FBI: Burgeoning Ethnic Gangs Behind up to 80% of
US Crime
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Kevin Johnson, USA Today, January 29, 2009
Criminal gangs in the USA have swelled to an estimated 1 million members responsible for up to 80% of crimes in communities across the nation, according to a gang threat assessment compiled by federal officials.
The major findings in a report by the Justice Department’s National Gang Intelligence Center, which has not been publicly released, conclude gangs are the “primary retail-level distributors of most illicit drugs” and several are “capable” of competing with major U.S.-based Mexican drug-trafficking organizations.
“A rising number of U.S.-based gangs are seemingly intent on developing working relationships” with U.S. and foreign drug-trafficking organizations and other criminal groups to “gain direct access to foreign sources of illicit drugs,” the report concludes.
The gang population estimate is up 200,000 since 2005.
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‘Growing threat’ on the move
The report says about 900,000 gang members live “within local communities across the country,” and about 147,000 are in U.S. prisons or jails.
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Among the report’s other findings:
oLast year, 58% of state and local law enforcement agencies reported that criminal gangs were active in their jurisdictions, up from 45% in 2004.
oMore gangs use the Internet, including encrypted e-mail, to recruit and to communicate with associates throughout the U.S. and other countries.
oGangs, including outlaw motorcycle groups, “pose a growing threat” to law enforcement authorities along the U.S.-Canadian border. The U.S. groups are cooperating with Canadian gangs in various criminal enterprises, including drug smuggling.
Assistant FBI Director Kenneth Kaiser, the bureau’s criminal division chief, says gangs have largely followed the migration paths of immigrant laborers.
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MS-13 far-flung from L.A. incubator
One group that continues to spread despite law enforcement efforts is the violent Salvadoran gang known as MS-13.
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Kaiser says the street gang is in 42 states, up from 33 in 2005. “Enforcement efforts have been effective to a certain extent, but they (gang members) keep moving,” he says.
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Among law enforcement efforts:
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Davidson County, Tenn., Sheriff Daron Hall, whose jurisdiction includes Nashville, says MS-13 started growing there about five years ago, corresponding with an influx of immigrant labor.
Last April, county officials began checking the immigration status of all arrestees. “We know we have removed about 100 gang members, including MS-13,” to U.S. authorities for deportation, Hall says.
{snip}
Escorza [Aaron Escorza, chief of the FBI’s MS-13 National Gang Task Force] says a “revolving door” on the border has kept the gang’s numbers steady—about 10,000 in the U.S.—even as many illegal immigrant members are deported.
The FBI, which has two agents in El Salvador to help identify and track members in Central America and the United States, plans to dispatch four more agents to Guatemala and Honduras, Escorza says.
{snip}
(Posted on January 30, 2009)
Comments
Another reason to stop the illegal aliens from getting in. Every American you talk to wants to lock the borders, yet our government turns a deaf ear and panders to the liberals and big business.
Posted by Anonymous at 5:22 PM on January 30
If each and every county in each and every State and Commonwealth would check the immigration status of each and every arrestee, and actually send off those who are illegal for deportation, then the immigration problem in this Country will be lessened considerably.
Of course, liberals (and false-hearted “conservatives”) will never let this happen, and that is the true tragedy in this story.
Posted by SouthernJew at 5:37 PM on January 30
While I don’t doubt that street gangs are a big problem, I doubt the notion that 80% of all crimes in the U.S. are linked to gangs. In order to arrive at that figure, they have to have a very generous definition of a gang-linkable crime. For instance, if you’re jacked at gunpoint for money so that the robber can buy dope from a gang, I wouldn’t consider it a gang crime, but it seems that the FBI does. Also, there is the question of what is and is not a gang, and what is and is not a gang member. Both definitions are very malleable, and if you’re someone who makes a living in the business (or rather, the hustle) of gang mitigation and prevention, you have much the incentive to fudge the statistics for the worse.
Posted by Question Diversity at 6:05 PM on January 30
(Criminal gangs in the USA have swelled to an estimated 1 million members responsible for up to 80% of crimes in communities across the nation, according to a gang threat assessment compiled by federal officials.)
What they don’t tell you is that this is how Diversity
and Multiculturalism “enrich” us. We would not have
any of this riff raff, had it not been for the 1965
Immigration Act. The Act that Teddy Kennedy said would
not alter our national landscape, or bring in endless
hordes of third worlders. As we see Teddy sure was
wrong and a liar.
Posted by Dr. Caligari at 6:42 PM on January 30
Of course it stands to reason, the vast majority of gang members are either Mexican (Hispanic), or Black. Which means police are not permitted to use racial profiling to question a suspicious looking character, his pockets bulging with drugs or stolen loot.
What a pity we can’t follow the example of some third-world countries… and simply EXECUTE drug traffickers on the spot. Saving Americans a lot of grief, a lot of wasted money that would have to be spent on a lengthy trial. With the perps usually getting little more than a figurative slap on the wrist.
Oh, sorry, I just realized my error. I’ve been ASSURED on a local TV news blogsite, Mexicans and Blacks collectively are no more prone to crime and criminal acts than Whites. No matter how the news stories seem to indicate the opposite.
Posted by Fed Up at 7:25 PM on January 30
FBI Director Robert Mueller believes all one million Hispanic gang members are white, unless one Aztec kills another Aztec. At that point, the dead Aztec suddenly becomes Hispanic, dying at the hands of a racist white.
Meuller also recently broke off group hugs with CAIR after coming to the conclusion that Muslims believe in Jihad against infidels. He’s still seaching for those elusive “moderate” Muslims with which he can do further outreach.
Posted by Nordic at 7:28 PM on January 30
This actually made the MSM as I am guessing all here realize. I do think that this is the first glimmer of reality that has made it through the MSM filter. Apparently, it is becoming more difficult to deny or hide the facts out there.
Posted by Whiteplight at 7:38 PM on January 30
80% seems a little high. I assume that plenty in the FBI can’t think out of the box.(I’d hope for the opposite.) It’s easier to go after those criminals that can be labeled as gang members.
(An older male friend suggested to me that the FBI is big on hiring more special agents right now. He knows of my interest in cultures, religions, and the Middle East. If I didn’t understand what I did, with my being physically in shape and intelligent, I might be interested.—Bigger government on the rise./Anyone and everyone running rampant in/out/across this country.—
No thanks, I want no part.— It seems so easy to get a job with these types of organizations these days.)
Posted by 24/7 at 8:18 PM on January 30
Gangs………..Diversity in motion. The epitome of toxic ignorance. When you can’t join anything else to find a sense of belonging, join a gang and make Rangle and Conyers day. They got to have the very ignorant to continue and insure their massive, govt. pay-day.
Posted by jman at 8:20 PM on January 30
