After Fed Crack Down, Still Violence in Highland Park
By Alex A. Alonso for Streetgangs.com
October 4, 2009
On September 22, 2009 Los Angeles City Councilman Ed Reyes said that the recent Avenues bust had removed a lethal threat from the streets. Last night six persons were shot and wounded in what is being described by the LAPD as a gang-related attack by Avenues members against their rival and perhaps the oldest gang in Los Angeles, Dog Town Rifa, a neighborhood founded circa 1890 by Irish and Mexican immigrants. Two weeks ago federal law enforcement officials along with the LAPD and Mayor Villaraigosa announced the arrest on 44 of the “most dangerous” Avenues members, but the problem continues to persist represented by last night’s shooting.
Although Chief Bratton and Mayor Villaraigosa have stated for the past several years that they cannot arrest their way out of the gang situation, it appears they are doing just that in the Highland / Cypress Park area of Northeast Los Angeles. The massive arrest of 44 members will work to create a void in the gang community that will ultimately create more offenders. Violent offenders should definitely be prosecuted, but hitting mid-level offenders and first-time offenders with Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act violations (RICO), which were specifically designed to prosecute members of the five Italian mafia families of New York during the 1970s, is completely inconsistent with the path City officials claim to take. These RICO arrests, which have been on the rise nation-wide against street gang members and other groups and individuals, transforms minor State offenses that would carry short sentences into federal sentences that can carry 20 year sentences.
RICO has been so generally applied since it’s formation, that a common delinquent can received a John Gotti like sentence for a minor conspiracy offense, and many of the 88 members named in the most recent RICO indictment are guilty at most of associating with other offenders or having conversations with them. It’s the “conspiracy” aspect of RICO that allows so many young men to get arrested under the umbrella of RICO. If one was to sit in on a trial or carefully read page-by-page the evidence in a RICO case, many of the conspiracies are what I call “perceived conspiracy” but jurors have a difficult time with making the distinction between an actual criminal offense and talking about one. Prosecutors will often pass out 10 and 15 year deals as part of a plea agreement to the minor and serious offenders alike. Those that reject the plea offers and decide to go to trial includes those that are so shocked about being indicted that they will accept nothing less than complete exoneration and those that are guilty of the most serious offenses that feel that they have nothing to loose taking it to trial.
When an average person reads one of these indictments, the Avenues gang as a whole, which is estimated to have 800 members, sounds extremely menacing. There have been several Avenues members guilty of very serious crimes during the last 10 years, but the overwhelming majority of the 800 members are not tax paying, gun totting, racist killers. The recent indictment alleges the following:
– Violent crime in aid of racketeering
– Conspiracy to distribute cocaine base in the form of rock cocaine, methamphetamine, cocaine, and heroin.
– Possession with intent to distribute cocaine base in the form of rock cocaine, methamphetamine, cocaine, and Heroin.
– Use of firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence of drug trafficking crime
– Felon on possession of firearm
– Illegal alien in possession of a firearm
– Conspiracy to launder money
Although the Avenues are alleged to have committed murder and in the past have been convicted of murder, this indictment does no include any charges of murder, attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon or any hate crimes. According to LAPD Deputy Chief Charlie he views this take down as an effort towards “eliminating [the Avenues] ability to operate as a criminal enterprise” but other than creating a void is all this sweep will accomplish. Within a short time, young boys growing up in this community will replace the incarcerated youth and the cycle will continue.
RICO is certainly an easy way for the federal government to put people in prison for a long time for offenses that would not normally carry 15 and 20 year sentences, but do all these offenders deserve these sentences? Are we driving our prisons into the status of perpetual overcrowding? Are these excessively long sentences going to drive more prison construction to accommodate the growing inmate population? Are state and federal budgets going to be able to sustain the costs of these heightened prosecutions that result in long term incarceration? If massive sweeps, federal indictments, hate crime violations, 2 RICO indictments, and a permanent gang injunction are suppose to cripple the existence and disrupt the activities of a street gang, that should be evident in the Northeast community of Highland Park. Last nights shooting suggests that nothing has changed.
Visit Other Related posts:
Thee Rascals in Atwater Village
Fifty-Two Members and Associates of San Bernardino Street Gang Targeted in Federal Drug Trafficking Indictment
Gas Station Surveillance camera catches 16-year-old shooting into car
Avenues Gang is dealt a second federal indictment – Is Gang Finally Dismantled?
Photo: Mexican Gangsters belong in Mexico
Racial Tensions? Do Mexicans & Blacks get along in Imperial Courts Watts Los Angeles?
Avenues gang has a long, violent history in Los Angeles
Racial Tensions in California’s Prisons
America welcomes anyone in to do whatever they want to do.Now look what we have to deal with.Things are going to get much worst before it gets any better.Round those animals up and send them packing.Go back to mexico,el salvador,belize,etc.just get the hell out of America.
f u u F#@King piece of ish. Cum suck some d#$k chick made punk.
2:41 am
aa;ksdlf;ks;faa
hope you feel smart now
Bryant, the LA Times reported that none of the gang members in this round up were here illegally. All of them were American citizens.
Most gang members in LA are US citizens. No more than 10 percent of them are illegal and of those they are responsible for the lowest proportion of violence
HVHV THVTS RITE f NOODLES!!!ENEMY.. V.NE.HIGHLVND PVRQUE1!!!
man alonzo is an ass hole who loves dirty ass fing gang members
Alonso is describing exactly what the solution to bring down the violence. More cops is not the solution, more arrests is not the solution, more indictments is not the solution. All this happens so that the politicians can parade on TV and act like they are doing something.
I dont like u you loser! Where do you live?
Stop the violence what I don’t understand is that african americans and hispanics are so much alike in so many ways and we together attribute so much to are communities but yet we gave allowed are self to be brain washed into believing hatred is more then unified impowerment. I will not allow the powers that be continue to cloud my mind with such propaganda that enables them to continue to Jim Crow us in so many ways and on so many levels. Knowledge is power and not the knowledge of a gang’s histort but the knowledge of a peoples history. Ie spanish civil war, the civil war of the america’s, slavery of african americans and black’s.
viva la raza……………….
Hey enemy, you all vatos need to change ur hood’s name. There’s only one VNE and that’s in the east side. Be original ese and create an OG name. Stop biting this hood. For reals homeboy!
V. NE STANDS FOR VARRIO NORTHEAST HIGHLVND PVRK… ESTARDA COURTS THATS 2 U HOMEBOY ASK ABOUT US. AINT NO ONE BITING ish THIS VARRIO HIGHLAND PARK ON MINE!!!!!!!!
why do you replace the “A” aren’t you guys avenues or do you have beef with them and just share the same hood
This is so f’n sad…why cant those F#@Kin cops understand…
people should just live their lives…
~listn 2 tupac thugmantion makes sense….wheres tha lov =)
vsarah26@yahoo.com->myspace
I dare them wets to bring that mess to Texas
Well don’t they have Tri City Bombers and Texas Chican Bros??? Plus the Texas Syndicate? I just seen that on History channel… Looks like you minght be living in a farm if you did’nt know Black. Plus they also have some big white skin head gang there too..so sounds like your request might be double for your trouble… Cause if you hate Mexican’s then you most likely hate White’s too..and if you claim to have love for them..Black they sure ain’t got NO love for you…
Puto, U don’t speak for me. Im white and I have more love for the blacks than you back stabbing, two faced cabrones, puro maricon mamones
that’s what brothers used to say here in LA…..now that we brought it, they say we took it too far and are crying for a timeout….this aint basketball or football homie….you don’t get time to regroup.
just keep F#@King with them webacks……in due time they’ll bring it…….k your family on friday and be back in mexico eating tacos by saturday.
Mexicans been geting beat up an jac’ed 4yrs by blacks that’s y rats quick 2 shoot us outhere but they ain’t stop makin guns last time I checked, sewerats get droped jus ass quick ass a Ni66ah
there’s plenty of mexican varrios in texas where you can puff your racist little chest out and get your wig peeled back.
i hope you do it soon i’d love to hear that one of those “wets” ked themselves a confused ass smart guyed kkk sympathising black dude who didn’t know his head from his mothers asshole
VARRIO HIGHLAND PARK GANG!!!!!!!!f NOODLES AND f THE FEDS!!!!! FREE ALL THE PARKS!!!!!
f 2 pac!!!!!!!
f hope less .Ps ! high lame punks !
parks are for kids and for dogs to take a ish . f high lame punks back street kulos and cacaroach parqueras. cAs 1
THaTS RITE f!! NOOODLES aLL I SEE IS DEaD ROaMENS ON MY PaRK OF VEIW THaT WHY THE OLDER HOMIE KICK UR PUNK HOMIE GaNGSTER FROM DREW HaHa BaCK IN 1986 EaSTLAKE JUVIENaL HaLL UNIT J IN THE FaCES H aND GOT SPIT ON aHaHa LaME!!!!!!!!! SPEEDY GaNG!! aK aLL DaY!!! RUN UP
VARRIO’EAST’LA13—–>GET UR ish STRAIGHT HOMIE!
NO NORTH ON THIS SIDE OF MY TOWN!
VARRIO”ESTE”LOS”ANGELES”TRECE!
Gang life will screw up your life. Ive been there burried alot of friends and family all murders.
I hear you Sharks..Same here.. But when there is no Family Life then the next best thing is Street Life..that seems better at the time distracting us from School Life…then we wondering what we did with our Life..
your are so right
This Black on Mexican and Mexican on Black thing has exhausted itself. What we fail to realize is that for the most part most Blacks and Mexicans don’t hate each other. We actually get along damn well. White people are using this as a way to minimize our power and potential we possess. We’re just feeding into stereotypes set out by people who want to stay relevant and stay in power. Unity is key and progession will continue. They found a new way to continue the struggle by letting us fight over scraps of crappy neighborhoods they have no use for anymore. They’re treating us like animals by quarantining us in so called ghettos hoping and praying that we k each other off before they have to come up with another way to hold us back. They take our attention away from family, community and culture that makes us all unique and turn it around and use it in demonizing ways to create fear amongst us. They take jobs out of our communities hoping we turn to alternative salaries such as drug dealing and robbing to create paid resort vacations where our men can go for three square meals…lol. It’s the truth. They would not tolerate this crap in their neighborhoods why should we do it in ours. Life is too short to not get a chance to live to your fullest potential. I know I’m all over the place with this, but as a Black man I’m only compelled to share with my Black and Brown brothers that this ishty system will continue as long as we allow them to lay it out so we can play it out.
Intervention is the key not supression. “Building more prisons is like building more cemetaries to treat those with aids.” Father Greg Boyle
Hi Alex
Please contact me. I’m the mom whose son was murdered in Glassell park three years ago at a huge house party. He lived on Christmas Eve at midnight. He was a hero. We met several months ago outside of a supermarket.
Hope you remember me.
Your article is very informative. You appear to have good research to support it.
I lost you number, call my number again, sorry
I’ve been looking for this exact info on this subject for a long time.
LOOK AT ALL YOUR fEN RESPONSES…f THE AVENUES…f 18ST…f DOG ish, f TOONERVILLE, f EM ALL..CLICK CLICK BANG BANG ITS ALL ABOUT THAT BIG BAD HIGHLAND PARK GANG…IVE BEEN RIDING MY BIKE IN THESE STREETS SINCE I WAS IN MONTE VISTA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL…PRE K TO BE EXACT…I WAS A YOUNG LIL FOOL DIDNT EVEN KNOW WHAT A GANG WAS…RUNNIN DOPE IN MY BACK PACK..AND IM STILL DOING THE SAME ish…IM NOT NO fEN RAT LIKE YOU PUNKS SAY WE PARQUEROS CLAIM TO BE….IM DOWN ASS GEE HOMIE COME OUT AND SEE…I BET MORE THAN 2/3 OF YOU LEVAS TYPING YOUR ASS AWAY ON HERE HAVENT EVEN PICKED UP A fEN CUETE HUH…LAMES…I BUT YOU GUYS HAVENT EVEN FELT A BALA IN YOUR HAND PERIOD…HUH LAMES…fEN chickES…THIS IS RASCAL FROM THAT VARRIO HIGHLAND PARK GANG IN SINCE THE 80S…
it’s good to know that the racist stuff is being dealt with. if you’re not aware that aa/mexican violence made it all the way over to the EC. black and latinos get along here real good. we don’t mess with that divide and conquer bs, but when the brothers heard about “the new klan” and “ethnic cleansing” they couldn’t wait to get their hands of some mexicans.
thats my homeboy in the tank top and his mom in the background.she is a beautiful person just trying to make it…free them
f you helpless hopeless halapitos all up in ya