Los Angeles - Mexican Mafia Incites Latino Gangs to execute Blacks

Los Angeles - On December 15, 2006 Fourteen year old Cheryl Green garnered national attention when she was fatally shot in broad daylight in Harbor Gateway. While standing with her friends on the corner of 206th and Harbor Cheryl and her friends were approached by a Hispanic man who opened fire killing the young woman immediately and wounding three others. Nothing was done to provoke the attack and Cheryl had no gang affiliations. She was killed because she was a black woman standing too close to an area the gunman considered exclusively Hispanic.

“The Harbor Gateway has been a treacherous place for blacks and Hispanics since the mid- to late-1990s, when blacks started moving into the largely Hispanic area” according to the Daily Breeze (the article is archived now but happens be saved on Playahata.com’s Forum). A decade old turf war between Black and Latino gangs has escalated to the point where even non-gang members are not safe. The front line for this troubled area is the stretch of 206th street between Western and Normandie avenues. North of 206th street is Hispanic, south is Black. Harbor happens to be home of the 204th street gang of which two members responsible for the murder of Cheryl Green are members. (They were reportedly caught and charged with capital murder and 1st degree attempted murder on December 27). Cheryl Green’s death caught national attention but she was not the first victim to befall tragic and senseless targeted killings.

An 11-year-old boy was shot by a Latino gang member in 1997 just a couple blocks away from where Cheryl. In 2002, alleged gang member Marco Milla was convicted of murder and five counts of attempted murder after firing into a group of black people, killing one man at a liquor store near 204th Street and Harvard Boulevard. Residents say they live under a blanket of weariness if not fear. Any African-American that makes their presence in “exlusively” Hispanic parts of town may become the target of harassment. A 1995 police report said "This gang has been involved in an ongoing program to eradicate Black citizens from the gang neighborhood." A 1996 LAPD report on gangs in east Los Angeles stated, "Local gangs will attack any Black person that comes into the city."

After a long time suppression of escalating racial tensions by politicians and other public figures, Last month Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Police Chief William J. Bratton and L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca mobilized to confront and crackdown on the problem.

The importance of the Mayor, Sheriff’s Department and the LAPD’s move cannot be overstated. An alarming trend has been appearing with regard to interracial gang violence. From 2002 to 2006 interracial attacks between Blacks and Latino increased 11% while intra-racial gang attacks fell 23%. Experts such as Tony Rafael, respected writer and gang expert, say they have noticed an increased number of attacks on African Americans and he has gone so far as to describe it as “a policy of ethnic cleansing”. Stats in San Fernando show troubling cases that support this statement. Of 13 attempted murders occurring since July, 10 of them involved Black victims and Latino suspects and in many of these cases the victims were not affiliated with any gang.

These occurrences are a bit odd when one considers there were gangs over a decade ago where African Americans and Hispanics were in the same gang together. Tony Rafael uses the 18th street gang as an example of a gang that was an equal opportunity employer until the Mexican Mafia ordered them to “cleanse” themselves of Black members.

The Mexican Mafia according to Rafael is responsible for these senseless killings. It started in the prisons where the Black Guerilla family and the Mexican Mafia are at odds. One example of the tension is the prison race riots last year. Mexican Mafia, who have control of many Latino gangs outside of prison, instruct gang members who enter the penal system to kill African-Americans outside of prison. The prison conflicts have spilled into the street at the order of “made men” within the Mexican Mafia.

The Mexican Mafia’s attitude is that African-Americans are “infesting” their land. This is not that surprising because the racial division that permeates the California prison is based in centuries of prejudice that began in the times of slavery. It is the same prejudice that permeates the United States. Irony can be seen in the fact that most Mexicans are a mix of European, Native American and AFRICAN descent but the “made men” of the Mexican mafia fail to see it this way. Just as Mexicans are prone to elect a light skinned official into government office they were more than willing to join the Aryan brotherhood in the prisons and in doing so made African-Americans their sole target.