NO MORE COMMENTS.
As you'll notice I've taken down the comments section. Frankly, I'm sick of the infantile nonsense that transpired there. I tried to create a forum for intelligent, or even semi-intelligent conversation. And for a long time it seemed to be working. Then the assholes showed up and drove out the smart ones. And the assholes just make everybody look bad. And I don't want to be associated with assholes. I tried blocking and banning and you idiots still snuck in. I apologize to the people who were there at the beginning and had a clue about what was happening here. To the rest of you cell soldiers and net bangers, fuck you all very much. Let me know when you start evolving into something that resembles a human being.

I'll continue to post because this is a topic that deserves attention. I just won't have to read your bullshit anymore.

NEW FACES, SAME OLD STORY.
The recent stories here and elsewhere about Hector Marroquin are a classic example of history repeating itself and our political leaders' inability, or maybe refusal, to learn from previous mistakes.

Let's take the wayback machine to the year 1977. Then, as now, politicians were flush with cash and were looking for "novel" and "innovative" ways to curb gangsterism and drug addiction. And there was no shortage of groups lining up for government money.

Then, as now, politicians were making alliances with people with very dubious histories. Los Angeles had groups like LUCHA (League of United Citizens to Help Addicts), SPAN (Special Program for Alcholism and Narcotics), CCC (Community Concern Corporation) and the Get Going Project. All these programs had one thing in common. They were all being run by "reformed" criminals. The most notorious of these was Get Going located on 127 South Utah Street in Boyle Heights, just a few blocks from Hollenbeck station. Get Going was founded by Michael Delia, a convicted bank robber and associate of Jimmy "The Weasel" Fratianno and Jimmy Coppola, both Cosa Nostra operators. Delia was also an associate of several high ranking brothers. Get Going's most visible and vocal supporter was State Senator Alex P. Garcia. Garcia ran interference for Delia and greased the rails to get Delia government funding.

Michael Delia had another ally, Ellen Levitt who would eventually marry him and change her name to Delia. Ellen Delia was a brilliant writer of grant proposals. One person who hired her said that when, "she walked in the door, the money would follow."

Get Going was nothing more than a front to rob the government. And the house on Utah Street was nothing more than a heroin distribution center for the Mexican Mafia. When people in the neighborhood complained to the police and Garcia that the "patients" at Get Going we shooting up right on the sidewalk, breaking into apartments and threatening anybody that complained, Garcia told the citizens of Boyle Heights that Get Going was there to stay "whether you like it or not."

When Ellen Delia eventually realized that the project she helped fund was thoroughly corrupted and infiltrated by the Eme, her husband conspired to have Alfie Sosa kill her. Ironically, the car that drove her to that drainage ditch on Elkhorn Boulevard in Sacramento was bought and paid for by a government grant. She helped finance her own killing with the help of idiot politicians. Her killing, and a number of other murders connected to Michael Delia and his associates, eventually prompted City Councilman Art Snyder to pull the funding on Get Going and every other program that had questionable directors and missing funds. Of course, Snyder got the usual death threats and the usual invectives about not caring for poor and drug addicted people. According to the estimates at the time, Los Angeles wasted roughly $48 million on these programs. Most of that money just vaporized.

Then, as now, the politicians had ample warnings from law enforcement that all these programs had been infiltrated. Then, as now, the politicians ignored the warnings. Then, as now, the programs ran with almost no supervision or oversight. Then, as now, the program directors put family members on the payroll which is contrary to the directives of the program charter. Then, as now, the politicians looked the other way. Then, as now, the programs never needed to show verifiable proof that the programs were working.

Has the current crop of bonehead pols ever read any of this? Is there no corporate memory?

The concept of turning over drug programs, or gang intervention programs to ex offenders without the slightest level of supervision is criminally negligent. This is worse than pounding money down rat holes. This is handing your tax money to criminal enterprises. And even worse, or course, is that the people who genuinely need and want help get nothing.

DON'T COMMENT UNDER MY NAME.
Okay, it's time for a little housekeeping and some reminders of common courtesy and simple rules.

First of all, don't sign Wally to any comments you post. Let me state this again. I never post comments in the Comments section. Ever. And I take great exception to anyone who signs my name. Veteranos who are regular readers already know this but new people that drop in don't. To avoid confusion and trouble, your comments will be deleted if my name is used as a signature, even if you call me the greatest contribution to literature since Shakespeare. Since I started tracking hits,we're well over 350,000 page views so far but only a handful of that number are regular commenters. I don't want to confuse the occasional drop ins with things I may or may not have said. My voice is the blog, the comments are yours.

As I've said in the past, I've got a high treshold for trash talk and foul language but some of the stuff lately had to be deleted because not only was it foul, it was stupid. I have no tolerance for stupid.

Secondly, I stand by everything I've ever written, here or elsewhere. If you want to argue or cofront me with anything, quote me or ream me, be my guest. Just use a signature other than Wally.

If you want a response to something specific and want it aired out in the blog or dealt with one on one, email me directly -- wallyfay@yahoo.com. The reason is I don't read every word of every single comment. No time. But I do read all my email.

On the subject of the long-awaited book, I just got notice it will hit the bookstores in July, 2007 -- all 700+ pages of it. We're undergoing the tedious but necessary vetting process right now so that every word of it will be verified with facts, dates and the blessing of the people involved. I'm also trying to work out a system so that anyone who wants a personally signed inscription can order a copy, have it inscribed and then shipped to the buyer. For some reason, it's a lot harder than I thought, but I'm working on it to make it affordable and quick.

Thanks for your patience and now back to business.

NO GUNS NO MORE?
We've been holding off on this until we could develop some intel on the recent events involving Hector "NO GUNS" Marroquin. I'll quote Tom Hayden from his book "Street Wars" in describing Hector and some of his history. Hayden calls him, "An older veteran of gang wars who owned a roofing business and was deeply involved in a violence prevention group called NOGUNS." Hayden goes on to say, "He [Hector] was a regular target of police and occasional media harassment for purported connections to La Eme, but in my experience he was sincerely interested in ending the violence. Years before, he'd sought a blessing in a family safety matter from an individual known to be 'connected,' a relationship that might now be helpful."

The naturally curious wonder what that safety issue was, what was the root of it and how was it resolved.

As interested parties might recall, Hector got in legal hot water this year when LE found him in possession of firearms, a serious violation for a convicted felon and at the very least a questionable circumstance for someone who runs a group called NOGUNS.

Then a few weeks ago, a hit team confronted Hector at his business and shot him but failed to kill him as they intended. We recently learned the same hit team rolled up on another victim in another part of town and ran into a buzz saw. We'll refrain from getting into the details of that one until the dust settles.

Needless to say, the gun possession and the attempted murder has stirred renewed LE interest in Hector. But all sorts of questions arise from the incidents. Who tried to hit him? And why? It's obvious he's made some enemies. The question is who are those enemies? Local soldados? Shot callers? Emeros? We'll leave the guessing game to you. The saga has yet to play itself out but it's obvious Hector has lost his political capital as a peacemaker and probably whatever status he had on the street. Like a lot of guys before him, Hector may end up becoming a man without a country.

FEDS CONVICT VINELAND BOYS
When we first posted on the killing of officer Matt Pavelka and the ensuing GREENLIGHT that the Boys put on all cops, we knew there was going to be some serious fallout. Yesterday we saw the final result of that fallout in Federal court. Law enforcement sidestepped State prosecution and instead dropped the biggest bomb in the Federal arsenal -- RICO statutes. It looks like they invited everybody to the pile-on party including the Internal Revenue Service. Ouch!

Yesterday, nine Vinelanders were convicted on racketeering charges and will eventually land in a Federal prison someplace far, far away. Oddly, David Garcia, the guy who is accused of pulling the trigger in the murder of Pavelka, will face State charges in a few months. We can only speculate that they want to save him for the State court for a one way bus trip to San Quentin.

The point of all this is clearly to send the strongest message possible that you can't shoot a cop and greenlight the juras and expect to be treated like a common killer. According to US Attorney Debra Yang, "This is the first time in Southern California that the RICO statute has been used to dismantle the leadership of an entire street gang." And it probably won't be the last. In SOCAL, Federal law enforcement has gotten better and becoming more educated in prosecuting street gangs. Witness the Avenues racial homicides they successfully prosecuted two months ago.

For history fans, the Vineland Boys were started as an offshoot of 18th Street by two homies, Teddy "Greeneyes" Lopez and his brother Hilario. The 18th Streeters saw that as set jumping and have been feuding with them ever since. Because they wouldn't follow the rules, Vineland was greenlighted by the Eme in the late 1980s but since then, they've tried to mend fences and become loyal Surenos. Apparently the turning point came in January 1998 when Teddy "Greeneyes" was killed in a nightclub called "Baby Doe's" in Monterey Park. The killers in that case shouted "Pacoima" when they cut loose. Somebody got the message and since then, Vineland has joined the fold.

HE MEANT TO SHOOT HER.
I wasn't going to post anything about this but with the new revelation regarding the man who shot 5-year-old Kaytlyn Avila goes right to an issue that needs to be addressed. I'm not going to mention this guy's name. According to what LAPD has determined after this guy shot up Cesar Avila, Kaytlyn's father, he turned around and was ready to leave. Then he changed his mind and went back to the car and fired directly at the little girl. This is just pure evil.

What's significant about this is the difference in public reaction between this shooting and the infamous Stephanie Kuhen shooting in 1995. If you're a student of this sort of thing, Kuhen's killing at the hands of the Assassins clique of the Avenues in HP made headlines all over the country and a lot of European papers and electronic media. It even prompted then president Clinton to pledge money to put an additional 100,000 cops on the nation's streets.

Notice the almost complete lack of urgency in the wake of the Avila killing. Certainly the LAPD is doing what it should by increasing patrols and hammering on the P-Stones and 18th Street to short-circuit the inevitable payback. But outside of that and the usual suspects making their inevitable appearance and making their usual noises, there's been nothing like the moral outrage that broke out after the Kuhen killing.

You have to wonder why. Could it because Kuhen was white and the shooters were brown? Or was it that the victim in this case is brown and the shooter is black? It looks like only a very specific combination of race qualifies a killing for moral outrage and this one doesn't seem to contain the correct ingredients to fulfill the formula.

And for all those people out there who don't like snitches, keep in mind that somebody dropped a dime on Kaytlyn's shooter. If that hadn't happened, chances are this guy would still be in the wind. Why is it nobody likes a snitch unless he's ratting out somebody you don't like?

Needless to say, the shooter is as green as a shamrock right now and he's probably in the deepest, darkest PC module there is. It will be interesting to see how all this plays out when the case goes to trial.

CAN'T KEEP A GOOD EMERO DOWN.
Here's a blast from the past. RUBEN "NITE OWL" CASTRO was one of the many Emeros rolled up in the three RICO cases that came out of the LOS ANGELES METROPOLITAN TASK FORCE ON VIOLENT CRIME. Students of history will remember that the Task Force, with the help of big time dropout ERNIE "CHUCO" CASTRO put away a lot of brothers and Associates in the mid and late 1990s. But as anyone familiar with the subject already knows, going to prison, even Federal prison, doesn't necessarily put you out of business. Going to prison just means you're reassigned to the home office. A change of address, not a change of operations.

Today's LA Times carries a story on a Federal indictment charging NITE OWL with running 18th Street dope operations out of his Supermax cell in Florence. We're shocked, shocked! True to form, NITE OWL was using codes and a third party on the outside to run his neighborhoods, collect taxes and generally regulate offenders and interlopers.

Some law enforcement officials (aka Bill Bratton), "activists" (aka Greg Boyle, Connie Rice) and sociologists (aka James Diego Vigil, Joan Moore, et al) still have their heads firmly planted in the sand when they maintain that street gangs are "disorganized crime." Street cops and homies, the people on opposing sides of the front lines, know better. As current events continue to demonstrate, there is no longer a clear line of demarcation between Sureno street gangs and the Eme. What we have now is a near total vertical integration between the streets and the prisons. Clearly, it's not in every single barrio and every single click. There are still resisters, pecetas, greenlight clicks and assorted independents. But the tide of history is going in one direction and those who stand in its way will be steamrolled.

You've all noticed the lack of posting lately. I've been traveling and working feverishly on the Big Project. Posting will be very light until October 1. Big news to follow after that.

MEET THE NEW CZAR, SAME AS THE OLD CZAR. AGAIN.
Oh, boy. Here we go again. After a study by Connie Rice's nonprofit group, The Advancement Group, (yeah, she's cousin to the other Connie Rice that's running the State Department), our city leaders are once again dragging that tired old beast - a Gang Czar - out of the attic and hooking him (or her) up to Dr. Frankenstein's re-animation surgery table. Yeah, it's deja vu all over again.

After a very long study Rice's group came to the conclusion that gang intervention efforts (as opposed to LE gang suppression efforts) are (trumpet flourish) too scattered and totally lacking in oversight. Did we really need a study to tell us that? Back in November of 2005, Tony Cardenas came to that conclusion. And years before that during the Riordan years, any number of civil servants came to the same conclusion. They held a few meetings, threw some ideas around about a gang Czar, couldn't figure out how to appease all the special interests and then they went home. And years before that, we heard -- well, you get the drift.

So here we go again. The last time around we heard that after spending $26 million dollars on intervention, no one was able to produce a single homie who was diverted away from his neighborhood and put on the straight and narrow. That was Cardenas' conclusion.

Well, guess what? The same people who couldn't produce a single body after pounding $26 million down a rat hole will probably be brought on board to craft new ways of spending even more money. This time, however, a figurehead will be installed to take all the blame when programs fail and kids continue to drop out of school.

Here's a suggestion. Appoint Connie Rice as the gang Czar. Give her five years and all the money she asks for. If she can't show results verified by the same people that are monitoring the LAPD's consent decree, pull the plug and forget about a gang Czar forever.

CPA TAKES A HIT
Last week a CPA paid the ultimate price for his neighborhod. This could be payback for that Haskell who went down a month ago or it could be something even deeper. There's a persistent rumor that all of CPA has been greenlighted for failure to file their 1040s. More as things develop in the West SF Valley.

SCHOOL DISTRICT SMUTS UP VICTIMS.
In the aftermath of the homicide and ADW on Avenue 40 last week, the LAUSD is smutting up the victims. The simple truth is that the victims were not gang members or associates. And they weren't a tagging crew. They were just casual high school kids.

Word from the school they attended, however, tries to paint a somewhat darker picture of these kids. First, certain school reps are saying that this homicide was not racially motivated. You can sort of understand that because the school disctrict doesn't want to deal with another round of black/brown mini riots. They should have left it at that. However, they went on to suggest that somehow the victims were associated with a gang or crew. This is total nonsense. When you run for cover, the first to do is blame the victims.

BANS ARE NOW UP TO 12.
A number of IPs have been banned but certain individuals keep popping up with the same log on name but different IPs. What's happening here is that some person (or maybe more than one person) continues to make the same idiotic comments from different machines. As the comments appear, they'll be deleted and the new IPs banned. Eventually, this knucklehead, or knuckleheads, will run out of available IPs to use. Until then, just ignore the jerk(s).

43 STILL ACTIVE.
More bad news coming out of Northeast. It hasn't made the papers or other media yet, as far as I know, but there was a shooting on Avenue 40 this weekend that resulted with one dead and one wounded. The way it pieces together is that a Lincoln High football team was having a party on Ave. 40. The team is composed of Blacks and Hispanics. While the party was in progress, it's alleged that Avenue 43 homies showed up and started a beef with one of the black players. A couple of the Hispanic players came to the guy's defense. A fight broke out, a gun was produced and one Hispanic ball player was shot and killed. Another was wounded. They were both hit defending their black team mate.

You would think that with five 43s currently on trial for killing blacks the ones still on the street would try to fly low. Apparently not. More to come.

NEWS ABOUT THE NEWS FOR NEWS PEOPLE.
It appears that Avenues is once again making national news. Since the Federal hate crime case started downtown, the Avenues' ethnic cleansing policy has so far made it to the LA Times, Newsweek, got a mention on Drudge and will soon be appearing in the LA Weekly. Information has filtered into In The Hat's vast underground intel bunker that Fox News is actively looking for informed people to talk to about this case. They haven't called here, of course, but what else is new?

For the benefit of out of town, and out of country In The Hat readers who have expressed an interest in this case and have contacted me privately, here's the case in a nutshell. This will spare me the time of answering each query individually. Apparently, the Mideast isn't the only item of interest to the foreign media. So here goes.

The US Dept. of Justice unsealed an indictment last year charging five members of the Avenues gang with conspiracy to deprive blacks of their civil rights. We guess shooting and killing non gang-affiliated Blacks qualifies as depriving people of their civil rights.

The five defendants are Alejandro "Bird" Martinez, Gilbert "Lucky" Saldana, Porfirio "Dreamer" Avila, Fernando "Sneaky" Cazares and Merced "Shadow" Cambero. All except Cambero are in custody and on trial. Cambero is in the wind and a fugitive. The victims in the case are three male Blacks - Christopher Bowser, Anthony Prudhomme and Kenneth Wilson. All three were shot to death within a short time period in mid-1999. All the victims had a documented history of being harassed, assaulted and robbed by the defendants. Several witnesses who knew the victims have come forward and testified that this harassment had been going on for some time prior to the murders.

The prosecution's two main witnesses are Jessie (aka Jesse, depending on which document you read) "Listo" Diaz and Jose "Clever" De La Cruz. Both are serving a very long time on state, not Federal, charges. Diaz went away on four counts of attempted murder (not related to this case) and De La Cruz is doing time for his part in the Wilson homicide. The motivation of these two informants is to get the US Attorney to petition the State to reduce their sentences. The defense, of course, is doing its best to paint these two as untrustworthy bottom feeders who would put a case on their gandmothers to go free.

What's interesting here is the motivation. What prompted these guys in this part of town to ethnically cleanse their neighborhood of Blacks? Let's face it, that's what it is. So far, the prosecution hasn't touched that subject. It may do so further into the case.

According to the original IOs in Northeast and Hollenbeck who first investigated these cases, their belief is that Avenues and many other neighborhoods all over SOCAL have been given orders by the Brothers to broom the blacks out of the varrios. This was not a bottom up policy, but rather one that came down from on high. Shoot a black, earn a stripe. You're in up status with the carnales. That's the theory of law enforcement.

There's more than a little truth to that according to the files locked deep in Wally's Fortress of Solitude. Similar racially motivated shootings, assaults and murders have happened in Pomona, Riverside, San Bernardino, Compton, Venice, Santa Monica, San Diego and San Pedro among others. There are at least two that may go that way in the San Fernando Valley if the IOs ever get the cases solved. These are notoriously hard to solve without a confidential informant (snitch to the unitiated). And, of course, we're all familiar with the dust kicked up regularly in County, the CDC and the local high schools between Blacks and Hispanics. This is not a new phenomenon. This has been brewing for decades.

This trial is setting off some interesting issues. One is retaliation. The murder of the Marcials and Cervantes in South LA two weeks ago sounds an awful lot like payback. Like the victims in the Federal trial, these victims were non gang-affiliated. Casual people as the homies call them. And then there was the death threat made against one of the defense attorneys. There's also a lot of talk as to why the US DOJ is even prosecuting this case. Observers are asking each other what's to be gained from this, especially since all the accused are already doing lots and lots of time? One of the defense attorneys inexplicably blamed the Bush administration for filing this case. Frankly, this accusation doesn't make any sense.

If you're following current events, GWB is, if anything, pro-Latino and in favor of very liberal immigration policies. This has gotten him in trouble with his base and with other GOP politicians. Goosing the DOJ to go forward with this reflects badly on W's immigration policy. If anything, it would make more sense for W to try to sweep something like this under the rug rather than put it up in neon. If you're opposed to illegal immigration, you can use this entire Brown on Black issue as one more reason to clamp the borders shut if for no other reason than to spare the lives of innocent blacks. Granted, the accused aren't all illegal immigrants, but they could be used as a foil to demonstrate how unassimilated Hispanics are negatively impacting society's march towards color blindness, tolerance and ethno-diversity. So this defense attorney's argument is dopey and doesn't make the slightest sense.

As to why, the US DOJ is prosecuting these Avenues for hate crimes, the answer is simple. The US government is sending a clear signal to the shot callers that this has to stop. Left unchecked, ethnically mixed neighborhoods could turn into little Rwandas or the Balkans. I can't understand anyone even asking that question. Why is the government bothering? Because we're not Bosnia.

One other issue that is notable by its absence is the call for more hate crime legislation. The dragging death of James Byrd made national headlines for weeks. Black activists called for more hate crime legislation and the case even became an issue in the presidential election. Byrd's sister was used in Democratic campaign ads saying that the failure of the Republicans to endorse more hate crime legislation was like having her brother killed all over again.

The point here is that the silence of Black activists on this case, and the others I've documented, is absolutely deafening. Not one peep out of the usual suspects. No Rainbow Push, no NAACP, no Najee Ali, Earl Hutchinson, Maxine Waters, Leo Terrell or Nate Holden. You have to wonder why. If anything, the response from Black civil rights activists should be even louder. Look at the scale. The Byrd murder was an isolated act by individuals out of personal racial animosity. Once the killers went away, the danger from them was over.

These murders, on the other hand, are the result of a policy initiated by a powerful criminal organization. Even after the shooters are put away, there are hundreds, if not thousands more ready to take up where the guilty left off. This is, and will continue to be, a major social problem because the gangs and the carnales aren't going away. If anything, they're getting bigger and more violent.

So, to all the out of town and foreign readers of In The Hat, that's the story so far. Yeah, we've got a big problem here and it's about time we stop pretending it doesn't exist.

RADICAL MUSLIMS IN PRISON.
According to this article
http://www.city-journal.org/html/16_2_sndgs04.html
the prison system is becoming a breeding ground for radical islam. The writer cites the Torrance case and makes an argument that the prisons aren't doing enough to monitor these guys because they generally don't start violence in prison. So they fly under the radar. Just curious to know what you all think.

FINE TUNING.
I thought I'd like the "southside blue" comments section (somewhat appropriate) but it turned out to be as hard to read as the Southsiders. So this morning I selected a neutral white so some people won't have to be reminded of the joint or the sixties. Anybody have problems with access or commenting, let me know.

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.

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.