| Author |
Message |
    
Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 764
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 04, 2006 - 02:56 pm: | 
|
Gang Accused of Conspiring to Kill Blacks
Federal prosecutors allege that members of the Avenues in L.A. plotted to commit violence against African Americans.
By John Spano
Times Staff Writer
July 4, 2006
Jose Cruz is a walking testament to what happens when a member turns against the Avenues street gang.
He has 30 scars from the stab wounds he suffered in one attempt on his life — on his arms, torso and legs. In another attack, he was beaten so severely that he has a visible dent in his skull, according to court papers, "the size and shape of a pistol butt."
His street gang goes back five generations in Highland Park, which for Cruz is five miles and several lifetimes from the downtown courtroom where he is scheduled to testify as the star witness for the prosecution in the trial of a group of childhood friends.
Federal prosecutors, who launched their case last week, contend that the Avenues gang between 1994 and 2000 conspired to kill African Americans on their turf.
Men, women and children were harassed, terrorized, assaulted and slain as gang members sought to force black residents out of Latino neighborhoods, prosecutors said.
Authorities are using a federal hate-crime law based on the amendment to the U.S. Constitution that outlawed slavery, and another law created in the civil rights era, to go after four gang members. Barbara Bernstein, deputy chief of the criminal section of the civil rights divisions of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, is part of the prosecution team.
Attorneys for the defendants — Gilbert Saldana, Alejandro Martinez, Fernando Cazares and Porfirio Avila — have asserted that the federal government has no power to involve itself in a common street crime.
Defense attorney Reuven L. Cohen told jurors last week that one of the slayings cited in the charges — the 1999 shooting of Kenneth Wilson — was not a hate crime but "a simple gang killing committed out of boredom."
Cohen said the crimes sprang from the "sad" truth of "a tension that exists between African American gangs and Latino gangs."
The first of three former gang members, each in custody and hoping for leniency, testified Monday. Jesse Diaz, who described himself as a tagger from age 12, told jurors the Avenues decided to fight the "infestation" of blacks in Highland Park with a systematic terror campaign designed to run them out of the neighborhood.
Diaz, who has 10 more years to serve in prison for attempted murder, said the Avenues hated all rival gangs. But the antipathy for blacks was different, he said.
Highland Park became the scene of a game in which Diaz's group of Avenues actually competed with another "clique" to run the most blacks out of Highland Park, he testified.
Two other informants, one serving a long state prison term and the other a deported immigrant, will tell jurors that Saldana shot Wilson repeatedly in 1999, explaining that Saldana had just acquired a gun and "wanted to test it out."
One told the FBI in interviews that the gang got an order in 1998 from the Mexican Mafia prison gang to "kill any blacks … on sight."
Rick Ortiz, a Los Angeles police spokesman, called the Avenues a "bully" gang that uses its large numbers to intimidate.
"The Avenues have been around for a long time," Ortiz said. "They are the largest gang in the northeast area, with over 500 documented, active members."
Although gang members have for years been subject to a court order that limits their activities, they remain active, authorities said. Their racial antipathy is an outgrowth of prison culture, in which rival street gang members band together by race and then bring those attitudes back to the streets, Ortiz said.
"When you have gang members standing out on the street corners, they intimidate people," he said. "They may commit a minor offense, like vandalism, but people are so afraid of them they won't call in. It diminishes the quality of life in the community."
Heinrich Keifer, president of the Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council, said racial violence by gang members is not currently a problem in the area.
"Our biggest problem is not so much gangs, although some members of the community are intimidated. It's more the taggers," Keifer said. "They create that feeling that the community is destroyed. The gangs aren't ruling the turf. They're not necessarily muscling people out. There was some of that in the past.
"The area is on the rebound, so much so that many Westsiders are moving in," Keifer said, citing the historic heritage of the area northeast of downtown. "Many of the poorer people are struggling with the rising rents."
As part of his strategy in the case, defense attorney Cohen plans to target the witnesses' credibility.
Diaz and the two other former gang members are lying to curry favor with prosecutors, Cohen said. Defendants Saldana and Avila are in prison, serving life sentences without the possibility of parole for murder. Cazares is in custody on a parole violation. Martinez's custody status could not be determined.
Prosecutors say the gang members conspired in various acts of violence, including:
• Wilson's 1999 killing, which occurred when he returned to his Avenue 52 home late at night after a party, his nephew, Duane Williams, testified Thursday. Wilson was shot repeatedly by Saldana and two others because of his race, Assistant U.S. Atty. Alex Bustamante told jurors.
• Diaz testified that gang members beat a black homeless man with metal weapons, and attacked an African American man speaking on a pay telephone from behind and severely beat him.
Another black man was assaulted on the street because he was walking with a Latina, according to Bustamante.
• Finally, authorities say they have linked the killings of two other men to the Avenues, partly through ballistics. The victims were Christopher Bauser, who was shot execution-style at a bus stop in 2000, and Anthony Prudomme, also killed on a street.
Bustamante offered a chilling view of the mentality of the Avenues as the trial opened in U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson's courtroom. Martinez was driving a van carrying five fellow Avenues members when he spotted Wilson.
"Anybody want to kill a nigger?" Bustamante said.
"Those are not my words, ladies and gentlemen," Bustamante added, gesturing across the room to Martinez. "They are his."
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-gangs4jul04,0,7027293.story?coll=la-home -headlines |
Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 2882
Registered: 07-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 04, 2006 - 10:18 pm: |
|
Whaaaat??? I thought we was "ALL BROWN!"--what happened???????
|
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 2384
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 05, 2006 - 11:55 am: |
|
They ain't doing too good a job of it though are they? |
Serenasailor
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Serenasailor
Post Number: 519
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 05, 2006 - 05:02 pm: |
|
This is the reason why the Black man must stand up and defend himself. Has anybody noticed that Latino's have infested this country in the millions only over a span of 20 years. Who is letting these ppl in this country and why?
A guy I went to school with was murdered in Highland Park by these ppl. He was black and his murderers were Latino.
Remember when Kola said everybody in the world "hates" blackness. She was right.
But nothing out here will ever change because the black men out here see it as a status symbol to have White, Asian, and Latina wives. So you can imagine that there is no unity among Black ppl out here. |
Grind
Veteran Poster
Username: Grind
Post Number: 53
Registered: 04-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 05, 2006 - 06:59 pm: |
|
Whaaaat??? I thought we was "ALL BROWN!"--what happened???????
I've said this before on this board: your average Mexican has 10X the hatred for blacks that you're average white does. Neither group are our friends.
Can you believe that there are still many blacks who in full support of open borders? |
Serenasailor
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Serenasailor
Post Number: 530
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 05, 2006 - 07:37 pm: |
|
I've said this before on this board: your average Mexican has 10X the hatred for blacks that you're average white does. Neither group are our friends.
Can you believe that there are still many blacks who in full support of open borders?
These are the Niggerish black ppl who hate being black themselves so they run around trying to gain solidarity with non-black so they can feel good about themselves. Shame on them.
These black ppl are constantly trying to seek acceptance from non-blacks. Like my brothers stupid colorstruck best friend who married a Mexican woman and would not allow any of his Black friends and family in the wedding.
|
Schakspir
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Schakspir
Post Number: 315
Registered: 12-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 05, 2006 - 07:57 pm: |
|
Most blacks actually loathe Mexicans, to the point where they considered joining a bunch of neo-Nazi crackpots (the Minutemen) to chop them up. Blacks actually do kick Mexican ass on occasion, especially in California, and dislike seeing other blacks hanging around Mexicans. Over here in Maryland I hear the word "spic" being thrown around by blacks virtually all the time....but only because the Latinos out here are almost as bad as those brown-skinned brownshirts in L.A. FYI, the Asians also loathe Mexicans, so there's no love lost for them. (Not that I give a shit.) |
Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 780
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 05, 2006 - 09:30 pm: |
|
My city is majority hispanic and I always that we was cool, but I guess not. I need to start being more careful around these Mexicans. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 2405
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 06, 2006 - 12:13 pm: |
|
I love Mexicans.
Of course being in St. Louis Missouri, I rarely see any save on television.
For those of you around a lot of them--better learn to Habla Espanol!
C'mon! You been kissing white people's butt for 500 years and, from the looks of it, ain't about to stop now. So now you are objecting just because it smells of frijoles? |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 2406
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 06, 2006 - 12:15 pm: |
|
I heard Mexicans take real good care of their women, especially if they are black.
Does that change your attitude some? Huh?
Let's do a little test. Who would you rather have, me, Steve Urkel, or Antonio Banderas?
Be honest now! |
Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 782
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 06, 2006 - 12:27 pm: |
|
I heard Mexicans take real good care of their women, especially if they are black.
I wouldn't know. But you could ask Kola - she's supposedly dating one.
Mexicans are everywhere, including St Louis. Trust me, they're there. You just ain't lookin hard enough! |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 2410
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 06, 2006 - 12:50 pm: |
|
Mzuri:
If I got to look that hard there ain't enough to worry about. I ain't seen a live Mexican in weeks, trust me.
By the way--who did you decide on in the test? |
Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 786
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 06, 2006 - 07:02 pm: |
|
What test? |
Doberman23
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Doberman23
Post Number: 442
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 10, 2006 - 05:45 am: |
|
chris they usually stay in texas, cali, az, and all those hot places ... i think your neck of the woods is like michigan, the winters aint nothin' to phuck wit. |
Serenasailor
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Serenasailor
Post Number: 548
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 11, 2006 - 01:32 am: |
|
Anthony Prudhomme was one of my sisters dear friend. He was not murdered on the street but in his apartment. |
Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 392
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 - 03:36 am: |
|
"But nothing out here will ever change because the black men out here see it as a status symbol to have White, Asian, and Latina wives. So you can imagine that there is no unity among Black ppl out here."
Yeah,...right. Another stunningly brilliant scholarly deduction! But I agree. As soon a black men stop dating non-black women, black illegitimacy will cease! black gang wars and violence will be a thing of the past. As a group, black children's math and reading comprehension scores will surge past Asians and white children respectively. Violent drug turf wars and crack addiction will disappear from the black underclass and the life expectancy of black males will increase on an average of nine years. Black men as a group, will start to financially support and begin to help raise the children they sire by numerous women. Diabetes, hypertension, cancer and obesity will rapidly decline within the black race. Black males will reverse their alarming high school drop out rate. And black unemployment figures will suddenly reflect the national average once black men stop dating and chasing after white women and non-black women!
All of the aforementioned could change within a matter of weeks if these race traitorous brothers would just leave white women alone! I mean, how can you deny this? The logic is scientific and irrefutable! Black men: JUST SAY NO TO WHITE WOMEN AND WATCH THE IMMEDIATE OVERWHELMING METAMORPHOSIS OF THE BLACK COMMUNITY! Everything I have listed is directly tied to the relationships between black men and non-black women and nothing else! Once brothers break their slavish addiction to non-black women -EVERY SINGLE THING I LISTED WILL COME INTO IMMEDIATE FRUITION. Trust me!
|
|
Email This Page