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Terrorizing LA Street Gang Raided after Sheriff’s Deputy Killed

Cited:  AP

Notorious LA street gang members were accused of terrorizing a neighborhood for years as well as killing a sheriff’s deputy when targeted for a raid by hundreds of law enforcement officials on September 22.  A series of early-morning raids conducted by local police and federal agents were conducted to find key members of the Avenues street gang.  The gang claims a section of northeast Los Angeles as its “territory”.  This resulted in a massive federal racketeering indictment detailing criminal activities for more than decade of 90 suspects.

Officers in full body armor were seen at dawn, September 22, at a blocked-off staging area at the Dodger Stadium parking lot, where suspects were being processed at a portable booking area as media helicopters hovered overhead.  Scores of search warrants were served at 4 a.m. from Los Angeles to Kern County, and almost all suspects were in custody within three hours, said Los Angeles police Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz.

There is “ironclad evidence of the crimes,” Diaz said at the staging area.  “Our goal is to … move these people out, occupy this community and support the law-abiding people that deserve to live in dignity here.”

Aside from murdering rivals, dealing drugs, graffiti tagging and other crimes, the gang is accused of making threats and carrying out acts of violence against police officers, culminating in two attacks that rocked the law enforcement community last year.

The first of these, on Feb. 21, 2008, saw Avenues gang members open fire with handguns and an AK-47 on Los Angeles police officers. Police shot back, killing 20-year-old Daniel Leon, whose nickname was ‘Clever,’ and injuring another man.  Then on Aug. 2, 2008, off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff’s Deputy Juan Escalante was shot dead in front of his parents’ home northeast of downtown.

Even before the killing, authorities were investigating the Avenues, but his death increased the urgency of the operation. Earlier this year, police charged three men in Escalante’s death and a fourth suspect remains at large.

The indictment details several possible motives for the murder. Carlos Velasquez, one of the men accused of killing the deputy, was heard in a wire-tapped telephone conversation telling another Avenues gang member that he killed Escalante in retribution for the death of Leon, nicknamed “Clever.”

“Clever took one with him,” the indictment states Velasquez said.

The 222-page indictment also alleges Avenues members posted inflammatory remarks on Web sites, including “Avenidas don’t get chased by the cops. We chase them,” and, “Avenidas don’t just hurt people. We kill them.”  Members of the largely Hispanic gang would also spray paint racist threats around neighborhoods to intimidate black people, according to prosecutors.

“This indictment attacks a criminal organization that has terrorized a community for generations,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Brunwin, the lead prosecutor in the case. “With all of the information collected over the past year, we assembled an indictment that led to dozens of arrests this morning and will make a significant difference in the neighborhoods in northeastern Los Angeles.”

The September 22 operation marks an ongoing focus on the Avenues gang, which gets its name from a series of streets running through the area.

In June 2008, another federal indictment took aim at the Drew Street clique of the gang. Prosecutors said Drew Street was the most active and violent clique within the Avenues and it produced significant drug-sale revenues for the Mexican Mafia, a prison-based gang that oversees much of Southern California’s street gang activity.

Several of the clique’s alleged leaders were arrested as a result of the investigation.  However, according to the indictment, the Mexican Mafia attempted to reorganize the Avenues’ control of northeast Los Angeles by stopping the rivalry within the gang and appointing new leaders.  The prison system is unable to prevent incarcerated Mexican Mafia leaders from communicating with street gangs on cell phones that are smuggled into the prisons or the passing of folded notes to visitors.

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My Take: The police will never get rid of street gangs as long as the community ignores the children who need family support.  The young men and women who join gangs do so because it gives them a sense of family and belonging.  It gives them people home they can trust and rely on.

Every city and community in the country and around the world will continue to have gangs until we can alleviate this ‘simple’ problem.  A Los Angeles court reporter can easily tell you what they have heard in trials involving gang members.  They are usually between the ages of 12 and 17 and they come from broken homes.  Those broken homes have drugs, alcohol and violence in them.  Right now, the SoCal court reporting system should have plenty of information on who came from a broken home and who did not.

Of course, it will not happen overnight or even the next year or two.  It will take years for people to realize that we cannot “not get involved” with those who live around us.  Getting involved can be dangerous, but it can also be very rewarding.  You could save somebody’s life!

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