
> his boom box.
>
> He acted, Diaz testified, "like it was his neighborhood."
>
> Murderous prejudice
>
> Until Anthony Prudhomme's murderers went on trial, it never dawned on
his
> mother, Louisa, and his stepfather Lavalle, that the killing was
racially
> motivated. "It wasn't until we went to the trial that we really began to
> understand that [race] was the reason," he says, "which seemed totally,
> for
> lack of a better word, stupid."
>
> Since the trial, Louisa has become obsessed with the Avenues gang. She
> routinely drives Highland Park, looking for signs of the gang, talking
to
> anyone willing to talk. She has homicide detectives, lawyers, and parole
> officers on her cell phone's speed dial. She's made numerous visits to
the
> site of her son's murder, as well as the spots where Bowser and Wilson
> were
> shot down. Believing the gang member who actually pulled the trigger on
> her
> son has yet to be brought to justice, she posts reward signs throughout
> the
> neighborhood, usually right next to Avenues gang graffiti.
>
> Unlike the mothers of other victims like Bowser and Wilson, Louisa
> Prudhomme
> feels relatively safe on streets claimed by the Avenues. That's because
> she's white. Her son Anthony had long, wavy hair and an auburn
complexion.
> "As he grew up people thought that" he might have been some race other
> than
> black, says his stepfather Lavelle. "But you could tell by the way he
> dressed that he leaned more toward his African-American side."
>
> That preference may well have cost him his life, something that
infuriates
> his mother. "A friend of mine asked me do I hate Mexicans now," says
> Louisa.
> "I said, 'I hate murderers.' I am prejudiced ... against murderers."
>
> Driving through Highland Park one afternoon last October, Louisa headed
up
> Avenue 43 toward Montecito Heights Community Center, a known Avenues
> congregation spot. She pulled up alongside a man loading lawnmowers into
a
> huge shed. The man grabbed the left door, which was decorated with a
> full-length, spray-painted "4," and joined it with the right door, which
> was
> tagged with a matching "3." When the doors were closed, they created the
> "43" emblem of the Avenues.
>
> Louisa asked the man, who was Latino, if he spoke English. He did, and
> they
> chatted for about five minutes about the infamous "Avenues 43" and the
> tattoos they leave all over the area he landscapes. Louisa walked away
> from
> him, laughing, before turning to say, "I hope they get them all. We want
> to
> get all of them off the streets."
>
> But with the Mexican Mafia's shadow looming over Los Angeles, it may be
a
> long time before the rapidly growing number of streets claimed by Latino
> gangs are safe for blacks, if ever.
>
> "It's not just Highland Park. It's almost anywhere in L.A. that you
could
> find yourself in a difficult position [as a black person]," says Lewis,
> the
> LAPD probation officer. "All blacks are on green light no matter where."
>
> http://www.alternet.org/story/46855/
>
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