FBI: Gang infiltration of the US military
Old Trooper sends a link from the Washington Examiner in which they report that the FBI has issued a report which accuses the US military of harboring street gang members. TSO and I agree that this report has SPLC’s fingerprints all over it – like their wild goose chase for Neo Nazis in the military a few years back.
“Gang infiltration of the military continues to pose a significant criminal threat, as members of at least 53 gangs have been identified on both domestic and international military installations,” the report says, resulting in American gang graffiti in Iraq, among other things.
Now, i don’t see the benefit to gangmembers joining the military for nefarious reasons. yeah, you’ll learn the skill of hitting a man-sized target at 300+ meters with iron sights, but most gang wars don’t include those ranges. And i really don’t think gangsters have what it takes to stick out training for even eight weeks just to learn all of the non=warrior related stuff to make it that far. I’ve yet to see the Crios and Bloods conduct street D&C march-offs.
So, in their report, the FBI says “well, maybe not all gang members who join the military are bad per se (or per say for the more illiterate among you, my dear readers)”;
And gang member enlistment doesn’t require a sinister intention. “Many street gang members join the military to escape the gang lifestyle,” says the FBI, while others join at the behest of a court “as an alternative to incarceration.”
So how many are we talking about here? How many are good gang members and how many are bad gang members? In fact how many gang members are in the military? The article doesn’t say…they just leave it up to the readers to paint the entire military with a broad brush.
Category: Media, Military issues
I am not claiming to be an expert, but during my time as an active duty Judge Advocate in the Marine Corps, I encountered a total of two. While a prosecutor at MCRD Parris Island, we caught a Latin King and while a prosecutor at MCAS Beaufort, we dealt with Crip. The Latin King was on medical hold after just finishing boot camp (he finished boot camp hurt and was waiting to go on to MCT) and was caught with gang paraphenalia in his wall locker. The Crip was better at hiding it, but got busted by the local cops while at a gang meeting in Columbia, SC. We administratively separated both of them.
Holding up a hand, finger and thumb together “0”…
I heard this was happening back in 1992, while at Lost-in-the-woods for my first pass through basic training. So this isn’t new. I think the claim back then was that gang bangers were told to join, and stick it out through BRM, because it toughened them up and taught them too shoot. Then they were supposed to go AWOL, return to their gang and being all hopped up on pack loyalty and with ninja like combat skills start killing people.
Can’t recall it ever happened.
I think they are a bit late in noticing this.
http://www.stripes.com/news/affiliation-with-a-gang-isn-t-a-crime-under-military-law-1.57736
I’ve often wondered that if things were to go to shitola that there would be a three way split concerning the military. Those who go with the constitution; those who go with the state; and those who go back to their gangs. Granted, I don’t believe the numbers are that huge for the third group, but they are out there.
Considering the “lateness” of this FBI finding, I would also not rule out this having stemmed from the FUBAR raid at the home of Jose Guerena.
Gang grafitti in Iraq? OMG! Yes, that’s proof postive that there are gangs in Iraq, just as “Kilroy was here” proved that Kilroy was indeed there and that peace signs in Nam meant we had hippie love children there. That’s good enough for me.
Gangs? Hell they have been in the military for decades. In the early 70s they took over sections of ships and army barracks, especially in Germany (VOLAR). My take is how many have killed other military members? Probably a small number if there is a number? The question one needs to asked is not about the gangs but the Muslims serving in the military. How many have they killed? Quickly coming to mind are the 13 at Ft. Hood and two in the 101st in Iraq.
Gang activity has been, and will continue to be a subsurface problem for the military. I attended a series of seminar at Fort Lewis by the FBI Gang Task Force when the Cali gangs were starting to spread their wings.
I didn’t then, and don’t consider it now to be a huge problem.
Wasn’t there a gang-related shoot-out between gang members up at Lewis-McChord a few years ago?
And yes, while we were in Iraq there was some pretty ornate gang graffiti in the port-a-johns. I think it’s a bigger problem in the Army than in the other branches.
Also, anecdotal: When I got out of the Marines and joined the Guard the armor at the unit I joined was arrested for selling M-249s and 240s out of the armory at his previous unit. No kidding. I have no idea how he managed to get away with it for as long as he did.
And I don’t think the problem they are anticipating is very large within the military. I think the bigger problem they’re anticipating is when these jackasses go back to their respective blocks and start conducting their own little FID ventures.
I think the FBI is right. Look what happened with the Hells Angels?
Zero Ponsdorf, what are you referring to with the Hells Angels? Just curious.
‘others join at the behest of a court “as an alternative to incarceration.”’
I was under the impression that this sort of arrangement was prohibited by current recruiting regulations. Isn’t this similar to the bullshit Matthis was always saying about being “forced” to join the army?
Any recruiters around who can speak to this?
Jonn: there has been active infiltration of the military for the purpose of street-usable skills for at least 20 years. I first became aware of it back in 1991. The biggest gang doing it in the 90s was the Folks.
One is likely to find a pretty strong correlation between military small unit tactics and gang warfare. Los Zetas, anyone?
1. Discipline
2. Marksmanship
3. Creating/planting explosives
4. Communications, including using social media to create flash gang crime, fights, and hits.
5. Medical
6. Logistics support
8. Targeting
9. Intel collection, processing, and exploitation
10. Counter-intel
11. Diplomacy and strategy
Gang that’s tight in those areas isn’t going to be taken down the local dime-bag dispensers.
There was a big to-do about this back in 2004 or 2005, like people were shocked. There is a positive, too: gang members join up and get the hell away from home.
Jonn, I got this report early this morning in my work email. I don’t see any acknowledgements for the SPLC. If you want a copy I can forward it to you.
Templar #11: Over all my comment was meant to be funny.
Fact is the Hells Angels were started by WWII vets. Look it up. They morphed into something quite different.
while others join at the behest of a court “as an alternative to incarceration.”
I’m not buying this BS. As far as I know there hasn’t been the old “Ten in the Pen or Four in the Corps” for many years as the requirements and testing have evolved.
I was watching an episode of “Gangland” on the History Channel a couple of years ago about the Mexican Mafia and La Familia in which there was video of a Marine Lcpl In either Merced or Madera, Ca. shooting up a gas station lot with an AK47 using combat tactics killing at least one Police Officer if I remember right. After his ventilation he was found to be a gang member. Don’t remember of which of the two gangs.
@Scott – Speaking as a former OpsO of a USMC Recruiting Station, I can attest that an applicant cannot be recruited if their recruitment is to replace penalties imposed by a court’s conviction. I’m sure it’s the same across all the services.
Marc–former Navy recruiter here (90’s.) Yup, same here, and still the same policy.
>while others join at the behest of a court “as an alternative to incarceration.”
I thought that was against at least Army policy
AR 601-210, Chapter 4-12b we cannot accept anybody who is ordered to join the military as an alternative to jail time:
b. Applicant who, as a condition for any civil conviction or adverse disposition or any other reason through a civil or criminal court, is ordered or subjected to a sentence that implies or imposes enlistment into the Armed Forces of the United States is not eligible for enlistment unless—
(1) The condition is removed by the same or higher authority imposing the sentence.
(2) The condition is removed by virtue of expired period of sentence.
(3) The condition is over 12 months from imposition and the court, city, county, or State no longer obligates the applicant to this condition.
http://www.stripes.com/news/judge-said-army-or-jail-but-military-doesn-t-want-him-1.44417
Here is the actually long PDF it is under:
http://www.apd.army.mil/pdffiles/r601_210.pdf
[…] doing my usual perusal of military blogs I came across this post at This Ain’t Hell that talked about this Washington Examiner article which was about this FBI report on gangs. You […]
I will say this, there have actually been “Gangs” that made it through, (and strangely they end up at Ft Hood a lot). Now those gang-like activities tend NOT to happen in units where discipline is strict. Also they tend to throw through women, because people are less likely to suspect women.
Unfortunately, this is a problem the military has been trying to deny for a long time. But it is a problem. There’s the shoot outs (and other problems) at Ft Lewis. The drug dealing/brothel in the barracks (525 MI) a couple years ago at Bragg (or just goto the sports bar on post on a sat night). Soldiers in Germany dying from gang initiation beat downs.
@#12 You’re right on that one. An applicant can’t even have an unpaid parking ticket. Anything they’ve done in the past, regardless if it has been sealed or prior to their 18th birthday, has to be disclosed, and has to be adjudicated, more likely than not will require a waiver and that’s when the fun begins. Collecting court records, arrest records and final dispositions can be a real pain in the ass. The regulations these days are set up so that no one with pending court action can even begin the process of enlisting. Anyone on probation is also disqualified until their probation is up. Early release from probation requires a waiting period of 90 days, or until the original date of probation ends, whichever is sooner. But if you’re selective in who you recruit, you don’t have to put up with that crap.
Outside of a few tags of graffiti, there hasn’t been any massive incidents of gang activity. The few credible events have become semifamous, like the black guy beaten to death in Germany, in somekind of initiation ritual. These are few and far between, it has been way over blown.