Gen. Petraeus looking for MS-13 in the ranks?

The Washington Times, America's Newspaper says "Rep. Tom Tancredo, Colorado Republican, who recently wrapped up a failed presidential bid based on a platform of fighting illegal immigration, just asked Gen. David Petraeus about whether members of the U.S. military in Iraq are participating in the violent gang MS-13. Tancredo has blamed the spread of MS-13 domestically on what he sees as the United States' failure to secure its southern border. Tancredo asked whether members of MS-13 were gaining recruits within the ranks of the U.S. military, receiving weapons training and returning to the United States to commit acts of violence. 'I'm not aware of a problem with gangs,' Petraeus replied. 'That's one that I'll have to check on.'"

I smell a fish . . . not that I think the commander of all things warfighting has time or initiative to "look for" gang members in the ranks, but how is it that this news outlet scooped the story?

Try this search on Google News for Petraeus Gang to see if anyone else is reporting it -- let me know if I am missing something. How 'bout on Google Blogesearch?

What do you think?

Teen shoots himself to prove gang ties

By Brian KernHendricks County Flyer (Avon, Ind.)

(actually, I think it proves that he's imbalanced -- see the medication references)

BROWNSBURG, Ind. — A Brownsburg teen allegedly shot himself four times to prove to friends and an ex-girlfriend that he had gang ties.Zachary Booso, 19, was arrested early Sunday morning for filing a false police report after telling authorities that he was attacked and shot by an Indianapolis man.Booso later recanted and admitted that the gun shot wounds were self-inflicted and from a single shot air BB gun that he had purchased earlier in the evening.Booso initially told police that he went to meet a friend when he was flagged down by a 6-foot, 175-pound male wearing a gray sweatshirt and blue jeans. Booso told investigators that the man pulled a homemade weapon and demanded his wallet before shooting him in his right cheek, both shoulders, and his right thigh.Booso was taken to Wishard Hospital in Indianapolis where investigators continued to probe him about the incident.

Suspicions arose surrounding Booso’s story when he told investigators that the shooter was 5 to 10 feet away, but then later claimed that the shot to his cheek had first entered his mouth. According to a police report, Booso told police that he must have had his mouth open when the shot was fired. When questioned further, police say Booso admitted that he had inflicted the wounds on himself before throwing the BB gun into a retention pond.Booso explained that his friends did not believe his claims to have gang affiliations and that the staged assault was intended to convince them otherwise.Investigators contacted Booso’s mother, Carla Evans, who allegedly told police that her son had a history of prescription drug abuse.

Ironically, he had become addicted to painkillers last December after shooting himself with a pellet gun to avoid returning to duty in the U.S. Navy.Booso was arraigned and later released on bond Monday.

http://www.tribstar.com/statenews/cnhinsall_story_084175250.html

Truck with "extras" seized . . . Military vs. Gang + Police

"MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican soldiers battling a violent drug gang and corrupt local police confiscated a sport utility vehicle decked out with extras worthy of a James Bond movie.

Cartel members rammed their SUV into a military truck patrolling in the state of Tamaulipas and threw a hand grenade before making their escape with the help of local police, the army said in a statement late Tuesday.

Following a shootout with the gang, soldiers said they arrested four municipal police and confiscated an armored Jeep Grand Cherokee equipped with a smoke machine and spike sprayer meant to deter pursuers."

. . . from Truck with extras confiscated from gang International Reuters

OK, so the Mexican government recognizes the problem . . . military-style equipment in the hands of gang members . . . who rammed their SUV into a military truck patrolling in the state of Tamaulipas and threw a hand grenade before making their escape with the help of local police.

I think it's time U.S. law enforcement sees this in the "not if, but when" category. Our military gang bangers commit murder, armed robbery, and home invasion, in addition to the drug trafficking, of course. If we don't recruit them, and proactively regulate those who are in, we may avoid what our neighbors to the south have not . . .

Let's start playing like it's not a game . . .

NEWSCHANNEL 13 Investigation Reveals Gangs In The Military
Updated:Feb 28, 2008 03:45 PM CST

NEWSCHANNEL 13 Investigation Reveals Gangs In The Military

By Josh Simeone J.Simeone@krdo.com

COLORADO SPRINGS - They are the ones protecting our country, but is everyone who joins the military joining to protect your freedom?
Colorado Springs Police confirm to NEWSCHANNEL 13 that gangs have infiltrated army bases and posts nationwide.
From Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, to Ft. Drum, New York, reports indicate gang activity in the military has become a large problem.
Colorado Springs Police Sgt. Rob Kelley, a GangNet Sgt. at the Sand Creek substation says gang members join the military for the training.
"They get trained on weapons, they get trained on tactics - they go into finance, learn how to move money, large amounts of money," Sgt. Kelley says.
Sgt. Kelley says the military offers the best training available, and gang members are well aware of it. To make matters worse, police find it nearly impossible to track gang members who join the military. Sgt. Kelley says members take advantage of computer and cell phone technology to stay virtually invisible to law enforcement.
"They've come up, remained under the radar, have no criminal record, there's nothing to keep them out."
A former gang member tells NEWSCHANNEL 13 the military not only offers training that is valuable on the streets, but it also gets a member noticed. He claims there are even gang members behind the gates of Fort Carson.
In Colorado Springs city limits, police have documented 525 active gang members but they believe that number to be low. Police estimate there to be nearly 1,500 gang members in the city. Historically, CSPD has only document two local gang members to have joined the military, but they admit, they do not have the technology or manpower to track everyone.
Police say it's important to keep in mind that gangs have now organized, and have broadened their activity to stay ahead of law enforcement and the military.
Sources close to the military tell NEWSCHANNEL 13 the military is scanning every incoming soldier for tattoos that may indicate any gang involvement. However, police admit, it's a battle that's nearly impossible to win.
"We're not making any headway right now."
NEWSCHANNEL 13 contacted Fort Carson and talked with a spokesperson who directed us to the United States Army Pubic Affairs Office in Washington, D.C..
A spokesperson at the Pentagon, MAJ Nathan Banks, responded to our questions by writing; "Military personnel must reject participation in extremist organizations and activities - those that advocate racial, gender or ethic hatred, illegal discrimination or the use of force to deprive others of their Constitutional rights."The spokesperson continues to write; "We teach Soldiers and families about some of the over 13,700 gangs in America and some of the potential indicators to look for: use ofnarcotics, new clothing styles and colored bandanas, slang talk, gangster music hand-sign flashing and graffiti."

http://www.krdo.com/Global/story.asp?S=7937620

Gangland : Basic Training 1-5

For showtimes, see the History Channel.











What do you think?

Revisiting some old news: FBI Probes Military Gangs

Just to set the record straight. According to Military.com, a representative from a federal investigations agency (who is not a law enforcement officer) said:

"In nearly every one of the cases that we have looked into, it is a young man or woman who thought that the symbol looked cool." . . . "We have found some people even get gang tattoos not really knowing what they are, or at least that they have not had any gang affiliation the past."

This was in response to clearly gang-related graffiti found in a war zone -- often in latrines on U.S. military bases such as Camp Fallujah in Iraq's Anbar Province, and to individuals found with gang tattoos in the U.S. military.

Individual gang members often adorn their bodies with tattoos. For the individual gang member, a tattoo is an important dynamic and symbolic indicator of gang affiliation (Riley, 2006). A gang member’s tattoos are a part of the nonverbal communication process in the gang subculture (Decker & Van Winkle, 1996; Riley, 2006). Gang tattoos are often categorized by police as Alpha (a name or acronym), Numerical (numbers representing primary or original street territory or a numeric representation of a name associated with the gang), Symbolic (using a familiar logo associated with the gang), or a combination of any of the three (Riley, 2006). Police are often able to recognize an individual gang member’s affiliation based solely on an examination of their tattoos.

Graffiti communicates the absence of both formal and informal social control and symbolizes the dangers of urban life (Piquero, 1999). Researchers use the presence of gang graffiti to determine the extent of an individual’s fear of crime (Lane & Meeker, 2003; Jim, Mitchell, & Kent, 2006). Graffiti writers incorporate information regarding their neighborhood (Sheldon et al., 2001), nickname, group name, area of residence, and often telephone area code into their graffiti (Decker & Van Winkle, 1996; Ferrell, 1998). Gang graffiti is an “an elaborate means of inter- and intra-gang communication” (Hutchison, 1993, as cited in Strosnider, 2002). Gang graffiti may contain the monikers of individual gang members (Decker & Van Winkle, 1996; Wilson, 1997), the symbols of the responsible (or rival) gang (Padilla, 1996; Decker & Van Winkle, 1996), or other alphanumeric communication (Klein, 1995; Decker & Van Winkle, 1996).

Any investigator who believes that an adult in a war zone paints a gang symbol or a tattoo because they think it looks "cool" is either lazy or incompetent. That same investigator, if upon hearing the lid of the cookie jar in the kitchen asked his or her child what they were doing, would also believe the response of "nothing." Such ignorance can be fixed, but only by education, not denial. By marking a wall or your body with a symbol used by a gang you are not a member of, you run the risk of receiving a beating from not only the gang whose symbol you have taken, but also their rivals. People who don't know that don't join the military, because they haven't yet finished elementary school.

References
Decker, S. H., & Van Winkle, B. (1996). Life in the Gang. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Ferrell, J. (1998). Freight train graffiti: Subculture, crime, dislocation. Justice Quarterly, 15 (4), 587.
Jim, J., Mitchell, F. N., & Kent, D. R. (2006). Community-oriented policing in a retail shopping center. Policing, 29(1), 146.
Klein, M. W. (1995). The American Street Gang: Its Nature, Prevalence, and Control. New York: Oxford University Press.
Lane, J., & Meeker, J. W. (2003). Women's and men's fear of gang crimes: Sexual and nonsexual assault as perceptually contemporaneous offenses. Justice Quarterly 20(2), 337-371.
Padilla, F. M. (1996). The Gang as an American Enterprise (3rd Ed.). New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press.
Piquero, A. (1999). The validity of incivility measures in public housing. Justice Quarterly, 16(4), 793-818.
Riley, W. (2006). Interpreting gang tattoos. Corrections Today, 68,(2), 46.
Strosnider, K. (2002). Anti-gang ordinances after City of Chicago v. Morales: The intersection of race, vagueness doctrine, and equal protection in the criminal law. The American Criminal Law Review, 39(1), 101-146.
Wilson, C. R. (1997). What’s in a name? Gang monikers. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, 66(5), 14.

Good coverage, but . . .

The Stars & Stripes has done an excellent job of covering recent gang news, especially the news involving a Gangster Disciple death in Germany. The information regarding gangs on their site is for the most part accurate.

The only inaccuracy is contained in the Powerpoint slideshow posted on their site. The Army Major that brazenly placed his name on the presentation was not the source of the material. Many of the pictures were marked, apparently by him, with information regarding their source that was false. Nonetheless, the presentation has been sent around the world via email and now the Stars & Stripes.

It is sad that the credibility of those who study this phenomenon might be tainted because of people who just want to make a name for themselves . . .

It is more sad that a reputable newspaper would lend their credibility to this individuals plagiarized work.

The Stars & Stripes reported:

The pictures are in a 2006 PowerPoint presentation on criminal street gangs in the military by Kenneth Ferguson Kelly, a former military police investigator in Germany. Stars and Stripes obtained a copy of the presentation.

The 43-slides offer insights into why gang members join the military; comments from a former gang member in the Army; instances of gang activity in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines; analyses of gang symbols; and proactive responses with which military leaders can combat gangs.

The slide show, titled “Criminal Street Gangs In the ‘MILITARY,’ ” was a compilation of material gathered over several years, said Maj. Thomas Acklen, whose name appears on the brief’s title page. He now works at U.S. Army Garrison Schinnen, Netherlands. He didn’t put the presentation together all on his own, he said, and the briefing is constantly being updated.

The presentation and others like it around Europe are used as educational tools for commanders at all levels — from company level on up to division, Acklen said.

He didn’t put the presentation together all on his own, in fact I doubt he put any of it together . . . and he surely did not have the permission of those who did put this information together.