Friday, May 22, 2009

The Biggest Gang Takedown in History


This is very disturbing to hear, but it's all over town.

A Latino street gang waged a racist campaign to eliminate the city's black residents through attempted murders and other crimes, according to federal racketeering indictments unsealed Thursday.

Five indictments charged a total of 147 members and associates of the Varrio Hawaiian Gardens gang, and federal and local agencies arrested 63 of them by early Thursday, U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O'Brien said at a news conference.

Another 35 defendants were already in custody on unrelated charges. Weapons and drugs worth more than $1 million also were seized in what O'Brien called "the largest gang takedown in United States history."

The indictments detail attempted murder, kidnapping, firearms, narcotics and other charges related to attacks by the gang, which is predominantly Latino and mainly operates in Hawaiian Gardens, a city of about 15,000 in southeastern Los Angeles County.

"(Varrio Hawaiian Gardens) gang members take pride in their racism and often refer to the VHG Gang as the `Hate Gang,'" the main indictment said. "VHG gang members have expressed a desire to rid the city of Hawaiian Gardens of all African-Americans and have engaged in a systematic effort to achieve that result by perpetrating crimes against African-Americans."

I don't even know what to think. This is so sad, foolish and crazy in so many ways. I hope that this incident don't pull our communities apart. We have to rise above this mess.


Source

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It sucks that racism of any kind is still so prevalent in the world. I hope the human race is able to grow past this sort of thing one day. Until then we can not be silent. We must speak to educate and reform any ignorance we come across. I know my own father was one of the biggest racists around, til he fell in love with a black woman. That gives me confidence that others are capable of growth as well.

Joy said...

This is scary and sad. There is so much work to do in our society about all this. Sasha, that is hopeful progress from your father.

Prince Todd said...

This is why I don't think I would ever want to live in California. That is really scary.
Well, I am really glad that the feds are cracking down on illegal immigration now. I don't fault the law abiding hispanic populace for this, at all.
But after this there has to be better border security.

The Stuff

My photo
Viktor is a small town southern boy living in Los Angeles. You can find him on Twitter, writing about pop culture, politics, and comics. He’s the creator of the graphic novel StrangeLore and currently getting back into screenwriting.