As Rodney King would say "Can't we all just
get along." But unfortunately that doesn't
seem to be the case as gang war has erupted
in the town of Monrovia a suburb of L.A.
Check out the article below and feel free to
comment on this latest round of racial flare-up
between blacks and Mexicans.
A spasm of cross-racial gang shootings in and around the San Gabriel Valley city of Monrovia has left a 64-year-old African American man and a 16-year-old Latina dead and prompted a law enforcement crackdown to stem the bloodshed.
In all, seven people have been killed or wounded in recent weeks, as suspected black and Latino gang members have traded gunfire. At least two of those killed have been bystanders, authorities said.
In a series of high-profile operations in recent days, a police task force has served search warrants and arrested three suspects -- one Latino and two blacks. After three shootings in the last week, Monrovia police and the L.A. County Sheriff's Department have saturated schools and neighborhoods north and south of the Foothill Freeway with additional patrols. Parents have been warned to keep close tabs on their children.
"A lot of these kids are terrified right now because somebody out there is playing for real," said Monrovia High School Principal Frank Zepeda, who has been fielding e-mails and phone calls from concerned parents.
Speculation was spreading Wednesday among students that the violence was racially motivated. Xavier Gaytan, 17, a junior, said he has noticed tensions between blacks and Latinos on campus, apart from the recent violence.
"Sometimes you see all the blacks get together on one side and all the Mexicans together on the other side," he said. "Fights sometimes break out over somebody giving somebody else the wrong look."
Some authorities say the recent violence is chiefly about dominance on the streets. The flare-up involves historic rivals: a long-established black street gang, the Du Roc Crips, and two Latino gangs, Monrovia Nuevo Vario and Duarte Eastside.
"I don't see it being race-related because the issues between these . . . gangs have been going on forever," said sheriff's Capt. Richard Shaw, who is heading a new task force dispatched to the area. The shootings are a reflection of gang culture, not racial conflict, he said.
Helping fan fears in largely tranquil Monrovia, which has been used as a setting for the TV series "Picket Fences" and film depictions of middle America, was the killing Saturday of 16-year-old Samantha Salas. She was walking home from a market near Peck Road. Her father, whom she was visiting, had given her permission to buy some gum.
"She had to have her Orbitz gum," Samuel Salas said in an interview Wednesday at his home. "You saw the flowers outside on the sidewalk. That's how far she made it."
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Once More The Heart Gets In The Way
Once again a love affair is on the verge of
toppling the career of a young and promising
black politician. Why is it that we always seem
to let the affairs of heart beat out the affairs
of business we were elected to perform? Feel
free to offer up your thoughts on this latest
political scandal.
Five months ago, Detroit Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick and chief of staff Christine Beatty testified that they did not have a romantic relationship. They continued to deny a relationship out of court as well, as they had for several years.
But that was before the Detroit Free Press published a cache of text messages between the two, many of them flirtatious or sexual, and others referring to meetings in hotels.
On Monday, Beatty resigned her post, saying she could "no longer effectively carry out the duties of chief of staff."
The resignation came days after a county prosecutor opened an investigation into whether Kilpatrick and Beatty committed perjury when they concealed their affair during testimony last summer.
Two City Council members demanded an internal investigation into the pair's relationship, which has outraged voters and led to calls for Kilpatrick's resignation. The council is also looking at the city charter to determine whether he could be forced from office.
One of their chief concerns: whether the 37-year-old mayor intentionally misled the City Council into approving an $8.4-million settlement between the city and three former police officers. The men said they unfairly lost their jobs because they were looking into potential wrongdoing by the mayor's security team, which could have exposed the intimate relationship.
The political scandal has stunned Motor City, which has lost more population in the last half-century than any other city in the country, has a poverty rate that hovers around 30%, and is routinely ranked by the U.S. Census Bureau as one of America's most impoverished urban centers.
"This is a city whose resources are already limited," said John Riehl, who heads up the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 207, one of the groups calling for the mayor to step down. "Is it really any surprise that people are furious?"
Kilpatrick, who is married and has three children, issued a brief statement to reporters. "These 5- and 6-year-old text messages reflect a very difficult period in my personal life," he said. "It is profoundly embarrassing to have these extremely private messages now displayed in such a public manner. My wife and I worked our way through these intensely personal issues years ago."
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
toppling the career of a young and promising
black politician. Why is it that we always seem
to let the affairs of heart beat out the affairs
of business we were elected to perform? Feel
free to offer up your thoughts on this latest
political scandal.
Five months ago, Detroit Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick and chief of staff Christine Beatty testified that they did not have a romantic relationship. They continued to deny a relationship out of court as well, as they had for several years.
But that was before the Detroit Free Press published a cache of text messages between the two, many of them flirtatious or sexual, and others referring to meetings in hotels.
On Monday, Beatty resigned her post, saying she could "no longer effectively carry out the duties of chief of staff."
The resignation came days after a county prosecutor opened an investigation into whether Kilpatrick and Beatty committed perjury when they concealed their affair during testimony last summer.
Two City Council members demanded an internal investigation into the pair's relationship, which has outraged voters and led to calls for Kilpatrick's resignation. The council is also looking at the city charter to determine whether he could be forced from office.
One of their chief concerns: whether the 37-year-old mayor intentionally misled the City Council into approving an $8.4-million settlement between the city and three former police officers. The men said they unfairly lost their jobs because they were looking into potential wrongdoing by the mayor's security team, which could have exposed the intimate relationship.
The political scandal has stunned Motor City, which has lost more population in the last half-century than any other city in the country, has a poverty rate that hovers around 30%, and is routinely ranked by the U.S. Census Bureau as one of America's most impoverished urban centers.
"This is a city whose resources are already limited," said John Riehl, who heads up the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 207, one of the groups calling for the mayor to step down. "Is it really any surprise that people are furious?"
Kilpatrick, who is married and has three children, issued a brief statement to reporters. "These 5- and 6-year-old text messages reflect a very difficult period in my personal life," he said. "It is profoundly embarrassing to have these extremely private messages now displayed in such a public manner. My wife and I worked our way through these intensely personal issues years ago."
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Suge Knight Named In Gang Injunction
Calling it a "publicity stunt" Suge Knight of Death Row
records fame was named in a gang injunction the first
for the city of Compton which is long known for gangs
and gang violence. The gang being targeted is known
to have close ties to the record mogul. After reading the
article below, feel free to offer up your comment.
Seeking to further curb criminal activities, Compton has asked a judge to ban individuals identified as members of the Mob Piru street gang -- including rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight -- from congregating in a northeast neighborhood.
Using a strategy employed by other crime-ridden communities, the court order would be the first gang injunction in a city with a long history of battling street gangs.
Authorities contend that the Mob Piru gang has terrorized the neighborhood for years, with buying and selling of drugs, discharging firearms, robbing and assaulting residents and by creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation.
For the last two years, a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department gang task force has worked to get gang members off the streets with aggressive enforcement of immigration, housing and parole violations.
"We've done it without an injunction," said Lt. Paul Pietrantoni, who heads the task force. "We have the lowest murder rate in 20 years in Compton. The injunction is just going to give us one more tool."
But the proposed injunction is expected to be controversial because community leaders and others say it opens the door to police harassment of innocent residents.
"What you find is that the whole community becomes terrorized by law enforcement," said Kim Saunders, 45, a city planning commissioner who is also a teacher and a long-time community volunteer.
Knight, who is listed as a defendant, dismissed the injunction as "a publicity stunt."
"This is crazy," said Knight, co-founder of Death Row Records. "I'm a 42-year-old businessman, not a gang member. I don't even live in Compton anymore . . . . This injunction names people who are already in jail -- and at least one guy who is long dead."
Henry "Hendog" Smith, who is also named in the injunction, was shot to death in 2002, according to news reports.
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
records fame was named in a gang injunction the first
for the city of Compton which is long known for gangs
and gang violence. The gang being targeted is known
to have close ties to the record mogul. After reading the
article below, feel free to offer up your comment.
Seeking to further curb criminal activities, Compton has asked a judge to ban individuals identified as members of the Mob Piru street gang -- including rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight -- from congregating in a northeast neighborhood.
Using a strategy employed by other crime-ridden communities, the court order would be the first gang injunction in a city with a long history of battling street gangs.
Authorities contend that the Mob Piru gang has terrorized the neighborhood for years, with buying and selling of drugs, discharging firearms, robbing and assaulting residents and by creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation.
For the last two years, a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department gang task force has worked to get gang members off the streets with aggressive enforcement of immigration, housing and parole violations.
"We've done it without an injunction," said Lt. Paul Pietrantoni, who heads the task force. "We have the lowest murder rate in 20 years in Compton. The injunction is just going to give us one more tool."
But the proposed injunction is expected to be controversial because community leaders and others say it opens the door to police harassment of innocent residents.
"What you find is that the whole community becomes terrorized by law enforcement," said Kim Saunders, 45, a city planning commissioner who is also a teacher and a long-time community volunteer.
Knight, who is listed as a defendant, dismissed the injunction as "a publicity stunt."
"This is crazy," said Knight, co-founder of Death Row Records. "I'm a 42-year-old businessman, not a gang member. I don't even live in Compton anymore . . . . This injunction names people who are already in jail -- and at least one guy who is long dead."
Henry "Hendog" Smith, who is also named in the injunction, was shot to death in 2002, according to news reports.
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
Friday, January 18, 2008
Undercover?
The police are not the only people that can be undercover.
In the story below the director of an antigang organization
that he posed for was still very much involved in crime and
was still a shot caller for L. A.'s largest street gang. He was
recently sentenced to eight years in prison. Do you think
justice was served or should he have been given more time?
Hector "Big Weasel" Marroquin, 51, was sentenced to eight years in prison, said Eric Harmon, the Los Angeles County prosecutor in the case.
Marroquin's accomplice and girlfriend, Sylvia Arellano, 26, pleaded guilty to illegal weapons sales. She is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison, Harmon said.
Marroquin was arrested in May in a case that stemmed from an investigation by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives into gun sales by the 18th Street gang.
Using video surveillance and a confidential informant, the agency bought several weapons from Marroquin, Harmon said.
In one case, Marroquin sold a MAK-90 semi-automatic assault rifle out of his bar, Marroking Seafood and Bar on Atlantic Avenue in Cudahy, to a confidential informant for the firearms bureau, authorities said.
He also sold a Ewbank 7.62-millimeter assault rifle to the confidential informant and a M-11, similar to an Uzi, to an undercover bureau agent, authorities said.
Marroquin has had numerous run-ins with law enforcement.
He is a reputed longtime member of the South-Central Los Angeles 18th Street gang. A gang expert testified to a grand jury that Marroquin remained a shot-caller in 18th Street despite claiming to have dropped out, Harmon said.
Los Angeles County sheriff's investigators believe he organized street-gang taxing for the Mexican Mafia in the city's Lennox area in the mid-1990s.
Sheriff's investigators believe he ordered Latino street gangs to attack the Lennox 13 gang for refusing to pay taxes to the Mexican Mafia. A gang war ensued.
In 1996, Marroquin formed No Guns, an organization he said was dedicated to mediating gang wars and stopping gun violence in besieged neighborhoods.
The city's antigang program, L.A. Bridges, eventually contracted with No Guns to provide gang intervention services, in part becaue of a dearth of Latino antigang organizations in the area.
The city ended up paying No Guns $1.5 million over a three-year period.
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
In the story below the director of an antigang organization
that he posed for was still very much involved in crime and
was still a shot caller for L. A.'s largest street gang. He was
recently sentenced to eight years in prison. Do you think
justice was served or should he have been given more time?
Hector "Big Weasel" Marroquin, 51, was sentenced to eight years in prison, said Eric Harmon, the Los Angeles County prosecutor in the case.
Marroquin's accomplice and girlfriend, Sylvia Arellano, 26, pleaded guilty to illegal weapons sales. She is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison, Harmon said.
Marroquin was arrested in May in a case that stemmed from an investigation by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives into gun sales by the 18th Street gang.
Using video surveillance and a confidential informant, the agency bought several weapons from Marroquin, Harmon said.
In one case, Marroquin sold a MAK-90 semi-automatic assault rifle out of his bar, Marroking Seafood and Bar on Atlantic Avenue in Cudahy, to a confidential informant for the firearms bureau, authorities said.
He also sold a Ewbank 7.62-millimeter assault rifle to the confidential informant and a M-11, similar to an Uzi, to an undercover bureau agent, authorities said.
Marroquin has had numerous run-ins with law enforcement.
He is a reputed longtime member of the South-Central Los Angeles 18th Street gang. A gang expert testified to a grand jury that Marroquin remained a shot-caller in 18th Street despite claiming to have dropped out, Harmon said.
Los Angeles County sheriff's investigators believe he organized street-gang taxing for the Mexican Mafia in the city's Lennox area in the mid-1990s.
Sheriff's investigators believe he ordered Latino street gangs to attack the Lennox 13 gang for refusing to pay taxes to the Mexican Mafia. A gang war ensued.
In 1996, Marroquin formed No Guns, an organization he said was dedicated to mediating gang wars and stopping gun violence in besieged neighborhoods.
The city's antigang program, L.A. Bridges, eventually contracted with No Guns to provide gang intervention services, in part becaue of a dearth of Latino antigang organizations in the area.
The city ended up paying No Guns $1.5 million over a three-year period.
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Kenyans React To Election Results
The people of Kenya have spoken as to
who will run the country and the losers,
unable to except defeat take to the streets
and hundreds are dead. This is a painful pill
to swallow. Events like this will continue to
keep the continent of Africa in term oil and
destabilization. This in turn keeps much of
Africa in poverty and investors away which
the continent needs to mine it's resources.
Please fell free to comment on the story
below. Africa can no longer be ignored and
shunned by the more prosperous countries
that are secretly taking advantage of it's plight.
Post- election riots in Kenya descended into savage tribal killings Tuesday as a mob burned a church where families had taken shelter from the violence, leaving at least 35 people dead, witnesses reported. Many of the victims were children.
The church massacre in Eldoret followed the killings overnight of 18 people, some reportedly beheaded, in the town about 150 miles northwest of Nairobi, the capital. A police officer also was killed Tuesday.
Witnesses reported revenge killings and clashes between mobs from rival tribes armed with machetes called pangas or with bows and arrows.
"They're armed with pangas, and when one group kills three people, the other group also kills three people. When one burns three houses, the other burns three houses. The situation has really deteriorated," said Ken Wafula, a local human rights activist.
"There is violence in all parts of town," said Kikechi Biketi, Eldoret correspondent for the Standard daily newspaper. "Houses have been burned indiscriminately in most parts of Eldoret. They're burning tires in the roads. There's no transport. You can't move. The situation is very bad."
Eldoret police estimated that about 100 people had died in the town in the last four days, as furious opposition supporters rampaged, alleging ballot-rigging in Thursday's presidential election. Police reported 170 dead in clashes across Kenya, but news agencies put the number at between 200 and 270.
Tens of thousands of people in Eldoret had fled their homes to take refuge in police compounds and church yards. Some houses sheltered dozens of terrified people.
Although the presidential candidates had avoided overt tribal campaigning, which is taboo in Kenyan society, ethnic violence exploded immediately after President Mwai Kibaki was announced the winner and hastily sworn in Sunday evening to a second term.
As the violence continued Tuesday, diplomats in Nairobi pressed Kibaki and his main rival, Raila Odinga, to negotiate a political solution to stem the killings.
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
who will run the country and the losers,
unable to except defeat take to the streets
and hundreds are dead. This is a painful pill
to swallow. Events like this will continue to
keep the continent of Africa in term oil and
destabilization. This in turn keeps much of
Africa in poverty and investors away which
the continent needs to mine it's resources.
Please fell free to comment on the story
below. Africa can no longer be ignored and
shunned by the more prosperous countries
that are secretly taking advantage of it's plight.
Post- election riots in Kenya descended into savage tribal killings Tuesday as a mob burned a church where families had taken shelter from the violence, leaving at least 35 people dead, witnesses reported. Many of the victims were children.
The church massacre in Eldoret followed the killings overnight of 18 people, some reportedly beheaded, in the town about 150 miles northwest of Nairobi, the capital. A police officer also was killed Tuesday.
Witnesses reported revenge killings and clashes between mobs from rival tribes armed with machetes called pangas or with bows and arrows.
"They're armed with pangas, and when one group kills three people, the other group also kills three people. When one burns three houses, the other burns three houses. The situation has really deteriorated," said Ken Wafula, a local human rights activist.
"There is violence in all parts of town," said Kikechi Biketi, Eldoret correspondent for the Standard daily newspaper. "Houses have been burned indiscriminately in most parts of Eldoret. They're burning tires in the roads. There's no transport. You can't move. The situation is very bad."
Eldoret police estimated that about 100 people had died in the town in the last four days, as furious opposition supporters rampaged, alleging ballot-rigging in Thursday's presidential election. Police reported 170 dead in clashes across Kenya, but news agencies put the number at between 200 and 270.
Tens of thousands of people in Eldoret had fled their homes to take refuge in police compounds and church yards. Some houses sheltered dozens of terrified people.
Although the presidential candidates had avoided overt tribal campaigning, which is taboo in Kenyan society, ethnic violence exploded immediately after President Mwai Kibaki was announced the winner and hastily sworn in Sunday evening to a second term.
As the violence continued Tuesday, diplomats in Nairobi pressed Kibaki and his main rival, Raila Odinga, to negotiate a political solution to stem the killings.
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
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