Saturday, July 08, 2006

SOME HOUSEKEEPING.
I'm not crazy about the new comments format but I'm, working on it to make it more readable. As it stands, it's tough to follow and there seems to be some sort of word limit that Haloscan imposes. I'm trying to fix that too. Adding comments to old posts has been shut down. As currently configured, the system won't allow new comments to be added to the "old" comments section. All new comments now have to go to the new comments section that lives at the top of each post. Sorry about this. I tried to keep the site as easy to navigate and accessible as possible but you know who to blame.
BLOCKING IS NOW UP
I didn't want to do this but a few knuckleheads refused to cooperate. So now Haloscan is up and working and your IP will be blocked at my discretion.

As you'll see, the comments section is now at the top of every new post. All comments starting with this post are now being run through Haloscan. That means I'll be able to see your IP and shut you out of commenting forever.

This is a big hammer and I'll use it only sparingly. I've got a lot of patience and it takes a lot to get me riled but the last few rounds of comments pushed me over the limit. You all know who the knucklehead was and we won't give him/her/it added attention by mentioning the name. In case the knucklehead doesn't get it, it works like this. You can change your logon name, but you can't change your IP as easily. For everyone else, have a great weekend.
CONNECT THE DOTS.
Today's LA TIMES carries a story on the public response to the recent assassination of three Hispanics on 49th Street in central LA last week. As you all know by now, Larry and David Marcial and Luis Cervantes were killed by two male blacks using Kalashnikov rifles. The three victims were not affiliated and the murders were dubbed as "senseless." On Saturday, the usual suspects, Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Najee Ali and Jan Perry are organizing a "Black & Brown Unity Walk" on South Central Avenue and on Tuesday, they'll have an emergency "summit" of Black and Latino leaders in a coffee house in Leimert Park Village.

The Times quotes Hutchinson, "We're not saying it's [the murders] racially motivated . . . we're calling for a summit to reduce tensions." This is odd coming from a guy who said in the recent past that if Latinos instead of blacks were being assaulted in County Jail, Mayor V. would be the first to call for some kind of intervention. But we'll leave that aside for now.

As much as the LAPD and activists may deny this, the indicators are that this triple homicide was nothing if not racially motivated. Two things. First it came just as the Avenues Federal hate crime trial got under way in downtown. Coincidence? We think not. Secondly, just this past week, an attorney defending one of the Avenues members in that trial got a death threat. The big media knows about this but for some reason, hasn't seen fit to release that information. Another coincidence? You be the judge.

Even the cops suspect this but are being coy. An LAPD rep was quoted as saying that the murders were some kind of message but they don't quite know what the message is. Unfortunately we do.

Here's some wild speculation based on nothing but observation of the landscape and some history. If I were a cop, I'd start looking at the Four One Five. That's KUMI NATION to the uninitiated. The 415 is the "underground" branch of the BGF made up of members that are more hard core than the average BGF member. My gut tells me the shooters were probably not even locals. They might have been imported "talent" from out of town or out of state whose services were bought or bartered.

I hope to hell I'm wrong and that the killings were just mistaken identy or one of the extant theories. But I don't think so. They better do some real hard talking at that coffee house.
FAIR WARNING.
I've been way tolerant over the comments, but some of this shit is getting deep. Even worse, it's getting stupid. I'm trying to maintain some sort of coherent discussion of issues and until recently, with your input and contributions, the effort has been mostly successful. Lately though, the tone is getting too close to the gutter and it's starting to get old for me. If you want to comment, make an argument, vent your spleen, quote another source, or even be an outright racist, there's been plenty of latitude. You want to shout out to your neighborhood? Go ahead. My warning is just don't be stupid. I'm talking about comments that refer to the things you want to do with your genitals, other people's genitals and the various arrangements thereof. Knock it off!

In the three years I've been doing this, I've never blocked an IP address but we're getting real close to making that a policy. I know where this stuff is coming from. There are vested interests in this town, and elsewhere, that would love to see this site turned into a garbage pile. I'm not going to let that happen.

I hate sounding like a scolding schoolteacher and this will be the last time. If you can't play by some simple, common sense rules, go play someplace else. From now on, crap gets blocked. Apologies to all the commenters who do it right.

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

MORE ON MOCO MORRILL'S BOOK
A few posts back I made some comments about Robert "Moco Verde" Morrill's book, "The Mexican Mafia - The Story." Some readers misunderstood the point of the comments. I have no quarrel with the accuracy of the book. He's writing about first-hand experience. He was there from the beginning and lived the tale he tells. My main objection was simple grammar and his jumping around from topic to topic. The narrative is hard to follow and you need a road map and copious notes to keep track of it all. I've been informed that some valiant efforts were made to clean up the copy. So grammatically, it could have been even worse.

Despite the faults, I still think it's a worthwhile read and here's how to get a copy.
ROBERT MORRILL
P.O. Box 769337
San Antonio, TX 78245

The cost is $30.00 plus $3.00 for shipping to US and $5.00 for Canada. Write them for overseas shipping. Curiously, Inthehat gets lots of hits from overseas. A lot of Euros can't figure out what the hell goes on in our streets and they drop in. Most of what they know they get from the movies and we know how accurate that is.

As long as I'm on the subject of reading material, a great companion book (CD actually) to Moco's book is Mundo Mendoza's, "From Altar Boy to Hit Man." It's the unvarnished truth and still the best book out there about you know what. You can order a copy from copsandconvicts.com. Click on the Training Products section and you'll find the ordering process. Happy beach reading.
COMMENTS ARE BACK ON
Apparently something happened with Blogger and the comments section got turned off. In case you were having a mojo for a good rant, the comments are now back on. Contrary to some of the comments, nobody shut me down or asked me to moderate the comments. Ease up, already. This is how conspiracy theories get started. It was just a dopey computer thing.

Also for your convenience and to reduce the bandwith, Blogger will now let you add a link to your comments. That'll save you a lot of cutting and pasting and reduce the amount of scrolling. How's that for free access and free speech?