Thursday, July 24, 2003

SALINAS QUOTES FROM THE LAW BOOKS
It always amazes INTHEHAT how loudly convicted killers scream when they suspect their rights have been violated. And we're not talking about the big rights here, like the right to free competent defense, free medical care, a speedy trial and all the rest of the big ones. We're talking about not getting eggs when they want eggs.

We were looking through our TIGGER SALINAS file and we found this hand-written note he sent to JUDGE TRICIA BIGELOW on APRIL 21, 2003. He complains to JUDGE BIGELOW about his breakfast stating that he received 1 jelly package, 1 bun, 1 bowl of cereal and one 6 oz. carton of orange juice. He did not receive his milk or the 2 eggs he was supposed to get. Then he quotes the CALIFORNIA CODE OF REGULATIONS TITLE 15, PENAL CODE SECTION 1241 that he's entitled to receive the "full amount recommended in the daily allowance with all meals."

It's amazing that SALINAS, who killed his girlfriend SOFIA BERNICE GOMEZ for throwing a beer in his face, should be so outraged when other people don't appear to be following the strict letter of the law. When SALINAS levelled the handgun at GOMEZ on the night of August 19, 2000, would it have stopped him from pulling the trigger five times if she'd suddenly quoted section 187 of the PENAL CODE about murder? We doubt it. With people like ALFREDO "TIGGER" SALINAS, the law is for other people to follow. Not for him. Judge BIGELOW ordered the SHERIFFS to ensure that SALINAS gets his full tax-payer funded breakfast every morning.
THE BACKDOOR OUT OF THE EME
Some years ago, RANDY "COWBOY" THERRIEN, a carnal in the EME, was quoted in an FBI wiretap saying, "Religion ain't the back door out of this thing [THE MEXICAN MAFIA]. You pick up a Bible and think you're out, I'm gonna come looking for you." Well, Randy, it looks like you're wrong. In my previous post, I mentioned DONALD GARCIA, ART BLAJOS and KILROY ROYBAL. I calculated how long they've been out of the EME and it's been almost two decades for all of them. That's a long time. Apparently there is a way out. The back door is religion. The brothers used to like to say BLOOD IN, BLOOD OUT. It now appears that it's BLOOD IN, BIBLE OUT. So much for the fearsome retaliatory power of the EME. Unless, of course, some other dynamic is at work that we don't know about or can't speculate on. In time, we suppose, all will be revealed.

Sunday, July 20, 2003

THE EME AND VICTORY OUTREACH
A few nights ago I was re-reading BLOOD IN, BLOOD OUT, the famous how-I-escaped-the-Mexican-Mafia book by ART BLAJOS. I was struck by how little the movie had in common with the book. There are sections of the book where BLAJOS quotes liberally from former drug czar and recovering gambling addict WILLIAM BENNETT and WILLIAM BUCKLEY (yeah that BILL BUCKLEY, the conservatives' spritual leader). Obviously, none of that got in the movie because having EDWARD JAMES OLMOS stop in the middle of a prison rape and start spouting conservative ideology would have made the ticket buyers stay away even more than they did when the movie was released. The movie was a failure on virtually every level. One of these days, someone will make a "real" Mexican Mafia movie.

As coincidence would have it, today I was re-reading the trial testimony of JOHN ANTHONY TORRES, a confidential witness in a FEDERAL RICO case and an EME dropout. He was testifying for the prosecution that the MEXICAN MAFIA is a powerful organization that operates on violence, extortion and drug trafficking. The position of the DEFENSE in this case was that the EME was a figment of the prosecution's imagination and the government had no basis for a RICO case.

Anyway, during his cross examination, TORRES mentions that the brothers in COUNTY JAIL at the time he was voted in were JOE MORGAN, DANIEL GRAJEDA, ART BLAJOS, KILROY ROYBAL, MICHAEL MORENO, MANUAL LUNA, and RICHARD RESENDEZ. TORRES stated that he was "made" in 1979 in LA COUNTY JAIL. It happened on the 1750E ROW – the HIGH POWER row in COUNTY.

For those of you keeping score at home, here was the situation in 1979 in HIGH POWER in COUNTY. BLAJOS and MICHAEL MORENO were both in COUNTY during their murder trial. They were being prosecuted for the killing of NICKY VILLA. They were convicted, but the ruling was eventually overturned on appeal.

RICHARD RESENDEZ aka BABY BOY, aka BABITO, would eventually be killed because he supposedly dissed ROYBAL's wife. According to law enforcement sources, the killer was allegedly DONALD "BIG D" GARCIA. GARCIA was always very close to ROYBAL during their EME days and that relationship continues to this day. ROYBAL, BLAJOS and GARCIA are now all EME dropouts and members of VICTORY OUTREACH. And they're all targeted for death by the BROTHERS. Numerous wire and phone intercepts have confirmed that these three, and others, are "always green." The orders to kill them whenever and wherever the opportunity arises still stands. The question then is, why are these three men still alive?

They preach, they travel, they work on the street to defuse retaliations before they get out of hand. They expose themselves to retaliation almost every day. And yet, no one has ever so much as raised a finger to hurt them. This has law enforcement puzzled and wrily bemused. Law enforcement officials close to these men won't go on the record and speculate on why these men are still alive. Let's just say many cops are amazed at the bullet free zone these three have created around themselves.
WE NEVER THOUGHT WE'D HEAR IT FROM FATHER BOYLE
Wally Fay has had his differences with Father Gregory Boyle in the past. Those familiar with Boyle, a Jesuit priest, know that he runs HOMEBOY INDUSTRIES in BOYLE HEIGHTS and that he has testified as a witness for the Defense in many cases involving Hispanic gangsters.

In court and in the LA TIMES OP ED pages BOYLE has made some startling assertions such as 1) the MEXICAN MAFIA has little influence on the street 2) there's no such thing as a "gang associate" 3) once in the COUNTY-wide gang database, a kid stays in that database for the rest of his life 4) there's no such thing as mutli-generational gangsters etc. All of this is nonsense as anyone with even a nodding acquaintance with the subject can confirm.

For years, Boyle has been the go-to guy for CELESTE FREMON of the LA WEEKLY. FREMON wrote a book years ago called FATHER BOYLE AND THE HOMEBOYS so we can assume that BOYLE and FREMON probably have a relationship that transcends that of the usual reporter/subject. There's obviously some sympatico there.

In the past, whenever the LAPD or the CITY COUNCIL passed a new gang-suppression initiative, you could bet your last dollar that FREMON's piece on it with would carry a BOYLE quote. Generally, his quotes were to the effect that the LAPD was being short-sighted, heavy handed and ineffective. Plus the LAPD history of horrible civil rights abuse would nullify any gains made in the crime stats blah, blah, blah. You could set your watch by it.

So Wally was reading FREMON's piece on the latest gang injunction against the Rollin 60s Crips. (The piece calls them the "ROLLING 60s" by the way. In MONSTER CODY'S book, he calls them the ROLLIN 60s. We'll go with the spelling from the guy who killed a good number of them. He should know, right?) And in this piece, FREMON does her usual lap around the "experts" and prosecutors, eliciting quotes. The experts said the injunction won't work and it's violation of basic civil rights. Which, by the way, we agree with. It is a violation of civil rights and discriminatory. But then so is giving seniors a break on movie tickets.

But here's what floored WALLY. In the inevitable BOYLE quote, the good father says that GANG INJUNCTIONS are not only an indication that the community has had enough of the violence, but that injunctions can benefit the gang members themselves. FREMON quotes BOYLE. "I mean, eight minutes after one was filed here on the EASTSIDE, I had kids in my office saying 'Get me a job.'" You could have knocked WALLY over with a communion wafer. What's going on here? Has FATHER BOYLE had his brain electronically scanned and "re-educated?"

Actually, we see something nearly as effective. We think we see the fine, charismatic hand of POLICE CHIEF BRATTON at work. We know for a fact, that one of the first people BRATTON spoke with when he took the job of CHIEF was FATHER BOYLE. And BRATTON has been cultivating BOYLE like a hothouse rose ever since. They appeared together on WARREN OLNEY's WHICH WAY LA. They appeared together on the same panel with FREMON and TOM HAYDEN at the ANNENBERG SCHOOL for a discussion on the gang problem. They speak regularly. They're, shall I say it? Almost pals.

FREMON quotes BOYLE in her piece again. "For an injunction to work well, it really needs a police department that we don't currently have. But we're getting there under BRATTON. While under PARKS, you never wanted an injunction because it could only lead to abuse."

WHOA! FATHER BOYLE is actually absolving the LAPD of something. He's on their side on this. Let's break it down shall we.

BOYLE is saying that the LAPD under the leadership of a black chief who was supposedly more sensitive to racial issues and police abuse would probably trample all over minority rights compared to a department run by a white guy? BOYLE may be drummed out of the PC brigade for this break with dogma. Everybody at the WEEKLY and on the Democrat Party mailing list knows that white chief equals insensitivity and abuse while black or latino chief equals "building bridges to minority communities." If we've heard that once, we've heard it enough times to induce nausea.

But we never expected it from BOYLE. And we bet FREMON didn't either. We knew BRATTON was smart, slick, an effective operator and a tremendous "convincer." But we had no idea he could get even GREG BOYLE to come around to some common sense conclusions. Has BRATTON the power to cloud men's minds like the SHADOW? If so, we urge him to go cultivate the CITY COUNCIL. Maybe he can get them to stop wasting time on resolutions on the IRAQ war and corporate descendants of slave profiteers and urge them to get on with the real business of running this city.