z46\doc\web\2000\11\chicgang.txt In a message dated 11/10/00 4:00:38 AM, aardvark69@EARTHLINK.NET writes: << What that means is that chances are that the Asian/PI gangs did not arise from thin air. But white cliques or local social groups are rarely considered to be "gangs" if the majority population is white >> November 10, 2000 Hello Colleagues: This topic, in context, is too important to leave unclarified. Several points of fact: 1. The various groupings originate in their racial and ethnic origins, but have to morph when they adapt to American standards for gangness. This begins to happen once their members go to prison and have to adapt to the prison leadership structures, which at state levels in the rougher prisons are all controlled by the gangs (see "American Me" for the Hollywood version). Illinois may have screwed up two or three generations of poor black and Latino kids (and some white and Asian) through a ruthlessly segregated and class biased public school system, but we've integrated leadership in one place -- our prisons. It's the most successful educational system for poor children we have in this state, and its multicultural. 2. At the time they enter prison, the individual "white" or "Asian" gang leaders affiliate to the larger already established gangs. In Chicago, for example, in the 1960s and early 1970s, a white gang called the Gaylords used to spray paint the walls of the Logan Square community with the graffiti "Gaylords. White Power!" By 1980, the Gaylords were a part of the "People" (red colors) which are a gang "nation" under the command of the Black P. Stone street gang. The reason? Survival in prison. No sane white thug wants to be in an Illinois prison without a multicultural group of human beings watching his back, and the prison guards are not the ones who watch your back (and backside) in the dark or in large groups. 3. Generally, the old white racist gangs of Chicago were absorbed into this larger structure by the 1980s. If there are any white supremacist street gangs left in Chicago itself, I'm not aware of them. That doesn't mean that groupings like skinheads and some of the less intelligent European immigrant kids don't take on some racist notions for a time. It just means that incarceration has a certain leveling effect. 4. The gangs from outside the United States are each different, although eventually they are also brought into the large alliances. A. Philippines. By 1987, the north side of Chicago had the "Flip City Latin Kings", a branch of the Latin Kings (which originally began in Chicago among Mexican Americans on the Southeast side and then absorbed a group of Puerto Rican gangs by the 1970s at its first level of integration). B. Korea. By 1988, I knew an arrogant Korean Latin King who went by the name of "Chico" and was finally locked up for selling rock. He used to drive up in his new Camray and kid me about driving an old Rabbit. "When are you going to get a real job and some nice wheels, M____ F_____?" C. Vietnam. Most of the gang members who were Vietnamese in Chicago were Chinese Vietnamese, and their gangs sometimes had ancestries stretching back 1,000 years. One kid I knew (who was later locked up for a string of nasty burglaries) told me he was brought into the gang by his "uncle" while in the camps in Hong Kong on the way to the USA. (His probation officer came by and told me in wonderment how he had been in AP Physics and Calculus and how she couldn't understand how he was also a major league thug. I told her they didn't trust dummies to run big jobs...). There may have been Montagnard gangs as well, but they were below my line of sight. If they are out there, I'd bet there were some hostilities between them and the coastal Vietnamese or Vietnamese Chinese. Again, however, all of that is leveled once the people (like Cong) are incarcerated. D. Central Americans. The larger the migrations, the larger the recruitment. I worked with one Salvadoran family in the 1980s who wound up nearly wiped out by 1990 or 1991. First the younger son ("Negro") was murdered, beaten to death with baseball bats and golf clubs after the police dropped him off in the wrong side of the tracks and then shouted "King Love!" to let everyone know he was there. Then the mother (who carried the weapons under that long black dress and shawl) was also murdered. The sole surviving son was awarded one of the most lucrative corners on the north side (MPLKN, which stood for "Montrose-Paulina Latin King Nation") by the Latin Kings. E. Iraq, etc. The Assyrian Eagles consist mainly of Assyrian kids born in Iraq, Syria and Iran. They were affiliated with the People (five pointed star) when I knew them last. F. Palestine. The Palestinians had an independent structure that was affiliated with the PLO and had a good regular source of heroin and other drugs independent of the main Chicago gang networks, so they could pick and choose their allies. They were the only ones I knew who maintained a large degree of independence for long. G. Russians, Romanians, Serbians, etc. The Russians are more active in the northern suburbs and I don't know much about them. After 1989, the Eastern Europeans were all over the map. Romanian gangsters, for example, seemed to prefer pornography and things like that (I have a very funny story about that for another time). The Yugoslavians trace their networks all the way back to Tito and Mihailovich's (spelling?). There was, for example, a Chetnik bar two blocks from where I once lived, and that was long before most people in this country knew the difference between Serbs and Bosnians. One of the things we used to talk about when I worked school security with a group of very courageous and very honest cops and security people was how corrupt the media version of reality in this country is. To believe the official version, the drug gangs ("narco terrorists") are only a problem south of the Rio Grande river. Once we get to the United States, all the public officials are honest, the cops are nice, and the bad guys wear black hats ("Colors") while the good guys wear the white hats. I sometimes ask audiences when I speak how is it that the Daley family can have run Chicago for the past 50 years, more or less, and we are now looking at larger versions of the street gangs we first saw crop up in the ghetto and barrios in the 1960s? How is it that Richard M. Daley, our mayor, could have been Cook County State's Attorney during the 1980s and Mayor since 1989 and the gangs today are bigger and stronger and meaner than they were 20 years ago? Of course, our politicians and police bureaucrats have nothing to do with any of that. The mayor and his minions are all honest, just making sure that Florida is, too. It's only the low level politicians (in Chicago, black aldermen) who are on the take, and street cops who are crooked. Sure. George Schmidt Editor, Substance 5132 W. Berteau Chicago, IL 60641 773-725-7502 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the ARN-L list, send command SIGNOFF ARN-L to LISTSERV@LISTS.CUA.EDU. -----Original Message----- From: David Blomstrom [mailto:GeoBear@GEOBOP.COM] Sent: Friday, November 10, 2000 8:19 AM To: ARN-L@LISTS.CUA.EDU Subject: Seattle Gangs I remember when LA gangs moving into Seattle were in the news several years ago. I don't hear that much about them anymore. I don't know if they've been tamed, or if the media just doesn't want to publicize them. (Amidst campaign news that the economy couldn't be better and violence was WAY down, it was a bit embarrassing for someone when Seattle and Tacoma were suddenly hit with a string of murders, rapes and beatings, one particularly vicious affair filmed by an onlooker. I don't think that's how the Seattle Chamber of Commerce planned this campaign.) At present, the most vicious Seattle gangs I'm aware of are the Seattle Police Department, Seattle School Board and Seattle teachers union. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the ARN-L list, send command SIGNOFF ARN-L to LISTSERV@LISTS.CUA.EDU. In a message dated 11/9/00 12:12:53 PM, arthur.hu@AUBETA.NET writes: << I've never heard of activity around Issasquah / plateau which is an affluence zone. Still, murder is one cause of dropouts we don't really think about much around here. >> November 10, 2000 Hello Arthur (and others interested in gangs, drugs, and violence)... I was very serious about what I posted in the context of that discussion. Here in Chicago, we have six or seven of the best organized and nastiest street gangs in the country -- the Vice Lords (about six major factions), Gangster Disciples, Black P. Stones, Latin Kings, Latin Dragons, and a number of others. Their leaders control their corporate activities through the prison systems in states where many of their members are incarcerated, beginning with Illinois. (Less so in the federal prisons, where some of the most notorious leaders -- like Jeff Fort of the Black Stones is). One of the reasons why America doesn't know much about them is that they deliberately disciplined their cadre to avoid the media limelight, so a lot of people, believing Hollywood, keep seeing Crips and Bloods under the bed. The whole history of the massive minority gangs of the 1960s and their morphing into the even more massive gang nations of the 1990s and beyond is the result of everything evil at the base of this society (and of a lot we discuss regularly here when we talk about what happens to kids in schools...). Once they achieved control over the prisons, the Chicago gangs used the prisons as graduate school for their criminal cadre. Everything from their version of political philosophy to street law to discipline and organization is in the curriculum. I could give a few chilling examples of their operations, but most people would prefer to watch (and sort of "believe") "Dark Angel" than listen to contemporary history when it doesn't reflect their own mirrors and biases. So the gangs continue to perfect their organizations. All of them are based on the sale of coca-based and hemp-based drugs. But there is no major market for their products in the inner city ghettos and barrios that breed them (both the gangs and the children who eventually become their cadre) because of America's insanities -- racism, economic inequities, "zero tolerance" (to get them locked up) and "standards and accountability" (to force them onto the streets without an education). There just ain't that much money in the 'hood. (One joke in Chicago is you can tell when the corner has changed as soon as you see all those rich white kids pulling up in their BMWs and Mercedes...). Basically, once gang cadre pass through and physically survive all the difficult levels of apprenticeship, they may be deployed to places where a lucrative market exists -- and where the "marks" are relatively easy to take down. College towns have long been a major target. Anyplace with a bunch of rebellious rich kids will do. The Volvo belt is perfect in many ways I won't discuss here, but for reasons people probably can guess as soon as they think through the whole dialectic. The economic goal of the drug gangs is to increase market share and profits, just like all other corporate entities. Jeff Fort (the leader of the Black Stones), Gino Colon (leader of the Puerto Rican faction of the Latin Kings, the Mexican faction's leaders are less into the media), and Larry Hoover (top person in the Gangster Disciples, you can search his name on the Tribune and NYT data bases) could have an intelligent conversation with Bill Gates about monopoly practices, eliminating (or coopting) competition, increasing profits and market share -- and, of course, the nastiness of the Justice Department in interfering with their capitalist enterprises, marketing practices, and corporate governance. If the west coast doesn't have the Chicago gangs, other 'mark' towns do. Just remember this message if you begin to see five- or six-pointed stars on walls, and other indicators. The places are easy enough to find. In fact, if I were doing market research for Jeff Fort or Larry Hoover, I'd probably check the NADER returns and then screen the places with the highest votes. (And remember, I voted Democratic, except for the presidential candidate, so this is just a scientific observation...). Adam Smith wrote some of the descriptions and explanations for these activities more than 200 years ago. My alma mater has won more Nobel prizes for those who follow Adam Smith than any other institution on earth. Adam Smith also knew (although he delicately ignored most of it) that an empire -- corporate or political -- is built atop a foundation of violence, marked by a pyramid of blood, and flanked by a bodyguard of lies. The trick of those who run things is to keep most citizens' eyes averted from that part of the thing. George Schmidt -------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the ARN-L list, send command SIGNOFF ARN-L to LISTSERV@LISTS.CUA.EDU.