ORANGE COUNTY NEEDS SOME HOUSECLEANING.
After reading all that's been released about Orange County's top law man, it appears that Sheriff Carona is well and truly busted. Even if half of what's been alleged turns out to be true Carona has no business being in charge of a police organization. The guy should resign immediately, take his lumps and turn the department over to someone less morally, ethically and legally challenged. Anything less than resignation, or dismissal if he refuses to step down, will make the department and Orange County look like some Third World rogue republic where you can't tell the difference between the good guys and the criminals. Even at this early stage of the investigation it looks like this will turn into some very ugly muckraking.

DID HISTORY BEGIN THIS MORNING?
The first documented gang in Los Angeles dates back to 1909 according to the people who keep track of these things. I'm not betting the farm on this, but I'm guessing the first gang intervention program followed not too long after that. So here we are almost 100 years later and the city is just now getting around to "defining" just what gang intervention is supposed to be about. According to a piece in the Daily News, the mayor and city councilman Tony Cardenas have figured out that "some prevention programs have been getting money under the banner of intervention when those programs don't actually intervene in gang activity." Cardenas has declined to identify those programs. Stop the presses!

You'd think that after dealing with these issues for - let's be generous and say only 50 years - there would have been some kind of manual or maybe even some typed up notes laying around in an office somewhere that spelled out this kind of stuff before handing out money. Clearly, the implication here is that the givers weren't exactly sure what the receivers would do with the money.

According to Bernard Parks, deciding which programs deserve city dollars is, ". . . a major step forward for the City of Los Angeles." There was no indication in the Daily News story that Parks uttered these words with anything other than a straight face. These guys are supposed to be the smart ones. The leaders with a firm hand on the big wheel steering the ship of the city. The major step here would have been to actually solve the problem, not figuring out that money was being pounded down various rat holes. Meanwhile, back on the moons of Jupiter, Janice Hahn is busy trying to stick her hands deeper into your pocket. She's trying to hit every LA homeowner with an additional $40 per year parcel tax to fund intervention programs.

So let's see, with no definition in hand of what a gang intervention program should be, and Laura Chick sorting through the paperwork to figure out why the millions they're spending aren't doing any good and Connie Rice putting her head in her hands muttering "You've wasted every nickel of it so far," Ms. Hahn is merrily putting the cart before the horse. Memo to Janice. Wise stewardship of other people's money behooves you to intelligently use the money you already have before you ask for more. This is like telling your boss, "I know I'm never on time and I'm always screwing up and you're losing business on account of me. But if you give me a raise, I'll do better. This time I mean it." Nobody ever achieved success by rewarding failure.

TVR GANGSTER CONVICTED.
Timothy McGhee was convicted of homicide yesterday after years of sitting in County waiting for his trial. Variously know as "Huero" or "Eskimo," McGhee, a former Criminal Justice student at Cal Poly Pomona, was decribed as being something less than a traditional gangster and more of a spree or thrill killer. Unlike his former associate, the King of Drew Street who was all about business, McGhee's assaults and homicides often had nothing at all to do with business. A lot of his capering didn't make him, TVR or the Meros a nickle.

THEY'RE COMING THICK AND FAST.
Last week, the US Attorney indicted a whole bunch of F13 operators. Today, a couple dozen CLCs got rolled up in another Federal beef.

We haven't seen this level of local and Federal LE activity since the mid to late 1990s when three giant RICO cases blew through town like a freight train and rolled up dozens of Emeros, Associates, shot-callers, key holders, tax collectors and soldiers. You can bet there may be one or more investigations hanging fire somewhere in SoCal.

I don't generally dispense advice but this is a golden opportunity for gang intervention activists to mobilize and start hitting those streets most impacted by these cases. With the leadership and mid-level managers taken out of circulation, now's the time to do some serious gang diversion and intervention. If Jeff Carr, LA's invisible gang czar would maybe hit those streets with a big chart showing who got arrested, why and what kind of time they're facing, there may be an opportunity to turn the young guns around. A "This Could Be You In Five Years" presentation might reach a few hearts and minds and get these kids on the right track. LA has somewhere between $82 and $100 million to dispense on programs. Once the Scrooge message of the Ghost of Christmas future sinks in, use some of that money to get the at-risk kids into programs.

BACK FROM THE ROAD.
Just to dispel some rumors, I haven't gone into PC, gotten whacked or retired to a Malibu mansion. I have, however, spent a lot of time doing radio, TV and print promotion for the book, most of it out of town. Believe it or not, this is my first full week back in the Fortress of Solitude since July 25 when the book hit the streets. Not that I'm complaining, but there's a monumental shift in your life when you go from being a hermit scribe to a creature of promotion.

One of the big changes is that I haven't been able to stay up to date on what's happening on the street. Once you start talking way too much about what you're doing, you actually stop doing it and you're just talking about it. That make sense?

I've got a three-foot stack of stories and documents that need reading and about fifty phone calls to return. Once I whittle through the stack and get on the phone, I'll be back in the loop and get some fresh information on the site.

Stay tuned for more.

RADIO ALERT.
For those interested, Armstrong and Getty will have me on the air in about 15 minutes. Sorry for the late notice but that's life in the big city. I've been told they podcast so you can catch it online.

At 12:40 Pacific time, WCCO in Minneapolis on The Jack Rice Show. I think they live stream and podcast as well.

More to come.

LONG TIME NO POST.
As you can imagine, getting a book off the launch pad isn't something you can do on a part time basis. I've been going flat out for the three weeks and haven't had a minute to post.

The book is hitting the stores as we speak while reviewers and media people have gotten early copies. For the most part, the response has been positive. More on that later on. The take from Publisher's Weekly, however, was generally negative and they took one quote the wrong way. I quoted DA Manzella saying, "We know exactly the kind of families that produce criminals. I'd like to go in there and take them out. But we can't do that." What the DA meant was TAKE THEM OUT OF THOSE FAMILIES. Not "take them out" as in terminate them. The intent was clear to everybody that read and edited the manuscript but apparently, you have to spell things out to some people. The point the DA was making was that public policy will not allow kids to be yanked out of environments that we know will produce unhealthy attitudes or destructive behaviors. It was very clear from the context of that entire paragraph exactly what the DA meant. The sentence prior to that stated, "the ultimate road block to a gang is a stable family." Some people read into things that which they choose to read.

On another topic, be on the lookout for radio appearances. I just got a schedule of potential interviews and I'm waiting for confirmation. If there's any interest in posting up a schedule of interviews, let's hear about it.

HE'S FINALLY HERE.
After decades of talking about it, the city finally has a gang -- what? Boss? Emperor? Overlord? Call him anything but Czar. According to Rev. Jeff Carr, a Czar is a guy who is forcibly retired in front of a firing squad. Can't fault him for the analogy.

It'll be interesting to see how much horsepower he'll be given and what precisely will he do. At this point, nobody seems to know. The old dictum is that he who holds the purse strings wields the power. But it's not clear if he'll have control of doling out funds to intervention programs or pulling the plug on them if they crash and burn like No Guns.

From everything we've heard so far, his position is that of advisor to the Mayor. Which doesn't sound like an executive position. He's the go-to guy when the Mayor needs to decide on gang issues. This is probably not the way the office should have been organized but the rumor is that Carr was picked more for his ability to solicit grants from public and private sector sources than any actual gang intervention capabilities. We'll see.

OKAY SO WHAT IS IT?
Tarso Luis Ramos, Director of Research of a group called Political Research Associates has recently taken me to task at newamericamedia.org for using the term "ethnic cleansing" to describe the scores of racially motivated attacks against Blacks committed by Hispanic gang members.

The gist of Mr. Ramos' critique is that my analysis of the situation is colored by my "apparent right wing leanings." His evidence of my political orientation is that some things I've written have appeared in "rightwing culture warrior David Horowitz’s Web magazine Frontpagemag" and that my publisher also published Victor David Hanson's "Mexifornia."

Ramos calls me "the most persistent purveyor of the ethnic cleansing frame." Maybe it's because I was the first to notice. The simple truth of the matter is, I didn't go looking for that particular story. When I started doing research some ten years ago, I had no idea such a thing existed. I first started hearing about it from my interviews with active and retired gangsters and from street cops. I clearly remember back in 1999, a cop told me that in his reporting district, black citizens (not gangsters) were safe on one side of the street but put their lives at risk if they crossed over. And when I heard the same thing from other sources in other parts of the county, it was clear that a pattern existed.

And as explained to me by people in the neighborhoods, they didn't want their V(B)arrio (take your pick) to "turn into Watts." When asked what they meant by that, I leave to your imagination what they said. It would make a Klansman proud.

Then I collected about a dozen court cases documenting racially motivated violence and murder and I shotgunned a bunch of query letters and phone calls to the usual media. At the time, even I wasn't calling it ethnic cleansing or a race war. To me, it was just a new development on an old problem.

Regular readers already know the response I got. Some flat out refused to accept that this was happening. Some were afraid that running the piece would stoke a race war. Or I had an agenda. Or I was trying to make Mexicans look bad. From Los Angeles Magazine, LACityBeat, LA Weekly, the Daily News, OC Register, NY Times Magazine, Atlantic Monthly - you name it - there were lots of excuses not to run with the story.

During that slog to get the facts out, I called the NAACP, Rainbow Push and other Black civil rights groups repeatedly. I asked for comments on the phenomenon. They told me, "Someone will get back to you." No one ever did. The only Black group to respond was Islamic Hope. And they, meaning Najee Ali, were already aware of the situation. And Ali minced no words in telling me why the "established" Black groups had plugged their ears and covered their eyes to the realities on the street. He was running into the same stone wall with them and the media. Clearly I wasn't alone.

There was another group that ran into a media and "activist" stone wall -- the families of the victims. Nobody wanted to touch it because when it came to choosing between ideology and speaking out for those who can no longer speak, ideology won out in this case. Unlike the ideologically blinded, the families had no illusions about the nature of the forces that took away their loved ones. Perhaps Mr. Ramos would like to speak to them directly.

It was the survivors and the attitudes of people on the street that finally got me to thinking of the situation in terms of ethnic cleansing. What was the point of the attacks and homicides? In the words of one perp, it was to "keep them from infesting the neighborhood." Whether the words come out of a Latino, a white guy with a hood, a Hutu, a Tutsi or a Bosnian, it is the language of intolerance. So excuse me for pointing that out.

Does it rise to the level of ethnic cleansing? Certainly it's not on the same scale as Bosnia. Or Darfur. I came to the conclusion, however, that in terms of INTENT, there's no difference between killing one guy or a thousand. After all, what's the threshold? Is ten dead guys enough to qualify? A hundred? The intent is to intimidate, frighten and drive off anyone else thinking of living where they choose to live or drive where they want (Wilson) or carry a boom box (Bowser) or rent an apartment (Prudhomme). Because the perps didn't succeed to the extent they desired does not lessen their intent to drive innocent people out of the hood. So what do you call it?

The question Mr. Ramos raises in his piece is "Who Gains From Framing Gang Attacks in LA as "'Ethnic Cleansing'"? Bluntly speaking, the question itself is obscene. I never once framed the issue in terms of immigration or a battle between conservative or liberal politics. I never articulated the issue as anything other than what it was.

And "gain?" What is that? As if the murder of innocents is some kind of political chess match? I don't even know that math.

It's hard to figure out if Mr. Ramos is in favor of suppressing news or just making sure to spin it in a way that doesn't give anyone some kind of "gain." He quotes Sheilagh Polk, the media relations manager at the Community Coalition that the media, “have played a significant role in escalating gang violence.”“When you have Fox news broadcasting about racial violence inside prisons, that creates pressure outside to retaliate.” I've heard a lot of reasons for escalating violence but news stories about it have never been at the top of the list. Or anywhere on it. If media coverage is a causal component of violence, then does non-coverage lead to peace? Based on her premise, let's stop reporting gang violence altogether so gangs won't feel the need to retaliate. Ignore them and maybe they'll go away.

Mr. Ramos also quotes Aqeela Sherrills, a gang expert. Sherrills believes that the Mexican Mafia is run by businessmen who find "no advantage in a generalized conflict with African Americans." Which is why the two groups get along so well in prison. But at least he got the businessmen part right. His comment underscores a certain naivete about the nature of that business and the dictum that "In chaos, there is profit." And a destabilized competitor is a weak competitor.

I could spend the rest of the day going through Mr. Ramos' assertions and conclusions. But it's tiresome.

The bottom line is that we've got serious social issues to handle and we're not getting anywhere by worrying about what part of the political spectrum is gaining or losing ground. Call me a liar, call me a Troglodyte, tell me I'm full of crap, an alarmist, sensationalist or a right wing whack job. It won't stop what's happening on street. Over to you Tarso.

WORTH READING
Here's a link to one of the most revealing articles I've ever read about a dropout. It ran in today's Whittier Daily News and underscores few salient points about the generational nature of the gang culture and the seduction of false power. It's clear the writer, Sandy Mazza has been following this story for some time. Nice work.

http://whittierdailynews.com/news/ci_6049497

WEASEL WOBBLES AND FALLS.
As a lot of cops have been warning for years, Hector "Weasel" Marroquin has finally been exposed as gaming the system and working both sides of the street. As LA Times and LA Weekly articles this week reported, Marroquin has been arrested in an ATF undercover buy operation. He allegedly sold full auto weapons and suppressors to an ATF agent at his Marrokings restaurant in Cudahy.

The founder of No Guns, a gang intervention program funded with public money, Marroquin has basically been shoved down the throats of gang cops by their commanders for years as a person they should work with to quell gang violence and divert young people from the life. Even though these street cops knew full well that Weasel was a phony and reported it to their superiors, the brass hats and politicians disregarded the warnings and continued to bring Hector around to lecture cops on how to do their jobs.

According to the LA Times article by the energetic Sam Quinones, it wasn't just gang cops that suspected Marroquin of less-than-virtuous intentions. The Times quoted Connie Rice,"I never for a moment believed he ever left the life. I always thought he was using the system." Rice was on the Police Commission at one time and if the city fathers paid no attention to her, for sure they wouldn't take the word of street cops. The LA Weekly article has ten photos of Marroquin and his son and in almost every picture, Hector is flashing 18th Street. He could not have made it more obvious.

In the same article, Tom Hayden stated, "These guys perform a service. If they backslide, well, who doesn't?" The difference in attitude betweeen Rice and Hayden could not be more dramatic. Rice obviously isn't blinded by ideology. Hayden, a friend and supporter of Marroquin's, is still whipping that dead horse in an effort o reanimate it. For one thing, in order to backslide, someone must abandon the old life. Hayden still can't recognize the fact that Marroquin never actually abandoned his ways. He's been an operator for the Meros since day one and Hayden can't or won't admit that he's been played, suckered and hung out to flap in the breeze. Loyalty is a fine thing. But carried too far there's the danger it could turn you into a collaborator and enabler.

For Hayden to actually consider the possibility that Marroquin did "backslide" is in itself an indication of progress. When Ernie "Chuco" Castro was arrested on weapons charges and flipped in 1992, Hayden suggested in his book that the guns were planted on Castro to turn him as an informant. So far, Hayden hasn't raised the possibility of an elaborate conspiracy to bring Marroquin down.

Unfortunately for our city and county, No Guns isn't the only questionable program receiving public funds. There are some out there still operating and doing a better job of deflecting scrutiny. Maybe in the fullness of time, our elected officials will catch a clue.

BACK IN THE SADDLE.

I know you've been wondering what hole swallowed me up. Contrary to speculation that I've been on a drunk or in WIT SEC, the truth is more prosaic. I've been hammering down the final details on the long-awaited book. Here's what the cover will look like. Look for it in bookstores around mid-July. If you absolutely can't wait, you can pre-order online at the usual places. But you'll still have to wait until July to have it in hand.

The worst of the pre-pub drama is over so I'm hoping I'll have more time to post.

As with most books, there was more manuscript than there was room between the covers. So a lot of stuff had to be pruned away. But I've been assured that if the book sells well, future editions will provide more room for expansion and elaboration. Here's hoping.

If it doesn't do well, it's back to sweeping floors and selling oranges at the off-ramps.

G-RIDE GOING UPSCALE.
You know you're doing something right if your G-ride is a Mercedes. While going through some recent documents, we came across an incident in which a Reseda SS was busted in the act of tagging a wall by undercover West Valley cops. What surprised the cops was the twenty-something tagger's ride -- a three-year-old Mercedes 320 SUV. Very clean. Freshly detailed. And not stolen. It was registered to the tagger. The giant RSS he hit the wall with exceeded the $400 threshold of misdemeanor vandalism so the Mercedes owner/tagger is facing felony vandalism. Apparently the tagger already had an I-card on file and was not a wannabe.

This incident has to tell you something about 1) The state of the economy when even local G-Sters can afford rides the average citizen cant't 2) The amount of money available on the streets or 3) Poverty may not be a significant causal component of illegal activity. Take your pick. I'm confused.

TWO YEARS IN THE SHU AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY T-SHIRT.
If there's any doubt that the gangster mindset has become a bankable commodity, you don't need to look any further than the record business and the clothing industry. I won't mention the name, but there's a clothing line based in the greater LA area that markets what they call "authentic jailhouse street wear." The T-shirts, jackets and hats sport the label's logo in addition to things like "186.22" (the California Penal Code section that covers gang membership), "LA County Jail 1750" (the High Power Module) and "P-Bay SHU" (Pelican Bay's Security Housing Unit).

While I fully understand the concept of wearing something ironically and the idea of reverse cool (hip young mothers, for instance, dressing like Doris Day and Lucille Ball) there doesn't seem to be any ironic content in this clothing line. It appears to be a flat out glorification of jail life and gangsterism. I don't know who's buying this stuff, but I can almost guarantee that nobody who's been in the SHU or the high power module would wear a T-shirt to fondly commemorate the event.

I would bet that this clothing is aimed at the wannabe fringe, young people who probably haven't got a clue what prison life is really like. And frankly, it's a bad message.

Unfortunately, this bad message isn't restricted to wannabe gangsters. Some gang cop groups are also marketing clothing that looks an awful lot like classic gang wear. These guys should know better. When the good guys and the bad guys start looking the same, it's time to re-examine your premise and figure out who you really are.

MAYBE WE NEED A CORRUPTION CZAR TOO.
As if on cue, the LA WEEKLY and the LA TIMES published stories of local political corruption right after the issue was raised here in connection with gang cops and disclosing their personal finances. The Weekly story focuses on Bell Gardens Councilman Mario Beltran, his connection to the 740 Club's owner Ralph Verdugo and La Puente City Councilman John Solis. According to the accompanying piece in the Weekly, Beltran is a protege of State Senators Gil Cedillo and Ron Calderon.

In the Times piece, Lynwood Mayor Louis Byrd and Councilman Fernando Pedroza were charged by LA DA Dave Demerjian with misappropriating city funds by taking personal trips on Lynwood's dime. Pedroza apparently even charged lap dances in Guadalajara to the city. A year ago, Paul Richards was sentenced to 16 years in the Feds on charges of public corruption. Former Lynwood council members Armando Rea, Arturo Reyes and Ricardo Sanchez are also named in Demerjian's filing.

The Weekly story was written by the same Jeffrey Anderson who wrote the pieces on corruption in Cudahy and the Marroquin/No Guns scandal.

There's obviously a pattern of illegal behavior and corruption in these little cities. It looks like they're being run like Medieval fiefdoms with the guys in the castle raking in the booty and the Dukes in Sacramento backing their play. While it appears that the legal system is working to put these bandits in suits out of business, the big question is, "Where's the public outrage and the big media coverage?" The Weekly's coverage, while excellent, isn't exactly big media. Where's the call for Federal supervision of these towns? Maybe we need another Christopher Commision to ride herd on these people complete with compliance certification from Kroll just to make sure the lap dances aren't paid for with public money.

WHO'S GOING TO BLINK FIRST?
Gang cops are apparently showing no inclination to have their personal financial information open to public scrutiny. On the other side of the issue, the opposition also shows no indication that they'll abandon efforts to require that gang cops reveal their financial records. A number of veteran gang cops have already asked for and gotten reassignment and the rest are ready to do the same if they're ordered to reveal their records.

This looks like a classic standoff with neither side willing to compromise. This also appears to be a case of double, triple and quadruple standards. The rationale for revealing a gang cop's records is the suspicion that they may be more likely than the average patrol officer to be corrupted by access to dope and large quantities of cash in the course of their daily work. As we've said before, that rationale of potential corruption could apply to thousands of civil servants, elected officials, recipients of public funds and virtually any private entity that does business with local, state or the Federal government.

Why focus on gang cops for this selective scrutiny? The simple answer is Rafael Perez. While on the face it it appears to make sense, you can also point to dozens of cases of corruption and nefarious backscratching much further up the food chain. Just to review, there's the DWP and cozy deals with PR firms and massive overtime fraud, elected officials hiring their girlfriends who have no campaign experience as campaign advisors, others exchanging guns for dope with known street gangsters, others getting hit with huge fines for illegal campaign financing, flying around the country on private planes owned by companies doing business with the city, others buying cocaine and using it in their own offices, others looking the other way when pet intervention programs are infiltrated by an organized criminal enterprise -- need we go on?

If you aren't going to trust cops because they "might" get corrupted conducting their business, then we shouldn't trust anybody who might be exposed to the possibility of corruption. Whether they do it with a gun screwed into a drug dealer's ear or by cutting a purchase order for a new construction project, using the yardstick for the pontential of corruption is a huge club that could be swung at a lot more people than gang cops.

PUBLIC SERVICE OPPORTUNITY.

The message below is fairly typical of a lot of the comments that get bounced. It was always a policy to keep this blog from turning into a netbanging site and over time I rejected thousands of these. I thought I'd try an experiment and run this one.

I'm assuming this commenter is genuine. If he isn't just yanking my crank, maybe somebody out there who's been there and back and lived to tell the tale may want to compose a few thoughts to set this guy straight on the realities of where he appears to be headed. Think of it as your good deed for the day.

THIS IS BIG BAD ASS BLYTHE STREET GANGX13 RIFANDO HASTA LA MUERTE LEVAZ!!!...FUCK ALL PINCHE ENEMIGAZ OUT THERE!!YOU FUCKEN LENGUAS FUCK YOU LAME ASS CHAVALAZ!!...TRYING TO BE ALL HARD CON NUESTRO BARRIO N SHIT THIS PURO BLYTHE STREETGANG X13 REPRESENTANDO HASTA LA MUERTE LEVAZ!!!!FUCK ALL PINCHE ENEMIGAZ!!!AND Q'VO TO ALL THE HOMIESAND HOMEGURLS FROM THE BARRIO!!! THERE'S NOTHING SWEETER THAN A BLYTHE STREETER QUE NO??...THAT'S RIGHT LEVAZ!!!...PUES ALRATOZ AND DON'T FORGET THAT THIS IS BIG BAD ASS.....BLYTHE STREET GANG X13

ROCKY SHUTS DOWN ANOTHER ONE.
Making good on his promise to dismantle local gang "headquarters" and dope emporiums, Rocky D. shut down a dope house in Pacoima yesterday and forced the owners to take down hardened and soft covers that were erected to prevent visual observation. The last one he took down on Drew Street seemed like a PR stunt and some of you wondered aloud if that take down was one-time phenomenon. Apparently not. The Harvard grad and former resident of HP who grew up being regularly robbed and tormented by Avenues seems to be dead serious about his job. It looks like Rocky wants to acquire his cape and utility belt the old fashioned way - he wants to earn it.

While Rocky is getting the face time in the media, you have to wonder about the total absence of DA Steve Cooley. Traditionally, felony prosecutions are generally the domain of the DA's office, not the City Attorney's office. After doing a little snooping, there appears to be a revolt in the DA ranks. Cooley has been missing in action and the deputy DAs, according to some, have been actively discouraged from filing cases. One rumor is that Cooley issued orders to DAs to reduce their filings by 20 percent. In addition, Cooley and his minions are encouraging DAs to plead cases down to absurd levels, essentially giving good cases away just to get them off their desks. This is not only making DAs crazy, it's also demoralizing cops who see their work in putting strong cases together vanish in a weak plea agreement. The only people who seem happy with this trend at the DA's office are the public defenders.

We've heard some incredibly strange tales coming out of Cooley's office that we can't report on until they're verified but they sound scary. More on this later.

On an unrelated topic, many thanks to the commenters who are maintaining an elevated level of discourse. For the disgruntled who are seeing their comments bounced, please reflect not on what you say, but how you say it. Telling somebody that he has his head up his ass is not an argument. It's an ad hominem attack that does nothing to advance the discussion. Also, we're getting sharper on detecting people posting under other people's handle. We're getting wise to that and bouncing those too.

ANOTHER ONE FROM THE VAULT.

In case anyone still has lingering illusions about the power projection out of the jails and into the streets, here's the first greenlight list ever uploaded to the web. It's quite old and most of the information is no longer valid, but you can get a sense of how these things sound. It's puzzling how after all the information made public and boatloads of evidence presented in thousands of court cases, some people still refuse to acknowledge the influence of prison gangs on street gangsters. Here you see nothing less than assassination orders on the unfortunate individuals and gangs that got on the wrong side of the brothers. These lists are generated on a daily basis and sometimes you'll get two or three revisions a day. Sort of like a morning, afternoon and evening edition of a newspaper. The changes reflect the latest available intelligence fed into the prison and jail system by operators on the outside by means of third party calls, mail, legal documents and personal visits.

On another topic, some of the commenters are get out of control. If I reject your comment, go to your corner, think about what you said and see if you can say it in a less disrepectful way. I'm getting tired of being a referee and Miss Manners. I'm instituting a MANO DURA policy and if you can't play nice, don't play.

IT CUTS BOTH WAYS.
So now it appears that gang cops have to produce their financial records if they want to stay on that assignment. The officers concerned are indignant because they feel it infringes on privacy rights and frankly makes them feel like the department and the city doesn't really trust them. On top of which, they're only allowed to stay on gang assignments for three years and then rotate out to other assignments. Which in itself is counterproductive because it takes about that long for a gang cop to get to know the players in the division. So just when a gang cop gets good at it, he's gone.

There appears to be a double standard at work here. Without mentioning names, the city has been giving money to less than completely trustworthy gang intervention programs with virtually no oversight. Even after red flags began waving in the wind, these programs were never investigated and oversight was virtually non-existent. And the money kept flowing. It was only when the "questionable" behavior became egregious that investigations were launched. We haven't seen the last of them, by the way.

Partisans on the side of the questionable programs are quick to point out that "one bad apple doesn't spoil the barrel." Fair enough. It isn't fair to tar everyone involved with the same smut brush. But couldn't the same thing be said about bad cops. One Rafael Perez doesn't spoil the entire department. If you're going to cut the questionable programs that kind of slack, the same reasoning, it would appear, could apply to cops.

And in truth, the same reasoning could also apply to our elected and appointed officials. When Mike Hernandez got nailed for dope use, he apologized, kept his job and was re-elected. We didn't see a full throttle investigation into the financial records of all the city's elected officials. Was there a Christopher Commission type of investigation and consent decree to make sure the rest of the city fathers weren't more Mike Hernandez' waiting in the wings?

If you're going to look into gang cops' bank accounts, let's make it fair and look into the bank accounts of all our law enforcement people and all our city and state stewards. After all, isn't it just as likely that a government functionary in charge of public spending be corrupted by sweetheart deals and kickbacks as a working gang cop?