DUDE, WHERE'S MY GUN?
In a story in today's LA TIMES, we get some more details on LA's anti-terror point man, JOHN MILLER and his remedial gun carrying problem. It appears that the gun Miller left in his carry-on luggage was NOT one of the guns on his carry permit. One important piece of information that the Times left out was that California carry permits will only allow the permit holder to list THREE guns on the permit. Some states have no restrictions on this point. You can carry any type of handgun that can be concealed. When the permit is issued, the Make, Model and serial number are typed righ on the permit by the folks on the 5th floor, LAPD's Gun Detail. And you can only carry what's on the permit.

What Miller had on his Bratton-issued permit were two .45 ACP Glocks and what the Times describes as a .38 caliber Beretta. We don't think Beretta makes a .38 caliber handgun. The .38 is a revolver round and Beretta does not produce revolvers. What the article probably meant to say that it was a .380, a entirely different type of round despite the similarity in nomenclature. Beretta does make handguns chambered for the diminutive .380 semi-auto cartridge.

The gun in question was apparently a Smith & Wesson chambered for the .38 caliber round, a revolver round. This gun was apparently issued to Miller by the LAPD. Or so the article says. We're wondering what the hell the LAPD is doing by issuing civilians handguns. From what we know of the law, police agencies do not issue guns to civilians, even if they're department employees.

If this is the case, then Miller was illegally carrying a loaded concealed weapon because according to the laws covering concealed carry, you can only carry one of the three guns spelled out on the permit itself.

If Miller had been a plain old civilian, chances are his permit would have been pulled immediately and he would probably never be issued another one. But he's not. He's in the privileged tier of the two-tiered system that governs concealed carry permits. Chances are, he'll keep his permit and get away with nothing more than a cool glance from his sponsor and friend, Chief Bratton.

Did Miller commit a crime? It sure looks like it. If not the crime of intentionally trying to carry a gun aboard an aircraft, then at least that of illegally carrying a loaded concealed weapon -- that S&W .38 that was NOT on his permit. We're looking forward to how this turns out.

OPERATION BLACK WIDOW WINDS DOWN
This week we saw the final installment of OPERATION BLACK WIDOW in NORCAL. Eight shot callers of the NUESTRA FAMILIA took a guilty plea to federal racketeering charges and will be spending time in the federal prison system far from California. Five of the Familianos got life sentences while three got 10-year terms.

The five who'll be spending life in a Federal penitentiary are Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba, James Morado, Cornelio "Comi" Tristan, Joseph Raymond "Pinky" Hernandez, and Tex "Terrible T" Hernandez. These Familianos could be considered the NF's board of directors and ran the organization's business from prison.

The three with 10-year sentences are Daniel "Stork" Perez, Alberto Larez, and Henry "Big Happy" Cervantes.

Like LA's Metropolitan Task Force on Violent Crime, Operation Black Widow in Norcal was a combined Federal and local LE venture that targeted the leadership of organized crime syndicates. And like LA's Task Force, the investigation and prosecution would not have happened wihout the cooperation of confidential informants. From the LE point of view, it's impossible to crack organized crime without snitches. In the case of Black Widow, the most prominent snitch was ROBERT GRATTON. In LA's Task Force, LE had Ernest "Chuco" Castro that got the ball rolling and resulted in three huge RICO cases.

While there are a lot of similarities between the Norcal and Socal cases, there are a number of distinct differences. In Socal, the "business" was conventional street-oriented crime like tax collection and murder. Up north, the NF showed a remarkable capacity to morph into legitimate and/or semi-legitimate operations.

Gratton, with Gerry Cuete's blessing and support, founded NORTH STAR RECORDS, a rap label that launched the career of NORTENO rap star, SIR DYNO. The first CD, G.U.N. (Generation of United Nortenos), was a huge hit and was even carried in the racks at Sam Goody's. North Star was then used to launder drug money. As a result, Gratton was putting $5,000 a month into the NF's bank account in Idaho.

Other quasi legal businesses owned or controlled by Norteno shot callers included auto customizing shops, nightclubs and tire stores. Life was sweet and money was pouring in. That is until Gratton was put in the hat for being a little too independent. He was becoming too visible to LE and the media, and the Mesa, NF's board of directors, decided to check him.

In the end, Gratton cashed in his chips and ratted out the entire organization.

With the shot callers now scattered throughout the Federal prison system, it will no longer be as easy for them to communicate with the street as it was in Pelican Bay. At least that's LE's contention.

It remains to be seen if this latest blow to the NF will create a leadership crisis and a power vacuum that the Eme will try to exploit.

BRATTON IS NOW SWORN
LAPD chief Bill Bratton is no longer a civilian. After studying and training for months, the Chief passed his P.O.S.T. tests and is now a sworn California peace officer and no longer needs his self-issued civilian permit to carry a concealed weapon. Lest you might think they bent the rules or made the tests easy to given Bratton his certification, former Chief Willie Williams never did pass the P.O.S.T. Williams tried four times and failed. LA cops no longer need to feel funny about saluting a civilian.

DAILY NEWS GANG SERIES
For out of town readers, the LA Daily News is publishing an 8-part series on street gangs. The first installment ran on Sunday. You can read it and the rest of the series at dailynews.com.

So far, there's very little new information. At least new to us. Lots of stats and personal stories but not a whole lot of analysis or the kind of juicy stuff we like to read. We're curious to see if they run anything at all about the Wilson, Bowser, Hightower, Haggins etc. racially motivated homicides. The Times and DN have both done a great job of ignoring these killings and the motivation behind them.

JOHN MILLER GUN BUST
KABC TV news reported this afternoon that LA's Il Duce of anti-terror, John Miller, was stopped at LAX security for trying to carry a loaded gun onto a plane. The gun was in his carry-on luggage and apparently he just forgot it was there. Dumb!

From what we know, Miller has one of those nearly impossible to get LAPD permits to carry a concealed weapon. Miller, like William Bratton, is not a sworn peace officer. They're both civilian employees of the LAPD. Therefore the only way they can legally carry a gun is to obtain a civilian carry permit, something denied to the average law abiding Angeleno. The funny thing is, as chief of police Bratton had to apply to himself to get a permit. Naturally, he gave himself one. And Miller has one as well. They're pals and go back a long way and hey, what are friends for if you can't get a carry permit out of it?

Bratton comes from the New York City old boy network of permit patronage. In New York City, you're not even allowed to own a handgun in your house, let alone carry one, without a permit from the NYPD. Traditionally, any well-heeled and connected New Yorker has always had an easy time getting a permit to carry. New York Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger, a big time anti-gunner, has one. So does Howard Stern, comedian Pat Cooper and dozens of business people and celebrities. In our own fair state of California, the same rules apply. Notorious anti-gun advocate Dianne Feinstein for years had a permit to carry, but said she gave it up. So does/did James Caan (he might have had his revoked, we hear). And of course, Robert (I forgot my gun in Vitello's) Blake. It might surprise a lot of Angelenos how many anti-gun Hollywood celebrities have permits to carry while they contribute to anti-gun groups like Sarah Brady's HCI. Sarah herself got into hot water when she bought a gun under her name and gave it to her son as a birthday present. Under one of the many laws she favors, this was an illegal transfer and she should have gone to jail.

LA celebrities don't get their permits from the LAPD. Like Blake who established a paper residence in Culver City while living in the Valley (LAPD jurisdiction), a lot of the elites establish residence in permit-friendly jurisdictions. Ted Cooke, the retired chief of Culver PD was very liberal in doling out permits and looking the other way on the issue of residence. That's where Caan got his. Edward James Olmos got his from the LASD. Permits are issued locally but are good all over the state. So if you have a second or third or fourth home somewhere in a rural permit friendly county, or Culver City, you're good to carry in Bel Air or Malibu.

But getting back to the John Miller incident. Miller's permit is only good in California. California carry permits are not recognized by any other state because California does not recognize any other state's carry permits. This means that when Miller landed in New York, merely being in possession of a gun without a local permit to carry or own would have put him in flagrant violation of New York City weapons laws. After all, he's no longer a New York resident and that disqualifies him from owning or carrying a gun or even being in possession of a handgun in New York City. What the hell was Miller going to do with his piece when he got there? It is illegal to bring a handgun into New York City. Motorists from other states have been arrested in the Big Apple and their guns confiscated merely for carrying unloaded guns in the trunks of their cars while passing through town. Same with Chuck Schumer's New Jersey.

The truth is, the New York cops would probably give Miller a pass and let him carry. After all, there are two sets of laws in the U.S. when it comes to personal defense. One that applies to the rich and mighty. And one that applies to the rest of us whose hides aren't worth as much. The right of self defense is one reserved for the elite and not us mere proles.

WAS THIS INEVITABLE?
One of my out of town readers just sent me an item from the Brownsville, Texas paper, The Herald. On September 3, Emma Perez-Trevino wrote about contacts between AL-QAIDA and the MARA SALVATRUCHA, a street gang with sets in Los Angeles, Texas, the US-MEXICO border and as far away as Virginia, New York and Boston. Just so you know, MS has a lot of sets, some of whom operate under the Sureno flag. Others don't. Look for the MS13 placa to determine if they're Sureno. Non-affiliates drop the 13.

The information on this possible alliance came from the U.S. House Select Committee on Homeland Security. According to a member of that committee, Rep. Solomon P. Ortiz, a Democrat from Texas, "We have been in contact wtih El Salvadoran officials and they have verified that Al-Qaida has been active in these gangs."

Ortiz, along with Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and Rep. Jim Turner, both Texas Democrats, have asked for more cooperation between the Border Patrol, the FBI and the CIA. All three pols called the OTM policy (Other Than Mexican), "nothing more than a conduit for terrorists." Apparently, 80% to 90% of the 25,000 OTMs arrested on the U.S. side of the border are released on their own recognizance with nothing more than a promise to appear for a hearing. Guess how many actually show up.

For the complete story, a Google search for the Brownsville Herald will take you to the site. I don't do links.

The concept of streets gangs making alliances with foreign powers is not new. In 1987, four members of Chicago's El Rukn gang were convicted of accepting $2.5 million from Lybia to plan and execute terrorist attacks in the U.S. That same year, Jeff Fort, founder of the Blackstone Rangers traveled to Lybia where Muammar Qaddafi presented him with a rocket launcher. The FBI intercepted the weapon and arrested Fort. Louis Farrakhan made the introductions and accompanied Fort to Lybia. More recently, Jose Padilla, a Chicago street gangster was arrested for trying to organize a dirty bomb attack in the U.S.

On the other side of the coin, Italian mobster Lucky Luciano made a deal with the Government during the war. In exchange for his help in gathering intelligence and putting friends on the ground prior to the invasion of Sicily, Luciano was allowed to leave prison and deported at the end of the war. Even without the aid of the internet and satellite phones, Luciano had no trouble calling the shots to his New York crime family from his villa in Palermo.

We'll see what develops with the MS.

BERNARD PARKS DOESN'T LIKE THE SHIFT SCHEDULE
It's been fairly well established by now that Bernard Parks, the former LAPD police chief, is attempting to gain some political capital by focusing on the current homicide spike. He posed for the media with the families of homicide victims and blamed the spike on the LAPD's 3/12 shift schedule. His claim is that the new schedule puts fewer cops on the street and that contributes to the rise in killings. Never mind that some of the victims were killed under the old schedule.

Parks wants to be mayor. And he wants to heap some blame on his successor, William Bratton. For you non-Los Angeles residents who may not be up on LA politics, James Hahn, the current mayor is the man who made the decision to get rid of Parks and replace him with Bratton.

During the ramp up to Bratton's appointment, Parks' strongest political ally was former council member Nate Holden. Holden term-limited out and was succeeded in his council seat by Parks. Holden was nothing if not an old-school strong arm meister. In his lobbying for Parks, Holden pointed fingers of blame for Parks' failure as a chief in every direction.

Despite the fact that rank and file cops gave Parks failing grades as a chief, Holden maintained that Parks was an effective leader. Parks was being sabotaged by a mostly white command structure, Holden said. When the city council pointed to the awful academy recruitment record under Parks, Holden blamed a thriving a economy for siphoning away qualified candidates into the private sector. And when the council and others pointed to the rising crime rate under Parks, Holden used the peculiar logic of a lousy job market as a reason for the rising crime rate. So in Holden's view, the economy was simultaneously good and bad. Mr. Greenspan should look into this.

When it became clear that Bratton was going to be annointed chief, Holden encouraged Parks to sue the city for not renewing his contract. Parks was smart enough to pass on this suggestion. And when Bratton was confirmed as Hahn's choice, Holden promised that Hahn would "pay" for his "betrayal."

In Holden's view, the people Hahn betrayed was the black community. It was obvious at the time that Holden believed skin color was more important than effective leadership. Parks is a good guy in every sense of a word. But he's not what you'd call an inspiring leader. He was a micro-manager. A from-the-top down, command and control, rigidly structured operator who wouldn't let subordinates exercise any personal initiative. It was his way or the highway. Rank and file morale plainly sucked under Parks. At least two coppers put in their jackets that if they were killed in the line of duty, they didn't want Parks at their funeral. Nothing like that has happened under Bratton's watch.

While Bratton may not be as popular with the blue suits as one of their own might have been (Mark Kroeker comes to mind), he's gained big points for letting subordinates become pro-active and creative. The Valley's Motel Six squad recently reported on by Jason Kandel in the Daily News is just one example. It's yielding results and Bratton is blessing the operation for use in other divisions. That came from the bottom, not the top. Ideas like that come from the bottom because that's where the eyes and ears are. You don't see known felons walking in and out of motels on Sepulveda Boulevard sitting in Parker Center. Educated eyeballs like that can only come from street cops. And it takes a flexible command structure to see the value of a good idea and give it the proper resources, even if it's Not Invented Here.

As the mayor's race spools up, you have to wonder if Parks will continue to work the rising homicide rate as an issue. You also have to wonder how much advice he's getting from Holden. Is Holden sitting in his Marina condo nursing his "betrayal" and working to leverage a little payback on Hahn? Will Parks take Holden's advice? Will Holden ever get beyond the skin game? It should be an interesting race.

A DUBIOUS ANNIVERSARY
For those who keep track of these things, yesterday, Sept. 16, is a day that the NUESTRA FAMILIA celebrates as something akin to their day of Independence. It also happens to be Mexican Independence day.

According to NF lore, Sept. 16th, 1972 is the day that RUDY "CHEYENNE" CADENA, an EME brother was assassinated by FAMILIANOS on the second tier of PALM HALL in CHINO STATE PRISON.

There's a backstory to this. The Eme and NF have been locked into a no-win war since the NF first started organizing in 1965. But CADENA was a true believer in the concept of a Hispanic supergang that would supersede the geographic loyalties of the Eme and the NF. He had a vision of a united La Raza uber-gang that would stop the brown-on-brown war and stop wasting the energies and depleting the manpower of both gangs. There's also reason to believe that CADENA ultimately wanted to use that base of power to gain some social and political capital outside of prison.

Although he was counseled not to do so by some of his brothers like JOE MORGAN, CADENA went ahead and set up a meeting with NF shot callers. The meeting took place in CHINO.

By all accounts, CADENA's intentions were honorable. He wanted a genuine truce that would eventually evolve into a full blown alliance. The NF, however were suspicious. They thought it was a set up and CADENA was actually there to hit the NF shot callers. He never got the chance to prove otherwise.

Before a single word was exchanged, three Familianos (FRANK "JOKER" MENDOZA, JUAN "MANSANAS" COLON, and BOBBY "CRACKERS" VINDIOLA) shanked and beat CADENA and threw him off the tier. When he landed, another Familiano was there with a shank to finish CADENA off. CADENA was stabbed at least 50 times.

It's supposed to be a red letter day for the NF and certainly a black one for the Eme. There's never been another attempt to unite the two factions. Needless to say, they've been at war ever since.

Last month, for instance, Folsom was purged of all Nortenos by the CDC for reasons that remain not fully explained. Folsom is now apparently a 100% Eme controlled institution. Eventually, I'll tell you what's going on in Folsom. But now is not the time. We'll wait for the dead tree media's version of this situation before we comment.

The CADENA killing was portrayed in AMERICAN ME, the Edward James Olmos movie. In the film, however, the character based on CADENA was killed by his own brothers. This was something that the EME found outrageous. And we don't blame the brothers for being upset. The truth is interesting enough. It doesn't require embellishment or outright fabrication to make it dramatic or compelling. Not to mention that it's a slap in the face to the brothers who tried to talk CADENA out of the sit down with the Familianos. As a result, Olmos was allegedly greenlighted and is said to have paid his way out of it. And we know what happened to ANNA LIZARAGA.

The irony of the CADENA assassination is that while the NF celebrates that hit on Sept. 16, the killing actually happened on December 17, 1972. Nations don't always celebrate events on the date they happened. So it's not that odd that any other organization should do the same.

IT'S NOT A HATE CRIME UNTIL THE BIG MEDIA SAYS IT IS
Regular readers of INTHEHAT probably already know about the racially motivated homicide of Kenneth Wilson. It happened in Highland Park in April of 1999. The shooters all claimed Avenues, 43 to be specific. I first mentioned the Wilson killing in a February '03 post even though it's been in the files for longer than that. I sat on the story until '03 for a couple of reasons. For one, I was putting that killing together with the killing of Christopher Bowser and Robert Hightower. All three black victims were targeted because of their race. They had absolutely no gang affiliation whatsoever. They were civilians. As it turned out, I dug up quite a few more racially motivated murders and assaults against other blacks in other parts of LA County. And there are at least three more I'm aware of that might go that way if and when the investigations bear fruit. These victims, like Wilson, were also civilians with no gang affiliation. All of the verified assaults and murders were committed by neighborhoods with strong ties to the Brothers.

I also sat on it because I was trying to bring the work of INTHEHAT to a different audience. I wanted to get the Wilson, Bowser and Hightower murders into the print media. Those killings, unlike the dragging death of James Byrd in Texas, never got a single mention in the Los Angeles big media. This situation struck me as odd. The Byrd murder was an isolated act carried out by individuals out of personal racial hatred. Once the evil people who killed Byrd were in jail, the threat to other blacks in that town was basically over.

The Wilson et al murders, on the other hand, were committed as part of a larger ongoing criminal enterprise. The fact is, the Brothers have issued orders to keep blacks out of neighborhoods they control. And we're not talking just black gangsters. We're talking black citizens who are doing nothing more nefarious than breathing while black. By any standard you care to use, this declared war on blacks by the Eme fulfills every definition of ethnic cleansing. There's no other term for it. Unlike the Byrd killing, when the people guilty of killing Wilson, Bowser and Hightower are put away, there will be others, many others to carry on the work. Other blacks will be harassed, intimidated, assaulted and probably killed.

What amazed me, was the total lack of interest in this story by the big media. The LA Times, LA Weekly, Citybeat, Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Sacramento News and Review, The Atlantic, New York Times, you name it, they all turned down my proposal to do a story bout these killings. Frankly, I didn't get it. But then there are a lot of things I don't get about the media. So the story stayed in the files until someone, somewhere might show some interest in it. That was two years ago. I posted the Wilson incident and pursued other stories for INTHEHAT.

Occasionally, new information would emerge on the Wilson case. Last year I learned, for instance, that the US Attorney in LA was putting together a Federal hate crime case against Wilson's killers. That was interesting to me because of the complicated and unbelievable back story that culminated in the Federal prosecution. I won't go into that because it took me months of effort and interviews to put the whole sequence of events in place. And I'm not giving it away for free anymore. Frankly, I'm tired of having stories poached. I won't name the dude, but a local TV guy has poached at least two stories that I broke on INTHEHAT. So, no more soup for you.

Unfortunately, that means you readers aren't getting all the "deep" stuff. I'm willing to share information with other writers and journalists, but I'll draw the line at getting robbed by lazy assholes who are paid to dig up this stuff but prefer to boost it without payment or even attribution. I got more respect for a homeboy who pulls a cuete and tells you to give it up than this dude. At least it's a stand-up robbery and you know you're getting boosted. But on with the Wilson case.

Five years after the fact, the LA Times finally got around to mentioning the Wilson homicide. It was in the August 20, 2004 issue. I guess the Times was forced to acknowledge Wilson's killing because that was the day after the US Attorney's office unsealed the indictment against the shooters and accomplices. And as the paper of record in LA, they can't ignore a Federal indictment involving racial hate crimes that happened just a few miles from Spring Street. The most interesting thing about the Times piece was all the stuff that Times readers were not told. Sometime in the future, I'll share it with all of you. It's a tale that's stranger than fiction. A week later, the Times ran another brief item regarding the Wilson case. This one announcing a $20,000 reward by the FBI for information about one of Wilson's alleged shooters, Merced "Shadow" Cambero. He's been on the loose since the chilly morning of Wilson's execution on Avenue 52. We'll wait and see how the LA media will cover the Federal trial, if at all, and how much of it gets told correctly. It will be amusing.

Few need to be told this, but the media in this country needs a major cojones transplant. The next time you pick up your favorite paper or tune in to TV or radio news, be aware that the media have gatekeepers. There's a person at a desk that will decide what you see and what you hear. And if this person doesn't think you need to know, in the days before the internet, you'd never know. In terms of this little part of the world that I know a little something about, I can tell you straight up that you are being under-served and under-informed. And as far as the average LA citizen is concerned, the Wilson, Bowser and Hightower killings never happened until the big media says they happened. Practice safe news reading. Use www.

AMERICAN INDIAN NEIGHBORHOODS
This has to be the strangest iteration of the gang phenomenon I've ever come across. According to a cop up in Bellingham, Washington, the Lummi Nation, an Native American tribe officially has a gang problem. The strange thing is that this problem was apparently a bootstrap operation where the reservation residents and the local white boys decided to form up gangs. Prior to that, there had never been any kind of friction between the Indians and the white kids. They've been getting along just fine for generations.

The whole gang scene emerged the same way friends choose up sides for a game of touch football. The young people were so hell bent on emulating the attitude, dress and music of LA gangsters that they went out and got themselves the clothes, assumed the position and started representing. The white kids decided to represent Bloods while the Native kids picked the Crips. These kids are nowhere near being the hard core shooters and slangers of LA fame but the local cops expect that one of these days, the friendly rivalry might blow up into some serious trouble. The drugs aren't quite there yet since the locals seem to prefer huffing to skonce or chronic.

For the sociologists out there who research this stuff, this sounds like fertile ground to study because none of the dynamics that exist in big cities seem to be present up there. Any jokes I can think of about kids in the past playing cowboys and indians for fun would be out of place here. But it sure sounds the Lummi (Crips) and White boy Bloods are doing just that. Except in this case, let's hope the "bang bang you're dead" doesn't get realistic.

THE GREENLIGHT GANG
The cold, and sometimes hot war between MARAVILLA and the EME has been raging since the early 90s. If you remember your EME history, EME brothers like CHUCO CASTRO and SANA OJEDA, were sent forth to organize all SOCAL neighborhoods under the SURENO flag. Part of the deal was that all SURENOS had to kick up taxes to the brothers under penalty of death. Most neighborhoods fell into line and kicked up. Some did it happily. Other grudgingly. But almost all of them got with the program. But there were holdouts who basically told the EME to pound sand. The MS was one of those that declared themselves tax-free zones and immediately felt the heat. MARAVILLA was another no-tax gang as was LOWELL. As result the EME declared these neighborhoods as ALWAYS VERDE, giving every SURENO the greenlight to take care of any member of these neighborhoods.

With open war declared, MARAVILLA and LOWELL didn't didn't fare well in prison or on the street. Some of the hard core tax resisters decided on some get even. Any MV or LOWELL member who raised his hand to take care of a SURENO or a BROTHER became known as a MARAFIOSO, a moniker of distinction. According to people connected with the scene, there are apparently 20 or so MARAFIOSI currently formed up in what they call a GREENLIGHT GANG. This get-even gang within a gang is essentially a secret society whose members are known only to each other. Over time, close to 20 EAST SIDE neighborhoods have contributed members to the GREENLIGHT GANG. Among them are EASTSIDE 18th STREET and EASTSIDE CLOVER. The GREENLIGHT GANG operates undercover and their business is kept secret even from the rank and file members of their own neighborhoods. As an extra measure of security, the active shooters in the GREENLIGHT GANG have pictures take of themselves together. This is to discourage defection from the GREENIES. If they try to defect and become SURENOS, there's always proof that they were once resisters. Which means they'll be subject to sanctions from the EME as well as the GREENIES.

If the existence of a GREENLIGHT GANG who puts SURENOS and BROTHERS square in its sights is true, (and there's no evidence at this point that the GREENIES don't exist) it sounds to us like a DAVID and GOLIATH struggle. SURENOS and Brothers have the numbers on their side. They control the prisons and most of the SOCAL neighborhoods. That's a lot of eyes and ears and firepower. On the other hand, a gang of hard-core shooters who can maintain a high level of secrecy and operate undercover, can become a problem for the BROTHERS. The GREENIES might even become the vanguard of a movement that may over time recruit enough members to openly defy the EME.

HO CHI MINH once said that a tiger can defeat an elephant. All he has to do is bite the elephant hard once a day and run. Time will tell if UNCLE HO's philosophy works in the world of neighborhoods and brothers.

YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD CORPORATE LOGO
The mainstream press just "discovered" that the COLONIA CHIQUES in Oxnard has been using Dallas Cowboys shirts as identifiers. Part of the Oxnard gang injunction passed last month stipulated that CC members are prohibited from wearing the Dallas shirts and hats. The homies surgically delete the W from the logo, which would then read CO BOYS. The story was in the Daily News and LA Times and ABC TV news had an item on it this afternoon.

Since this is our beat, we couldn't let the story go without comment. As far back as Sleepy Lagoon days, neighborhoods have used cultural icons as identifiers. Back then, there was a neighborhood that called itself the P-38s and used the twin-fuselage fighter as its logo. In more recent times, Avenues has used the LA Dodgers cap with the simple L over A design to represent LOS AVENIDAS. And the West Boulevard Crips have used the WARNER BROTHERS WB shield logo for years. Same goes for the Fresno Bulldogs with the Fresno football team shirts. Just thought you'd like to know.

EME POLITICS ON THE CENTRAL COAST?
We got an interesting bit of information regarding Eme expansion into the Central Coast. According to what we heard, SOCAL shot callers have been given their marching orders to start organizing in places like Guadalupe, Santa Maria, Lompoc. Orcutt, Nipomo and Oceano. These areas have traditionally been tax-free zones but they may not stay that way for long. The goal, of course, is to collect street taxes and whatever else can make homies some bucks. One of the shot callers is from the Black Angels and another from Hawaiian Gardens. They now have a crew of about seven who are starting politics in these virgin areas.

From the law enforcement side, we know that Nipomo had two drive-bys in eight days, which is a lot for that town. So this may be an indication that some muscle is already being flexed. One of the drive-bys happened on South Oakglen Avenue in Nipomo. A 53-year old male was driving south on Oakglen at around 2:00 AM on July 8 when somebody opened up on him. He survived a couple of bullet wounds. Police are now looking for VICTOR "SPEEDY" GONZALEZ. During the investigation, they found a bunch of spent shell casings in SPEEDY's front yard and they're looking for him as a witness to the event.

Last week, SAN LUIS OBISPO sheriffs arrested 20 meth dealers, most of whom were Caucasians, and seized a whole lot of crystal. Those bustees are being prosecuted by the US Attorney in Los Angeles. Ouch! That's a Federal beef and a lot of time could be had by all. But among those arrested for the crank was one homie with solid connections to the brothers. So we'll see how this shakes out.

Right now, LE in SLO, says they've seen no evidence of Eme involvement. Yet! But they've also said they wouldn't be surprised if a validated homie shows up in their investigation. One set that seems to be figuring prominently in the action is NIPOMO 13. Stay tuned for more.

THE OFFICER NEXT DOOR MIGHT BE SCAMMING.
It's not my intention to make this "beat on a cop" week, but you have to wonder what gives with correction cops. Last week we covered the four CDC officers that were fired for being SNOOP DOGG'S hired guns. Now a CYA officer will probably go to jail for scamming the US Department of Housing and Urban Development's "OFFICER NEXT DOOR" program.

Under this program, HUD would provide a 50% discount on a house to any law enforcement officer who moved into a low-income and/or high-crime neighborhood. The catch was the officer had to live in the house for at least three years before he could sell it or rent it. The goal was to put LE residents in these hoods and hopefully provide some sort of stability or security or set some kind of role model. Frankly, at the time this program was announced, it sounded like another government pie-in-the-sky social engineering experiment. The kind that usually crash and burn because nobody considers the unintended consequences.

On July 8th, CYA officer James Derrick Stewart, a Corona resident, took a guilty plea to submitting false documents to HUD about the house he bought at $50,000 off the asking price. Nice discount. It seems he never lived in the house. He rented it out.

Stewart agreed to pay pack the money but he could still face 5 years in prison. This is a federal beef and if he does the time it'll be in Lompoc.

This post is not to beat up on cops but to illustrate the point that government programs, no matter how well-intended, need to be made crook-proof. I've read that a full third of medical welfare money in California is lost to fraud. That's billions of dollars in the pockets of crooked doctors and scam artists.

The US Attorney caught this one cop in this one program. But there are thousands of programs with tens of thousands of recipients. Did you ever wonder why no matter how much they raise in taxes it never seems enough? Now you know.

THE TYRANNY OF WORDS.
Police Chief Bill Bratton is in a world of hurt these days for using three words he probably wishes had never been invented. The words were "tribal," "thugs," and "terrorists." He's also on the record for calling Najee Ali a "nitwit." Ali is an activist who is under investigation for a hit-and-run charge and for identity theft. Something which in fact may qualify him as a nitwit. Early on in his tenure, a heckler yelled at Bratton to control his cops. Bratton responded with, "Control your children."

After every one of these incidents, Bratton has apologized. But the apologies only seem to stoke the fires. If I were Bratton, I'd stop apologizing.

Yesterday, July 11, Bratton, David Cunningham and Andre Birotte (both on the Police Commission) attended a meeting in Leimert Park. Also present were Danny Bakewell, Councilman Bernard Parks and Tony Muhammad from the Nation of Islam. During the meeting, they showed the video of car-thief Stanley Miller being tackled and hit with a flashlight.

It was basically Bratton's turn in the barrel where the assembled citizens and activists vented their anger at the LAPD. Among the many unpleasant things hurled at Bratton was Muhammad's claim that Bratton had the mentality of a white supremicist and that the LAPD was rooted in racism. Muhammad also said the LAPD has, "no moral authority."

First of all, anyone from the Nation of Islam should be dis-invited to any future meetings of any kind. NOI is at heart a racist and separatist organization. The fundamental belief of NOI is that at one time, there was only the black race. A black scientist created a white man in his laboratory, the experiment went sideways, the white creature escaped and went on to procreate the white race that eventually subjugated its creators. In the U.S., you're free to believe any fantasy you want. And the rest of us are also free to believe you're full of shit. NOI also despises interracial marriage. And they reserve a special animosity for Jews. Louis Farrakhan has called Judaism a "gutter religion" and is full of interesting theories about Jewish conspiracies for world domination. You know. The stuff that played so well to packed stadiums in Germany in the 1930s. NOI also has proven ties to fun guys like Lybian psycho Muammar Qaddafi. In 1987 NOI leader Louis Farrakhan introduced Jeff Fort, leader of Chicago's Blackstone Rangers gang, to Qaddafi. As a token of esteem, Qaddafi gave Fort a surface to air missile which Fort smuggled back to Chicago. No doubt it was to help bring "peace" to the streets.

If I were Bratton, I would never appear on the same stage with the Nation of Islam. Their agenda is to separate the races. Their beliefs are the mirror image of the Aryan Nations and other white supremists. They both want a final "purifying" race war and the ultimate devolution of the U.S. into what? Tribal states segrated by race.

And if I were Bratton, I would not apologize for using those three words. I don't believe Bratton has a racist cell in his body. And let's face it, "tribal" "thugs" and "terrorists" is fairly apt. In his book ALWAYS RUNNING, Luis Rodriguez' first gang was called "The Animal Tribe." They not only considered themselves tribal but also less than human. And you guys reading this know as well as anybody the names homies choose for their sets -- Locos, Diablos, Killers, Assassins, Winos, Mob and even Crazy Ass.

As for Thugs, a lot of you guys reading this hang that name on yourselves with a certain machismo pride. Some guys I know would be insulted if you didn't think were thugs. Anybody remember THUG LIFE? And KNIGHTOWL has a romantic ballad with the chorus that goes, "Daddy I'm in love with a thug, don't be mad 'cause I'm in love with a gangster." Cool song by the way. But it's self-descriptive. Nobody hung that on him.

As to terrorists, there's no doubt that doing crimes in the neighborhood terrorizes the innocent and the law-abiding. Why do cops have a hard time finding wits after a homicide or a shooting? Because the wits are afraid. And another word for fear is terror. So yeah. It fits.

The word thing cuts both ways, however. There's plenty of name calling to go around on both sides of the law. There are special police units in this city and all over the state that give themselves macho names -- GRIM REAPERS comes to mind -- that don't look so good. My sense is that they'd be a lot better off if they stuck to simple stuff like SPECIAL ENFORCEMENT UNIT and OPERATION SAFE STREETS. I mean, who could find fault with SAFE STREETS?

I can appreciate the fact that high-risk door-buster units need to create unit esprit and a cool moniker helps build the necessary cohesion. There's no argument that law enforcement is a paramilitary enterprise and trigger pullers and dynamic entry teams need more than a paycheck to get their race face on and do a job that can get them killed. Let's be honest. Most civilians would not put their skins on the line every day for the kind of money cops make. You can make a lot more money in office work and never risk anything more serious than a paper cut. But at the same time, if a cop doesn't want to be called a storm trooper, it might be a good idea to drop the unit names that would imply that kind of mentality.

LIES, DAMNED LIES AND BERNARD PARKS.
Former police chief and current city councilman BERNARD PARKS said in a radio interview that he doesn't believe the LAPD's latest crime stats. According to all official sources, violent crime is down citywide and homicides have leveled off or dropped dramatically in some parts of the city. Parks doesn't buy it. His bizarre rationale is that when a homicide occurs, it affects the whole community. So, according to him, even if homicides are down, a single homicide still impacts the neighborhood. No argument there. But hey BERNIE! Violent crime is still down! And not just in the city, but statewide. Property crimes are rising modestly, but that's probably as much a reflection of the huge spike in the California population.

This isn't the first time PARKS has had doubts about LAPD crime stats. If you remember back to the days when Parks was fighting to keep his job, the crime stats were UP. While Parks couldn't publicly argue against the stats, he had his pal NATE HOLDEN (whose council seat Parks now occupies) go in front of the cameras and defend Parks' record. I remember this clearly because it was one of the most logic defying moments in recent city history.

There were three strikes against Parks at the time. One was that LAPD recruiting had dropped lower than a FALUJAH spider hole. At the time, half the LAPD academy classes had been cancelled. Two, his approval rating among rank and file cops was in the single digits. And three, the crime rate was definitely heading north.

While Parks couldn't come out and dispute the numbers, NATE HOLDEN, the DOODLES WEAVER of the Council who was on his last term, came out in Parks' defense. Holden claimed that Parks was an effective leader. And the drop in recruitment wasn't Parks' fault. It was the result of a superheated economy that was sucking away qualified candidates into the private sector. And furthermore, the crime stats were being fabricated by white cops to make Parks look bad. And even more furthermore, Holden said if the crime rate was going up, it was because of a bad economy and there were no jobs.

The contradictions in Holden's arguments were as evident as an AMBER ALERT. In his Orwellian doublespeak world, the economy was simultaneously good and bad. And Parks was such an effective leader that he couldn't even keep his own staff from printing bogus crime stats.

Parks now has Holden's old council seat. And it looks like he also inherited Holden's Bizarro logic. Clearly Parks doesn't want Chief Bratton to succeed. A steady rise in crime and a few more flashlight incidents would probably work to Park's advantage. Not that he'd want to see more bodies in the street, but frankly a crime spike would add to his "I told you so" political capital.

Look for the Parks rhetoric to get even more loonie as his mayoral campaign starts heating up. We can't wait for Holden to come out of his life-support chamber and go on the stump for Parks. I need the material.

IF SNOOP DOGG CALLS, HANG UP.
On July 6, four parole officers working for the CDC were fired for moonlighting as armed guard for the THA DOGGFATHER. These four goofballs came to the CDC's attention when they were stopped by local LA cops after the cops observed SNOOP's caravan with heavily armed men aboard. The cops found lots and lots of guns and hundreds of rounds of ammo in the vehicles. The armed dudes turned out to be these four parole officers.

This isn't the first time SNOOP used coppers to watch his back. Last year, eight Inglewood Unified School District coppers were also fired for working security for Snoop.

You can't blame Snoop for this. All he did was wave the money. They're the ones who ran after it like MICHAEL MOORE on a pork chop. Ethics, men. Ethics. Society gave these guys a badge, a gun and the powers of arrest. They took an oath. And although it's probably not spelled out anywhere, part of the oath is that you don't go for the easy money when a guy who publicly admits that he flames up an ounce of chronic A DAY calls up and asks you to cover his ass. When you pull this crap, you forfeit all moral authority. And you make it that much harder for the good cops who don't chase the dirty bills.

There's no excuse for this. Thanks to the unlamented GRAY DAVIS, the CDC has one of the sweetest public employee deals in the state. Tons of overtime, full medical and a retirement plan that'll probably bust the state treasury one of these days. And even if they weren't well paid and looked after, getting down in the dirt with guys who they'd probably arrest if they didn't have a few million is still intolerable.

GANGSTERS IN LEAR JETS.
If you accept the definition of a gang as two or more indivduals who conspire to commit crimes for the benefit of a group, then KEN LAY, ANDY FASTOW and the rest of their crimies at ENRON qualify as gangsters. Yeah, I know, a posting about ENRON looks like it may be far afield from the main topic of INTHEHAT, but in reality, it's not. LAY and his scumbag homies probably robbed more money in a week than every gang in LA combined does in a year. While it made me feel good to see LAY cuffed up and doing the perp walk for the cameras, it would have made me feel even better if a couple of bluesuits cut loose on him with MAGLITE flashlights.

And did you notice all that polish and sophistication blow away the second LAY faced the cameras? He started squealing like a 12-year-old-girl at a Britney concert. FASTOW did it and LAY didn't know what was going on and he was just this innocent CEO who was betrayed by his homie. Sounds like any other neighborhood rata trying to lay off blame on somebody else. You can put them in suits and give them a gold pen instead of a GLOCK, but a criminal is still a criminal. MR. LAY, meet DIABLO your new cellmate. You'll be his bitch for the next fifteen years. And don't bother calling for the stafa because they're going to a union meeting.

LIBERAL GUN SAFETY.
I don't generally comment about national politics unles it has some connection to street crime. In a roundabout way, John Kerry holding a shotgun can be folded into the broader national discussion of guns, crime and politics. Click over to the DRUDGE REPORT or the AP news website and you'll see several images of John Kerry at a trap range in Minnesota. In one image, he's addressing the camera. The caption says he's commenting after missing a clay bird. (Surprised?) You'll notice, his finger is on the trigger. This is absolutely verboten. It violates rule number 3 of the four basic rules of gun safety. He is, after all, a combat vet and surely sometime during basic training some hard-assed gunny told him to, "KEEP YOUR GODDAMNED FINGER OFF THE TRIGGER UNTIL YOU'RE READY TO SHOOT, YOU PUSS-BALLED MAGGOT!" But I suppose Kerry doesn't have much call to handle guns. He's got a security detail. The rest of us proles have to muddle through life without Secret Service protection.

A LITTLE BETTER
Okay. I got rid of the time share condo/guard tower image and I think I like this better. It will stay this way at least through the 4th of July weekend. I'm running out of time. There are beers to drink and grilled meat to eat.

JUST SCREWING AROUND
YIKES!
I'm trying to find some templates that will let me add a "COMMENTS" section to INTHEHAT. Well. I've now got a comment section but I don't like this look at all.

It will have to look like this for a while until I can figure out how to change it. That image to the left looks like either a prison guard tower or some dorky time share condo in Boca. Who picks this crap? Oh. It was me.

In the meantime. Feel free to vent and comment.

HOMICIDE UP IN THE VALLEY
Jason Kandel of the DAILY NEWS is fast becoming INTHEHAT's favorite crime reporter. Last week he broke the story on the capture of the infamous drug poobah, "HENRY." Genaro Rodriguez, (Henry) was this mysterious operator who apparently ran a huge smuggling and distribution operation in SOCAL. In the past Rodriguez claimed SAN FER, probably the oldest gang in the Valley. The article states that HENRY's wife EYDI GUERRERO, was murdered execution style during a home invasion robbery and HENRY was shot in the face and left for dead. He survived. The killing is attributed to EME trigger pullers who made off with $400,000 in cash that HENRY had at the house. HENRY at first fingered the shooters, but then changed his mind and is now refusing to cooperate in the investigation of his wife's murder. My sense is, this is just the tip of an iceberg whose large, unseen base is probably rooted in the SHU in PELICAN BAY.

In today's DN, Kandel reports that homicides are up 48% in the Valley, outpacing a very small increase in the rest of the city. The article quotes Valley City Councilman Dennis Zine, a retired LAPD Sergeant: "The problem is, we've got these worthless gang thugs that terrorize neighborhoods. We've got a very small gang unit. There's too many thugs and not enough gang enforcement. They're outnumbered." Hey Dennis, tell us what you really think.

You have to wonder if the murder spike in the Valley is in any way connected to HENRY's roots in SAN FER and the infusion of cash and drugs that his operation was funneling into the Valley. Just an idle hypothesis with no evidence at this point.

ANOTHER INJUNCTION
Today's LA TIMES (7/3/04) reports that City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo just imposed another gang injunction. This time against 18th STREET and the ROLLIN' 60s. The purpose of this one is to prevent 18th STREET from recruiting new members. Godd luck on that one, Rocky. It's a dopey reason because recruitment doesn't happen on the street. The Times quotes their go-to guy, Father Greg Boyle. Boyle says this particular injunction is impossible to enforce and, "It's also not how people join gangs." They don't, "set up a recruitment table at high schools and an announcement goes out: '18th STREET is recruiting today.' " Boyle is absolutely right, of course. If the real purpose of the injunction is to stop recruitment, it's a non-starter. Recruitment happens in back yards and living rooms and it starts years before the kids become visible on the street as gangsters.

Boyle is on record as actually being in favor of injunctions. In the past he said that injunctions can work. In an LA WEEKLY piece he was quoted as saying that "The day after the injunction went into effect, my office was full of kids asking for a job." He described it as the "heat and light" approach. You apply the law enforcement heat and the kids see the light.

While the anti-recruitment aspect of this injunction may be dubious, the section that deals with preventing ROLLIN' 60s homies from driving together into enemy territory may have some value. I'll use the language of the activists on this one. "If it helps save the life of one child, then it's worth it." If it can stop one carload of knuckleheads from shooting up a street corner, let's put it out there and see what happens.

Of course, all injunctions can lead to police abuse. There probably isn't a single law in the penal code that can't be abused. The key to making injunctions work is to use them like a scalpel, not a hand grenade. And the way to wield that scalpel is with what the military calls "actionable intelligence." Street coppers have to know the names, affiliations, crimies, road dogs, drug connections, family connections and personal beefs of the shot callers and crew chiefs of the sets in their jurisdiction. It's a holistic approach that has to analyze every gang and set as a functional sub-culture. That sub-culture is closed and seemingly chaotic, of course and will resist analysis. But it can be teased apart and the pieces laid out for examination.

Despite the nasty rap CRASH got thanks to Rafael Perez and his crimies, the CRASH model can work. Unfortunately, thanks to the consent decree, SEU operators can't stay on that assignment longer than three years. Which means that by the time they get really good at the job, they're shipped out to other assignments. Which means there's no "corporate memory" and it's re-inventing the wheel every time a new copper joins the unit.

It's been my experience that solving gang murders, and in some cases preventing them, is a lot easier when the street cops and detectives know the sets, the players and the set politics as well as they know their own families. The really effective cops do.

One last thing. The LA TIMES piece states that 18th STREET has spread to Mexico and Central America. Just FYI, sets claiming 18th STREET are also in places like SALT LAKE CITY, BOSTON, VANCOUVER and TORONTO. Talk about imperialist hegemonic expansion.

A BLACK DAY FOR GREG BOYLE.
In what has to be a devastating blow to Fr. Greg Boyle's anti-gang work in East LA, one of Homeboy Industries' employees was shot and killed on June 24th while painting over graffiti in the 400 block of Breed Street. As far as I know, this was the first time one of HI's employees has been killed for doing his job. According to the LAPD, the victim, Miguel Gomez was killed at approximately 5:20 AM by several gunshots while Gomez was painting out BREED set graffiti. He was in the company of two other HI employees. Although there was only one shooter, he had two accomplices with him. If we know anything about the way trigger pullers operate, the shooter is probably far, far away right now. Maybe in Mexico. Maybe in the Inland Empire or the High Desert. The other thing we can infer is that more than a few people in that neighborhood already know who the shooter is. It’s all over the set. And the name of the shooter is probably already known to Hollenbeck SEU and homicide detectives. Of course, they're not saying. We'll know when they make the arrest or convince the accomplices to rat out the shooter and post a BOLO.

The way the law is written, you can be charged with murder even if you didn’t pull the trigger. All you had to do was be there. So if I were one of the crimies, I'd be hiding from the cops and the shooter. When you’ve got a murder case with special circumstances hanging over your head, the first one to cut a deal wins. Of course, we’re assuming here that the shooter was local. This may also have been greenlight, in which case, it could have been somebody from another neighborhood putting in work and earning a stripe. We’ll know in time.

Whatever the case, there ain’t a whole lot of pride in shooting a man armed with a paintbrush.

TOOKIE WILLIAMS vs THE EME "TRUCE"
I'm just back from five days in the Midwest and once again I've got a lot of mail and reading to catch up on.

A reader wanted some information on the difference, if there was any, between the Eme-sponsored "truce" and the one that Stanley "Tookie" Williams tried to launch from jail. From what I can tell, were was a big difference. The Eme "truce" was a combination of new rules of engagement and a policy of structural organization. It was the move to vertically integrate the street gangs into the Eme.

Tookie's truce had no such stipulations. Whether he called for a truce out of genuine concern or just a cynical way to get out of his death sentence, the fact is, there were no strings attached. The Eme edict was, "Follow the new rules or we'll kill you." It's the way the Soviet Union maintained control in places like the Balkans. The Soviet edict was, "Stop killing each other, or we'll be happy to do it for you." Tookie's truce had no stick. It was all carrot. It was a straight up appeal to stop the killing.

Should he be believed? The simple truth is, Tookie did not have the power projection of the Eme. The Black Guerilla Family, the Black prison gang, doesn't have the organization, intelligence gathering and information channels of the Eme. They can't call shots from prison because they just don't have the structure. And even if the BGF had an Eme style org chart, I've never seen any proof that Williams is or was affiliated with BGF. So Tookie had no stick to beat the Bloods and Crips into an enforced truce. So in that sense, his appeal to stop the killing has to seen as a genuine appeal, his motives nothwithstanding.

There are other instances, however, most notably with the Gangster Disciples in Chicago, where black truces were nothing more than an Eme style power grab. More on that later.

TOM HAYDEN’S STREET WARS
While I applaud Tom Hayden’s effort to bring public attention to the gang culture in his new book, STREET WARS, I’ve got some problems with a lot of what he cites as "fact" and "history" and even bigger problems with some of his baffling conclusions.

Hayden has been at the forefront of a lot of radical movements, most notably his opposition to the war in Viet Nam. In his zeal to end the war, he traveled to North Viet Nam as the bullets were flying and appeared in North Vietnamese radio making statements about America that some have characterized as treasonous. His wife, Jane Fonda, allowed herself to be photographed laughing and smiling as she sat in a VC anti-aircraft gun pointed skywards. That famous picture which millions of American citizens and soldiers found revolting forever marked her in the public consciousness as HANOI JANE.

Using the millions that Fonda made in her exercise tapes, Hayden launched a political career that eventually landed him in the California State Senate.

I don’t know as much as I should about Hayden or Fonda, but I do know a whole lot about LA street gangs. So when I first heard of his gang book project a year ago, I was keenly interested to read his take. Hayden has been teaching a course about the gang culture at Occidental College while researching the book and, given the luxury of ample research time and the human resources his vast wealth can afford, I was looking forward to a lot of fresh information and insights. As my readers know, I run inthehat as a part timer. And I can only fantasize about having the sort of money and time that Hayden can afford to spend on this subject.

So when the book showed up in the mail from Amazon, I was primed for a great read and new info. Man, was I disappointed.

Up front, Hayden tells us that "This book is about what I call inner-city peacemakers." Fair enough. But there’s precious little in it about peacemakers. When he comes to the actual brokering of a peace treaty (between Santa Monica and Culver City), he drops the ball. He gets the two factions in his office, brings in Blinky Rodriguez to act as mediator, and then walks out and closes the door to let them work it out alone. The actual mechanics of brokering a truce is left completely unexamined. The LA Times review of Street Wars cites the same flaw. The reviewer was as puzzled as I am. That should have been the heart of the book. How do you get groups who have been shooting each other for decades to drop the "get even?" Hayden doesn't outline or even suggest a plan except to provide "public sector jobs" for dropout gang members. What happened in that meeting? How do you break the cycle? If it works, put in the book so others can replicate it. Sorry kids, no game plan available from Hayden.

There are huge problems with this book beyond that. He gets stuff factually wrong. For instance, he states that "under gang injunctions, there is no right to a lawyer for the indigent." This is false. The indigent always have rights to a lawyer. In fact, at a time when the LA County DA’s office has a hiring freeze and the County closed 27 courts and laid off 250 staffers, the Public Defender’s office has had one staff loss (due to attrition and not a lay off) and the budget has remained the same. In addition, elsewhere in the book he states that indigent defendants don’t have government-paid investigators until the Federal appellate process. This is also false. In cases of sufficient gravity like murder or ADW, indigents can get free investigators right at the County level during the original court case. They don’t have to wait for the federal appeals process to qualify for an investigator.

And there are countless large and small errors, either of omission or worse. The one that really got me scratching my head was his take on the EME’s policy initiative of vertical integration that started in the early 90s.

One of Hayden’s peacemakers, Manny Lares from MS (Mara Salvatrucha) attended the famous EME come-to-Jesus meetings in September 1993 in Elysian Park organized by Ernesto "Chuco" Castro. First of all, Hayden only acknowledges that single meeting in September. The fact is, Chuco organized numerous meetings. Hayden kind of fudges the sequence of events and the purpose of the meetings.

According to Hayden, the Eme called the meetings of street gang representatives to lay down the law about ending drive-by shootings. Which is correct. But that was only one of the items on that Eme policy initiative. There were others. First off, the law was "no more drive-bys." But that didn’t mean no more killings. It was not a truce of any kind. It was the new rules of engagement. The full story was that killings, whether personal or business related, were now to be done at close range and face to face. "Walk-ups," in the language of gangs. In Hayden’s language, Chuco was sent by the EME to "manage the widening war." The key word here is "manage," not "stop."

The rest of the items on the Eme agenda Hayden covers off by quoting Lares who simply says that Chuco Castro was talking, "a lot of high-powered bullshit." Well the "bullshit" was this. Chuco told the assembled gangsters that from that day on, all gangs in Southern California had to become Surenos, which meant swearing allegiance to the Eme. Furthermore, all gangs had to pay tribute (street taxes) to Eme shot callers in their neighborhoods. The Eme wanted complete vertical integration, from the street all the way up to the SHU in Pelican Bay. It was a move to consolidate power. Hayden mentions none of this. And in one instance, distorts the purpose of the Eme meetings beyond recognition.

Hayden says that the Eme’s demand that the MS cough up $5000 to them in order to take the greenlight off MS was a "moment of inclusion." When somebody asks you to pay up or be killed, it’s not an opportunity for "inclusion," whatever that is. It’s pure extortion. This is the way Hayden describes extortion. "Lifting the greenlight meant that the first tentative ‘moment of inclusion’ (his quotes) was allowed by Mexican gangs toward their rivals among Salvadoran immigrants in places like Pico-Union." How much more wrong could Hayden get it? He makes it sound like an outreach program. It was pure and simple extortion. Pay up or get wasted.

A lot of neighborhoods resisted, including the MS. Maravilla was a long-time hold out as was Lowell, Opal and TRGs. They remained "always verde," always green and subject to "enforcement" by any Sureno that wanted to put in work and earn a stripe. Later some Maravilla sets were taken off the hit list because they became Surenos and ditufully paid their tribute.

That resistance to taxation and allegiance led to more violence, not less, because there was now an official Eme policy and failure to obey meant open season.

Hayden’s characterization of the meeting is, "The message of the day was to stop the violence, which Manny’s neighborhood already had begun to do." Wrong again, the message of the day was 1) walk ups, 2) allegiance to Eme, 3) taxation. In fact, if Hayden had done his homework, he would know that in an FBI surveillance tape, Dan "Black Dan" Barella said succinctly. "If you want to down them, down them. All I’m saying is don’t drive by." Barella and a lot of other Carnals met almost weekly with Ernie Castro in a motel in Rosemead. Castro's edicts to the street gangs came right out of these policy meetings with the Big Homies.

Hayden just barely touches on this change in the rules of engagement. "If there was business to take care of, it would follow the older tradition of one-on-one battles." Which is correct but also contradicts his earlier statement that the "message of the day was to stop the violence." Has anybody proof read this book?

In November of 1993, Chuco Castro was arrested for a parole violation that would have landed him in Federal prison for life. This is Hayden’s description of the event. "In November 1993, shortly after the Elysian Park gathering, police raided Chuco’s Alhambra home, shovels in hand, and dug up guns buried beneath the place. Perhaps the guns were his, perhaps not, but Chuco was in big trouble as an ex-con, drug addict, and active member of La Eme since 1983."

There’s some factual errors here and a thorough lack of research into the crucial event that precipitated the biggest Federal RICO case in LA history against the Eme. First of all, the cops didn’t need shovels to find the guns. The guns, along with dope, wilas, greenlight lists and thousands of dollars in cash were stashed in a cement-lined bunker under a trap door in Castro’s bedroom closet. The raid cops never had shovels. And Hayden never mentions the dope, documents and cash. And indeed the guns were Chuco’s. One of the weapons, a full-auto MAC 10, was confiscated by CHUCO at one of the Elysian Park meetings from an ARMENIAN POWER shot caller in attendance. CHUCO’s palace guard disarmed everybody before they went into the park. He didn't want any objections to taxation and allegiance by means of bullets directed at the speaker. CHUCO actually gangster-slapped the AP homie after the MAC 10 was confiscated. The cops know all this because they were there recording everything that happened. Video footage of the Elysian Park meeting showed up on local LA TV soon after. And, contrary to Hayden’s claim that information about Chuco is "shrouded in mystery," the surveillance tapes were entered into evidence at the RICO trial and are available to any citizen from the Federal Court in downtown LA for the sum of $20. It’s public information.

Worse yet, Hayden is implying that the cops planted the guns in Chuco’s house. I interviewed the cops on that raid. I’ve seen the property report of the items confiscated. I’ve seen the pictures. Again, all part of the discovery evidence used in the trial and also public information. Throwing mud at cops when it’s undeserved is just sleazy. And just to round out the picture, most of the cops on that raid were Hispanic, and a lot of them grew up in the same neighborhoods as the homies they arrest. One of those cops that Hayden implicitly accuses of planting evidence, has been a foster father to 17 at-risk kids plucked from abusive gang families. He took them into his home and with the help of his wife and natural children, steered them away from the gang life that was ready to destroy them. You know, the typical evil cop who only wants to slam kids in prison.

Hayden’s book is so chock full of this kind of misinformation, incomplete information, factual mistakes and sleazy implications that it would take a whole book to set him straight. I’ll probably post more about this book, but in general, STREET WARS does a real disservice to the reader, the cops, the genuine peacekeepers and ultimately, to the very people Hayden professes to care about, the kids catching bullets.

The gang culture is operating at full throttle. Kids -- black, brown, white, asian, innocent and not so -- are dying every day, not just in LA but all over the country. It has to stop. Everybody agrees on that. Especially the young people on the barrel end of the gun.

Gangsters aren’t born evil. They’re manufactured. The big question is by whom, why and how do we stop it. To fix the problem, let’s at least start with not distorting history. Laying out conspiracy theories, falsehoods and bogus accusations to advance a political agenda, as Hayden clearly does, should qualify as its own crime.

OXNARD OKAYS THE INJUNCTION
Just before I left for the wilds of Utah, the DA in Oxnard was fighting to have a gang injunction imposed against the COLONIA CHIQUES. There was some doubt it would happen. Going through my backlog of clippings and downloads, apparently the injunction was imposed and coppers started handing out copies to individual gang members. As of June 9, seven individuals have been given copies of the injunction that bars them from gathering in public within a specified "safety zone." To be enforced, a copy of the injunction has to be served to individuals and they have to sign for it so there's proof they've been informed. As a result, a lot of CCs are making themselves scarce. If you can't find them, you can't serve them.

Cops and the DA claim that by individuals disappearing, the injunction is already having a positive effect by getting active members off the streets, even if it isn't served to everyone on the list. Injunction violators can face a $1000 fine and 6 months in county.

This injunction is temporary, but the DA will appear before a judge in August to try to make it permanent. We'll see how it works out.

In the past, the LAPD claims success when they applied injunctions to Blythe Street, 18th Street and other neighborhoods. Some people, most notably civil libertarians, activists and gang advocates, claim that injunctions infringe on civil rights. One objection is that an injunction makes it illegal for cousins or relatives to even hang out in a bar if they're members of the same neighborhood. Or that an ex-banger doing gang intervention work is technically breaking the law by going around the 'hood trying to talk sense to the homies from his former set. These are valid points.

Interestingly, though, Father Greg Boyle, who's been a long-time opponent to injunctions had a change of heart some time back. When Chief Bratton asked for and got an injunction covering an East LA neighborhood, Boyle blessed it as a good thing. He said the day after the injunction was issued, his office was filled with homies asking for jobs and claiming to quit the set. My sense is that these guys weren't so much "scared" into dropping out but actually relieved to have a way out without a lot of negative set politics and loss of pride. As in, "I can't kick it with you no more because I can't afford to go to jail." It's an easy back door out and sort of a graceful exit. Let's face it. If you're banging for any amount of time, the anxiety, fear, and constantly having to prove how down you are gets fucking old. Especially when you see the hardest, downest, illest, brick-hard pelons end up in prison, dead or in a wheelchair for life. If I've heard this from one guy, I've heard it from a hundred. It's a shit life and if they see an injunction as a semi-honorable way out, then it may be a worthwhile tool. Even if it crunches right up against Constitutional rights.

BACK FROM THE ROAD
No, I haven't been abducted by aliens. Thanks for all the concerned emails from regular readers. I'm fine and back in LA after almost two weeks of traveling around the Southwest. I've been working on non-gang related projects and I can see by the emails that I've got a lot of catching up to do. I especially appreciate the kind words from my European readers. And I don't mean just you Brits. I thank the European educational system for creating multi-lingual, interested readers from Denmark, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and Romania. Oddly, I've yet to hear from a French or German reader.

From the emails, I gather that while every Euro knows about the Bloods and Crips, there's very little coverage of Hispanic street gangs and prison gangs like the EME, NUESTRA FAMILIA, FRESNO BULLDOGS and white prison gangs like the NAZI LOW RIDERS and ARYAN BROTHERHOOD. I suspect the popularity of black gangster rap is probably the main reason for the high level of awareness of black gangs. As I mentioned in the past, Hispanic gangster rap has yet to make it into the public consciousness here in the U.S. so it stands to reason it hasn't made it to Europe. Maybe KNIGHTOWL and LIL CUETE should organize a European tour and put SURENO RAP on the European cultural landscape.

Stay tuned. As soon as I get a chance to go through some of the electronic and paper mail, I'll be back shortly with some fresh posts.

RETURN WITH US NOW TO SLEEPY LAGOON
If you fancy yourself a gang scholar or historian of street crime and criminal organizations, the Sleepy Lagoon murder case looms large as a defining moment in the creation of the gang culture as we know it. If you go up to the 17th Floor of the Criminal Courts Building, the floor where most of the DAs toil, along with the photo murals of the Black Dahlia case, Charles Manson, and the Keating Savings and Loan case, you'll also see images of the Sleepy Lagoon murder trial.

A lot of disturbing realities arose from that murder prosecution. One was the less that wonderful police work done by the LAPD. It was a time in American history before Miranda rights, free public defenders and when cops used their fists to "encourage" suspects to confess.

The other disturbing thing LA citizens learned from the trial coverage was the budding gang culture.

The combination of cops behaving in an extra-judicial manner and street gangs behaving in their usual anti-social ways makes it almost impossible for a modern researcher to figure out exactly what happened the night of August 1, 1942 and who killed JOSE DIAZ. The investigation and court proceedings were anything but orderly by modern standards. Add to that mix the social activists and defense lawyers (in some cases they were one and the same) who blamed the murder on everyone from William Randolph Hearst, to Mexican Sinarquists and Adolf Hitler and what you’re left with is an impenetrable stew of facts, conjecture and hare-brained opinions. Remember, the case ran from August 1942 until early 1943. At the time, given the fear of Japanese gas attacks, real German saboteurs, racist Isolationists, openly Communist organizations with their own post-war agenda, war profiteers, hoarders and every color of the political spectrum screaming for attention, people were seeing conspiracies inside every linen closet.

While activists and social commentators were busy looking for the "big" reasons behind the murder of Jose Diaz and fans of Uncle Joe Stalin were looking for the underlying "American imperialist pathology" to explain the actions of what ultimately was acknowledged as a 38th Street gang rumble, nobody at the time seemed to notice that the gang culture had arrived. And it wasn’t going away.

Back then, Hispanic gangsters were called Pachucos. And in contrast to today’s shave-headed, tattooed street soldiers, the Pachuco gangsters opted for the flashy Zoo Suit as their outward symbol of affiliation.

Granted, not everybody who wore a Zoot was a criminal. Lots of jazz musicians, including Cab Calloway wore the Zoot as a hipster’s icon. So did a lot of jazz fans. Same things goes today, of course. Not everybody with a shaved head and wife-beater T-shirt is a gangster.


Only through the benefit of hindsight do we see that the people who first rang the alarm about organized street gangs were correct in their assessment. And the alarm ringers weren’t just cops. A lot of them were Hispanic social organizations that viewed Hispanic street gangs as a threat to the Hispanic community’s progress towards assimilation.


It’s hard to imagine, but at the time, activists, reformers and others refused to acknowledge these youth groups as gangs. They actively resisted the term. People like Guy Endore and Carey MacWilliams described the young people in the neighborhoods as "frolicsome youth," "high-spirited youngsters," "downy-cheeked youngsters," and they described the ongoing gang fights as "nights of revelry." Endore never budged from his opinion even after events like the 1942 murder of Frank Torres from Clanton Street. Three suspects from a rival neighborhood shot him outside the LA Coliseum after an all-city track meet. A riot broke out between neighborhoods and while Torres was the only fatality, a lot of heads were broken before cops restored order. Clanton, as we know, is still an active gang with a lot of sets. The term "frolicsome" and murder are rarely uttered in the same breath.

By the time of Diaz’ homicide, the reality of "neighborhoods" and neighborhood warfare was already well-established. The people who were accused of killing Jose Diaz called themselves 38th Street and sometimes as the P-38s, in honor of the twin-engined fighter aircraft that was wreaking havoc in the skies over Germany and the Pacific. At the time of Diaz’ killing, 38th Street was already feuding with Downey. 38th Street is still around today. Downey morphed into a number of different neighborhoods.

The neighborhoods that went to war against the servicemen during the downtown Zoot Suit riots of 1943 were Alpine Street, Temple Street, 8th Street and Boyle Heights. Temple, 8th Street and Boyle Heights are still around. I have no information if Alpine is still around or has morphed into some other neighborhood.

The big tantalizing question, of course, is what, if anything could have been done back then to blunt the growth of gangs. As we know, in the sixty odd years since the Jose Diaz homicide, thousands of young hispanics have joined him in early graves. And that handful of original neighborhoods has grown into hundreds of quarrelsome, Balkanized tribes of warring factions. While there’s plenty of blame to through around, no one has ever come up with a solution. Even the Eme’s Draconian policy initiatives of a creating a united Sureno nation failed miserably. As did the failed attempt at creating the Generation of United Nortenos in Norcal.

If history is anything to go by, it would appear that intra- and inter-gang warfare is only going to get worse. If you were to plot the growth and body count of gangs from 1942 to the present, the arrows on the chart would point straight up like a triple diamond ski slope. And I don’t see anything on the radar that’s going to change the upward progress

HIGH DESERT GANGSTERS

If you’ve been following the local crime news lately, you’ve probably noticed that Oxnard and the Antelope Valley are experiencing a big spike in gang-related crimes, shootings and murders. Oxnard LE is alarmed enough by the spike that the DA wants to file a gang injunction against the COLONIA CHIQUES, an Oxnard gang. This is a homegrown neighborhood that’s been around for years.

Further inland in the Antelope Valley, there’s an interesting development taking place. A 19-year-old, AARON MATHEU, just pleaded no contest to an attempt murder charge. He was already serving 25 to life on a carjacking beef and the nine years will be served concurrently. One of his crimies, JUAN RODRIGUEZ, was just hit with an attempt murder filing for a drive-by shooting.

BYRON MATHEU, older brother to AARON, is currently at large but wanted for allegedly committing a murder in FEBRUARY.

These three suspects wouldn’t merit a mention except that they’re all members of VNE (VARRIO NEUVO ESTRADA), a really deep EAST LA GANG that goes back generations. Gang fans will probably remember that ERNIE "CHUCO" CASTRO came out of VNE. And VNE has been trying to live that down since 1995 when CASTRO became INFORMANT numero uno in the first of three big FEDERAL RICO cases. CASTRO is living under an assumed identity in parts unknown.

If you’re reading this from out of town, the geography means nothing to you. Locals, however, know that the ANTELOPE VALLEY is way out there in the high desert. It’s the home of the B2 bomber, Edwards Air Force Base and a lot of aerospace contractors. Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier over the Valley in 1947. So what are homies who claim VNE doing way out there in the puckerbrush far from their ELA homeland? For that matter, you can also ask what are Crips, Bloods, El Sereno, Cuatro Flats, Avenues and other traditional big city gangs doing out there? The answer seems to be SECTION 8 housing.

For those who aren’t familiar with Section 8 housing, this is a government program where poor families pay a maximum of 30% of their household income for rent and the government covers the rest.

What’s happening with the gang spike in the Antelope Valley is a result of the end of the Cold War. During the height of defense spending, the Antelope Valley was the fastest growing community in the country. The influx of highly paid engineers and technicians working on Pentagon-financed galactic hot rods created a demand for upscale housing which the private sector was all too ready to provide. Two story tract housing with three car garages went up faster than you can say "Joint Strike Fighter."

Just when the housing market reached the saturation point, the Soviet Union took the air out of the bubble and decided to conveniently implode. Great news for the Free World. Bad news for the defense business and its employees.

Mass lay offs in the Valley were quickly followed by an exodus of engineers and space techs and that left a lot of really nice houses suddenly empty. Developers walked away from half finished communities, a lot of them still in the framing stage. What was left were brand new, centrally air-conditioned ghost towns.

In an effort to get out from under, developers went looking for buyers or renters. In steps the government with Section 8 vouchers. Anybody in the County who qualified for Section 8 was eligible to move to the recently vacated ghost towns. While they weren’t getting market value, developers were happy to have any kind of income.

If you’re a mother with six kids living in a two bedroom rat hole in Long Beach, East LA, South Central or Pacoima, the idea of 2000 square feet, brand new everything, front and back yards and a three car garage sounds like paradise. And it’s especially tempting if you can take your kids out of a risky, gang-oriented environment. The poor moved out by the hundreds and then the thousands.

But as history has shown, you can take the kid out of the neighborhood, but you often can’t take the neighborhood out of the kid. Unfortunately, along with the furniture and Nintendo games, the gang culture was also packed into the U-Hauls and car trunks. The tattoos and attitudes don’t fall away when you cross the LA City line. Mom wanted a fresh start someplace better, but the kids brought it all with them.

From a purely sociological point of view, an interesting dynamic is taking place amidst the cactus and Russian Thistle of the AV. Old rivalries haven’t been transplanted. At least not yet. You’ve got Bloods and Crips living in a state of détente on the same block. Same thing with the Hispanic gangs. Some LEOs I’ve spoken to think that the reason old rivalries aren’t resurrected is that gangs lack the critical mass of the old hoods. The individuals are too scattered to really form an active neighborhood. And a lot of the homies are still fairly young and inexperienced. For instance, the carjacking that sent AARON MATHEU to jail for 25 to life was a training mission conducted under the tutelage of MARIO GARCIA, a VNE veterano.

The other interesting phenomenon is that Valley drug dealers have yet to feel the sting of the EME’s tax collectors. One LEO told me the Valley is still a 100% tax-free zone and in terms of drug dealing, it’s a Wild West of entrepreneurs who work independently and outside the long reach of the Big Homies and shot callers from the old neighborhood. This may change in time, but for now, it’s every pusher for himself. A DA told me he recently filed on a single mother of six and an ELA transplant, for dealing meth out of her kitchen. She employed runners to go out and solicit and the customers would come to the house to buy. She didn’t pay taxes to anybody. An operation of this size anywhere in East LA would certainly draw the attention of the Homies and you can bet your last rock she would we kicking up or get put out of business.

Local LE is concerned that over time, the critical mass will be reached. Right now, LE is seeing active recruitment. The gangs are in the building stage. Veteranos are checking out the local talent, building a foundation out of the best from the farm team and probably in time, they’ll ramp up to start claiming neighborhoods. No one can tell, of course, if old allegiances hold or new neighborhoods develop their own identity. We’ll know first from the tags. If we start seeing things like VNE-AV (VARRIO NEUVO ESTRADA – ANTELOPE VALLEY) or VNE-PD (VARRIO NUEVO ESTRADA-PALMDALE) then we’ll have the start of a trans-county structure. If the new gangsters reject the old neighborhoods and their roots then there may be trouble in the colonies. In either case, the Antelope Valley will definitely experience some interesting times in the next decade.

WHAT IS BALLISTICS EVIDENCE?
I got some emails regarding ballistics evidence in reponse to my previous blog on the LAT's story about the LAPD crime lab. One of the readers wanted to know if gun "fingerprinting" that he'd read about was as unique as human fingerprints. Another asked a more basic question about what exactly a crime tech does to identify a shell casing or spent projectile.

While a complete answer could fill a book, I'll address both as briefly as possible.

First off, a loaded round consists of four components: the projectile, the shell casing, the powder charge and the primer that ignites the powder. The projectile is found either in the victim, buried in a car, wall or whattever, and the powder is completely consumed in firing. What's left for analysis is the casing and the primer. The projectile is a separate discussion I'll leave for another time. Right now we're talking about shell casing analysis.

There are two basics types of handguns. Semi-autos and revolvers. When a semi-auto is fired, the slide ejects the spent round (shell casing) and automatically feeds a fresh round into the chamber. A revolver on the other hand, retains the spent shell casing in the cylinder. If a revolver is fired at a crime scene, chances are, there will be no spent shell casings on the ground. That is, unless it was a long firefight and the combatant(s) shot dry and then reloaded. This is highly unusual.

Semi-autos are used way more frequently and the spent shell casings are what's under all those paper tents you see on TV at crime scenes.

When a round is fired, the shell casing is subjected to a number of forces that leave scratch marks on its surface. The shell casing is generally made of brass, a material that's softer than the steel of the gun. Because it's softer, it's imprinted with the tool marks and other marks unique to the gun. Think of it as pushing modeling clay into a mold and lifting out the clay. What you have on the clay is the imprint of the mold.

After firing, the shell casing has the firing pin mark on the primer, the mark of the gun's extractor on the rim of the shell casing, scratch marks from the chamber of the gun and imprints of the gun's breechface on the base of the shell casing. These imprints and scratches are the result of the tool marks put on the gun during the manufacturing process. An analyst can determine with a high degree of accuracy if shell casings from different crimes all came from the same gun. The one caveat is that the gun has not been altered between crimes.

Unless you're dealing with a fairly sophisticated criminal, guns are rarely altered. However, it's not unheard of. I've sat in enough court trials where informants have admitted to receiving guns used in a crime and altered them before the next use.

How is that done? It's not that hard. The firing pin and extractor can be easily replaced. Even though these new parts are the same brand as the original, the tool marks are probably different enough to change the "fingerprint" of the firing pin and extractor. As to the chamber, which is part of the barrel, that too can be replaced or altered. Like the chamber, the breechface can also be altered with nothing more sophisticated that sandpaper and elbow grease. If you want to get fancy, you can by a $40 Dremel tool and a polishing stone attachment and completely change the "fingerprint" of the breechface.

So to answer the two readers, shell casings can be analyzed and traced back to a specific gun thanks to the toolmarks. If, that is, the gun hasn't been altered as I outlined. And this speaks directly to the second question about uniqueness of gun "prints." Gun fingerprints, unlike human prints, can change either through use of the gun (all that rubbing and pressure will in time have an effect on the toolmarks) or deliberately altered.

And that leads to my personal opinion on the proposed nationwide "printing" of all guns prior to sale. Lawmakers wanted to create a nationwide database of gun prints cross-referenced with the serial number of the gun and the name of the purchaser. It's ultimately an exercise that can be rendered pointless by the use of sandpaper and/or replacement parts. Gun prints are not permanent and that whole database will amount to nothing more than an elaborate and expensive collection of useless scratches.

LEOVY REDEEMS HERSELF
The last Jill Leovy gang piece I read in the LAT gave me vertigo. It read like it was edited through a shredder. You can read my comments in the archives, but basically it was about a couple of guns that were used in a bunch of shootings and the shootings may or may not have been done by the same "cell of shooters" or different groups of people and then the people were arrested and the guns confiscated but the shootings continued - - - and that's when I felt like Jimmy Stewart chasing Kim Novak up the bell tower.

Her latest (5/5/04) doesn't move the confuso-meter needle at all. It partially addresses an issue that's been hamstringing detectives for years -- the glacially slow processing of ballistics evidence by the LAPD crime lab. Years ago, a D2 told me he once waited nine months to get a lab report on a murder weapon.

Chief Bratton and the city council have addressed the problems with the crime lab and help is on the way. But in the meantime, detectives patiently wait and hope their wits and informants don't die of old age before the lab results come back.

Leovy's article reported on the lab's new WALK-IN-WEDNESDAY policy. Every Wednesday, detectives from all over the city can bring in evidence and get nearly instantaneous service. This to short circuit a process that currently has a backlog of 2400 firearms tests. Another detective told me that cases are literally dying on the vine thanks to the backlog. Unlike TV shows, investigators don't get lab results back after the next commercial break. They get them at the next ice age. This is the reality of LA style crime-fighting.

Don't start blaming government workers, though. The lab techs are not skateboarding through the halls and watching TV on city time. There just aren't enough of them. And the equipment is old. And the pay isn't very good. An entry level gun tech gets paid around $27,000 a year. And you need a minimum of a BS to qualify for that breathtaking salary. Imagine the recruiting pitch. "The pay sucks, the equipment you'll be using was already old in the first season of Adam-12 and you'll have lots and lots of unpaid overtime. Sign right here."

As Leovy relates in her article, WALK-IN-WEDNESDAY is already producing results. Read it to find out how. But imagine what the positive fallout might be if fast lab results were the rule rather than a once a week exception.

The other part of her article profiles the crime lab's ace shell casing analyst, RICHARD SMITH. Smith, a sworn officer, sort of fell into the job after 11 years on the street. And he discovered he was terrific at analyzing spent brass. He's now considered one of the best in the country.

Unlike her "cell of shooters" article, this one didn't make the room spin.

BOOK NOTES
I recently read "THE RISE AND FALL OF THE NUESTRA FAMILIA" written by Nina Fuentes. While there are numerous problems with the book, there's a lot of information an interested reader will find useful. Most of the gang books on the market generally fall into one of two categories -- the confessional and the academic. Examples of the confessional are BLOOD IN, BLOOD OUT by ART BLAJOS, MONSTER by Cody Scott, MY BLOODY LIFE by REYMUNDO SANCHEZ and others. These personal histories give you insight into one person's experience and peripherally into the gang culture. They're good for context but don't provide the reader with the broad scale of the gang phenomenon or the organization and policies of criminals organizations like the NF or the EME.

The academic books, most notably those written by JAMES DIEGO VIGIL, are just that. Academic to the point of boredom. Riddled with sociology department jargon, they create the MEGO effect -- MY EYES GLAZE OVER. The average reader will get precious little understanding of gang culture or the motivations of the players. In the world of the sociologist, individuals are viewed with the same detachment that a doctor looks at blood cells -- biological units with no internal dialogue, motivation, passion, lust, love or revenge. They act merely in response to their environment. While it looks neat and tidy to the sociologist, this approach bears little resemblance to reality. If individuals are nothing more than responses to stimuli, how do you explain the fact that a lot of cops grew up in the same neighborhoods and even in the same families as gangsters. According to the socio-economic models of the academics, there would be no cops coming out of the same environment that produces gangsters. It also doesn't explain the even stranger phenomenon of the upper-middle-class Asian gangsters who carry A averages, receive BMWs the minute they turn sixteen and are as overprivileged as any Beverly Hills teenager.

The confessionals written by reformed gangsters are sometimes useful, sometimes self-serving and almost always end up glorifying, intentionally or otherwise, the life they left behind.

In contrast to these two genres, Feuntes' book is written by a non-academic and an outsider. She does a great job of identifying invididuals and articulating their crimes and prison experiences. As the title implies, the people she writes about are all NORTENOS, NF members, NUESTRA RAZA members or familianos in street gangs. The core of the book is the personal history of BOB GRATTON, an Anglo who worked himself up into the NF ranks and had the keys to MODESTO, CA. Through him, we see the structure and organization of the NF, the members of LA MESA (the NF board of directors) and how the NF projects power to the streets. GRATTON eventually dropped out and became an FBI informant in exchange for a reduced sentence. GRATTON also went on to create TAG, TEACHING ABOUT GANGS, a gang intervention and suppression organization that works closely with law enforcement.

There are side roads in the book that explore the decades-long fight with the EME and the failed policy initiative that created and then disbanded the Nuestra Raza, a cover organization that was supposed to keep the heat away from the NF. This is all good historical stuff that should be mandatory reading for anybody who wants to be more than casually familiar with the gang culture.

The major flaws of the book have to do with Fuentes' limitations as a writer. The prose is clunky, cliche-ridden and there's precious little analysis. She just lays out a mountain of facts. Sometimes all those names and shootings become a giant blur and you have to go back and figure out what exactly happened. The most tedious parts of the book are the court documents reproduced in their entirety. This stuff is interesting only if you're a fan of legal speak. The book could do without it. It would have been more useful if Fuentes had spent some time analyzing the documents and give the reader a capsule summary. Court documents are part of a writer's research, not part of the narrative. On the other hand, she reproduces the NF CHARTER and a number of WILAS. These give you a real sense of the organization and the amount of time and effort the NF spends on creating a self-sustaining structure that, at least theoretically, should function effectively even if the shot callers and top homies are taken out of power.

Her failure to go beyond the facts has the ultimate effect of turning all the people she talks about into cardboard cutouts. We don't see the individuals, just the shooting and scheming. While that's enlightening to some degree, it really leaves you wanting to know more. The other topic that leaves you wanting more is OPERATION BLACK WIDOW. This was the operation launched by an FBI, DOJ and local law enforcement in NORCAL. Knowing how extensive that operation was, how little it cost in actual dollars and manpower and how many gangsters it took off the street, OBW is a subject that deserves an entire book to itself.

Despite the flaws, this is must-have book for anyone who wants to know more about the NF and California's gang culture. With a 2003 copyright, the information is still fresh and relevant. You can get the book for $25 from www.knowgangs.com.