Last night, while simultaneously studying Spanish and watch Gangland on the History Channel, I discovered that Google Translate will not translate the gang phrase, Blood in Blood Out, referring to the beatdown that occurs before joining a gang and the getting murdered or beating up that takes place if you leave the gang.

Google Translate does not support gang vernacular.

I picked up At the City’s Edge, by Marcus Sakey, during a special sale on Amazon. I was excited to get it because I had enjoyed a previous book of his, Good People.

Description: Jason’s brother is murdered, and the killers are coming after his eight year old nephew. Can Jason uncover the motive and find the killers before he and his nephew become their next victims?

5 Stars

Plot/Storyline: 4 3/4 Stars

With an edgy, smart plot and an action-filled storyline, this book seizes the reader in an iron grip and doesn’t let go until the end. I was absolutely enthralled throughout the entire novel.

The suspense builds from the first chapter with excellent payoffs occurring often. Just when I thought I had it all figured out, Mr. Sakey threw me off track with another twist.

My only complaint was the number of times the main character, Jason, got maudlin. He spent a little bit too much time feeling sorry for himself. Also, his constant reminders to himself to think about the kid and avenge his brother type remarks began to get redundant.

I found a lot of the information regarding gangs to be very interesting. There was a discussion on why people join street gangs that put a new spin on it for me. There were a lot of observations regarding social structures that were interesting without making the reader feel lectured.

With a lot to love about this novel, one major thing stands out: the flow of the story. Every scene, every description, every sentence forwards the storyline. This makes for a fast-paced read, which is my favorite kind.

Character Development: 5 Stars

Mr. Sakey’s forte seems to be developing good, strong characters amidst terrific action novels. This work was peopled with realistic human beings in fantastic situations. One of the things I really enjoyed was that the people never performed wild heroics or did anything outside of what a regular ‘guy next door’ could or would have done. Even though Scott was as soldier, he was not some trained mercenary who could react to every situation as if he were a ’super soldier’.

I really enjoyed his female police officer. She was tough enough to be a believable cop, yet still retained her femininity.

Writing Style: 5 Stars

Mr. Sakey knows all about suspense and how to get the reader to feel it so strongly that they don’t want to put the book down until the very end. The dialogue was gritty and realistic. The descriptions were concise and vivid.

Formatting/Editing: 4 3/4
There were a few more editing errors than I would have expected from a commercially published book. It was just little things, like the word “the” instead of “to” and a missing word or two. There were not enough to spoil the reading experience, though.

The formatting was of professional quality.

Rating: PG-15 for Violence and Adult Situations

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As I stated above, I really enjoyed Good People, another book by this author. It was another book that had strong characterization with a lot of action.

I think the next book of his that I’m going to try is The Blade Itself. It got even better reviews than this one. Mr. Sakey also has a fourth novel, The Amateurs.

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Here are some comments from the author, Marcus Sakey:

How did you come up with the title?

It was a long, arduous process. The original title, ACCELERANT, was
rejected by the publisher, as were the next few hundred suggestions I made. This title ultimately was suggested by my editor, and we both fell in love.

How long have you been writing?

My first story, a rousing tale about the tooth fairy, was published when I was five.

What authors have inspired you?

How long have you got? David Foster Wallace, David Mitchell, Elmore
Leonard, Philip Roth, Cormac McCarthy, Dennis Lehane, Richard Price, Thomas Pynchon…

On my website I keep a running list of books I’ve recently read that blew me away; you and your readers can find it at MarcusSakey.com.

Where did you get the idea for the novel?

That’s never an easy question to answer. In this case, the thing that made the book click was the parallel between the situation in Iraq and in American inner cities. But there’s never one moment when the idea arrives fully formed. Not for me, at least.

Who is your favorite character?

I love Jason, the protagonist. He’s a good person dealing with some hard personal stuff, but one who is willing to put all of that aside to care for his family.

At the City’s Edge, by Marcus Sakey

According to the New York Post, jail warden Emmanuel Bailey allowed Papoose to do a nearly two-hour show at Rikers Island on May 30, 2006.
In the months following, there were 8 slashings at the George Motchan Detention Center.

Papoose, 30, whose real name is Shamele Mackie, has a longstanding feud with Dough Boy, 28, an ex-Bloods gang leader whose real name is Miguel Jeffrey.
The two had worked together but had a falling out after Dough Boy accused the Brooklyn MC of marginalizing him in the studio. He told The Post he retaliated by shooting at the rapper’s entourage and stealing a $40,000 gold chain from a Papoose relative.

The Rikers concert “was like throwing a match on gasoline — boom!” Dough Boy said in a jailhouse interview.
Fueled by the mayhem, the 2,978-inmate GMDC racked up 13 assaults for the year — the most among all 14 city jails.
Many of the clashes at the jail, mostly filled with “low-risk” inmates, involved Bloods members, records indicate.
Bailey had discussed a possible concert after he noticed Papoose at Rikers visiting an imprisoned pal, Pooh Nitty, a jail insider said.
The warden approached Nitty, a rapper whose real name is Devendra Singh and who is doing time on weapons charges, and said, “Papoose is my favorite rapper. Can you get him to come do a show for us?” according to the insider.
Following the concert, Bailey invited Papoose and his band into his office and had photos taken of him with the performers, the source said.
Bailey is a rap fan who hangs out with people in the music business, said a Correction colleague.
Bailey, who makes $157,146 a year, was “reprimanded” at the time for failing to get the required approvals for the concert, said department spokesman Stephen Morello.
“A procedural step may have been missed,” Morello said. “That doesn’t mean the handling of this event involved venality, corruption or a lack of competence.“
The Papoose concert spurred loud gang chants, jail sources said.
“I heard he gave a shout-out to me at the end,” said Dough Boy, who had been barred from the show by jail officials aware of their feud.
In response to the onstage taunt, Dough Boy said he instructed his friends to “get at ‘em.”
That meant attack, Dough Boy said in at upstate Great Meadow prison, where he’s serving 12 years for armed robbery and assault.
[Source: Reuven Blau, New York Post]

If they would only blow each other up,we could sell tickets.

Gun-toting members of a new Birmingham teenage gang are boasting about becoming suicide bombers, it was claimed last night.

The chillingly named Bang Bang Taliban have told community workers they want to dominate the city’s gangland – and that they would gladly be “martyred” as Islamist terrorists.

The gang, thought to be linked to the notorious Burger Bar Boys, mainly consists of Asian youngsters from the Handsworth area.

“They’re threatening rivals with violence and talking about becoming suicide bombers,” said one community worker, who asked not to be named. “Their affiliation is with the Burgers, and nine out of 10 of their members will start off as couriers and runners for the bigger gangs.It’s a real shock to hear them talking about suicide bombings and grinning about it. We have to educate these boys and get into the schools to help stop them getting involved. Someone is influencing these youths, someone is getting them involved in this.”( Weeeell. . . try the mosques,it’s just a hunch. . . )

Quinton Aaron and Sandra Bullock air out their dirty laundry.

(Warner Brothers) Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw, Quinton Aaron, Kathy Bates, Lily Collins, Jae Head, Kim Dickens, Adriane Lenox, Catherine Dyer, Andy Stahl, Tom Nowicki, Libby Whitmore, Brian Hollan, Ray McKinnon. Directed by John Lee Hancock

Accidents happen. There are no accidents. Accidentally on purpose. Is anything really random chance, or is there a destiny for all of us?

Michael Oher (Aaron) has very little going for him other than he’s big and athletic. He can barely read and write his own name, his mother is a crack addict and his father is God knows where. The father of a friend of his works as a janitor at an exclusive private school in Memphis and gets the idea to bring the two of them before the football coach to see if he can get them into Wingate one way or another. Salivating at the chance to get the raw talent onto his team, the coach (McKinnon), almost salivating, convinces the school’s trustees to admit the disadvantaged boy.

However his presence on his friend’s couch has put a strain on them, so Michael is left to his own devices. He moves from place to place, silent and sad, a big sorrowful man-child without any hope or any joy. He doesn’t fit in at his new school, and his old neighborhood is becoming increasingly dangerous.

One cold night he is walking on the side of the road, trying to get into the school gym before it is locked so that he can have a warm place to sit for awhile when by chance the Tuohy family drives by. Its matriarch, Leigh Anne (Bullock) orders her husband Sean (McGraw) to stop the car and in her typically abrupt and no-nonsense manner interrogates the boy. Do you have a place to go? Don’t you dare lie to me! Oher admits he has nowhere to sleep and on the spur of the moment, Leigh Anne decides to bring the boy home and put him up for the night.

Her children SJ (Head) and Collins (Collins) range from enthusiastic (SJ) to not so much (Collins) about the new houseguest as one night stretches into several and then into weeks and at last, months. Leigh Anne drives Michael to his old home to pick up some clothes but they find that his mother has been evicted and nobody knows where she is. Instead, Leigh Anne drives Michael to the nearest Big and Tall store where Michael shows signs of life when offered a rugby shirt in his size.

As the days go by, Oher begins to respond to his academic environment although he is unable to learn in the traditional way. Instead, he picks up on what is told to him verbally. Leigh Ann hires a tutor (Bates) to help him get his grades up and soon he gets his average to the point where he can try out for the football team. The coach’s joy turns to disappointment when Oher turns out to be far too soft and unskilled to be much of a force. It is only when Leigh Anne, to whom Michael has become very attatched to, gives him a pep talk that Michael begins to show what he’s capable of and that is becoming an All-American offensive tackle. However, when he makes a choice for his future, the motivations of his family are called into question and the relationship between Michael and his new family becomes imperiled.

Director Hancock is something of a true sports movie expert, with The Rookie to his credit and again he pulls out all the stops with this one. His best move was casting Bullock in the lead role and she nails the role of Leigh Anne who could intimidate Kimbo Slice if she had half a mind to. She’s tough as nails, suffers no fools but is fiercely loyal to her family with a soft spot for underdogs. There are a surprising number of women like her in the South and if the region has any greatness at all to it, it’s because of them.

McGraw, whose easygoing charm translates nicely to the screen, is solid as the dad, a role he has begun to be attractive to casting agents in. While Head is a bit over-the-top in places as SJ the spirited son, he at least has a great smile and a good sense of comic timing for an actor his age. In fact, all of the actors who play the Tuohy family do a good job of creating a believable onscreen family.

If there’s a problem with The Blind Side it has to do with the script. True sports stories have tended to follow a very similar format in recent movies; an underdog gets inspired in the pursuit of a goal and that inspiration leads to overachievement. When the goal is in reach, something happens to jeopardize the achievement of the goal but in the end the team/individual pulls it together at the last minute to triumph over adversity.

Some of the adversity that is shown here feels scripted and not terribly authentic. Just because a movie says it’s based on a true story does it mean that everything in it is true. Something tells me that some incidents were embellished to create dramatic tension and normally I don’t have a problem with that, but in this case it didn’t feel organic. I think it’s possible that we’ve overdosed on the genre since it felt like I’ve seen it all before and in fact I have.

And that’s not to denigrate Michael Oher or his story in any way. I think it could have been handled a bit differently and written better is all I’m saying. Still in all despite my quibbling this is still a solid movie that I can recommend without hesitation. It gets you in all the right places and makes for a fine cathartic afternoon. Still, the best reason to see this is to watch Bullock at her very best.

REASONS TO GO: Bullock does some of the best work of her career. The family dynamic is believable even if S.J. is too cute to be believed.

REASONS TO STAY: The plot is a bit formula and some of the elements feel scripted instead of true-to-life. Aaron as Oher gives us little insight into his character.

FAMILY VALUES: Some language and some minor violence but otherwise okay for families.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT: There are cameos from several Southeastern college football colleges playing themselves, including Phil Fullmer, Nick Saban, Lou Holtz and Tommy Tuberville.

HOME OR THEATER: This can easily fit on the small screen.

FINAL RATING: 6/10

TOMORROW: Terminator Salvation

Road Map of England from 1736

Early Irritations and Scares
As the popularity of the movement grew, the Methodist preachers found that they were involved in a battle that, although spiritual, often found a physical expression.

Not only did they face resistance from the clergy, but actual violence from gangs who were often paid to disrupt the meetings.

Here are two accounts from John Wesley’s experience. By the way, this is about as far as you could possibly get from the ‘private jet, 5 Star only’ attitude of a few modern travelling religious celebrities.

The only frequent traveler reward that Wesley enjoyed was an extremely sore bottom! (He travelled hundreds of miles each year on horseback) But more of his personal sacrifice later.

Disturbances in the meeting rooms
This from Wesley’s Journal: ‘Tues 26th Jan, 1742

‘I explained at Chelsea, the faith which worketh by love. I was very weak when I went into the room;

‘but the more ‘the beasts of the people’ increased in madness and rage, the more was I strengthened, both in body and soul; so that I believe few in the house, which was exceedingly full, lost one sentence of what I spoke.

‘Indeed they could not see me, nor one another at a few yards’ distance, by reason of the exceeding thick smoke, which was occasioned by the wild fire, and things of that kind, continually thrown in to the room.

‘But they who could praise God in the midst of the fires, were not to be affrighted by a little smoke.’
(JW Journal, Vol 1, Baker edition, p.354)

A tortured bull is driven into the people and disturbs Wesley’s preaching
March 19, 1742: ‘I rode once more to Pensford at the earnest request of serious people. The place where they desired me to preach was a little green spot near the town.

‘But I had no sooner begun than a great company of rabble, hired (as we afterwards found) for that purpose, came furiously upon us, bringing a bull, which they had been baiting, and now strove to drive in among the people.

‘But the beast was wiser than his drivers and continually ran either on one side of us or the other, while we quietly sang praise to God and prayed for about an hour.

‘The poor wretches, finding themselves disappointed, at length seized upon the bull, now weak and tired after having been so long torn and beaten both by dogs and men; and, by main strength, partly dragged, and partly thrust, him in among the people.

‘When they had forced their way to the little table on which I stood, they strove several times to throw it down by thrusting the helpless beast against it, who, of himself, stirred no more than a log of wood.

‘I once or twice put aside his head with my hand that the blood might not drop upon my clothes; intending to go on as soon as the hurry should be over. But the table falling down, some of our friends caught me in their arms, and carried me right away on their shoulders; while the rabble wreaked their vengeance on the table, which they tore bit from bit.

‘We went a little way off, where I finished my discourse without any noise or interruption.’
(JW Journals, Baker edition, p.363)

This was actually just the beginning of the opposition to the gospel taking hold in England. Persecution has not been uncommon in the history of the Church.

There is, perhaps, comfort in the stories of yesterday to encourage us as we seek to graciously bring the good news of Jesus Christ into the places where God has sent us.

© 2009 Lex Loizides

Past couple of weeks I’ve hella busy shooting pretty much everything that comes to me!  Been hectic as, but im not complaining, its all part of the fun! 

Earlier last week I did a fashion shoot for a new clothing line called ForgIvenSins! For most of the shoot i was only using on flash (sb-600) to create a dominant shadow and create darker contrast for the photo.  Heres a few of the doper looking ones.

The second job i had was to take photos for Sly Guild’s Fashion introducing their 09/10 Summer Range and Massey Uni bar.  For an early show Ferg was actually pretty full and was actually a legit Fashion Show even with the janitors closet dressing room!

And lastly one of my mates was keen to get some photos done of his evo, i tryed to sus out a spot to shot the car in a dope lil street but the road was blocked off so we tryed to find a street that would work in the sunlight we had.  For this shot i used 2 Sb-600’s.  I happy with the photos but for next time  im fore sure keen to get a better spot, something with no house in the back ground.

 The Fuck’in end!

**Nexus, social group, gangs**

Petitioner failed to establish that she suffered harm from gang members in Guatemala on account of a protected ground because resistance to gang activity is not a particular social group and personal retribution is not persecution on account of a protected ground.

http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/memoranda/2009/11/30/08-73196.pdf

**Nexus, gangs**

Substantial evidence supports the agency’s conclusion that Guevara Guzman failed to demonstrate that he was harmed or has a well-founded fear of harm on account of a protected ground.  He testified that gang members attacked him because they believed he had money and/or other items they wanted.

http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/memoranda/2009/11/30/08-72463.pdf

**Persecution, nexus, gang members**

Petitioners failed to establish that the harm they suffered at the hands of gang members in El Salvador was persecution on account of a protected ground.

http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/memoranda/2009/11/30/08-71268.pdf

http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/memoranda/2009/11/30/08-71545.pdf

http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/memoranda/2009/11/30/08-71869.pdf

http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/memoranda/2009/11/30/08-72603.pdf

http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/memoranda/2009/11/30/08-72724.pdf

http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/memoranda/2009/11/30/08-74032.pdf

sadly, my vhs tape was not in 3-D.

slow-motion fighters,
what does the future past hold?
sand and some ray guns.

Made in 1982, and set in 1992 after America was destroyed by a nuclear war, Parasite was billed as “the first futuristic monster movie in 3-D.” From what I remember, there’s a scientist running around a mostly abandoned town with a parasite in his stomach, and another in a weird container. Of course, this container is opened, and the second parasite escapes and wreaks havoc on the lamest gang ever, as well as a landlady that wears too much make up. This movie also features demi moore as a bar wench/lab assistant. According to someone on imdb “Seeing her in her tight shorts made this worth a check.” I think it’s just a really entertaining movie. Laser guns are awesome, ya jerks.

The defendant was convicted of robbery, with a gang enhancement, and the substantive crime of being a member of a gang. He got concurrent time for the membership count. But Penal Code sec. 654 bars multiple sentences for a single act.

This California Court of Appeal rules that being a member of a gang isn’t a crime; the crime is actively participating in a street gang by assisting in the commission of felonious conduct by the gang, meaning that there has to be a crime. So Penal Code sec. 654 is violated by punishment for both gang membership and a gang enhancement.

People v. Sanchez; 2009 DJ DAR 16464; DJ, 11/24/09; C/A 4th, Div. 2

The city’s street gangs are becoming tweet gangs.

Manhattan’s young thugs have turned to Twitter, and the cops who track them are fast behind, the Daily News has learned.

It’s old-school crime meets new technology: attacks being plotted – and thwarted – 140 characters at a time.

One investigator recently warned parents and teens that the bastion of OMG and LOL has been infiltrated by violent crews waging turf wars.

A boy shot in the leg weeks earlier on Lenox Ave. may have been targeted because of a battle the Original Young Gangsters crew started on Twitter.

“It’s horrible,” NYPD Lt. Kevin O’Connor of Manhattan North’s gang intelligence unit told a forum in Harlem.

A basic search of the social-networking site for OYG or Jeff Mob, the gang based in the Jefferson Houses in East Harlem, yields shout-outs and throwdowns.

“I knoe bitches from oyg that would dead mob yah s–t in harlem,” one girl wrote in a series of tweets aimed at drawing out a rival for a fight.

Investigators are monitoring the traffic in hopes of sweeping up gangbangers before the bloodshed – and searching Twitter after attacks for clues.

“It is another tool … just like old phone records,” a police source said. “We can go through them [messages] to track these guys.”

Harlem pastor Vernon Williams, who runs Perfect Peace Ministry Youth Outreach, said his staff uses Twitter, MySpace and instant messaging to keep track of 4,000 at-risk teens.

A week ago, Twitter helped the volunteers stop a street war after they saw the Get Money Boys, based in the St. Nicholas Houses on W. 127 St., exchanging threats with Goodfellas and The New Dons, based just a few blocks north.

“They were threatening to go and hurt two people,” said Williams, 51, who sent staff out to find the tweeters.

An NYPD spokesman and the Manhattan district attorney’s office declined comment on the phenomenon, and Twitter did not respond to e-mails.

Gang members who grew up in the digital age are blasé about their tweeting.

One 15-year-old in the 28 Gunnaz gang said it’s just like any other “form of communication,” except that the world can listen in on the conversation.

That feature can actually fuel disputes. A heated exchange between rivals on the service can turn into a full-fledged beef when others get wind, he said.

A 15-year-old nicknamed Lil V, who belongs to The New Dons, says Twitter is useful for “settin’ up the fights” and making plans.

He seemed aware that the cops or anyone else could follow them – and said the gang takes precautions, using lingo gangsters from an earlier era wouldn’t even understand.

“We got our own page,” Lil V said. “Our page is private.”

Episode 25
Painful Changes

JC stood over the man with a knife in one hand his pistol in the other. A cigarette hung from his lips as he glared at the asshole who killed his best friend. Rico had informed him that the guy was indeed working for Battle and his homies so JC only saw it fit to show good game play and torture the loser’s ass before killing him. So far, the man had received several superficial knife wounds, several cigarette burns and was chained to a table on a concrete floor. He looked at him with such disdain and spat into the guy’s face.

“You make me sick!” JC boomed around the empty room. Lock up was a place where no one liked to go on the receiving end. You only wanted to be in the gang if you were invited there. The walls dripped with damp, the windows were covered up with wooden shades on the outside and black out curtains on the inside. there was no carpet and it stank of multiple strong scents including, cleaning aids, alcohol, old blood and weed smoke. “you murdered my nigga, for what? What the fuck did he do to you?”
“Nothing!” the asshole squealed on the ground. “He didn’t do shit to me. I was told to do it!” He squirmed like a snake on the ground.
“Who told you to do it?” He snapped, slamming the pistol across the asshole’s head.
“You know I can’t say@!” The guy cried in pain, covering his face with his elbows to attempt to protect it.
“you will tell me!” JC slammed the pistol into the man’s head and blood began to spurt from his jaw line and ear. Guys around the derelict room gasped in shock as JC held a lighter to the man’s nostrils.
“If you don’t tell me,” He whispered in a menacing growl. “I will blow your fucking brains out!” The man visibly shook with fear as JC stood up, looking pleased with himself at the level of fear he had clearly instilled into this man and waited for a response.

Caitlin sat in work fiddling with her headphone cable as she pretended to work. She was meant to be writing a report and a risk assessment but JC’s visit and sudden leaving that morning had her worried. Her blue eyes darkened with concern as she wondered if he was OK. His best friend had been murdered and Caitlin had a sinking feeling she knew who was behind it all. Not to mention the fact that JC would kill for his family and friends and this was her first reality check of what being with a gangster really meant.

Pushing some papers to one side, Caitlin stood, taking her blond dog’s lead and placing it around a sleepy Callie’s neck, headed out for a breath of fresh air.

Lexie sat in the waiting room, her stomach filled with knots and her hands flipping nervously through the pages of a punk magazine. Her heart thudded every time she heard someone’s name being called, dreading the moment she was tested and knew the truth. Dan had better get ready to apologize good after these tests came back.

“Alexia Daniels?” A short, plump, brown haired nurse called from a doorway to her right. Lexie nodded and on shaking legs followed the nurse to an examination room.

The examination room was bright, white and extremely clean. The table was dressed in white paper and Lexie felt sick as the nurse weighed her, took her blood pressure and handed her the gown to change into. Her stomach somersaulted with anxiety as the door closed and she, with shaking hands undressed and changed into the paper gown.

Emily was sitting in work, planning on what to do that night. Caitlin had seemed preoccupied that morning and Lexie was unusually quiet so Emily had decided that a night out by herself would do the trick of forgetting about what’s his name? She flipped through a list of bars online as she put off doing the accounts. Numbers drove her mad and Cory was driving her crazy. standing up and pushing her brown hair behind her ears, she strolled out of the office and headed home to change and get the party started.

As she stepped into the late summer’s afternoon and rested Callie’s harness upon her back, she felt a shadow falling over her. Looking around blindly and straining her ears to ear what it might be, she felt someone clamp a hand over her mouth.

“Don’t scream, bitch! Got a message for you and that jumped up nigga you is fuckin’’!” The man’s hand stank of sweat, tobacco and some other vile smells. Her heart raced uncontrollably in her chest and she lifted Callie’s lead and realized she was eating. Her heart leapt with panic then and she felt sick as the sounds around her grew.

“Keep still!: he growled holding a cold blade to her throat. She whimpered with fear as he gripped her neck. ”Listen and listen good. You tell that stupid motherfucker that if he pulls a stunt like he did earlier, your pretty head will become a museum piece. Got me, sweetheart?” She gulped and nodded. “Good!” And he left as quickly as he had come. She bent down and pulled the steak out of Callie’s mouth, her hands shaking all the while. She needed to call Jay. Leaning against the wall she picked up her cell phone and nervously called his number.

“Yo!” He said and she knew he was with his homies the way he wouldn’t say her name. She gulped knowing this wouldn’t be good.
“Jay?” Her voice shook and her hands were trembling as she spoke to him.
“Baby, what is it?” He said urgently, all suave and façade gone. “What happened?”
“I had a visitor,” She started, the tears streaming down her cheeks in rapid succession now.
“Who?” He growled so low she hardly heard what he said. But instinctively she knew what he had asked.
“One of battle’s friends, I think. Jay, I’m scared!” She sobbed, hugging her golden friend.
“I’ll be right there, where are you, mama?” He was running, she could hear it in his voice.
“Outside of work, the park across the street,” She sobbed, clutching Callie as her tears fell freely. Hanging up with him, she crouched there for what seemed to be hours and finally his arms were around her and Callie was growling profusely.

“Que passo, me amor?” His lips brushed her neck seductively and she sobbed as he scooped her up in his arms and kissed her cheek lovingly. “Quien?”
“Yo no se!” He had been teaching her more and more and as his arms tightened once again she broke down in floods of emotional tears.
“It’s OK, baby girl,” his heart wrenched at the emotional wreck that had once been so strong. Could he have prevented this? Maybe. Would he have changed anything? Probably not. Damien had what was coming to him having acted on Battle’s orders and now this was a war raging and the most beautiful thing in his world was stuck at the center of it all. He had to do something and teaching her to defend herself was the only thing he knew how to do.

Her tears cascaded down her cheeks as she jumped into the truck with only part of the bad news in her head. She had genital warts, the doctor saw that much and the other tests should be back within the next few days. So the dirty bastard had been sleeping around. She could hardly believe it. Dan was right and now after trusting Jake, Lexie had potentially not only ruined her life but others around her. A marriage, her own relationships and who knew what else?
Leaning her head on the hot steering wheel, Lexie knew she had a lot of stuff to deal with. But a part of her just wanted to curl up and die. Why did they keep doing this kind of thing to her? What had she done that was so terrible to warrant being treated so disgustingly? Jake had made her feel so inferior and straight up dirty, and somewhere within Lexie a plot was formulating to get revenge.

Emily was sitting in one of the most prestigious bars on Sunset Boulevard before six PM. She planned to get this night started early and no one was going to change her mind on that decision. She knew caitlin and Lexie wouldn’t really care where she was, at least that’s what the vodka and coke kept telling her. After all, a guy who had supposedly been in love with her for years couldn’t stick around long enough to care, why should two girls who had their own lives to lead? Slamming the vodka glass down and calling the waiter over again ordering yet another drink, she smiled to herself. This was going to be a fun night.

His hands gripped hers as he coached her through the act of slashing with a knife. She had been more than willing to learn. The experience of having her life threatened had really shaken her and JC knew he would do anything to protect her.

“It’s gotta be a quick action or else it won’t break the skin, mama,” He told her. They were practicing on wood for now but it wouldn’t be long before he had her practicing on the real thing. His eyes watched her hands trembling with nervousness.
“Baby girl, stop it!” He gripped her hands again. “No shaking, you gotta do this right. Shaking will make you fuck up and not to mention make yourself look weak. Remember one thing mama, you always have to look like you know what you’re doing, even if you don’t always feel it. Weakness is something you can’t afford, understand me?”

She nodded, fear in her brilliant blue eyes.
“It’s OK, mama,” he pulled the knife from her hands and hugged her close to him. “I promise you, you’ll be fine!Prometo!”

”
As she lay underneath the stranger, she felt like crying. Where was he and why hadn’t he called her? had their parting been so painful for him too he couldn’t bring himself to keep in touch or was he already moving on as she pretended she was doing? The stranger panted with climax and rolled off of her. Emily hated the empty feeling Cory had left behind and she pretended to be asleep as the stranger rose and left her room. She heard the front door close and sighed a drunken sigh of relief. Maybe this would all be a bad dream and she could wake up tomorrow and Cory would be sitting on their couch eating cherios like he loved to do.

The evening was sultry as Lexie sat in the bed of her truck wondering what she should do. Jake hadn’t returned her calls and neither had Dan. She felt so alone it was far from comfortable. Emily wasn’t home and Caitlin was seemingly also MIA. She needed someone but no one seemed to be around. Lexie was yet again reminded that being alone was what her life was all about. ever since her mother had left her, it was how life was. It hurt but it was the reality of the situation. Staring up into the light adorned skies, she wished for that moment she was anyone but herself.

Caitlin lay beside JC that night in the small room at his grandmother’s house knowing that her life had changed dramatically since he had come into her life. How was it that one person could have such an influence over your life that had once seemed so black and white? Now it was blurred in so many ways she wasn’t sure what was up and down anymore. The nine millimeter he had given her lay coolly beside her hand under the pillow and yet while she was with him, she felt safe, this knew tool would be the only thing keeping her safe from now on.

Over the next few days, all three roommates were distant and unsure of so much. Instad of confiding in each other like they once would have, all three girls stayed within their little cocoons to ensure none of their friends knew what was happening. Lexie had slashed Jake’s tyres, Emily had gotten drunk every night and slept with yet more strangers and Caitlin was perfecting the art of not flinching while cutting and torturing people. all three were too ashamed to let their friends know what was happening in their lives and so distance seemed like the only option.

Caitlin’s hands were steady as she carved into the flesh of a man who had ripped JC off. It was her first experience of cutting someone real and she was surprisingly distant from her own feelings about what she was doing. Jay carter was making her into a gangsta bitch and she didn’t care. As long as she could protect Callie and herself from the scum that Battle had working for him she didn’t care what she had to do.

“Good job!” He blew a smoke ring as he watched the girl he was falling for do the work he would normally do himself. She was good. After she had learnt to distance herself from the task at hand, she was really good.

“Well, thanks,” she looked up, escaping the concentration she had been fighting with to keep her hands from shaking. Walking away and downing a shot of Jack Daniels, she smiled up at JC. Her confidence in protecting herself had grown and he had been surprised how quickly she had picked up on certain tasks. Protecting her was what he wanted to do and it seemed as though he achieved that now. By arming her to protect herself, he in turn was still able to protect her, if he couldn’t physically be there to do so.

Emily paced her room as she held the blue stick in her hand. This had better not be happening. How could she have been so stupid? Unprotected sex with strangers, why, Emily? She kept asking herself. It wasn’t worth landing yourself with a kid just because a guy you loved had left town. Glancing down at her watch impatiently, she huffed and sat on her bed waiting for the next thirty seconds to pass by.

Lexie was tying Blackmist in his stall as Dan walked by.
“Dan, wait!” but he walked on by her and she felt sick with sadness as his lack of acknowledgment killed her inside. Jake wouldn’t answer her calls either and she felt so dirty that it hurt. The test results had proven she had Herpes and it sickened her to her stomach. How could Jake do this to her? Why? Burying her face into Blackmist’s dark fur, she sobbed uncontrollably.

The new war that El Salvador faces is that of gang violence. The rising amount of youth that are joining up to these so called “families” is alarming. Most documentary makers that have had the guts to enter into that particular war zone in El Salvador have time and time again heard from the horse’s mouth the reason for why so many of the youth of El Salvador join these gangs. The primary reason is that they are looking for a family. They are looking to be accepted, loved and cared for.

Many of the kids who join these gangs have either lost a parent, in particular their father, or their parents are illegally living and working in the USA. Many of these kids for one reason or another run away from the family who were looking after them while their parents left to seek a better life in the US.

The irony is that the parents took risks to illegally enter the US to work and make money to better the life of their families back in El Salvador and their children are the ones who now are making hell on earth both in the US and in El Salvador.

The gang members are often far too uneducated, backward thinking and so entrenched in their erroneous belief that somehow gang violence and activities is going to better their life and El Salvador’s. These gangs do not realise that all their activity and action is doing is impeding economic growth and causing a brain drain on the country. Gang members often do not think of the cause and effect of their actions. The gang mentality is a mentality of cyclical revenge and it can only end in death.

Many gang members claim that they want respect, they do not want to be oppressed, they want to have money and power. They don’t realise that their way is the wrong way; their way will never bring them to a place of peace and prosperity. Most of these gang members are nothing but drug addicts, drug sellers and murderers. These gangs are large and well organised but they never reach the heights of life that they aspire to live, or if they do its short lived because they too are killed.  

How did MS13 and 18 Street get to El Salvador? The answer is easy: deportation from the US. In the video below “killing to belong” gang members cite “white oppression on Hispanics” as the reason why their gangs started. Entire families illegally entered the US over the past decades running away from poverty and desperation only to find life in the US worse as they were no longer in their homeland. Their children have little education; their children fall into the wrong company and adopt the bitterness and hatefulness of those that preceded them in the gangs. More often than not the gang members have no real idea why they truly feel all that hate and anger, its usually because they are just told “that’s how this gang works” and that’s it. When these young people and adults are caught committing crimes in the US the US government in the 90’s adopted the easy solution of getting rid of the problem by transfer it somewhere else… El Salvador. Now this problem has rapidly spread not only in the US but into other central American countries.

There have been many methods tried and tested in El Salvador to try and eliminate gang violence. None have yet to be proven as fruitful as what is known as ‘sombra negra’. The term ‘sombra negra’ translates to black shadow. The Sombra Negra were death squad groups  that emerged in the 1990’s who target criminals and gang members for vigilante justice. The gangs emerged in greater number after the US deported large numbers of criminals and gang members and upon arriving in El Salvador were deemed to be free men. At the risk of sounding like I am lowering myself to the gang member’s standard I will admit that this has been the only known effective method that has in the past controlled the aggravated violence perpetrated by these street gangs. Other anti-gang policies failed to even make a dent into the problem.

In the 90’s and early 00’s the governments of central America and El Salvador tried to introduced the unsubstantial plans of ‘Mano Dura’ and ‘Super Mano Dura’ or Iron Fist and Super Iron fist plans. These plans had all fairies and lights but not guts and did little to curb gang violence and activities. Perhaps sombra negra is the answer, for now.

A great article on El Salvador’s gangs is located here.

Growing up in the country, I didn’t see any gang activity. There wasn’t too much crazy stuff going on in rural Ohio. I only heard about grave desecrations and the eventual arson of Old Stone Church and the ensuing satanic paranoia. The fear of cults and satanism was entertaining but city life seemed light years ahead of what I was used to. This slice of NYC gang life is silent but fits the “post apocalyptic” vibe of NYC at the time and The Warriors captures the essence of the short video below. For some great pics and poor design, check

www.classicnystreetgangs.com

Well I was told that Michael Caine’s latest film, a low budget British crime thriller, was basically the UK version of Gran Torino.  There are indeed a good few similarities between the two, no more so than in the basic premise of an elderly gentleman who can’t take the violent youth gangs any longer.  However Harry Brown is really very different to Clint Eastwood’s enjoyable, if over rated, story of vigilantism in pretty much every other aspect.

Caine plays a widower living in a grimy old high rise flat who is continually dismayed by the extremely violent gang culture that is prevalent about  the area.  When his friend is murdered he can take no more and, utilising his long suppressed military training, seeks justice the Old Testament way…

Harry Brown is not, however, a Death Wish style picture.  It’s very slow and surprisingly gritty and it only takes moments to make you consider how wonderful your life, your neighbourhood and, especially, your neighbours are when seen in contrast with those of the titular character.  Director Daniel Barber’s pacing is extremely slow giving Caine the opportunity to shine as the lonely old man who has nothing left to live for.  The cinematography too is noteworthy, sitting somewhere along the David Fincher ‘Seven’ style of gloom and fluorescent bulbs and the very sparse musical scoring makes the gun bangs consistently loud and shocking.

Yeah it’s bordering on fascist in its political take on how society should deal with her failures and, though very, very depressing, I can’t help feel Harry Brown is a marvellous work of very British film making.  It’s a low budget pleasure and takes a normally glamorous genre and shows it as bloody, believable and most of all unpleasant.

4 out of 5

Ole-skool crime meets new technology.  Gang members in NY are using Twitter to organize street fights and other shady dealin’s. 

One investigator recently warned that the fortification of OMG and LOL has been infiltrated by violent crews waging turf wars. Investigators did a basic search for OYG ( Original Young Gangsters, a crew started on Twitter!) or Jeff Mobb, a gang based in the Jefferson Houses in East Harlem, and found this exchange: “I knoe bitches from oyg that would dead mob yah s–t in harlem,” (one girl wrote in a series of tweets tryin to call out a rival for a fight.)

Twitter helped volunteers at a local outreach center stop a street war, after they saw the Get Money Boys, based in the St. Nicholas Houses on W. 127 St., NY, exchanging threats with Goodfellas and The New Dons, based just a few blocks north. “They were threatening to go and hurt two people,” said the director,who sent staff out to find the tweeters.

Police are on it tho.  Story I read says that, thru monitorin’ Twitter (and Myspace!), they have managed to head off a few incidents that could have been major, and continue to beef up their own technolgy and awareness about whats happenin’ on these sites.   Task forces are using the social networking sites as a crime-fightin’ tool.   Sorta like they did with the perverted child molestors (I guess these will end up as episodes of Cops eventually…)

Lawd.  They gang-bangin’ online now.  What is the world really comin’ to?

We don’t usually do much commentary, instead letting people’s actions speak for themselves, but there are some news stories that we absolutely cannot let go reported in the way the media would have it. This is one such story.  The following piece is not as complete and thought-out as we want; it’s a piece we’ve worked on for about a week since the news hit the press, but we’d like to work on it more.  Look for a better version in the next issue of ’til it breaks.

Last week the Denver Police Department made a mass arrest of 34 black youth and it seems like nobody has blinked an eye.

The 34 suspects were rounded up because, according to the cops, they are suspects in a series of downtown muggings.

Last we heard, 30 of those individuals have been charged with things like assault and robbery–many of them felony charges.  The police did not make it clear how they identified and rounded up the suspects, but “most of [them] told police they were associated with either the Rollin’ 60s Crips gang or the Black Gangster Disciples gang.”  The police keep dossiers on gang members; apparently they used their lists to round up individuals, throw them in jail, and begin interrogations.

All this ought to raise some kind of resistance from radicals who are also tracked by the police.

Anarchists, especially, should take notice when this shit goes down, cause we’re in gangs ourselves.  It’s true.  All it takes is a crew of folks who have each others’ backs to be a gang.  Our forms of social organization are atypical, and they are our greatest strength.

Even if you don’t think you’re a gangster, the cops already do.  The police in Denver have been using their Gang Units to track anarchists for years.  To them, we’re gangs.

Not only were individuals rounded up after-the-fact on the basis of alleged gang membership, they are being held on $1 million bond for each count.  That is an impossible sum to raise, and also far higher than the bond that would normally be set for crimes like assault and robbery.

We don’t deal with shit anywhere near this serious.  Not yet anyway.  So why is state repression coming down so hard on gang members, even if they did the shit they’re accused of?

Repression of ways of being

It is not so much our individual selves that the state criminalizes, but our ways of being–how we be.

Anarchists charged with conspiracy–facing years in prison for daring to draw breath together.  Black youth rounded up for gang membership–for being so bold as to come into a mass.

And it’s damn right that proletarian youth getting organized should make any rich fuck quake in his shoes.

It is our collectivity they are making a crime.  They know, as we do, when we are weak and isolated, they know that we grow powerful together.

It’s true they jail and charge and imprison us as individuals.  The legal process separates the individual from her source of strength, ties her up in proceedings of what precise acts she as an individual has committed.  But our crimes are for the ways in which our bodies and breathing interact, merge and feed each other, the ways we roll on our enemies.  Those are the patterns that their squads and patrols and the eyes of surveillance sweep for, what the warrants yank us out of.

Cause if the proles get together, God help us all.

Crime pays when cops get shot

The ‘gang threat’ and the War on Drugs have been used as excuses to criminalize urban proletarians, especially black and hispanic youth.  Racist policing and incarceration serve the interests of the ruling class in many ways, including the repression of proletarian populations, the reinforcement of class division along lines of race, and the production of a slave work force in prisons.

Criminalization is a process that involves not only the surveillance, policing, profiling, and arrest of specific populations but also the social factors that produce their criminality.  We criminals have been produced as such by the government and its laws.  What actions and activities we engage in that are defined as beyond or against the law.

For black and Hispanic urban youth, a systematic exclusion from the wage economy has produced high incentives for involvement in illegal economies.  In turn, the state brings heavier policing and prosecution on gang members.  So while most working people hate their bosses and experience the police as somewhat worse than an annoyance, people with criminal lifestyles see the cops and the state as their number one enemy, while bosses are mostly irrelevant.  (In reality, the bosses are behind the violence of the state.)  This could be why, when proletarian uprisings have exploded after police shootings or beatings, they have often seen the central participation of gangs and other criminals.

While some on the Left propose that the ’solution’ to the ‘gang problem’ is to reinsert gang members into the wage economy, we believe that would replace one form of oppression with another.  Gangs themselves have, in moments of insurrection, expressed quite different desires through their actions–specifically, the destruction and looting of capitalist property.  It is not a desire for inclusion in the capitalist system that these express, but a desire to destroy it.

Gangs and insurrection

Gangs have been at the heart of the largest uprisings in the modern United States.  We’re thinking of the Watts (Los Angeles) Rebellion of 1965, and South Central L.A. again in 1992.  These were moments when the U.S. saw insurrections powerful enough to shake the foundations of bourgeois society, times in recent memory when uprisings were put down by massive military force.

Not only were gangs active and powerful in the rebellions, they may have been the reasons they happened at all.  It is important to note that each uprising was preceded by a truce made between rival gangs in L.A.  In other words, the cessation of violence between gangs somehow opened up an orgy of violence against cops, businesses, et al.

We are not trying to glorify gangs.  The role of gangs during the normal (i.e. hellish) functioning of modern society is of course absolutely fucked up.  We’ll offer no judgment, but will make the observation that in times of normalcy, everyone plays their part in keeping this terrible machine running.  That includes activists, leftists, revolutionaries, workers, whatever you think of yourself as.  Uprisings, insurrections are massive breaks with everyday life.  They are moments–the only moments–when we can all escape and attack normality.

If gangs are not revolutionary by nature, but rise to the occasion of an insurrection, how is it that they have had such a powerful role?  And how have their truces sparked social uprisings, while revolutionaries can hardly claim such successes?

This year after anarchist comrades in Oakland fought in the streets in the Oscar Grant riots (January ‘09), they advised us that we need more preparation, our crews need to get ready to fight when something explodes as unexpectedly as that rebellion did.  We need to seek ways to sustain and expand insurrection when it flares up.

We are still on training wheels. Some of the other gangs in our cities, by contrast, are already a war machine.  When an insurrection comes, they are organized, trained, materially equipped and mentally prepared.

Furthermore, gang members’ relationship to the police is one of militant antagonism.  This antagonism is, as argued above, the result of their position in the relations of capital and the state.

Proletarian violence

Media reports have been quick to follow the lead of the police in all sorts of ways.  No surprise there.  What’s really interesting is the media’s sensationalizing the assaults in question as “racially motivated.”

The gang members are all black and their victims have reportedly been white or Hispanic.  The police reported that the gang members used racial slurs in the attacks, but then declined to say how they knew that.  The media even quoted a ‘victim’ saying he was the victim of a “hate crime,” because he felt he was attacked for being white.

The liberal objective of proliferating “hate crime” status has been critiqued elsewhere at length–including predictions that hate crime laws would used to claim reverse racism or reverse whatever more often than not–so we won’t go into that here.  But let’s call this kind of crime for what it is.  Mugging is not racially motivated.  It is motivated by the need for money, which class society creates.  There are a diversity of people walking around in LoDo in Denver, and a whole lot of them are yuppies, but we’re still talking about random muggings.  If it hasn’t happened to you, it’s happened to ten people you know, and it fucking sucks.  It’s broke-on-broke crime.

Broke-on-broke crime means people aren’t robbing banks, or even stealing computers from art galleries, they’re ripping off poor and working folks for the little money or possessions they have.

Nevertheless, if the media can be trusted, none of the assaults targeted black folks.  And that wouldn’t be surprising.  Black youths’ consciousness has been formed in an environment where it is very clear that black people are getting fucked over.  Nobody likes someone who rips off their own people.  But we believe that race alone is a limited, even false, view of who your people are.

The Black Disciples and the Crips have their roots in revolutionary liberation struggles and in black nationalism.  Unfortunately, nationalism has limited ability to overthrow the entirety of oppression and class society, because that struggle must be beyond and against borders and nations, and also because nationalist groups reproduce domination and hierarchy internally.

In the context of a white supremacist society, it makes sense for black folks to organize together against white supremacy, even in exclusive ways.  But while race-based membership might be useful, race-based violence and crime never is.  We need to save the struggle and violence for our real enemies–those who stand in the way of our liberation and self-determination.  Hopefully, the “stop broke-on-broke crime” slogan will catch on.  Ditto bank robberies, boss-napping, and proletarian rioting and looting.

The solution to inter-proletarian violence is proletarian violence.

One more thing should be made clear.  Not all these people who were mugged were working-class.  A lot of them were yuppies.  Whoever they are, they have enough collective power and clout to bring the state down hard on these gangs.  And they get to say stupid shit about “hate crimes” in the paper, while the gang members themselves are silenced.

Nothing here but silencing

What do the 34 individuals have to say?, I would like to know.  But there is nothing here but silence.

Shortly after the arrests began, 9News reported that one suspect had called the TV station before turning himself in to the police.  They did not report what he said to them.  Nor did any news outlet report any statements from the suspects or their families.  Contrast this to the arrest of our comrade Ariel Attack in August.  In that incident there was one arrest, not 34, and journalists were constantly calling and harassing Ariel’s friends, roommates, supporters, family members, and any random ‘radical’ in Denver, in a desperate attempt to solicit a comment.  (They didn’t get a statement from anyone except Glen Spagnoli, who felt entitled as a self-appointed representative of Denver radicals to talk shit about the action Ariel was charged with.)

It is no secret that gangs are consistently denied a voice.  Why is that?  What would they have to say?

The fact is that the few statements that gang members have made publicly have been intelligent, revolutionary, and community-based in content.  For example, in the context of the L.A. rebellion, “The Human Relations Conference, against the advice of the police, gave a platform to sixty black gang leaders to present their greivances.  To the astonishment of the officials present, the ‘mad dogs’ outlined an eloquent and coherent set of demands: jobs, housing, better schools, recreation facilities and community control of legal institutions.” (Mike Davis, City of Quartz, pg 300).

But the police can’t have gangsters’ voices being heard.  They need to wage a war against gangs, and that would be bad PR.

The silencing of gang members opens up space for others to speak on their behalf.  News outlets didn’t interview the individuals who were arrested, but they did interview and publish lengthy statements from an ‘expert,’ a ‘representative.’  Clearly they will not allow gang members to speak for themselves, but are hungry for a more ‘official’ perspective.  The statements came from Reverend Leon Kelly, who runs a Denver gang-prevention program.  To settle any question of what side this Reverend is on, he stated that the arrests “will confirm to these kids that there is a consequence.”

Our task

If L.A.’s rebellions of 1965 and ‘92 were both preceded by gang truces, and these rebellions are real threats to bourgeois society, it would follow that the state’s interests would lie in the repression of gangs, fostering their infighting, and preventing the organization of another truce.

The evidence supports this thesis.  In June of 2009, a former gang member and gang truce organizer named Alex Sanchez was arrested in Los Angeles.  He is being held without bond on charges of being a gang member and allegedly being involved in some of the crimes that gang allegedly committed.

If we desire proletarian insurrection, we would be wise to note that it may all hinge on gangs.  Those of us who are also criminals, who roll in crews, have some things in common with gangsters.  At the very least, we share criminality, ways of being, antagonism to the police and the state, militancy, and a desire to riot and loot.  Everything indicates that we need to get organized, and everything seeks to prevent this from happening.

Anarchists need to know our hoods & our neighbors first and foremost.  Where are our relationships to the gangs in our city?

We do not mean to argue that relationships to gangs are more important than other reliationships in organizing in our ‘hoods, but that organizing our ‘hoods is where it’s at, and gangs are an important piece of the process.  Our ‘hoods are where we live, the places that we stand in struggling for liberation.  But they are also the places we know the least about.

This is, in part, a recognition of that everything about the insurrectionary process remains to be built.  It is also an admission that here we will stand and fight, so let us really begin to learn the territory of the coming battles, and prepare them for war.

War happens elsewhere, we have been taught.  In other places, in others’ lives.  Social peace is the ‘reward’ that comes with our privilege, our position of world dominance.  It is eminently dependent upon war elsewhere, war for others.

But some of us have recognized that something like war is being waged against us every day in the conditions of our existence.  In the cops who are arresting, beating and killing our friends and neighbors.  In the eviction notice from the landlord.  In the fact that we have to work in order to survive.  In the paramilitary attacks by racists, rapists, queerbashers, police of every stripe, who we often find living under our own roofs.

We are already at war.  The lines have already been drawn.  We have yet to recognize where we stand, and we have yet to find each other, our allies. We are divided against ourselves rather than united against our enemies.  We have yet to feel ourselves as a force.

The cops, the media, mediators and representatives of all kinds will do everything to prevent this from happening.

So it must be our task.

of interest:    Free Alex Sanchez:  wearealex.org //   LA ‘92, and the role of gangs: libcom.org/library/la-riots-aufheben-1

4th December 1990. Victor DeJesus is chillin on Pitkin Ave in Brownsville…
He stopped by Soul Shack record shop to buy the Brand Nubian’s Wake Up tape…
The Rest of the Day is (Crooklyn) History

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced a $335 million investment in teacher effectiveness, with major grants for experiments in tenure, evaluation, compensation, training, and mentoring in three large school systems and a cluster of public charter schools.

The winners, picked from 10 applicants, are: Hillsborough County (Fla.) schools, in the Tampa area, $100 million; Memphis schools, $90 million; Pittsburgh schools, $40 million; and five charter networks in Los Angeles (Alliance College-Ready Public Schools, Aspire Public Schools, Green Dot Public Schools, Inner City Education Foundation, and Partnerships to Uplift Communities Schools), $60 million. Most of the money will go to Hillsborough County Public Schools in Florida, Memphis City Schools and Pittsburgh Public Schools.

Hillborough County alone will receive $100 million, the single biggest award ever to one district. Memphis received another $1.9 million in companion funds. This is the largest donation to Memphis City Schools in all the history of Memphis. Memphis school board president Martavius Jones said this is not just for Memphis City Schools, this is for everyone in the city of Memphis. The funds will be used on a seven-year project intended to improve teaching at Memphis public schools.

“The Denver Police Department announced today that they have made 32 arrests during a sweep to end a four-month spree of what police said were racially motivated assaults and robberies in downtown Denver, including the LoDo entertainment district.”

Note: This blog is not set up to point out every crime committed against our people by others. For one thing, society is sick as a whole and although the numbers are greatly disproportionate against it, there are crimes committed by our own people. The main point of this is to bring attention to the double standards and the hypocrisy of the media in reporting these crimes. Mass media would blow this story through the roof had the races been reversed. They are in effect creating an alter reality that is not in the best interest for our people. While hollywood makes feel good movies with the intention of destroying the natural self-preservation instincts of our people, they will ignore the racial aspects of every day stories like these two recent ones of Freddie Jones who is still in critical condition after being burned alive and of Christopher Kernich, a college student who was beaten to death for no reason. That being said, the purpose of this blog is to make our people realize that we need to rely on our own media, we need to create our own special interests groups, and we need to protect the best interests of our people… because no one else will do it for us.  One Maryland is on the front line to do so. The question is- Will you support us and help us work for a better future, or will you allow allow your children to grow up in a world they are not welcome in?