2012 National Gang Threat Assessment – Emerging Trends

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Preface

The National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) prepared the 2012 National Gang Threat Assessment (NGTA) to examine emerging gang trends and threats posed by criminal gangs to communities throughout the United States. The 2012 NGTA enhances and builds on the gang-related trends and criminal threats identified in the 2009 assessment. It supports US Department of Justice strategic objectives 2.2 (to reduce the threat, incidence, and prevalence of violent crime) and 2.4 (to reduce the threat, trafficking, use, and related violence of illegal drugs). The assessment is based on federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement and corrections agency intelligence, including information and data provided by the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) and the National Gang Center. Additionally, this assessment is supplemented by information retrieved from open source documents and data collected through April 2012.

Scope and Methodology

In 2009, the NGIC released its second threat assessment on gang activity in the United States. The NGIC and its law enforcement partners documented increases in gang proliferation and migration nationwide and emerging threats. This report attempts to expand on these findings. Reporting and intelligence collected over the past two years have demonstrated increases in the number of gangs and gang members as law enforcement authorities nationwide continue to identify gang members and share information regarding these groups. Better reporting and collection has contributed greatly to the increased documentation and reporting of gang members and gang trends.

Information in the 2012 National Gang Threat Assessment-Emerging Trends was derived from law enforcement intelligence, open source information, and data collected from the NDIC, including the 2010 NDIC National Drug Threat Survey (NDTS). NGIC law enforcement partners provided information and guidance regarding new trends and intelligence through an online request for information via the NGIC Law Enforcement Online (LEO) Special Interest Group (SIG), which is now NGIC Online. Law enforcement agencies nationwide continuously report new and emerging gang trends to the NGIC, as the NGIC continues to operate as a repository and dissemination hub for gang intelligence. This information provided by our law enforcement partners was used to identify many of the trends and issues included in this report.

Reporting used to quantify the number of street and outlaw motorcycle gangs and gang members was primarily derived from the 2010 NDIC NDTS data and some supplemental NGIC reporting from our law enforcement partners. NDIC annually conducts the NDTS to collect data on the threat posed by various illicit drugs in the United States. A stratified random sample of nearly 3,500 state and local law enforcement agencies was surveyed to generate national, regional, and state estimates of various aspects of drug trafficking activities including the threat posed by various drugs, the availability and production of illicit drugs, as well as the role of street gangs and outlaw motorcycle gangs in drug trafficking activity. Weighted national, regional, and state-level statistical estimates derived from NDTS 2010 data was based on responses received from 2,963 law enforcement agencies out of a sample of 3,465 agencies. In calculating the number of street and outlaw motorcycle gang members, respondents in each region were asked to select from a series of ranges of numbers. The median numbers of each range were aggregated to generate an estimate for the total number of gang members. In calculating the number of street and outlaw motorcycle gangs, the low end of each range was aggregated to generate an estimate for the total number of gangs and gang members. Prison gang member estimates were derived directly from the US Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and state correctional institutions across the country.

About the NGIC

The NGIC was established by Congress in 2005 to support law enforcement agencies through timely and accurate information sharing and strategic/tactical analysis of federal, state, and local law enforcement information focusing on the growth, migration, criminal activity, and association of gangs that pose a significant threat to communities throughout the United States. The NGIC is comprised of representatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), US Bureau of Prisons (BOP), United States Marshals Service (USMS), US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), US Department of Defense (DOD), National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC), and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP). This multi-agency fusion center integrates gang intelligence assets to serve as a central intelligence resource for gang information and analytical support.

To assist in the sharing of gang intelligence with law enforcement, the NGIC has established NGIC Online, an information system comprised of a set of web-based tools designed for researching gang-related intelligence and sharing of information with federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement partners. The system’s Request for Information (RFI) portal encourages users to contribute new data as well as conduct gang research through custom threat assessments and/or liaison with NGIC’s network of national subject matter experts. NGIC Online functions include RFI submissions and responses; Gang Encyclopedia WIKI; General Intelligence Library; and a Signs, Symbols, and Tattoos (SST) database with user submissions.

Gang Definitions

Gang	Definition
Street	Street gangs are criminal organizations formed on the street operating throughout the United States.
Prison	Prison gangs are criminal organizations that originated within the penal system and operate within correctional facilities throughout the United States, although released members may be operating on the street. Prison gangs are also self-perpetuating criminal entities that can continue their criminal operations outside the confines of the penal system.
Outlaw Motorcycle (OMGs)	OMGs are organizations whose members use their motorcycle clubs as conduits for criminal enterprises. Although some law enforcement agencies regard only One Percenters as OMGs, the NGIC, for the purpose of this assessment, covers all OMG criminal organizations, including OMG support and puppet clubs.
One Percenter OMGs	ATF defines One Percenters as any group of motorcyclists who have voluntarily made a commitment to band together to abide by their organization’s rules enforced by violence and who engage in activities that bring them and their club into repeated and serious conflict with society and the law. The group must be an ongoing organization, association of three (3) or more persons which have a common interest and/or activity characterized by the commission of or involvement in a pattern of criminal or delinquent conduct. ATF estimates there are approximately 300 One Percenter OMGs in the United States.
Neighborhood/Local	Neighborhood or Local street gangs are confined to specific neighborhoods and jurisdictions and often imitate larger, more powerful national gangs. The primary purpose for many neighborhood gangs is drug distribution and sales.

Regional Breakdown:

Maps and data in this assessment are presented according to the FBI’s Safe Streets Gang Task Force regions.

Region	States
North Central	Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin
Northeast	Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia
South Central	Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas
Southeast	Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Virginia
West	Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming

Executive Summary

Gangs continue to commit criminal activity, recruit new members in urban, suburban, and rural regions across the United States, and develop criminal associations that expand their influence over criminal enterprises, particularly street-level drug sales. The most notable trends for 2011 have been the overall increase in gang membership, and the expansion of criminal street gangs’ control of street-level drug sales and collaboration with rival gangs and other criminal organizations.^a

Key Findings

Gangs are expanding, evolving and posing an increasing threat to US communities nationwide. Many gangs are sophisticated criminal networks with members who are violent, distribute wholesale quantities of drugs, and develop and maintain close working relationships with members and associates of transnational criminal/drug trafficking organizations. Gangs are becoming more violent while engaging in less typical and lower-risk crime, such as prostitution and white-collar crime. Gangs are more adaptable, organized, sophisticated, and opportunistic, exploiting new and advanced technology as a means to recruit, communicate discretely, target their rivals, and perpetuate their criminal activity. Based on state, local, and federal law enforcement reporting, the NGIC concludes that:

There are approximately 1.4 million active street, prison, and OMG gang members comprising more than 33,000 gangs in the United States. Gang membership increased most significantly in the Northeast and Southeast regions, although the West and Great Lakes regions boast the highest number of gang members. Neighborhood-based gangs, hybrid gang members, and national-level gangs such as the Sureños are rapidly expanding in many jurisdictions. Many communities are also experiencing an increase in ethnic-based gangs such as African, Asian, Caribbean, and Eurasian gangs.
Gangs are responsible for an average of 48 percent of violent crime in most jurisdictions and up to 90 percent in several others, according to NGIC analysis. Major cities and suburban areas experience the most gang-related violence. Local neighborhood-based gangs and drug crews continue to pose the most significant criminal threat in most communities. Aggressive recruitment of juveniles and immigrants, alliances and conflict between gangs, the release of incarcerated gang members from prison, advancements in technology and communication, and Mexican Drug Trafficking Organization (MDTO) involvement in drug distribution have resulted in gang expansion and violence in a number of jurisdictions.
Gangs are increasingly engaging in non-traditional gang-related crime, such as alien smuggling, human trafficking, and prostitution. Gangs are also engaging in white collar crime such as counterfeiting, identity theft, and mortgage fraud, primarily due to the high profitability and much lower visibility and risk of detection and punishment than drug and weapons trafficking.
US-based gangs have established strong working relationships with Central American and MDTOs to perpetrate illicit cross-border activity, as well as with some organized crime groups in some regions of the United States. US-based gangs and MDTOs are establishing wide-reaching drug networks; assisting in the smuggling of drugs, weapons, and illegal immigrants along the Southwest Border; and serving as enforcers for MDTO interests on the US side of the border.
Many gang members continue to engage in gang activity while incarcerated. Family members play pivotal roles in assisting or facilitating gang activities and recruitment during a gang members’ incarceration. Gang members in some correctional facilities are adopting radical religious views while incarcerated.
Gangs encourage members, associates, and relatives to obtain law enforcement, judiciary, or legal employment in order to gather information on rival gangs and law enforcement operations. 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. Gang members who learn advanced weaponry and combat techniques in the military are at risk of employing these skills on the street when they return to their communities.
Gang members are acquiring high-powered, military-style weapons and equipment which poses a significant threat because of the potential to engage in lethal encounters with law enforcement officers and civilians. Typically firearms are acquired through illegal purchases; straw purchases via surrogates or middle-men, and thefts from individuals, vehicles, residences and commercial establishments. Gang members also target military and law enforcement officials, facilities, and vehicles to obtain weapons, ammunition, body armor, police gear, badges, uniforms, and official identification.
Gangs on Indian Reservations often emulate national-level gangs and adopt names and identifiers from nationally recognized urban gangs. Gang members on some Indian Reservations are associating with gang members in the community to commit crime.
Gangs are becoming increasingly adaptable and sophisticated, employing new and advanced technology to facilitate criminal activity discreetly, enhance their criminal operations, and connect with other gang members, criminal organizations, and potential recruits nationwide and even worldwide.

Current Gang-Related Trends and Crime

Gang membership continues to expand throughout communities nationwide, as gangs evolve, adapt to new threats, and form new associations. Consequently, gang-related crime and violence is increasing as gangs employ violence and intimidation to control their territory and illicit operations. Many gangs have advanced beyond their traditional role as local retail drug distributors in large cities to become more organized, adaptable, and influential in large-scale drug trafficking. Gang members are migrating from urban areas to suburban and rural communities to recruit new members, expand their drug distribution territories, form new alliances, and collaborate with rival gangs and criminal organizations for profit and influence. Local neighborhood, hybrid and female gang membership is on the rise in many communities. Prison gang members, who exert control over many street gang members, often engage in crime and violence upon their return to the community. Gang members returning to the community from prison have an adverse and lasting impact on neighborhoods, which may experience notable increases in crime, violence, and drug trafficking.

Gang Membership and Expansion

Approximately 1.4 million active street, OMG, and prison gang members, comprising more than 33,000 gangs, are criminally active within all 50 US states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico (see Appendix A). This represents a 40 percent increase from an estimated 1 million gang members in 2009. The NGIC attributes this increase in gang membership primarily to improved reporting, more aggressive recruitment efforts by gangs, the formation of new gangs, new opportunities for drug trafficking, and collaboration with rival gangs and drug trafficking organizations (DTOs). Law enforcement in several jurisdictions also attribute the increase in gang membership in their region to the gangster rap culture, the facilitation of communication and recruitment through the Internet and social media, the proliferation of generational gang members, and a shortage of resources to combat gangs.

More than half of NGIC law enforcement partners report an increase in gang-related criminal activity in their jurisdictions over the past two years. Neighborhood-based gangs continue to pose the greatest threat in most jurisdictions nationwide.

NGIC and NDIC data indicates that, since 2009, gang membership increased most significantly in the Northeast and Southeast regions, although the West and North Central regions—particularly Arizona, California, and Illinois—boast the highest number of gang members.

2011 Estimated Gang Membership
	Members	Gangs
Street	1,140,344	30,313
OMG	44,108	2,965
Prison	231,136**	n/a
Total	1,415,578	33,278
Based on 2010 and 2011 NGIC and NDIC data *Based on reporting from 32 states

2011 Estimated Street and OMG Membership by Region
North Central	260,022
Northeast	159,158
South Central	167,353
Southeast	117,205
West	480,715
Total	1,184,453
*Based on 2010 and 2011 NGIC and NDIC data

Sureño gangs, including Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), 18th Street, and Florencia 13, are expanding faster than other national-level gangs, both in membership and geographically. Twenty states and the District of Columbia report an increase of Sureño migration into their region over the past three years. California has experienced a substantial migration of Sureño gangs into northern California and neighboring states, such as Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon.
Law enforcement reporting indicates a significant increase in OMGs in a number of jurisdictions, with 44,108 members nationwide comprising approximately 2,965 gangs.^b Jurisdictions in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, and Virginia are experiencing the most significant increase in OMGs, increasing the potential for gang-related turf wars with other local OMGs. The Wheels of Soul (WOS), Mongols, Outlaws, Pagans and Vagos have expanded in several states.

Table 1. Recent Expansion of Major OMGs:

Gang	Region
Mongols	Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Montana, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Washington
Outlaws	Arkansas, Montana, Maryland, North Carolina, New York
Pagans	Delaware, New Jersey, Ohio
Vagos	California, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota
Wheels of Soul	Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, New York

Source: ATF

Figure 1. Nationwide Gang Presence

Source: NGIC and NDIC 2010 National Drug Survey Data

Chart 1. Threat Posed by Gangs, According to Law Enforcement.

The NGIC collected intelligence from law enforcement officials nationwide in an attempt to capture the threat posed by national-level street, prison, outlaw motorcycle, and neighborhood-based gangs in their communities.

Source: 2011 NGIC National data

Gang-Related Violent Crime

Gang-related crime and violence continues to rise. NGIC analysis indicates that gang members are responsible for an average of 48 percent of violent crime in most jurisdictions and much higher in others. Some jurisdictions in Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, and Texas report that gangs are responsible for at least 90 percent of crime. A comparison of FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) 2009 violent crime data and 2010 NGIC gang data illustrates that regions experiencing the most violent crime—including southern California, Texas, and Florida—also have a substantial gang presence (see Figure 1 and Map 7). Street gangs are involved in a host of violent criminal activities, including assault, drug trafficking, extortion, firearms offenses, home invasion robberies, homicide, intimidation, shootings, and weapons trafficking. NDIC reporting indicates that gang control over drug distribution and disputes over drug territory has increased, which may be responsible for the increase in violence in many areas. Conflict between gangs, gang migration into rival gang territory, and the release of incarcerated gang members back into the community has also resulted in an increase in gang-related crime and violence in many jurisdictions, according to NGIC reporting.

Table 2. Percentage of Violent Crime Committed by Gangs as reported by NGIC Law Enforcement Partners

% of violent crime committed by gangs	% of LE Officials
1-25%	34.0%
26-50%	28.4%
51-75%	22.7%
76-100%	14.9%

Chart 2. Threat Posed by Gangs, as Reported by Law Enforcement.

The NGIC collected intelligence from its law enforcement partners nationwide in an effort to capture the criminal threat posed by national-level street, prison, outlaw motorcycle, and neighborhood-based gangs in their communities. The following chart represents the percentage of gang involvement in crime.

Source: 2011 NGIC data

According to National Youth Gang Survey reporting, larger cities and suburban counties accounted for the majority of gang-related violence and more than 96 percent of all gang homicides in 2009.¹ As previous studies have indicated, neighborhood-based gangs and drug crews continue to pose the most significant criminal threat in these regions.

Law enforcement officials in the Washington, DC metropolitan region are concerned about a spate of gang-related violence in their area. In February 2011, ICE officials indicted 11 MS-13 members for a two-year spree of murders, stabbings, assaults, robberies, and drug distribution. Likewise, gangs such as MS-13 and Bloods in Prince George’s County, Maryland, are suspected to be involved in up to 16 homicides since January 2011.²
USMS reported 5,705 gang-affiliated felony fugitives in 2010, a 14 percent increase from the number of gang fugitives in 2009. California and Texas report the highest number of gang fugitives, with 1,284 and 542 respectively.

Gang-Related Drug Distribution and Trafficking

Gang involvement and control of the retail drug trade poses a serious threat to public safety and stability in most major cities and in many mid-size cities because such distribution activities are routinely associated with lethal violence. Violent disputes over control of drug territory and enforcement of drug debts frequently occur among gangs in both urban and suburban areas, as gangs expand their control of drug distribution in many jurisdictions, according to NDIC and NGIC reporting. In 2010, law enforcement agencies in 51 major US cities reported moderate to significant levels of gang-related drug activity.

NDIC survey data indicates that 69 percent of US law enforcement agencies report gang involvement in drug distribution.

In June 2010, a joint federal-state law enforcement operation led to the arrest of eight people linked to a San Gabriel Valley street gang involved in violent crimes and methamphetamine trafficking in support of the California Mexican Mafia (La Eme).³

NDIC reporting suggests that gangs are advancing beyond their traditional role as local retail drug distributors in large cities and becoming more influential in large-scale drug trafficking, resulting in an increase in violent crime in several regions of the country.⁴

Law enforcement reporting indicates that gang-related drug distribution and trafficking has resulted in an increase of kidnappings, assaults, robberies and homicides along the US Southwest border region.

Gang involvement in drug trafficking has also resulted in the expansion and migration of some gangs into new US communities, according to NDIC reporting.

Gang members from the Midwest are migrating to southern states to expand their drug trafficking operations.

Figure 3. Major Cities Reporting Gang-Related Drug Activity in 2010

Source: NDIC 2010 National Drug Threat Survey

Juvenile Gangs

Many jurisdictions are experiencing an increase in juvenile gangs and violence^c, which is often attributed, in part, to the increased incarceration rates of older members and the aggressive recruitment of juveniles in schools. Gangs have traditionally targeted youths because of their vulnerability and susceptibility to recruitment tactics, as well as their likelihood of avoiding harsh criminal sentencing and willingness to engage in violence.

NGIC reporting indicates that juvenile gangs are responsible for a majority of crime in various jurisdictions in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and Washington.

Juvenile gang members in some communities are hosting parties and organizing special events which develop into opportunities for recruiting, drugs, sexual exploitation, and criminal activity.

Gangster Rap gangs, often comprised of juveniles, are forming and are being used to launder drug money through seemingly legitimate businesses, according to NGIC reporting.

Gang Alliances and Collaboration

Collaboration between rival gangs and criminal organizations and increased improvement in communications, transportation, and technology have enabled national-level gangs to expand and secure their criminal networks throughout the United States and in other countries.

According to NGIC reporting, gang members in California are collaborating with members of rival gangs to further criminal activities such as drug distribution, prostitution of minors, and money laundering.
Gangs in the correctional system are committing crimes for other gangs in an effort to confuse and evade law enforcement.

Gang Sophistication

Gang members are becoming more sophisticated in their structure and operations and are modifying their activity to minimize law enforcement scrutiny and circumvent gang enhancement laws. Gangs in several jurisdictions have modified or ceased traditional or stereotypical gang indicia and no longer display their colors, tattoos, or hand signs. Others are forming hybrid gangs to avoid police attention and make to it more difficult for law enforcement to identify and monitor them, according to NGIC reporting. Many gangs are engaging in more sophisticated criminal schemes, including white collar and cyber crime, targeting and infiltrating sensitive systems to gain access to sensitive areas or information, and targeting and monitoring law enforcement.

Expansion of Ethnic-Based and Non-Traditional Gangs

Law enforcement officials in jurisdictions nationwide report an expansion of African, Asian, Eurasian, Caribbean, and Middle Eastern gangs, according to NGIC reporting. Many communities are also experiencing increases in hybrid and non-traditional gangs.

Asian Gangs

Asian gangs, historically limited to regions with large Asian populations, are expanding throughout communities nationwide. Although often considered street gangs, Asian gangs operate similar to Asian Criminal Enterprises with a more structured organization and hierarchy. They are not turf-oriented like most African-American and Hispanic street gangs and typically maintain a low profile to avoid law enforcement scrutiny. Asian gang members are known to prey on their own race and often develop a relationship with their victims before victimizing them.5 Law enforcement officials have limited knowledge of Asian gangs and often have difficulty penetrating these gangs because of language barriers and gang distrust of non-Asians.⁶

Law enforcement officials in California, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Wisconsin report a significant increase in Asian gangs in their jurisdictions.

Asian gangs are involved in a host of criminal activities to include violent crime, drug and human trafficking, and white collar crime.

Asian gang members in New England and California maintain marijuana cultivation houses specifically for the manufacturing and distribution of high potency marijuana and pay members of the Asian community to reside in them, according to 2010 NDIC and open source reporting.⁷

Some law enforcement agencies attribute the recent increase in Asian gang membership in their jurisdictions to the recruitment of non-Asian members into the gang in order to compete more effectively with other street gangs for territory and dominance of illicit markets.

East African Gangs

Somali Gangs

Somali gang presence has increased in several cities throughout the United States. Somali gangs are most prevalent in the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota; San Diego, California; and Seattle, Washington areas, primarily as a result of proximity to the Mexican and Canadian borders, according to ICE, NGIC, and law enforcement reporting. Somali gang activity has also been reported in other cities throughout the United States such as Nashville, Tennessee; Clarkston, Georgia; Columbus, Ohio; East Brunswick, New Jersey; and Tucson, Arizona. Unlike most traditional street gangs, Somali gangs tend to align and adopt gang names based on clan or tribe, although a few have joined national gangs such as the Crips and Bloods.

NGIC reporting indicates that East African gangs are present in at least 30 jurisdictions, including those in California, Georgia, Minnesota, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, and Washington.

Somalian gangs are involved in drug and weapons trafficking, human trafficking, credit card fraud, prostitution, and violent crime. Homicides involving Somali victims are often the result of clan feuds between gang members. Sex trafficking of females across jurisdictional and state borders for the purpose of prostitution is also a growing trend among Somalian gangs.

Figure 4. Somali Outlaws set in Minneapolis, MN

Source: Minneapolis Police Department

In November 2010, 29 suspected Somalian gang members were indicted for a prostitution trafficking operation, according to open source reporting. Over a 10 year period, Somalian gang members transported underage females from Minnesota to Ohio and Tennessee for prostitution.⁸
In February 2009, five Somali gang members were arrested for murdering drug dealers in Dexter and Athens, Ohio, during home invasion robberies, according to law enforcement reporting.⁹

Although some Somali gangs adopt Bloods or Crips gang monikers, they typically do not associate with other African-American gangs. Somali nationals—mostly refugees displaced by the war(s) in Somalia and surrounding countries—tend to migrate to specific low-income communities, which are often heavily controlled by local Bloods and Crips street gangs. The Somali youth may emulate the local gangs, which frequently leads to friction with other gangs, such as Bloods and Crips, as well as with Ethiopian gangs.

Sudanese Gangs

Sudanese gangs in the United States have been expanding since 2003 and have been reported in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Tennessee. Some Sudanese gang members have weapons and tactical knowledge from their involvement in conflicts in their native country.

The African Pride (AP) gang is one of the most aggressive and dangerous of the Sudanese street gangs in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and North and South Dakota.

Caribbean Gangs

Although largely confined to the East Coast, Caribbean gangs, such as Dominican, Haitian, and Jamaican gangs, are expanding in a number of communities throughout the United States.

Dominican Gangs

The Trinitarios, the most rapidly-expanding Caribbean gang and the largest Dominican gang, are a violent prison gang with members operating on the street. The Trinitarios are involved in homicide, violent assaults, robbery, theft, home invasions, and street-level drug distribution. Although predominate in New York and New Jersey, the Trinitarios have expanded to communities throughout the eastern United States, including Georgia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. Dominicans Don’t Play (DDP), the second largest Dominican gang based in Bronx, New York, are known for their violent machete attacks and drug trafficking activities in Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.

An increase in the Dominican population in several eastern US jurisdictions has resulted in the expansion and migration of Dominican gangs such as the Trinitarios. This has led to an increase in drug trafficking, robberies, violent assaults in the Tri-state area.

Figure 5. Trinitarios Insignia

trinitarios_picture_-atf_file_photo_www_myspace_com_14_sept_2010-a

Source: ATF

Haitian Gangs

Haitian gangs, such as the Florida-based Zoe Pound, have proliferated in many states primarily along the East Coast in recent years according to NGIC reporting. According to NGIC reporting, Haitian gangs are present in Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas.

The Zoe Pound gang, a street gang founded in Miami, Florida by Haitian immigrants in the United States, is involved in drug trafficking, robbery, and related violent crime. In February 2010, 22 suspected Zoe Pound members in Chicago, Illinois, were charged with possession of and conspiracy to traffic powder and crack cocaine from Illinois to Florida, according to FBI reporting.¹⁰
The Haitian Boys Posse and Custer Street Gang are involved in a myriad of criminal activities including drug and weapons trafficking, robberies, shootings and homicides along the East Coast.

Trinitario members arrested for drug and firearms violations In August 2010, the FBI arrested three Rhode Island Trinitario members for conspiracy to distribute MDMA and firearms violations. Seventeen other Trinitario members also allegedly collected money to buy weapons, hire lawyers, and aid members (brothers) in prison. Source: DOJ: District of Rhode Island, August 26, 2010

Jamaican Gangs

Traditional Jamaican gangs operating in the United States are generally unsophisticated and lack a significant hierarchical structure, unlike gangs in Jamaica. Many active Jamaican gangs operating in the United States maintain ties to larger criminal organizations and gangs in Jamaica, such as the Shower Posse or the Spangler Posse. Jamaican gang members in the United States engage in drug and weapons trafficking.

NGIC reporting indicates that Jamaican gangs are most active in California, Maryland, Missouri, and New Jersey.

Non-Traditional Gangs

Hybrid Gangs

The expansion of hybrid gangs—non-traditional gangs with multiple affiliations—is a continued phenomenon in many jurisdictions nationwide. Because of their multiple affiliations, ethnicities, migratory nature, and nebulous structure, hybrid gangs are difficult to track, identify, and target as they are transient and continuously evolving. Furthermore, these multi-ethnic, mixed-gender gangs pose a unique challenge to law enforcement because they are adopting national symbols and gang members often crossover from gang to gang. Hybrid gangs are of particular concern to law enforcement because members often escalate their criminal activity in order to gain attention and respect.

Hybrid gangs, which are present in at least 25 states, are fluid in size and structure, yet tend to adopt similar characteristics of larger urban gangs, including their own identifiers, rules, and recruiting methods.¹¹ Like most street gangs, hybrid gang members commit a multitude of street and violent crime.¹² Law enforcement reporting suggests that hybrid gangs have evolved from neighborhood crews that formed to expand drug trafficking, or from an absence of or loyalty to nationally recognized gangs in their region.

Law enforcement officials in many jurisdictions nationwide report an increase in juvenile gang membership and violent crime among hybrid and local gangs, according to 2010 NGIC reporting.
NGIC reporting indicates that hybrid gangs are dominating nationally recognized gangs in some jurisdictions and merging with other gangs to expand their membership.

Juggalos

The Juggalos, a loosely-organized hybrid gang, are rapidly expanding into many US communities. Although recognized as a gang in only four states, many Juggalos subsets exhibit gang-like behavior and engage in criminal activity and violence. Law enforcement officials in at least 21 states have identified criminal Juggalo sub-sets, according to NGIC reporting.^d

Hybrid and Almighty Latin King Nation (ALKN) Gang Members Arrested on Drug Charges
In November 2010, hybrid gang members in Pontiac, Michigan, known the “New World Order,” were charged along with members of the ALKN for numerous drug offenses. Several guns, drugs, dozens of cell phones and $10,000 in cash were
seized by FBI, DEA and local police departments. Many of the gang members arrested were juveniles and young adults.
Source: Online article “7 Members of 2 Gangs n Pontiac Face Drug charges” MyFoxdetroit.com; November 14, 2010

NGIC reporting indicates that Juggalo gangs are expanding in New Mexico primarily because they are attracted to the tribal and cultural traditions of the Native Americans residing nearby.

Most crimes committed by Juggalos are sporadic, disorganized, individualistic, and often involve simple assault, personal drug use and possession, petty theft, and vandalism. However, open source reporting suggests that a small number of Juggalos are forming more organized subsets and engaging in more gang-like criminal activity, such as felony assaults, thefts, robberies, and drug sales. Social networking websites are a popular conveyance for Juggalo sub-culture to communicate and expand.

In January 2011, a suspected Juggalo member shot and wounded a couple in King County, Washington, according to open source reporting.¹³

Juggalos’ disorganization and lack of structure within their groups, coupled with their transient nature, makes it difficult to classify them and identify their members and migration patterns. Many criminal Juggalo sub-sets are comprised of transient or homeless individuals, according to law enforcement reporting. Most Juggalo criminal groups are not motivated to migrate based upon traditional needs of a gang. However, law enforcement reporting suggests that Juggalo criminal activity has increased over the past several years and has expanded to several other states. Transient, criminal Juggalo groups pose a threat to communities due to the potential for violence, drug use/sales, and their general destructive and violent nature.

Juggalos Although law enforcement officials in Arizona, California, Pennsylvania, Utah, and Washington report the most Juggalo gang-related criminal activity, Juggalos are present in Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia, according to NGIC reporting.

In January 2010, two suspected Juggalo associates were charged with beating and robbing an elderly homeless man.¹⁴

Figure 6. Juggalo member

juggalette-with_possible_firearm_-atf_file_photo_www_red-alerts.com_28_sept_2010

Source: ATF

Gangs and Alien Smuggling, Human Trafficking, and Prostitution

Gang involvement in alien smuggling, human trafficking, and prostitution is increasing primarily due to their higher profitability and lower risks of detection and punishment than that of drug and weapons trafficking. Over the past year, federal, state, and local law enforcement officials in at least 35 states and US territories have reported that gangs in their jurisdictions are involved in alien smuggling, human trafficking, or prostitution.^e

Alien Smuggling

Many street gangs are becoming involved in alien smuggling as a source of revenue. According to US law enforcement officials, tremendous incentive exists for gangs to diversify their criminal enterprises to include alien smuggling, which can be more lucrative and less risky than the illicit drug trade. Over the past two years numerous federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies nationwide have reported gang involvement in incidents of alien smuggling. In some instances, gang members were among those being smuggled across the border into the United States following deportation. In other cases, gang members facilitated the movement of migrants across the US-Mexico border.^f

Increasing Coordination between MexicanDrug Cartels, Alien Smuggling Networks, and US-Based Gangs
Federal, state, and local law enforcement officials are observing a growing nexus between the Mexican drug cartels, illegal alien smuggling rings, and US-based gangs. The alien smuggling networks that operate along the Southwest border are unable to move human cargo through drug cartel controlled corridors without paying a fee. The typical Mexican illegal alien now pays approximately $1,200 to $2,500 for entry into the United States. The fee is considerably higher for aliens smuggled from countries other than Mexico, which may even be more alluring for the cartels. It is estimated that criminals earn billions of dollars each year by smuggling aliens through Mexico into the United States.
Source: House Committee on Homeland Security, US Congress

Figure 7. An immigrant is smuggled in a vehicle

human-smuggling-discovered-during-a-vehicle-search-near-the-border-www.fbi.gov

Source: FBI

Human Trafficking Global Statistics

18,000 to 20,000 individuals are trafficked into the United States each year.
12.3 million worldwide victims of forced labor, bonded labor, and prostitution.
1.2 million worldwide victims are children; 1.4 million are victims of commercial sexual exploitation, of which 98% are women and girls.
32% of the victims are used for forced
economic exploitation, of which 56% are women and girls

Sources: US Dept. of State TIP Report 2010; UN GIFT Global Report on TIP Feb. 2010

The Barrio Azteca, Mexican Mafia, MS-13, 18th Street Gang, and Somali gangs have all reportedly been involved in alien smuggling, according to NGIC and law enforcement reporting.

In October 2009, ICE agents in Los Angeles, California, arrested suspects linked to a drug trafficking and alien smuggling ring with close ties to the Drew Street clique of the Avenues (Sureño) street gang in Los Angeles. The ring allegedly smuggled more than 200 illegal aliens per year into the United States from Mexico, concealing them in trucks and hidden compartments of vehicles and then hiding them in a store house in Los Angeles (See Figure 8).¹⁵

Human Trafficking

Human trafficking is another source of revenue for some gangs. Victims—typically women and children—are often forced, coerced, or led with fraudulent pretense into prostitution and forced labor.¹⁶ The Bloods, MS-13, Sureños, and Somali gangs have been reportedly involved in human trafficking, according to multiple law enforcement and NGIC reporting.

Some gangs in the New England area are combining human trafficking and drug trafficking operations, where females are used to courier drugs and participate in prostitution.

In November 2010, federal law enforcement officials indicted 29 members of a Somalian gang in Minneapolis for operating an interstate sex trafficking ring that sold and transported underage African-American and Somalian females from Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Columbus, Ohio, and Nashville, Tennessee, for prostitution, according to FBI and ICE reporting.¹⁷

Prostitution

Prostitution is also a major source of income for many gangs. Gang members often operate as pimps, luring or forcing at-risk, young females into prostitution and controlling them through violence and psychological abuse.^g Asian gangs, Bloods, Crips, Gangster Disciples, MS-13, Sureños, Vice Lords, and members of OMGs are involved in prostitution operations, according to FBI, NGIC, and multiple law enforcement reporting.

NGIC law enforcement partners report that gangs in their jurisdiction are involved in prostitution, some of which involves child prostitution.

Prostitution is reportedly the second largest source of income for San Diego, California, gangs. According to November 2010 open source reporting, African-American street gangs in San Diego are pimping young females to solicit males.¹⁸

Gangs and Criminal Organizations

Gangs & Drug Trafficking Organizations

Many US-based gangs have established strong working relationships with Central America and Mexico-based DTOs to perpetuate the smuggling of drugs across the US-Mexico and US-Canada borders. MDTOs control most of the cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and marijuana trafficked into the United States from Mexico and regularly employ lethal force to protect their drug shipments in Mexico and while crossing the US-Mexico border, according to NGIC and NDIC reporting.^h

Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations

MDTOs are among the most prominent DTOs largely because of their control over the production of most drugs consumed in the United States. They are known to regularly collaborate with US-based street and prison gang members and occasionally work with select OMG and White Supremacist groups, purely for financial gain (see Appendix B). The prospect of financial gain is resulting in the suspension of traditional racial and ideological division among US prison gangs, providing MDTOs the means to further expand their influence over drug trafficking in the United States.¹⁹ NDIC reporting indicates that Hispanic and African American street gangs are expanding their influence over drug distribution in rural and suburban areas and acquire drugs directly from MDTOs in Mexico or along the Southwest border.²⁰

Many Los Angeles-based Sinaloa cartel members use local gang members to assist in or commit kidnappings, acquire or sell drugs, and collect drug proceeds. Source: DHS September 2010; DEA November 2010

NGIC law enforcement partners report that gangs in their jurisdiction have ties to Mexican criminal organizations, such as MDTOs.

Well-established US prison gangs such as the Hermanos de Pistoleros Latinos (HPL), La Eme, the Texas Syndicate, Barrio Azteca and the Tango Blast are reportedly aligned with or connected to MDTOs.
NDIC reporting indicates that street gangs such as the Latin Kings, MS-13, Sureños, and Norteños maintain working relationships with MDTOs.²¹ Sureños in California and South Carolina maintain an association with the Los Zetas Cartel in Mexico, according to 2010 NGIC reporting.

According to 2010 California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and open source reporting, some Aryan Brotherhood and La Eme prison gang members—bitter rivals inside prison—work together with MDTOs to smuggle drugs into California and prisons, steal vehicles, smuggle illegal weapons into Mexico, and intimidate rivals of the Mexican cartels.²²

US-Based Gangs with Ties to MDTOs
Arizona New Mexican Mafia Aryan Brotherhood Avenues Bandidos Barrio Azteca Barrio Westside Black Guerilla Family Bloods California Mexican Mafia (Eme) Crips Hardtimes 13 Happytown Pomona Hells Angels Hermanos de Pistoleros Latinos (HPL) La Nuestra Familia Latin Kings Lennox 13	Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) Mexican Mafia Mongols Norteños Satins Disciples Sureños Tango Blast Texas Mexican Mafia (Mexikanemi) Texas Syndicate Tri-City Bombers Vagos Vatos Locos Westside Nogalitas Wetback Power Wonder Boys 18th Street Gang

Figure 8. Mexican Drug Cartels

Source: Stratfor Global Intelligence

MDTOs contract with street and prison gangs along the Southwest border to enforce and secure smuggling operations in Mexico and the United States, particularly in California and Texas border communities.²³ Gang members who are US citizens are valuable to MDTOs, as they can generally cross the US-Mexico border with less law enforcement scrutiny and are therefore less likely to have illicit drug loads interdicted.²⁴ MDTOs use street and prison gang members in Mexico, Texas, and California to protect smuggling routes, collect debts, transport illicit goods, including drugs and weapons, and execute rival traffickers.²⁵ Many of these crimes are committed in exchange for money and drugs, and as a result, street and prison gangs in the United States have gained greater control over drug distribution in rural and suburban areas. Gang members, including Barrio Azteca, MS-13 and Sureños have been intercepted driving with weapons and currency toward Mexico from such states as California, Colorado, Georgia, and Texas according to open source reporting.

Major Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations
Arellano Felix Beltran Leyva Vicente Carrillo- Fuentes Gulf Cartel	Los Zetas Sinaloa La Familia Michoacana

Gangs’ increased collaboration with MDTOs has altered the dynamics of the drug trade at the wholesale level. US gangs, which traditionally served as the primary organized retail or mid-level distributor of drugs in most major US cities, are now purchasing drugs directly from the cartels, thereby eliminating the mid-level wholesale dealer. Furthermore, advanced technology, such as wireless Internet and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) capabilities, has made the recruitment, collaboration, and coordination of criminal activity more efficient and lucrative, and allows direct contact between the gangs and DTOs.²⁶ To increase their control over drug trafficking in smaller markets, street gangs have acquired large wholesale quantities of drugs at lower prices directly from DTOs in Mexico and along the US Southwest border.²⁷

Recent intelligence indicates that the MDTO La Familia Michoacana has established US-based command-and-control groups which report to leaders in Mexico who manage street-level distribution in US cities.²⁸

Gangs and Organized Criminal Groups

January 2010 FBI reporting indicates that some OMGs and street gangs are closely collaborating with African, Asian, Eurasian, and Italian organized criminal groups to facilitate street-level crimes such as extortion, enforcement, debt collection, and money laundering.

In May 2010, New Jersey authorities indicted 34 members of the Lucchese crime family on racketeering, weapons offenses, bribery, money laundering, and conspiracy charges. The investigation revealed that members of the Lucchese family in New Jersey were working with the Nine Trey Gangster Bloods to smuggle drugs and cell phones into the East Jersey State Prison for fellow inmates, according to open source reporting.²⁹

NGIC reporting indicates that some gangs are suspected of associating with African, Asian, and Eurasian criminal groups in California and Washington.ⁱ

Law enforcement officials in Washington suspect that some Asian gangs, including the Oriental Boyz and the Tiny Rascal Gangsters, are involved with Asian organized crime and marijuana cultivating groups.
In February 2011, authorities in southern California charged 99 Armenian Power gang members with kidnapping, extortion, bank fraud, and drug trafficking. Armenian Power members reportedly have ties to high-level crime figures in Armenia, Russia, and Georgia.³⁰

Chart 3. Gang Associations with Criminal Organizations.

The NGIC collected intelligence from law enforcement officials nationwide in an effort to identify associations between gangs and criminal organizations. The following figures represent the percentage of law enforcement who report that gangs in their jurisdiction have ties to various criminal organizations.

Gangs and Corrections Issues

Prison gang-related crime and violence in the nation’s corrections system poses a significant threat to facility employees and a growing threat in many communities. Once incarcerated, most street gang members join an established prison gang to ensure their protection. Based on data provided by federal and state correctional agencies, the NGIC estimates that there are approximately 231,136 gang members incarcerated in federal and state prisons nationwide. Their large numbers and dominant presence allows prison gangs to employ bribery, intimidation, and violence to exert influence and control over many correctional facilities. Violent disputes over control of drug territory and enforcement of drug debts frequently occur among incarcerated gang members.

Figure 9. A US prison yard

Prison/Street Gang Connections

Many incarcerated gang members continue to engage in gang activities following incarceration and use their connections inside prison to commit crime in the community. Prison gang members influence and control gang activity on the street, and exploit street gangs for money and other resources.

Figure 10. Incarcerated MS-13 Members

Law enforcement officials report associations between street gang members and incarcerated gang members in their area.

MS-13 members send funds not only to gang members on the street and in prison, but also to gang members in El Salvador, according to NGIC reporting.

Prison/Family Connection

A gang member’s incarceration often prompts his or her family to move closer to the correctional facility where the gang member is being housed. In some cases, family members assist or facilitate gang criminal activity and recruiting.

Family members of gangs operate as outside facilitators, serving as messengers, drug couriers, or in any capacity benefiting the gang. Outside facilitators are provided instructions by the incarcerated gang member, often during a social or legal visit, and in turn pass this information to gang members on the streets. Family members have also been used to assist prison escapes and smuggle contraband into correctional facilities, allowing incarcerated gang members to continue their operations inside prison.

Gangs in Contact with Incarcerated Gang Members
18th Street 415 Kumi Arizona New Mexican Mafia Aryan Brotherhood Aryan Brotherhood of Texas Aryan Circle Bandidos Barrio Azteca Black Guerilla Family Black Gangster Disciples Black P-Stone Nation Bloods California Mexican Mafia Colorado Aryan Brotherhood Crips Dead Man Inc. Dirty White Boys Gangster Disciples (GD) Grupo 25 (G-25) Grupo 27 (G-27) Hells Angels (MC) Hermanos de Pistoleros Latinos (HPL)	La Nuestra Familia Latin Kings Los Carnales MS-13 Nazi Low Riders Ñetas Norteños Northern Riders Northern Structure Outlaws Paisas Raza Unida Simon City Royals Skinheads Sureños Syndicato De Nuevo Mexico Texas Chicano Brotherhood Texas Mexican Mafia (Mexikanemi-EMI) Texas Syndicate United Blood Nation Valluco Tango Blast Vice Lords West Texas Tangos

Gangs in Contact with Incarcerated
Gang Members

18th Street
415 Kumi
Arizona New Mexican
Mafia
Aryan Brotherhood
Aryan Brotherhood of
Texas
Aryan Circle
Bandidos
Barrio Azteca
Black Guerilla Family
Black Gangster
Disciples
Black P-Stone Nation
Bloods
California Mexican
Mafia
Colorado Aryan
Brotherhood
Crips
Dead Man Inc.
Dirty White Boys
Gangster Disciples
(GD)
Grupo 25 (G-25)
Grupo 27 (G-27)
Hells Angels (MC)
Hermanos de
Pistoleros Latinos
(HPL)

La Nuestra Familia
Latin Kings
Los Carnales
MS-13
Nazi Low Riders
Ñetas
Norteños
Northern Riders
Northern Structure
Outlaws
Paisas
Raza Unida
Simon City Royals
Skinheads
Sureños
Syndicato De Nuevo
Mexico
Texas Chicano
Brotherhood
Texas Mexican Mafia
(Mexikanemi-EMI)
Texas Syndicate
United Blood Nation
Valluco Tango Blast
Vice Lords
West Texas Tangos

Communication

Incarcerated gang members often rely on family, friends, corrupt lawyers and corrections personnel to transmit their messages to gang members on the street. Incarcerated gang members exploit attorney-client privileges, which include unmonitored visiting and legal mail, to pass coded or concealed communications.^j

Contraband Cell Phones

Smuggled cell phones are a continuing problem for prison administrators in correctional facilities throughout the country. Smuggled cell phones and Smart Phones afford incarcerated gang members more influence and control over street gangs through unrestricted access and unmonitored conversations via voice calling, Internet access, text messaging, email, and social networking websites. Instances of violence directed by inmates using mobile devices are also a growing concern for corrections officials. Incarcerated gang members communicate covertly with illegal cell phones to plan or direct criminal activities such as drug distribution, assault, and murder.

Cell phones smuggled into correctional facilities pose the greatest threat to institution safety, according to NGIC and BOP reporting.

In 2010 a New Jersey inmate was prosecuted for using a contraband cell phone to order the murder of his former girlfriend in retaliation for her cooperation with police regarding an investigation involving the inmate.³¹

Illegal Cell Phones in California Prisons
The majority of illegal cell phones in California prisons are smuggled in by visitors or correctional staff. Many cell phones have also been discovered
in legal mail and quarterly packages. In 2010, more than 10,000 illegal cell phones were confiscated from prisoners in California.
Historically, correctional staff who have been caught smuggling phones have been successfully prosecuted only when the phone was connected to a more serious charge such as drug distribution,
and district attorney offices rarely prosecute unless a more serious offense is involved. In March 2011, legislation was approved in the California State Senate to criminalize the use of cell phones in prison, including penalties for both smugglers and inmates.
Sources: US Bureau of Prisons and CDCR; California State Senate Press Release, 22 March 2011

In March 2010, an off-duty captain in the South Carolina Department of Corrections was shot in his home by an armed intruder. Although the captain survived, the assault had been ordered by a South Carolina inmate using a smuggled cell phone.³²

Leadership

Gang members who have been incarcerated are often more respected on the streets by younger gang members, which makes it easier to establish or re-establish themselves in leadership positions and order younger gang members to commit crimes.^k These gang leaders also use connections made in prison to establish contacts and criminal networks in the community, which allows them to more successfully control gang operations. Also, in the wake of leadership disorganization at the street level due to indictments and arrests, a released gang member may find it easy to use his influence and status as an ‘original gangster’ (OG) or Veterano to assume control of the gang.

Law enforcement officials report that released prison gang members in some jurisdictions are establishing or re-establishing leadership roles or active roles in local gangs.

Prison Radicalization

Gang members’ vulnerability to radicalization and recruitment for involvement in international or domestic terrorism organizations is a growing concern to law enforcement. Gang members’ perceptions of disenfranchisement from or rejection of mainstream society and resentment towards authority makes them more susceptible to joining such groups and can be attractive and easy targets for radicalization by extremist groups.

NGIC reporting indicates that incarcerated gang members in some jurisdictions are adopting radical religious views in prison.

Prison gangs that tend to be dedicated to political or social issues are often more susceptible to influence by extremist ideologies. In some instances, prison gang members may even emulate various terrorist movements by embracing their symbolism and ideology to enhance the gang’s own militant image within the prison setting.

Prison and street gang members are also susceptible on an individual basis to radicalization. Various correctional agencies have reported individual members of the Black Peace Stones, Crips, Latin Kings, and Insane Latin Disciples embracing radical ideologies.

Gang Infiltration of Corrections, Law Enforcement, and Government

Gang infiltration of law enforcement, government, and correctional agencies poses a significant security threat due to the access criminals have to sensitive information pertaining to investigations or protected persons. Gang members serving in law enforcement agencies and correctional facilities may compromise security and criminal investigations and operations, while acquiring knowledge and training in police tactics and weapons. Corrupt law enforcement officers and correctional staff have assisted gang members in committing crimes and have impeded investigations.

NGIC reporting indicates that gang members in at least 57 jurisdictions, including California, Florida, Tennessee, and Virginia, have applied for or gained employment within judicial, police, or correctional agencies.

A Crip gang member applied for a law enforcement position in Oklahoma.

OMGs engage in routine and systematic exploitation and infiltration of law enforcement and government infrastructures to protect and perpetrate their criminal activities. OMGs regularly solicit information of intelligence value from government or law enforcement employees.

NGIC reporting indicates that gang members in at least 72 jurisdictions have compromised or corrupted judicial, law enforcement, or correctional staff within the past three years.

In November 2010, a parole worker in New York was suspended for relaying confidential information to a Bloods gang member in Albany, according to open source reporting.³³
In July 2010, a Riverside County, California detention center sheriff deputy was convicted of assisting her incarcerated Eme boyfriend with murdering two witnesses in her boyfriend’s case.³⁴
In April 2010, a former Berwyn, Illinois police officer pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit racketeering and to obstruct justice for his part in assisting an OMG member in targeting and burglarizing rival businesses.³⁵

Gangs and Indian Country

Native American gang presence has increased on Indian Reservations and in federal and state prison systems throughout the United States over the past few years, according to Bureau of Justice Statistics reporting.^36,l Native American gang members, operating on numerous reservations throughout the United States, are emulating Hispanic gangs such as the Barrio Aztecas, Norteños, and Sureños; African American gangs such as the Bloods and Crips; and predominately Caucasian gangs such as the Juggalos. Some gangs, such as the Native Mob and Native Pride—which primarily operates in North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin—formed in the prison system and then expanded to reservations, according to NGIC reporting. Although most gangs in Indian Country are disorganized, lack significant structure and ties to national-level gangs, and are incapable of attaining control over large geographic areas or populations, some are involved in serious crimes and violent activities and utilize Indian Reservations to facilitate and expand their drug operations.

Indian Country and the US Border
The shared international border and geography of some Indian Reservations make it conducive to cross-border drug trafficking activity while also inhibiting interdiction efforts. Increased security at US/Mexican borders has resulted in the discovery of illicit marijuana farms from
California to South Dakota, primarily operated by Mexican gangs. Tighter border security makes it difficult for MDTOs to smuggle marijuana north thus raising the price of marijuana in the United States higher than in Mexico. Marijuana (stems and leaves) grown in Mexico costs $500 to $700 per pound, whereas a pound of marijuana grown in Washington State can cost $2,500 to $6,000 when sold on the East Coast.
Online News Article; The Wall Street Journal; “Mexican Pot Gangs Infiltrate Indian Reservations in US;” 5 November 2009; available at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125736987377028727.html.

The growth of gangs on Indian Reservations is heavily influenced by the urban gang culture and media attention. Gang members on Indian Reservations often emulate national-level gangs and adopt names and identifiers from nationally recognized urban gangs. However, emulation is most often limited to identifiers—colors, signs, symbols, names—and leadership structure is often loosely organized or absent. NGIC reporting indicates that national-level gangs such as the Barrio Azteca, Bloods, Crips, Mexican Mafia, and Norteños are operating on a number of Indian Reservations. Native American gang members on reservations are also involved in gang-related activity with gang members in communities outside of reservations.

NGIC reporting indicates that urban gangs such as the Norteños and Sureños associate and/or influence the gang culture on several Indian Reservations.

In some jurisdictions, Native American gang members are associated with or involved in gang-related criminal activity with gang members off the reservation, including drug distribution, money laundering, assaults, and intimidation. Partnerships are often established for financial gain, drug distribution, and to evade law enforcement.

Figure 12. Graffiti on Ft. Apache-San Carlos Indian Reservation

indian-country-threat-assessment-032-ft-apache-san-carlos

Source: FBI

The Warm Springs Indian Reservation in Oregon is becoming an ideal location for illicit marijuana farms because of its fertile grounds and isolated location. Within the past few years authorities have seized at least 12,000 harvested adult marijuana plants with an estimated street value of $10 million.³⁷

Geography, as well as the extent of law enforcement monitoring of the reservations, make some Indian Reservations conducive to cross-border drug trafficking.

As much as 20 percent of all high-potency marijuana produced in Canada each year is smuggled through the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation in New York, according to NDIC reporting.
Marijuana produced in Mexico is transported by MDTOs through the Tohono O’odham Reservation in Arizona largely due to the 75 miles of lightly patrolled border with Mexico, according to NDIC reporting.

Gangs and the Military

Gang recruitment of active duty military personnel constitutes a significant criminal threat to the US military. Members of nearly every major street gang, as well as some prison gangs and OMGs, have been reported on both domestic and international military installations, according to NGIC analysis and multiple law enforcement reporting. Through transfers and deployments, military-affiliated gang members expand their culture and operations to new regions nationwide and worldwide, undermining security and law enforcement efforts to combat crime. Gang members with military training pose a unique threat to law enforcement personnel because of their distinctive weapons and combat training skills and their ability to transfer these skills to fellow gang members.

NGIC reporting indicates that law enforcement officials in at least 100 jurisdictions have come into contact with, detained, or arrested an active duty or former military gang member within the past three years.

Gang members have been reported in every branch of the US military^m, although a large proportion of these gang members and dependent gang members of military personnel are affiliated with the US Army, Army Reserves, and National Guard branches.

Figure 13. ‘Support your local Hells Angels’ graffiti on military vehicle in Iraq

Source: FBI
Figure 14. A soldier in a combat zone throwing gang signs

Source: FBI

Many street gang members join the military to escape the gang lifestyle or as an alternative to incarceration, but often revert back to their gang associations once they encounter other gang members in the military. Other gangs target the US military and defense systems to expand their territory, facilitate criminal activity such as weapons and drug trafficking, or to receive weapons and combat training that they may transfer back to their gang. Incidents of weapons theft and trafficking may have a negative impact on public safety or pose a threat to law enforcement officials.

As of April 2011, the NGIC has identified members of at least 53 gangs whose members have served in or are affiliated with US military. Among the identified gangs with military-trained members are street gangs such as the Asian Boyz, Bloods, Crips, Gangster Disciples, Latin Kings, MS-13, Sureños, Tiny Rascal Gangsters, and the Juggalos; the Aryan Brotherhood, Barrio Azteca, and Texas Syndicate prison gangs; and OMGs including the Bandidos, Hells Angels, Mongols, Outlaws, and Vagos. Some gangs, particularly OMGs, actively recruit members with military training or advise members without criminal records to join the military for necessary weapons and combat training.

Younger gang members without criminal records are attempting to join the military, as well as concealing tattoos and gang affiliation during the recruitment process, according to NGIC reporting.

Deployments have resulted in integrating gang members with service members and/or dependents on or near overseas military installations, including those in Afghanistan, Germany, Iraq, Italy, Japan, and South Korea. US military officials have reported a rise in gang graffiti both on and off post in Afghanistan and Iraq (see Figure 14).

Table 3. Gangs with Members Who have Served in the US Military

Gang Name	Type	Military Branch(s)
18^th Street Gang	Street	Army, Marines, Navy
Aryan Brotherhood	Prison	Army, Marines, Navy
Asian Boyz	Street	Army
Asian Crips	Street	Army
Avenues Gang	Street	Marines
Bandidos	OMG	Army, Marines
Barrio Azteca	Prison	Marines
Black Disciples	Street	Army, Marines, Navy
Black Guerilla Family*	Prison	Army
Bloods	Street	Army, Army Reserves, Coast Guard, Marines, Navy
Brotherhood	OMG	Marines
Crips	Street	Army, Air Force, Marines, Navy
Devils Disciples	OMG	Unknown
East Side Longos	Street	Army, Special Forces
Florencia 13	Street	Army, Marines
Fresno Bulldogs	Street	National Guard, Marines
Gangster Disciples	Street	Army, Marines, Navy, National Guard
Georgia Boys (Folk Nation)	Street	Army
Haitian Mob	Street	Army
Hells Angels	OMG	All branches
Iron Horsemen	OMG	Army
Juggalos/ICP	Street	Army, Air Force
Korean Dragon Family	Street	Marines
Latin Kings	Street	Army, Army Reserves, Marines, Navy
Legion of Doom	OMG	Air Force
Life is War	Street	Army
Los Zetas	Street	Army
Maniac Latin Disciples	Street	Marines
Mexican Posse 13	Street	Army
Military Misfits	OMG	Marines, Navy
Molochs	OMG	Marines
Mongols	OMG	Marines, Navy
Moorish Nation	Separatist	Army
MS-13	Street	Army, Marines, Navy
Norteños	Street	Army, Marines, National Guard, Navy
Outlaws	OMG	All branches
Peckerwoods	Street	Marines, Navy, National Guard, Reserves
Red Devils	OMG	Army/ Coast Guard
Simon City Royals	Street	Navy
Sons of Hell	OMG	Marines
Sons of Samoa	Street	Army
Southside Locos	Street	Army
Sureños	Street	Army, Marines, Navy
Tango Blast	Prison	Army*
Texas Syndicate	Prison	Army, Marines
Tiny Rascal Gangsters	Street	Army
United Blood Nation	Street	Army
Vagos	OMG	Army, Marines, Navy
Vatos Locos	Street	Army
Vice Lords	Street	Army
Wah Ching Gang	Street	Army
Warlocks	OMG	Air Force, Marines

* Only gang graffiti was identified

Gangs and the US Border

Figure 15. The Southwest Border Region

Source: America.gov

The Southwest Border

The US Southwest Border regionⁿ represents a continuing criminal threat to the United States. The rugged, rural, and porous area along the nearly 2,000 miles of contiguous US-Mexican territory invites widespread criminal activity, including drug and arms trafficking, alien smuggling, human trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, and public corruption. US-based gangs, MDTOs, and other criminal enterprises in both the United States and Mexico are readily exploiting this fluid region and incur enormous profit by establishing wide-reaching drug networks; assisting in the smuggling drugs, arms, and illegal immigrants; and serving as enforcers for MDTO interests on the US side of the border.

Violence in Mexico—particularly in its northern border states—has escalated with over 34,000 murders committed in Mexico over the past four years.³⁸ While intensified scrutiny from Mexican law enforcement has forced significant disruptions in several dangerous MDTOs, such disruptions have also served to disrupt the balance of power among these organizations. This has prompted drug cartel rivalries to employ more aggressive tactics as they attempt to assert control over the Southwest border region and its highly lucrative drug trafficking corridors.³⁹ Although the majority of the violence from feuding drug cartels occurs in Mexico,^o Mexican drug cartel activity has fueled crime in the porous US Southwest Border region, where easy access to weapons, a high demand for drugs, ample opportunity for law enforcement corruption, and a large Hispanic population ripe for recruitment and exploitation exists.⁴⁰

Hispanic prison gangs along the Southwest border region are strengthening their ties with MDTOs to acquire wholesale quantities of drugs, according to NDIC reporting.⁴¹ In exchange for a consistent drug supply, US-based gangs smuggle and distribute drugs, collect drug proceeds, launder money, smuggle weapons, commit kidnappings, and serve as lookouts and enforcers on behalf of the MDTOs. MDTOs subsequently profit from increased drug circulation in the United States, while US-based gangs have access to a consistent drug supply which expands their influence, power, and ability to recruit.⁴²

According to NDIC reporting, more than 45 percent of law enforcement agencies in the Southwestern United States report that gangs in their jurisdiction are moderately to highly involved in drug activity, while 30 percent indicate that street gang involvement in drug activity increased within the past year.

Gang-related activity and violence has increased along the Southwest border region, as US-based gangs seek to prove their worth to the drug cartels, compete with other gangs for favor, and act as US-based enforcers for cartels which involves home invasions, robbery, kidnapping, and murder.

In July 2010, Mexican authorities arrested two members of the Barrio Azteca for the murders of a US Consulate employee and her husband in Juarez, Mexico. The gang, who allegedly committed the murders on behalf of the Juarez Cartel, has also made several threats against law enforcement officials.^43,p

Arrangements between gangs operating along the Southwest border and MDTOs are the result of physical proximity and strong familial ties that many US-based Hispanic gang members retain with family and friends in Mexico.

Northern Border

Gangs pose a growing problem for law enforcement along the US-Canada border, particularly the border areas in the New England and Pacific Regions. Gangs smuggle drugs, cigarettes, firearms, and immigrants across the US-Canada borders, according to NDIC reporting.⁴⁴ Members of several regional- and national-level gangs, including Asian Boyz, Hells Angels, and Outlaws, smuggle large quantities of illicit drugs across the US-Canada border in New England, often conducting their smuggling operations in association with members of transnational criminal and drug trafficking organizations. According to law enforcement officials in the Pacific Region, members of several gangs, including the Hells Angels and Asian gangs, engage in cross-border criminal activity in their jurisdictions.

Los Zetas Drug Trafficking Organization
Los Zetas organization was established in the late 1990s as the enforcement arm of the Gulf Cartel drug trafficking organization to protect and expand the Gulf Cartel’s operations. Consisting of highly trained soldiers who defected from the Mexican Special Air Mobile Force Group (GAFE), the Zetas have evolved from a wing of the Gulf Cartel into their own drug trafficking organization.

Hells Angels members have reportedly smuggled MDMA (Ecstasy) from British Columbia, Canada into Bellingham, Washington, according to 2010 open source reporting.

Asian DTOs smuggle large quantities of MDMA through and between ports of entry along the US-Canada border, according to 2010 NDIC reporting.⁴⁵

Figure 16. Los Zetas Commando Medallion

Source: ATF

Canadian DTOs smuggle significant amounts of cash generated from the US distribution of Canada-produced drugs into Canada, according to NDIC reporting. The Akwesasne Territory, which straddles the US–Canada border, is one of the most prominent smuggling corridors for Canada-bound bulk cash. The topography of the US-Canada border is conducive to bulk cash smuggling because currency interdiction by law enforcement officials is often hampered by the border’s length and rugged terrain.⁴⁶

Gangs, Technology, and Communication

Gangs are becoming increasingly savvy and are embracing new and advanced technology to facilitate criminal activity and enhance their criminal operations. Prepaid cell phones, social networking and microblogging websites, VoIP systems, virtual worlds, and gaming systems enable gang members to communicate globally and discreetly. Gangs are also increasingly employing advanced countermeasures to monitor and target law enforcement while engaging in a host of criminal activity.

Internet Use for Propaganda, Intimidation, and Recruitment
According to open sources and law enforcement reporting, since 2005, MDTOs have exploited blogs and popular websites like YouTube and MySpace for propaganda and intimidation. MDTOs have posted hundreds of videos depicting interrogations or executions of rival MDTO members. Other postings include video montages of luxury vehicles, weapons, and money set to the music of songs with lyrics that glorify the drug lifestyle. While some of these postings may offer specific recruitment information, they serve more as tools for propaganda and intimidation.

Gang members routinely utilize the Internet to communicate with one another, recruit, promote their gang, intimidate rivals and police, conduct gang business, showcase illegal exploits, and facilitate criminal activity such as drug trafficking, extortion, identity theft, money laundering, and prostitution. Social networking, microblogging, and video-sharing websites—such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter—are now more accessible, versatile, and allow tens of thousands of gang members to easily communicate, recruit, and form new gang alliances nationwide and worldwide.^q

NGIC reporting indicates that a majority of gang members use the Internet for recruitment, gang promotion, and cyber-bullying or intimidation. Many also use the Internet for identity theft, computer hacking, and phishing schemes.

According to NGIC reporting, gang recruitment and intimidation is heavily facilitated through the Internet. Gangs use social networking sites such as Facebook to promote their gang, post photos of their gang lifestyle, and display their bravado, which ultimately influences other youth to join gangs.
NGIC law enforcement partners report that gangs in their jurisdiction are frequently using the Internet to recruit and communicate with gang members throughout the region, nationwide, and in Central and South America. Law enforcement officials in Texas report that incarcerated gang members use Facebook and MySpace to recruit.
Police in Missouri report a rise in “promotion teams”—often consisting of gang members—using Internet chat rooms to promote clubs and parties for a fee, according to NGIC reporting.

The proliferation of social networking websites has made gang activity more prevalent and lethal—moving gangs from the streets into cyber space. Gang members, criminals, and drug traffickers are using the Internet not only to recruit and build their social networks, but to expand and operate their criminal networks without the proximity once needed for communication. Likewise, youth in other regions and countries are influenced by what they see online and may be encouraged to connect with or emulate a gang, facilitating the global spread of gang culture.

Gang members in Missouri and Nebraska are increasingly using social media to recruit and communicate with other gang members, according to NGIC reporting.

Second Life Virtual World
Second Life is a computer-based virtual world with a simulated environment where users inhabit and interact via avatars, or graphical representations. The virtual world may depict a real world or a fantasy world. Users communicate through text-chat and real-time voice-based chat. Second Life provides versatility and anonymity and allows for covert communications. Because of its anonymity and versatility, gang members could potentially use Second Life to recruit, spread propaganda, commit other crimes such as drug trafficking, and receive training for real-world criminal operations.
Source: Information available at www.secondlife.com

According to information obtained from multiple state and federal law enforcement sources, incarcerated gang members are accessing micro-blogging and social networking web sites such as MocoSpace and Twitter with smuggled prepaid cellular telephones and using the messaging features to coordinate criminal activity.

Street gang members are also involved in cyber attacks, computer hacking, and phishing operations, often to commit identity theft and fraud.

Gangs and Weapons

Gang members are acquiring high-powered, military-style weapons and equipment, resulting in potentially lethal encounters with law enforcement officers, rival gang members, and innocent bystanders. Law enforcement officials in several regions nationwide report gang members in their jurisdiction are armed with military-style weapons, such as high-caliber semiautomatic rifles, semiautomatic variants of AK-47 assault rifles, grenades, and body armor.

Figure 17. Weapons recovered from Barrio Azteca Members in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico

Source: ATF

Law enforcement officials in 34 jurisdictions report that the majority of gang-related crime is committed with firearms.

Gang members acquire firearms through a variety of means, including illegal purchases; straw purchases through surrogates or middle-men; thefts from individuals, vehicles, residences and commercial establishments; theft from law enforcement and military officials, from gang members with connections to military sources of supply, and from other gangs, according to multiple law enforcement and NGIC reporting.

Gang members are becoming more sophisticated and methodical in their methods of acquiring and purchasing firearms. Gang members often acquire their firearms through theft or through a middleman, often making a weapons trace more difficult.

Enlisted military personnel are also being utilized by gang members as a ready source for weapons.

In November 2010, three former US Marines were arrested in Los Angeles, California, for selling illegal assault weapons to Florencia 13 gang members, according to open souce reporting.⁴⁷
In November 2010, a US Navy Seal from San Diego and two others were arrested in Colorado for smuggling at least 18 military issued machine guns and 14 other firearms from Iraq and Afghanistan into the United States for sale and shipment to Mexico, according to open source reporting.⁴⁸

Gang members are employing countermeasures to monitor, intercept, and target law enforcement, sometimes with elaborate weapons and devices.

In February 2010, a Riverside County gang task force officer in California was nearly killed when suspected members of a White Supremacist gang rigged a zip gun on a gang task force security fence to discharge if anyone entered their property (see Figure 20). In December 2009, the same group staged a natural gas explosion at their property intended for law enforcement entering the premises.⁴⁹

Figure 18. Zip gun attached to the fence of a Gang Task Force in Hemet, CA

Source: ATF

Gangs and White Collar Crime

NGIC reporting indicates that gangs are becoming more involved in white collar crime, including identity theft, bank fraud, credit card fraud, money laundering, fencing stolen goods, counterfeiting, and mortgage fraud, and are recruiting members who possess those skill sets. Law enforcement officials nationwide indicate that many gangs in their jurisdiction are involved in some type of white collar crime.

Gang Members Targeting Law Enforcement Vehicles for Weapons
In 2009, suspected gang members in Broward County and West Palm Beach, Florida burglarized nearly a dozen marked and unmarked law enforcement vehicles stealing firearms, ballistic vests, and police identification.
Source: FBI-NGIC, “Gangs Targeting Law Enforcement for Weapons and Equipment Theft; Intelligence Bulletin; 21 December 2009

NGIC reporting indicates that the Bloods, Crips, Gangster Disciples, Vice Lords, Latin Kings, Mexican Mafia, Sureños, Norteños, La Nuestra Familia, Texas Syndicate, Aryan Brotherhood, various OMG and Asian gangs, and neighborhood-based gangs are engaging in white collar crime.

Many gang members are engaging in counterfeiting because of its low risks and high financial rewards.

In July 2010, a Florencia 13 gang member in Los Angeles was arrested for operating a lab from his home that manufactured pirated video games.⁵⁰

In April 2010, a member of the East Coast Crips was arrested in Los Angeles, California, for the sale of counterfeit goods and drug trafficking at a clothing store he co-owned. Police confiscated 824 counterfeit items from the store worth $43,762.⁵¹

Gang members are laundering profits from criminal activities such as drug trafficking and prostitution, through front companies such music businesses, beauty shops, auto repair shops, law firms, and medical offices.

Members of the Black Guerilla Family in Maryland used pre-paid retail debit cards as virtual currency inside Maryland prisons to purchase drugs and further the gangs’ interests, according to August 2010 open source reporting.⁵²

Some gangs, such as the Bloods and Gangster Disciples, are committing sophisticated mortgage fraud schemes by purchasing properties with the intent to receive seller assistance loans and, ultimately retain the proceeds from the loans, or to comingle illicit funds through mortgage payments. Gang members are also exploiting vulnerabilities in the banking and mortgage industries for profit.

According to open source reporting, in April 2009, members of the Bloods in San Diego, California were charged with racketeering and mortgage fraud.⁵³

Law Enforcement Actions and Resources

Gang units and task forces are a vital component in targeting gangs and have played a substantial role in mitigating gang activity in a number of US communities. The majority of NGIC law enforcement partners report that their agency has or participates in a gang task force, and most utilize a gang database to track and monitor gang members in their jurisdictions. There are 168 FBI Violent Gang Task Forces in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. In addition, ATF operates 31 Violent Crime Impact Teams (VCIT) and ICE operates eight Operation Community Shield (OCS) Initiatives nationwide (see Appendix C). The collaboration and coordination of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies has resulted in a number of successes involving gang suppression efforts.

NGIC law enforcement partners in at least 107 jurisdictions report that law enforcement action has resulted in a decrease of gangs or gang activity in their region.

In March 2011, officials from DHS, CBP, ICE, ATF, and local San Diego police were involved in the arrest of over 67 gang members and associates for drugs and cross-border crimes in the San Diego, California area. Operation Allied Shield III, a part of a San Diego County initiative to focus on prevention, detection, and suppression of crimes in areas impacted by border-related crime, aimed to seize drugs and weapons and to identify and observe gang members in a proactive way.⁵⁴
In March 2011, 35 leaders, members, and associates of the Barrio Azteca gang in Texas were charged in a federal indictment for various counts of racketeering, murder, drug offenses, money laundering, and obstruction of justice. Ten subjects were charged with the March 2010 murders of a US Consulate employee, her husband, and the husband of another consulate employee, in Juarez, Mexico.⁵⁵
In February 2011, FBI, ATF, ICE, and DHS, and numerous state and local officials charged 41 gang members and associates from several different gangs in five districts with multiple offenses, including racketeering conspiracy, murder, drug and gun trafficking. The indictment involved members from the Click Clack gang in Kansas City, Missouri; the Colonias Chiques gang in Los Angeles; the Sureno 13 and San Chucos gangs in Las Vegas; MS-13 in Washington; and 13 Tri-City Bomber members and associates in the McAllen, Texas area.⁵⁶

Outlook

Street, prison, and motorcycle gang membership and criminal activity continues to flourish in US communities where gangs identify opportunities to control street level drug sales, and other profitable crimes. Gangs will not only continue to defend their territory from rival gangs, but will also increasingly seek to diversify both their membership and their criminal activities in recognition of potential financial gain. New alliances between rival gangs will likely form as gangs suspend their former racial ideologies in pursuit of mutual profit. Gangs will continue to evolve and adapt to current conditions and law enforcement tactics, diversify their criminal activity, and employ new strategies and technology to enhance their criminal operations, while facilitating lower-risk and more profitable schemes, such as white collar crime.

The expansion of communication networks, especially in wireless communications and the Internet, will allow gang members to form associations and alliances with other gangs and criminal organizations—both domestically and internationally—and enable gang members to better facilitate criminal activity and enhance their criminal operations discreetly without the physical interfacing once necessary to conduct these activities.

Changes in immigrant populations, which are susceptible to victimization and recruitment by gangs, may have the most profound effect on street gang membership. Continued drug trafficking-related violence along the US Southwest border could trigger increased migration of Mexicans and Central Americans into the United States and, as such, provide a greater pool of victims, recruits, and criminal opportunities for street gangs as they seek to profit from the illegal drug trade, alien smuggling, and weapons trafficking. Likewise, increased gang recruitment of youths among the immigrant population may result in an increase in gang membership and gang-related violence in a number of regions.

Street gang activity and violence may also increase as more dangerous gang members are released early from prison and re-establish their roles armed with new knowledge and improved techniques. Prison gang members, already an ideal target audience for radicalization, may expand their associations with foreign gang members or radical criminal organizations, both inside correctional institutions and in the community upon their release.

Gang members armed with high-powered weapons and knowledge and expertise acquired from employment in law enforcement, corrections, or the military may pose an increasing nationwide threat, as they employ these tactics and weapons against law enforcement officials, rival gang members, and civilians.

Globalization, socio-political change, technological advances, and immigration will result either in greater gang expansion and gang-related crime or displace gang members as they search for criminal opportunities elsewhere. Stagnant or poor economic conditions in the United States, including budget cuts in law enforcement, may undercut gang dismantlement efforts and encourage gang expansion as police agencies redirect their resources and disband gang units and taskforces, as reported by a large number of law enforcement agencies.

Maps. Gang Presence in the United States

Map 1. US Nationwide Gang Presence

Map 2. West Region

Map 3. South Central Region

Map 4. North Central Region

Map 5. Southeast Region

Map 6. Northeast Region

Map 7. FBI Uniform Crime Report (UCR) Violent Crime, 2009

APPENDIX A. Gangs by State
ALABAMA
31st Street Mob
33rd Street Posse
400 Block
4th Ward Bloods
Alberta City Boys
Alpha Tau Omega
Aryan Brotherhood
Avenue Piru Gangsters Bandaleros
Bandidos MC
Bay Boys
Black Cherry 8 Balls
Black Gangster Disciples
Black Mafia Family
Black Pistons MC
Bloods Boom Squad
Brown Pride
Central Park Bloods
Central Park Boys
Collegeville Posse
Corner Boys Crips
Devils Disciples MC
Eastside Bloods
Ensley Town Killers
Evergreen Bottom Boys
Gad Town Klowns
Gangsta G’s
Gangster Disciples
Ghettie Boyz
Give No Fucks
Green Acres Crips
Hazel Green Boys
Hells Lovers MC
Imperial Gangster Disciples
Insane Gangster Disciples
Juggalos
La Familia
La Quemada
Latin Kings
Latino Bloods Crips
Little Trouble Makers
Los Bolinos
Los Zetas
Lovemans Village Posse
Lynch Mob
Malditos 13
Melos 13
Northside Bloods
Northsiders 62 Po Boys
On Fire Boys
On Fire Girls
Outcast MC
Pistoleros MC
Outlaws MC
Pratt Boys
Riley Boys
Seven Deadly Sins
Sherman Heights Posse
Sin City Disciples MC
Six Deuce Brims
Smithfield Posse
Southern Brotherhood
Southside Cyclones
Southside Locos
Southside Youngsters
Sur-13
T Dub
Tango Blast
Technical Knockout
Titusville Posse
Toney Project Boys
Trap Boys
Trap Girls
Tribe MC
United Together Forever
Vatos Locos
Vice Hill Posse
Vice Lords
View Mob
Westside Crips
Wheels of Soul MC
Wylam Boys
ALASKA
50150 Crips
88 Street Crips
Almighty Latin King Nation
Almighty Vice Lord Nation
Altadena Crip Gangster
American Front
Aryan Brotherhood
Baby Hamo Tribe
Black Gangster Disciples
Blackwood Mafia
Chaos Drama Family
Combat Crips
Compton Swamp Crips
Deuce
Faceside Bloods
Fam Bam
Franklin Family Piru
Fresno Bulldogs
Full Time Criminals
Gangster Disciples
Goonies For Life
Hamo Tribe
Hells Angels MC
Hmong Nation Society
Hollow Tip Crew
Iceberg Clique
Juvenile Delinquents
Korrupt(ed) Crew
Laos Oriental Soldiers
Laotian Blood Killers
Laotian Thugz
Locc Down Crips
Loco Latin Crips
Los Malditos
MS-13
Member of Blood
Menace of Destruction
Mongolian Boys Society
Mountain View Crips
Murder Mob
Northside Damu
Outlawz
Peckerwoods
Real ‘Bout It Individuals
Royal Samoan Posse
Samoan Dynasty
Sons of Samoa
Soulja Crew
Southside Mesa
Sureños
The Family
The Low Lifes
Tiny Rascals Gang
Tongang Crip Gang
Top Notch Ballers
Uso 4 Life
Uso Squad
Westside City Crips
Westside Inland Empire Projects
Yellow Oriental Troop
Young Gangsta Niggas
ARIZONA
“A” Mountain Crips
10th Ave JP Crips
12th Ave Crips
29th Street Bloods
36th Street Vista Bloods
36th Street Vista Chicanos
4th Ave Crips
Aryan Brotherhood
Barrio Anita
Barrio Centro
Barrio Chicano Southside
Barrio Hollywood
Barrio Libre
Barrio Loco
Barrio Nuevo Locos
Barrio Savaco
Bilby Street Crips
Black Rags
Duce Nine Crips
Eastside Bloods
Eastside Crips
Eastside Maria Crips
Eastside Torrance
Folk Nation
Gangster Disciples
Grandale
Hells Angels MC
Hollywood Soma
Juggalos
Jollyville Crips
La Tusa
La Victoria Locos
Little Town
Little Town Crips
Locos Bloodline
Manzanita Lynch Mob Crips
Maryvale Gangsta Crips
Mau Mau
Mexican Mafia
Midvale Park Bloods
Mission Manor Park Bloods
Mongols
New Mexican Mafia
Northside Chicanos
Northside White Pride
Okie Town
Old Mexican Mafia
Old Pascua
Peckerwoods
Skinheads
Sons of Hell
South Palo Verde Bloods
South Park Family Gangsters
Southeast Hustler Bloods
Southside Boyz
Southside Brown Pride
Southside Harbor City
Southside Posse Bloods
Sureños
Trekell Park Crips
Varrio Loco
V-12 Bloods
Vagos MC
Vindlanders
West Mesa
West Ross Street Piru
Western Hills Posse Bloods
Westside Brown Pride
Wet Back Power
Warrior Society
Western Hills Bloods
ARKANSAS
Bandidos MC
Blood
Crips
Folk Nation
Outlaws MC
People Nation
Sons of Silence MC
Wheels of Soul MC
CALIFORNIA
18th St
159th Avenue
17th St
38th Avenue Locos
38th Street
415 Kumi
49 St hustler Crips
5/9 Brims
51st Avenue locos
51st St locos
A Street
AC Acorn
Acre Boys
Al Capone
Aryan Brotherhood
Asian Boyz
Asian Crips
Asian Insane Boys
Asian Street Walkers
Asian Warriors
Atascadero 13
AVE 39
AVE 51
AVE 53
Aztec Tribe Cholos
Azusa 13
B Street
Bahala Na’ Barkada
Bakersfield Bastards MC
Barrio San Juan 13
Barrio Cathedral City
Barrio Eastside
Barrio Pobre
Barrio San Juan
Barrio Small Town
Brown Brotherhood
Brown Crowd Locos
Barrio Central Vallejo
Black Guerilla Family
Block Boys
Blue Team
Blvd Crips
Bolen
Border Brothers
Bratz
Brick Block Crips
Broderick Boys
Brown Brotherhood
Brown Life Familia
Brown Pride Soldiers
Brown Pride Soldiers 13
Brown Pride Sureño
Browns Town
Bulldogs
Burger Team
Calle Ocho (8th street)
Campbell Village Gangsters
Campos Ramos Locos
Canta Ranas 13
Carmelas 13
Carps
Central Vallejo Clicka
Chankla Bulldogs
Chino Sinners
City Heights Trece Juniors
Clairemont Locos
Coachella Tiny Locos
CoCo County Boys
Cold Nigga Mafia
Colonia Bakers
Compton Varrio Tortilla Flats
Corona Varrio Locos
Country Boy Crips
COVINA 13
Crazy Brothers Clan
Crazy Brown Norteños
Crazy Fucking Mexicans
Crazy Krooks
Crazy Royal Kings
Crow Village
Cudahy 13
Cut Throat Mob
Davis Street Locos
Dead End Street
Death Crowd 13
Del Sol
Delhi Alley Boys
Desperados MC
Dirty Thirties
Dog Soldiers
Dreamhomes
Droppin Niggas Instantly
Down To Scrap Krew
East Coast Crips
Eastbound Loco
Eastside Familia
Eastside Longos
Eastside Rivas
Eastside SD El Cajon Locos
El Hoyo Palmas
EL Monte Flores
Elm St Watts
Eastside Montalvo
Exotic Foreign City Crips
Family Affiliated Irish Mafia Fain
Familia Hispana
Farmerside Bulldogs
Florencia 13
Four Corner Block Crips
Fresnecks Ftroop
Fuck My Enemies
Fuck the World
Gardenview Locos
Gas Team
Gateway Posse Crips
Ghetto Assassins
Ghostown
Goleta 13
H Street
Hard Side Clique
Hard Times
Hawaiian Gardens 13
Hells Angels MC
Highly Insane Criminals
Hispanic Kings
Homicidal Family
Hoodlum Family
Hop Sing Boyz
Humboldt
Humboldt County Gangsters
Imperials
Indian Pride
Inglewood Family Gangster
Inglewood Trece
Insane Crips
Insane Viet Thugz
Jackson Terrace
Jamaican Mafia Family
Juggalos
Kansas Street
Kings Of Cali MC
Krazy Ass Samoans
Krazy Assassins
Kumi
La Nuestra Familia
LB Suicidal Punks
Lennox
Lincoln Park Piru
Lincoln Town Sureños
Linda Vista 13
Lo Mob
Logan 30ta
Logan Heights
Logan Red Steps
Loma Bakers
Lomita Village 70’s
Long Beach Locos
Lorenzo Team
Los Marijuanas Smokers
Los Nietos 13
Los Padrinos
Low Profile Kings
Lo Boys
Lunatics On Crack
Lynwood Dukes
Mac Mafia
Manor Dro Boyz
Manor Park Gangsters
Marijuana Locos
Mayfair Santa Rosa Criminals
Mexican Klan Locos
Mexican Mafia
Mexican Pride 13
Midcity Stoners
Midtown Proyectos
Mission Bay Locos
Mitchel Street Norteños
Mob Squad
Mob To Kill
Molochs
Mongols MC
Mountain View Sureños
MS-13
National City Locos
Nazi Low Riders
Neighborhood Crips
Nip Killer Squad
Nipomo 13 Norte
North Town Stoners
Northern Riders
Northern Structure
Northside Hayward
Northside Indio
Northside Longos
Nuestra Raza
Nutty Side Paramount
Oaktown Crips
Oceano 13
O-hood Crips
Okie Bakers
Old Town National City
Olivo Bulldogs
Oriental Boy Soldiers
Oriental Boys
Oriental Killer Boys
Oriental Lazy Boys
Orphans
Otay
Palm City
Paradise Hills Locos
Paso Robles 13
Peckerwoods
Public Enemy Number One (PENI)
Pierpont Rats
Pierpont-Ventura
Playa Larga
Pomona 12th Street
Power of Vietnamese
Puente 13
Pure Mexican Raza
Puro Raza Loco
Puro Varrio Campo
Quiet Assassins
Quiet Village 13
Quince Southside Locos
Red Team
Res Boys
Ridezilla
Rockcreek
Rollin 20 Crips
S. Central Locos
Sacramaniacs
San Dimas Rifa
San Jose Crazy Crips
San Jose Grande
San St Paramount
Santa Monica Gang
Santa Nita
Saticoy- Ventura Eastside
Screamin Demons MC
Shandon Park Locos 13 Shelltown
Shelltown Gamma
Sherman Lomas Market Street
Sidro
Skinheads
Skyline Piru
So Gate Tokers
Sobrante Park
Solano Side
Sons of Samoa
Sotel 13
South Gate Smokers
South Vietnam
Southeast Locos
Southern Locos Gangsters 13
Southside Bakers
Southside Criminals
Southside Huntington Beach
Southside Indio
Southside Playboys
Southside Players
Southside Whittier 13
Spring Valley Locos
Squeeze Team
Sucidals Sunny Block Crips
Sunnyvale Sur Trece
Sur Santos Pride
Sur Town Locos
Sureño Unidos Trece
Sureños Por Vida
Tangas
Tehachapi 13
Tiny Rascal Gang
Tongan For Life
Top Hatters
Underworld Zilla
Untouchables
USO Squad
Ventura Avenue Gangsters
Vagos MC
Valinda Flats
Varrio Concord Norte
Varrio Northside
Varrio Nueva Estrada
Varrio Simi Valley
Varrio Bakers
Varrio Chula Vista
Varrio Coachella Rifa
Varrio Coachella Rifa 52
Varrio Coachella Rifa 53
Varrio Encanto Locos
Varrio Grinfas
Varrio Horseshoe
Varrio Locos
Varrio Meadow Fair
Varrio Mecca Rifa
Varrio Mountain View
Varrio Norwalk 13
Varrio Nuevo Coachella
Varrio Oasis Rifa
Varrio Palmas Gang
Varrio Penn West
Varrio South Garden
Varrio Sur Rifa
Varrio Tamilee Gangsters
Varrio Thermal Rifa
Varrio Xechos Locos
Vatos Locos
Venice 13
Venice Shoreline Crips
Viet Outlaws
Vietnam
Wah Ching
Walnut Creek 13
Warlord Bloods
West Coast Crips
West Covina 13
West Covina Crips
West Covina MOB
West Drive Locos
West Myrtle Townsend Street
Westside Hustlers
Westside Islanders
Westside Locos
Westside Longos
Westside MOB
Westside Stoners
Wheels of Soul MC
White Power
Whittier
Wicked Minded Sureños
Wicked Minded Sureños 13
Willow Street
Young Crazy Thugs
Young Cutties
Zetas
COLORADO
18th Street
211 Crew
81st Street Crips
American Nazi Party
Bandidos MC
Brown Pride Sureños
Carver Park Crips
Eastside Dukes
Folks
Gallant Knights
Gangster Disciples
GKI 211 Crew Bloods
Hells Angels
Insane Norteños
Juaritos
Kraziest Thugs Around
Los Primer Padres
Mexican Mafia
MS-13
Mongols MC
Murder All Cliques
Norteños
Northside Criminals
Northside Mafia
Oldies 13
Outlaws MC
Paisas
Parkside Varrio
Peckerwoods
Playboys
Sons of Silence MC
Southside Locos
Sureño Desert Empire
Sureños
Two Eleven
CONNECTICUT
Battalion 14
Blake Street Goonies
Bloods
Carmel Street Goons
Charter Oak Crips
Cruel 36 Family
Diablos MC
Eastern Circle Projects 3x
Fairside 2x
G-25
G-27
G-Side Projects
Hells Angels MC
Hill Most Wanted
Hillside 4x
La Familia
Latin Kings and Queens
Manor 5x
MS-13
Netas
Outlaws MC
Solidos
The Ave
Tiny Mami Squad
Tiny Papi Squad
Tre 3x
Tribe 3x
Trinitarios
Ville 2x
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
18th Street
Bloods
Crips
Latin Kings
MS-13
DELAWARE
135 Bloods
9 Trey
9 Triggaz
924 Bloods
Anybody Gets It
Bounty Hunter Bloods
Bush Babies
Cash Hoe Murda
Certified Ballina Killers
Crips
Dawg City Piru
East Coast Bloods
Gangster Disciples
Latin Kings
Netas
Ochos
Pagans
South Los
Sur-13
Street Piru Bloods
FLORIDA
1000 Block
103rd St Buck Wild CA Latin Lingo
10th St Gang
110th St Bloods
1200 Block
12th Court Cowboys
13th Avenue Hotboys
13th Street Gang
170 Boyz
181
187
1887
18th Street
20 Deep
21 Gunz
211 Crips
2150 EAP
22nd Street
23rd Street Trail Blazers
24th Street Gang
25 Mafia
27’s Puerto Rico PG
2nd Line Goons
300 Block
311 Westside KTP
312 Crips
7414 Gangster Disciples
34th Folk Boys
39th Street Boys
3KN
4 Way Boys
45th St FAM
46 Ave Boyz
5 Deuce Hoover Crips
5 Trey Bloods
5% 386
5020 Peckerwood
5150 Piru Bloods
52 Hoover Crips
551 Crips
58th Ave.
59 Hoover Crips
7 Trey Crips
700 Block
74 Gangster Disciples
7414 Gangster Disciples
8 Tre Crips
8 Trey Gangster Crips
800 Bound
813 Black Gangster Disciples
819 Boys
9 Trey Gangsters
9 Trey Murk Squad Blood
9-Tech Bloods
A&E Bird Gang
Ace Boon Goons
All City Certified Gangstas
Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation
American Nazi Party Anarchist
Anarchist
Any Body Killas
APK Boys
Aryan Brotherhood
Aryan Nation
Barrio Boys
Batchelors
Behind the Plaza Boys
Beruit Snakes
Big Money Posse
Bithlo Bike Crew
Black Angels
Black Flag Mafia
Black Gangster Disciple
Black Mafia
Black MOB
Black P Stone Nation
Black Pines
Black Pistons MC
Black Spade Squad
Black T Mafia
Blue Angel
Blue Devil Gangster Crips
Booker Heights Posse
Border Brothers
Brookhill Hillboys Most Wanted
Brown Pride
Bruise Brothers MC
Buck Block
Camphor Way Boys
Cartel Southside Gansta Crips
Carver Shore Boys
Cash Feenz
CFL Most Wanted
Chicago Bloods
Chico Cracker Klique
Chico’s In Action
Click Tight
Clown Boiz Crips
Cold Side Posse
College Park Thugs
Confederate Hammerskins
Corner Boy Mafia
Crazy Brown Boys
Crazy Gangster Disciple
Crazy Insane Disciples
Crazy Killer Zoes
Criminal Gangsters
Cut Throat Crew/Committee
D-BOYZ
Dirty White Boys
Down 4 Whatever
Dark Angels
Darkside Boyz
Deaths Last Clique
Deland Regulators
DeLeon Springs
Deuce Crips
Deuce Deuce
Dirty Game
Dirty South Mafia
Dirty White Boys
Disciples of Discipline
Doo Doo Creek
Doom Squad
Dover Locos
Down For Life
Down South Florida Boys
Down South Gangster
Downtown Crips
DRAK BOYS
Draks
Dred Mafia
East Orlando Warriors
Eastside 9 Trey Gangster Bloods
Eastside Bloods
Eastside Crips
Eastside Jack Boyz
Eastside Piru
Eastside Rolling 60’s Crips
Elm Street Piru Bloods
Eternal Gangster
Eureka Garden Goons
Every Niggas Nightmare
Family of Hustlers
Flag Street
Flip Star Crips
Florencia 13
Folk
Folk Disciples
Folk Nation
For The Warriors
Front Street Boyz
G Shine Bloods
G Stone Crip
G25
Gangster Killer Bloods
Gangsta Piru
Gangstas For Life
Gangster Disciples
Gangster Imperial Gangsters
Gangster Prophet
Gangsters 4 Life
Get Up Kids
Ghostrider Crips
Golden Gate Goons
Goyams
Grand Park Grape Street Crips
Guardians
Guk-Get Up Kids
Gun Clap N Crips
Hammerskins
Hill Top Boys
Hoover Crip
Hoover Deuce Crips
Hope Circle Bois
Hot Boys
Hustle Harder
Imperial Gangster Disciples
Imperial Gangsters
Imperial Kings Inland Empire
Insane Dragons
Insane Gangster Crips
Insane Gangster Disciple
Insane MOB Boys
Insane Spanish Lords
International Folk Posse
International Posse
International Posse 13th
Island Boys Clique
Jack Boys
Jensen Beach Clique
Juggalos
Knock Out Squad
King Con Sureños
Keep On Spraying
Ken Knight
Krazy Getdown Boys
Kruption Boys
Kuntry Boyz
La Raza
Lady Knock Out Squad
Lakawanna Boys Latin Crew
Latin Disciples
Latin Eagles
Latin Kings
Latin Life
Latin Lingo Legacy Mafia
Latin Syndicates
Legion of Doom
Little Altamonte Goons
Little Haiti Bloods
Livingston Dawgs
Lockhart Boyz
Loco Trece
Los 27
Los Chicanos
Los Salidos
Lost Boys
Lusoanderson Boys
M.A.C. Crip
Mafia Kings
Mafia Street Gangsta Crips
Main Street Posse
Maniac Campbell Disc Ñeta
Maniac Gangster Disciples
Maniac Latin Disciples
Mascotte City Gangster Folk Nation
Mayan Pride
Melbourne Town Soldiers
Mexican Diplomats
Mexican Mafia
Midway Goons
Milla Southside
Miller Gangsta Blood
Miller Set
MOB Folks
Mohawk Boys
Moncrief “MCT”
Money Mafia
Morgan Boys
Most Hated Brothers
Mother Fuckin Goons
Money Power Respect
MS-13
Murda Grove Boys
Murder Set Bloods
Murk
Myrtle Avenue
Nazi Juggalo
Ñeta
New Smyrna Beach Boyz
New York Outlaws
Nuestra Familia
Nine Trey Blood
Nine Trey Gangsters
Nines Techs & Grenades Norte 14
Northlake Boys
Not Fair Ones
Nuccio Boys
Oak Ridge Jungle Boys
Oaktown Niggaz
Oceanway Mafia
OLD Gang
One Love Nation
Orange City Boys
Orange County Gangs 1400 Block
Orange Flag Boys
Out East Outlaws
Out of Control Gangster
Outlaw Crips Outlawz
Outlaw Gangster Crips
Outlaws MC
O.V. BOYS
Oviedo Soldiers
P.O. Boys
Payback Crips
Pagans MC
Paisa Palm River Boys
Palm City Locals
Palmdale
Parramore Snakes
Paxon Boys
Pearl World
People Nation
Phantom MC
Picketville Hustle House
Pine Hills Pimp Boyz
Pine Manor Piru Bloods
Piru Bloods
Platoon 187
Playboy Crew
Polk Street Goons
Port Orange Boys
Power Progress
Project Boys
Projects of Vietnam
P-Town
PYC Raw Dawgz
Renegades MC
Ridge Manor Boys
Rollin 20s Crips
Rollin 30’s
Rolling 60 Crips
Rough Riders
Royal Family Ace Clique
Salerno Boyz
Satan Disciples
Satan Gangster Disciples
Satanist
Savage Squad
Sex Money Murder Bloods
Sherwood
Shores Boys
Sin City Boyz
Six Point Crips
Skinheads
Smooth Fellas
So Bout It Boiz
Solo G
Sons of Silence MC
Southern Pitbulls
Southside
Southside Bloods
Southside Crips
Spanish Lords
St. Lucie Bloods Chicos in Action
Stand and Deliver
Str8drop Gang
Straight Drop
Street Runners
Supreme White Power
Sur-13
Sureños
Swamp Boyz
Tangos
TC Boys
The Fresh Kings
Third World Family
Thunder Cats
Tri-State
Top Shottas
Tre 4
Troop 31 Slum Boys Aryan Nations
Tru Soldiers
Unforgiven
Unforgiven International Posse
United Crip Nation
United King
Unknown Soldiers
Up Top Mafia
Valentine Bloods
Vandalize The Hood
Vagos
Vato Locos
Vice Lord
Victory Boyz
Villa Boyz
Villa Killas
Village Boys
V-Side Gangsters
Warlocks MC
Washington Oaks Goons
Watauga Boys
Watts City Crips
Westside
Westside Chico Boys
Westside Crips
Westside Rolling 60’s Crips
Westside Rolling 90’s Crips
White Aryan Resistance
White Power
White Pride
Wildside Young Boon Goons
Winter Garden
Wolfpack MC
Woodlands Crew
Woods Boyz
Wynwood
Y-B Zoe Pound
Y-Lo-C
Young Godz
Young Guz
Young Latin Organization
Young Outlaw Gangster Crips
Zellwood Boys
Zoe Mafia
Zoe Mafia Family
Zoe Pound
Zone 1
Zulus MC
GEORGIA
30 Deep
4WB Fourth Ward Boys
All About Cash
All About Finesse
All About Money
Atlanta Blood Gang Squad
ATL Riders
Bang Bang Anywhere Gang
Bank First Play Later
Bethel Towers Crew
Black Pistons MC
BMB Blood Money Boys
Bloods
Campbelton Road Gangsters
Certified Street Niggas
Certified Paper Chasers
Check Gang
Crips
Cross the Track Boys
Da Fam
Dem Franchise Boys
Deadly Killer Click
DTS Dogwood Trap Starts
Fuck Being Broke
Gangsta Azz Nicca
Gangster Disciples
GD 74
Gett Money Play Later Click
Guapaholic Hard Times 13
Gwalla Boys
Hard Times
Hot Boy Click
Insane Gangster Disciples
Irwin Street Gorillas
James Gang MC
Merk Squad
Most Dangerous Click
Niggas Bout Action
Niggas for Life
No Mercy/ Trained to Go
Oakland City Posse
Outcast MC
Outlaws MC
Partners of the Struggle
Pittsburgh Jack Boys
RACK Crew
Raised on Cleveland
Rollin 20’s Bloods
Rollin 60’s Crips
Runts
Simpson Road Gangsters
Stealing Everything (SIMPSET)
Sureños
Sur-13
Southside 13
Sur King Locos
Ten Little Niggas
Trained to Go
Vagos
Vatos Locos
Vice Lords
White Boi Gang
Young Block Boys
Young Choppa Fam
Young Committed Partnas
Young Cushman Boys
Young Get Money Gangsters
Young Gunna Click
Young Money Makers
Young Niggas Get Money
Young Paper Chasers
Young Crew
YSet/ Y3/ Sak Takerz
HAWAII
Vagos MC
IDAHO
Bandidos MC
Brothers Speed MC
Mexican Mafia
Northside Big Tyme
Nuestra Familia
Russian Gangs
Vagos MC
Westside 18th Street
Westside Loma Locos
ILLINOIS
12th St Players
Almighty Popes
Ambrose
Black Disciples
Black Gangster Disciples
Black P Stones
Black Pistons MC
Folks Nation
Gangster Disciples
Hells Angels
Hobo’s Imperial Gangsters
Insane Dragons
Jivers Jousters
Krazy Get Down Boys
La Raza
Latin Counts
Latin Kings
Latin Saints
Latin Souls
Leafland Street Boys
Latins Out of Control
Maniac Latin Disciples
Mickey Cobra’s
Outlaws MC
Party People
People Nation
Popes
Satan Disciples
Satin Disciples
Simon City Rollers
Sons of Silence
Spanish Cobras
Sur-13
Two Six
Vice Lords
Wheels of Soul MC
INDIANA
13’s Sureños
14’s Norteños
18th Street
American Mexican Gangster
Aryan Brotherhood
Back Pistons MC
Black Angels
Black Gangster Disciples
Black P Stones
Bloods
BPS 13
Brown Pride Gang
Buffalo Soldiers
Click Clack
Cloven Hoofs MC
Code Red
Code Red
Rollin’s 20’s Crips
Cossacks
D-Boyz
Devil Disciples
Diablos MC
Dirty White Boys
Gangster Disciples
Goons Squad
Grim Reapers MC
Haughville Syndicate
Hells Angels MC
Insane Gangster Disciples
Jimtown Boys
Kentuckiana Gunslingers
Latin Kings
Latino Riders
Locos 18
Luchiana Boyz
Mad Dog MC
Mexican Mafia
Midnight Riders MC
Milwaukee Iron
Mistic Dragons
Money Over Bitches
Mongols MC
MS-13
Murda Squad
Naptown Riders
Norteño
Northside Vatos Locos
Outlaws MC
Peace Stones
Pop It Off Boys
Pussy and Cash
Ratchet Boyz
Rebel Cause
Righteous Riders
Savages and White Boys
Saxon Knights
Sons of Silence MC
Stone Drifters
Straight Edge
Sur-13
The Cool Kids
Vice Lords
Westside Crew
Wheels of Soul MC
Zoe Pound
IOWA
18th Street
319 Crew
7 Deuces
Ambrose
Aryan Brotherhood
Aryan Nation
Aztec Kings
Black Cross
Black Disciples
Black Gangster Disciples
Black Gangsters
Black Mafia
Black P Stones
Black Panthers
Black P-Stone Nation
Black Soul Block Burners
Blackstone Rangers
Bloods
Bogus Boys
Branded Breed MC
Carney Pride
Chosen Few MC
Church of the Creator
Church of the New Song
Code Red
Custom Riders MC
Crips
Dirty White Boys
Down South Boys
Eagle Riders
Eastside Locos
Eastsiders
El Foresteros MC
El Rukens
Familia Stones
Fathers of Anarchy
Florencia 13
Four Corner Hustlers
Gangster Disciples
Grim Reapers MC
Hang Out Boys
Hells Angels MC
Imperial Gangsters
Insane Deuces
Insane Gangsters
Insane Majestics
Insane Popes
Insane Spanish Cobras
Insane Vikings
Iron Horse MC
Juggalos
La Familia
La Raza
Lao Crip
Lao Family Blood
Latin Counts
Latin King
Latin Pachucos
Lomas13
Lomax XIII
Los Chicos
Los Pelones
Lower Riders
Maniac Latin Disciples
Maple Street Goons
MS-13
Matadors MC
Mexican Mafia
Mickey Cobras
Midnight Riders MC
Ñetas
New Breed
Norteños
Northfront Occult
Outlaws MC
P13 Punte
Paisa
Peckerwoods
Players Club Posse
Posse Comitatus
Really Cocky Asshole Killers
Rebel Knights MC
Saints
San Fernando Mexicans
Satan Disciples
Satin Disciples
SHARP
Sioux City Boys
Skinheads
Sons of Freedom MC
Sons of Liberty
Sons of Silence MC
Southside 21
Spanish Cobras
Spanish Disciples Sureño
The Cool Kids
The Fellows
Two Six Nation
United Metro Front
Vagos MC
Vice Lords
Viet Solo Boys
Westside Knights
Westside Locos
APPENDIX B. MDTOs Alliances and Rivals

Cartel	Aligned With	Rivals
The Sinaloa Cartel (aka Guzman-Loera Organization or Pacific Cartel)	Hermanos de Pistoleros Latinos New Mexico Syndicate Los Carnales Latin Kings Mexican Mafia (California) Sureños MS-13 Arizona Mexican Mafia (Old & New) Wet Back Power Sinaloa Cowboys West Texas Tangos Los Negros Valencia Cartel (Considered a branch of the Sinaloa Cartel) Sonora Cartel (Considered a branch of the Sinaloa Cartel) Colima Cartel (Considered a branch of the Sinaloa Cartel) Border Brothers (California) Border Brothers (Arizona)	Los Zetas Cardenas-Guillen Cartel (Gulf) Tijuana Cartel Beltran-Leyva Cartel Juarez Cartel
La Familia Michoacana Cartel (Formerly part of Los Zetas under the authority of the Gulf Cartel)	Sinaloa Cartel Cardenas-Guillen Cartel (Gulf) Surenos MS-13 West Texas Tangos	Los Zetas Cardenas-Guillen Cartel (Gulf Cartel) The Beltran-Leyva Cartel Vincente Carrillo-Fuentes Cartel (Juarez Cartel)
Los Zetas	Vincente Carrillo-Fuentes Cartel (Juarez) Beltran-Leyva Cartel Barrio Azteca Hermanos de Pistoleros Latinos Mexikanemi Texas Syndicate MS-13	Arellano-Felix Cartel (Tijuana) Cartel de la Sierra (Sierra Cartel) Sinaloa Cartel La Familia Michoacana Cartel Cardenas-Guillen Cartel (Gulf)
Cardenas-Guillen Cartel (Gulf Cartel)	Sinaloa Cartel La Familia Michoacana Cartel Hermanos de Pistoleros Latinos Partido Revolutionary Mexicano Raza Unida Texas Chicano Brotherhood	Los Zetas La Familia Michoacana Cartel The Sinaloa Cartel
Vincente Carrillo-Fuentes Cartel (Juarez Cartel)	Los Zetas Hermanos de Pistoleros Latinos Barrio Azteca New Mexico Syndicate Los Carnales	The Sinaloa Cartel La Familia Michoacana Cartel
The Beltran-Leyva Cartel (expected to soon be taken over by the Sierra Cartel)	Los Zetas	Los Zetas La Familia Michoacana Cartel
Arellano-Felix Cartel (Tijuana Cartel)	Mexican Mafia (California) Sureños Arizona Mexican Mafia (Old & New) Border Brothers (California)	Los Zetas The Sinaloa Cartel

APPENDIX C. Federal Gang Task Forces
FBI Safe Streets Gang Task Forces
Alabama
Mobile Violent Crime Joint Task Force
Northeast Alabama Safe Streets Task Force
Alaska
Anchorage Safe Street Task Force
Arizona
Northern Arizona Violent Gang Task Force
Southwest Arizona Safe Streets Task Force
Violent Street Gang Task Force
Arkansas
Metro Gang-Joint Task Force
California
Central Coast Safe Streets Violent Gang Task Force
Central Valley Gang Impact Team Task Force
East County Regional Gang Task Force
Gang Impact Team (Riverside)
Imperial Valley Safe Streets Task Force
Kern County Violent Crime/Gang Task Force
Los Angeles Metro Task Force On Violent Gangs
North Bay Regional Gang Task Force
North Central Coast Gang Task Force
North County Regional Gang Task Force
Sacramento Valley Gang Suppression Team
Safe Streets East Bay Task Force
San Francisco Safe Streets Violent Crimes Task Force
San Gabriel Valley Safe Streets Violent Gang Task Force
Santa Ana Gang Task Force
Santa Clara County Violent Gang Task Force
Solano County Violent Gang Safe Streets Task Force
South LA County Violent Crimes Task Force
Stockton Violent Crime Task Force
Ventura County RIACT
Violent Crime Task Force-Gang Group
Colorado
Denver Metro Gang Safe Streets Task Force
Southern Colorado Violent Gang Safe Streets Task Force
Connecticut
Bridgeport Safe Streets Gang Violent Crimes Task Force
New Haven Safe Streets Task Force
Northern Connecticut Violent Crimes Gang Task Force
Delaware
Delaware Violent Crime Safe Streets Gang Task Force
Florida
Daytona Beach Safe Streets Task Force
Jacksonville Criminal Enterprise Investigative Task Force
Metro Orlando Safe Streets Gang Task Force
Palm Beach County Gang and Criminal Organization
Task Force
South FL. Gang/Criminal Organization Task Force
Tampa Bay Safe Streets Task Force
Georgia
Atlanta Criminal Enterprise Task Force
Central Savannah River Area Safe Streets Gang Task Force
Conasauga Major Offenders Task Force
Hall County Major Offenders Task Force
Northwest Georgia Criminal Enterprise Task Force
Southwest Georgia Gang Task Force
Idaho
Treasure Valley Metro Gang Task Force
Illinois
Eastern Illinois Safe Streets Task Force
Joint Task Force on Gangs – Tactical
Joint Task Force on Gangs - West
Joint Task Force on Gangs II
Joint Task Force on Gangs-1
Metro East Safe Streets
North Suburban Gang Task Force
Peoria Area Safe Streets Task Force
Quad Cities Fed Gang Task Force
Will County Violent Crimes Task Force
Indiana
Eastern Central Indiana Safe Streets Task Force
Fort Wayne Safe Streets Gang Task Force
Gary Response Investigative Team
Gang Response Investigative Team Tippecanoe
Indianapolis Metro Gang Safe Streets Task Force
Wabash Valley Safe Streets Task Force
Iowa
Cedar Rapids Safe Streets Task Force
Kentucky
Northern Kentucky Safe Streets Task Force
Louisiana
Calcasieu Parish Gang Task Force
Capital Area Gang Task Force
Central Louisiana Gang Task Force
New Orleans Gang Task Force
Northeast Louisiana Gang Task Force
Shreveport Task Force
South Central Louisiana Safe Streets Task Force
Maine
Southern Maine Gang Task Force
Maryland
Prince George’s County Safe Streets Task Force
Violent Crime Safe Streets Initiative
Massachusetts
North Shore Gang Task Force
Southeastern Massachusetts Gang Task Force
Western Massachusetts Gang Task Force
Michigan
Benton Harbor Violent Crime Task Force
Detroit Violent Gang Task Force
Genesee County Safe Streets Task Force
Mid-Michigan Safe Streets Task Force
Oakland County Safe Streets Task Force
Minnesota
Twin Cities Safe Streets Violent Gang Task Force
Mississippi
Jackson Safe Streets Task Force
Southeast Mississippi Safe Streets Task Force
Missouri
Kansas City Metropolitan Gang Task Force
St. Louis Safe Streets Gang Task Force
Montana
Big Sky Safe Streets Task Force
Central Montana Gang Task Force
Nebraska
Central Nebraska Drug and Safe Streets Task Force
Greater Omaha Safe Streets Task Force
Nevada
Las Vegas Safe Streets Gang Task Force
New Hampshire
New Hampshire Safe Streets Task Force
New Jersey
Jersey Shore Gang and Criminal Organization Task Force
South Jersey Violent Incident/Gang Task Force
South Jersey Violent Offender and Gang Task Force
Violent Crime Criminal Enterprise Task Force
Violent Crimes Incident Task Force
New Mexico
Albuquerque Safe Streets HIDTA Gang Task Force
Four Corners Safe Streets Task Force
Southern New Mexico Street Gang Task Force
New York
Buffalo Safe Streets Task Force
Capital District Gang Task Force
Hudson Valley Safe Streets Violent Gang Task Force
Long Island Gang Task Force
Westchester County Violent Crimes Task Force
North Carolina
Charlotte Safe Streets Task Force
Piedmont Triad Safe Streets Gang Task Force
Raleigh Durham Safe Streets Task Force
Wilmington Safe Streets Task Force
Ohio
Greater Akron Area Safe Streets Task Force
Mahoning Valley Violent Crime Task Force
Miami Valley Safe Streets Task Force
Stark County, Ohio Violent Crime/Fugitive Task Force
Oklahoma
Oklahoma City Metropolitan Gang Task Force
Oregon
Portland Metro Gang Task Force
Pennsylvania
Bucks County Violent Gang Task Force
Capital Cities Safe Streets Task Force
Delaware Valley Violent Crimes Task Force
Erie Area Gang Law Enforcement Task Force
Greater Pittsburgh Safe Streets Task Force
Lehigh Valley Violent Crimes Task Force
Philadelphia Violent Gang Task Force
Safe Streets Violent Crimes Task Force
Safe Streets Violent Drug Gang Task Force
Steamtown Gang Task Force
SW Pennsylvania Safe Streets Task Force
Puerto Rico
Aguadilla Regional Enforcement Team
Fajardo Regional Enforcement Team
Ponce Safe Streets Task Force
Safe Streets Task Force
Rhode Island
Rhode Island Violent Crimes/Gang Task Force
South Carolina
Columbia Violent Gang Task Force
Pee Dee Violent Crime Task Force
Tennessee
Chattanooga Safe Streets Task Force
Knoxville Headquarters Safe Streets Violent Crimes
Task Force
Nashville Violent Crimes Gang Task Force
Safe Streets Task Force HQ City
Texas
Austin Violent Crime Gang/Organized Crime Task Force
Corpus Christi Violent Crimes Task Force
East Texas Area Gang Initiative
El Paso Street and Prison Gang Task Force
Houston Coastal Safe Streets Task Force
Multi-Agency Gang Task Force
Rio Grand Valley Violent Crimes Task Force
San Antonio Safe Streets Violent Crimes Task Force
Southeast Texas Safe Streets Task Force
Tarrant County Safe Streets Task Force
Violent Crimes and Major Offenders and Gang Task Force
West Texas Anti-Gang Team
West Texas Area Major Offender Task Force
Utah
Northern Utah Criminal Apprehension Team
Safe Streets Violent Crime Task Force
Virginia
Richmond Area Violent Enterprise Task Force
South Piedmont Virginia Gang Task Force
The Peninsula Safe Streets Task Force
Tidewater Violent Crimes Task Force
Washington
Seattle Safe Streets and Gang Task Force
South Sound Gang Task Force
Southwest Washington Safe Streets Task Force
Spokane Violent Crime Gang Enforcement Team
Tri-Cities Violent Crime Gang Enforcement Team
Washington, D.C.
WFO/MPD/Safe Streets Gang Task Force
West Virginia
Eastern Panhandle and Potomac Highlands Safe Streets Task Force
Huntington Violent Crimes/Drug Task Force
Wisconsin
Gang-Rock County Task Force
Greater Racine Gang Task Force

ATF Violent Crime Impact Teams (VCIT)

Source: ATF
ICE Operation Community Shield (OCS) Initiative Targets

Source: ICE

APPENDIX D. Acknowledgements
FEDERAL
US Department of Defense
Naval Criminal Investigative Service
US Army
Fort Dix Criminal Investigative Division
Directorate Emergency Services USAG-HI
US Department of Homeland Security
US Border Patrol
US Citizenship and Immigration Services
US Customs and Border Protection
US Homeland Security Investigations
US Department of the Interior
Bureau of Land Management
US Department of Justice
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
Drug Enforcement Administration
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Prisons
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
National Drug Intelligence Center
National Gang Center
National Gang Intelligence Center
US Marshals Service
US Probation and Parole
US Department of State
LOCAL, STATE, AND REGIONAL
ALABAMA
Alabama Fusion Center
Bessemer Police Department
Birmingham Police Department
Etowah County Drug Task Force
Irondale Police Department
Madison County Sheriff’s Office
Pelham Police Department
ALASKA
Alaska Department of Corrections
Anchorage Police Department
ARIZONA
Arizona Adult Probation
Arizona Department of Corrections
Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections
Arizona Department of Public Safety
Arizona DPS-State Gang Task Force (GIITEM) Central District
Arizona State Prison Kingman / MTC
Cottonwood Police Department
Lake Havasu City Police Department
Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office
Phoenix Police Department
Rocky Mountain Information Network
Scottsdale Police Department
Tempe Police Department
Tucson Police Department
ARKANSAS
13th Judicial District Deputy Prosecutors Office
Scott County Sheriff’s Office
CALIFORNIA
Alameda County Sheriff’s Office
Bakersfield Police Department
Bear Valley Police Department
Berkeley Police Department
Baldwin Park School Police Department
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
California Highway Patrol
Chula Vista Police Department
Coachella Valley Gang Task Force
Compton School Police Department
Concord Police Department
Corona Police Department
Delano Community Correctional Facility
Eureka Police Department
Exeter Police Department
Fresno County Sheriff’s Office
Garden Grove Police Department
Gilroy Police Department
Greenfield Police Department
Hollister Police Department
Huntington Beach Police Department
Inglewood Police Department
Kern County Sheriff’s Office
Los Angeles Police Department
Lincoln Police Department
Long Beach Police Department
Los Angeles County District Attorney
Los Angeles County Probation Department
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department
Marina Police Department
Merced Multi-Agency Gang Task Force
Montebello Police Department
Monterey County Probation Department
Monterey Police Department
Morgan Hill Police Department
Mountain View Police Department
Napa County Probation Department
National City Police Department
Oakland Police Department
Office of the Fresno County District Attorney
Oxnard Police Department
Pacific Grove Police Department
Pittsburg Police Department
Placer County District Attorney’s Office
Riverside County District Attorney’s Office
Riverside Sheriff’s Department
Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department
Sacramento Police Department
San Benito County Probation Department
San Benito County Sheriff’s Office
San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department
San Diego County Probation Department
San Diego Police Department
San Leandro Police Department
San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department
Sanger Police Department
Santa Ana Police Department
Santa Barbara County Sheriff
Santa Barbara Police Department
Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department
Santa Clara County Probation Department
Santa Monica Police Department
San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department
San Diego Sheriff’s Department
Simi Valley Police Department
Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office
South Gate Police Department
Southern Alameda County Major Crime Task Force
Stockton Police Department
Tehachapi Police Department
Tuolumne County Sheriff
Ukiah Police Department
Vallejo Police Department
Ventura Police Department
West Covina Police Department
West Sacramento Police Department
Whittier Police Department
COLORADO
10th Judicial District Probation Department
Aurora Police Department
Colorado Department of Corrections
Garfield County Sheriff’s Office
Greeley Police Department
Mesa County Sheriff’s Office
Thornton Police Department
CONNECTICUT
Connecticut State Police
Danbury Police Department
Meriden Police Department
New Haven Police Department
South Windsor Police Department
West Hartford Police Department
DELAWARE
Delaware State Police
New Castle County Police
Wilmington Police Department
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
US Attorney’s Office
Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department
FLORIDA
Alachua County Sheriff’s Office
Central Florida Intelligence Exchange
Florida Department of Corrections
Florida Department of Law Enforcement
Fort Myers Police Department
Hernando County Sheriff’s Office
Highlands County Sheriff’s Office
Hillsborough County Sheriff
Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office
Lake County Sheriff’s Office
Lee County Sheriff’s Office
Maitland Police Department
Marion County Sheriff’s Office
Martin County Sheriff’s Office
Miami-Dade Corrections & Rehabilitations
Ocala Police Department
Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Office
Orange County Corrections
Orange County Sheriff’s Office
Orlando Police Department
Oviedo Police Department
Polk County Sheriff’s Office
Sanford Police Department
Sarasota Sheriff’s Office
Seminole County Sheriff’s Office
Tallahassee Police Department
Seminole Police Department
Titusville Police Department
Volusia County Sheriff’s Office
GEORGIA
Cobb County Sheriff’s Office
Douglasville Police Department
Georgia Bureau of Investigation
Gwinnett County Police Department
LaGrange Police Department
Richmond County Board of Education Public Safety
Spalding County Sheriff’s Office
ILLINOIS
Bensenville Police Department
Bloomington Police Department
Chicago Police Department
Decatur Police Department
Dolton Police Department
DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office
Hanover Park Police Department
Illinois Department of Corrections
Jo Daviess County Sheriff’s Office
Lake County Sheriff Department
Schaumburg Police Department
INDIANA
Anderson Police Department
Boone County Sheriff Department
Cumberland Police Department
Elkhart County Sheriff’s Office
Evansville Police Department
Indiana Department of Corrections
Parke County Sheriff’s Office
Pendleton Correctional Facility
Richmond Police Department
Southwest Indiana Violent Crime Task Force
IOWA
Dubuque Police Department
Iowa Department of Corrections
Jasper County Sheriff’s Office
Storm Lake Police Department
Warren County Sheriff’s Office
KANSAS
Kansas Bureau of Investigation
Lawrence Police Department
Topeka Police Department
Wichita Police Department
KENTUCKY
Henderson Police Department
Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice
Louisville Metro Police Department
McCracken County Regional Jail
LOUISIANA
Alexandria Police Narcotics Division
Creola Police Department
Denham Springs Police Department
Grant Parish Constable
Grant Parish Sheriff’s Office
Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office
Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office
Louisiana Department of Corrections
Louisiana State Police
Metro Narcotics of Ouachita
New Orleans Police Department
Office of Juvenile Justice
MAINE
Lewiston Police Department
MARYLAND
Anne Arundel County Police Department
Calvert County Sheriff’s Office
Charles County Sheriff’s Office
Greenbelt City Police Department
Hagerstown Department of Police
Harford County Sheriff’s Office
Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center
Maryland Department of Corrections
Montgomery County Police
Prince George’s County Police Department
Wicomico County Department of Corrections
MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Police Department
Chicopee Police Department
Fitchburg Police Department
Hampden County Sheriff’s Department
Haverhill Police Department
Holyoke Police Department
Lowell Police Department
Massachusetts State Police
Springfield Police Department
Worcester Police Department
MICHIGAN
Benton Township Police Department
Berrien County Sheriff’s Department
Escanaba Public Safety Department
Grand Rapids Police Department
Holland Police Department
Muskegon Police Department
Oakland County Violent Gang Task Force
Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office
Unadilla Township Police Department
West Michigan Enforcement Team
MINNESOTA
Dakota County Community Corrections
Minneapolis Police Department
Owatonna Police Department
Prairie Island Tribal Police
Saint Peter Police Department
Shakopee Police Department
MISSISSIPPI
Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force
Gulfport Police Department
Magee Police Department
Narcotics Task Force of Jackson County
US Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Mississippi
MISSOURI
Berkeley Police Department
Joplin Police Department
Kansas City Missouri Police Department
Missouri Department of Corrections
Monett Police Department
Saint Louis County Police Department
St. Charles Police Department
St. Joseph Missouri Police Department
St. Louis County Police Department
St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department
MONTANA
Crossroads Correctional Center
Laurel Police Department
Missoula Police Department
Montana Department of Corrections
NEBRASKA
Bellevue Police Department
City of Gering Police Department
Columbus Police Department
Crete Police Department
Grand Island Police Department
Kearney Police Department
Omaha Police Department
NEVADA
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department
Washoe County Sheriff’s Office
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Belknap County Sheriff’s Department
Concord Police Department
Keene Police Department
Manchester Police Department
Manchester Weed and Seed Program
Merrimack County Department of Corrections
Nashua Police Department
Somersworth Police Department
NEW JERSEY
Bound Brook Police Department
Essex County Prosecutor’s Office
Kenilworth Police Department
Linden Police Department
Passaic County Sheriff’s Department
NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque Police Department
Catron County Sheriff’s Department
Eddy County Sheriff’s Office
Pueblo of Acoma Police Department
NEW YORK
Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office
Glens Falls Police Department
Nassau County Police Department
NORTH CAROLINA
Duplin County Sheriff’s Office
Durham Police Department
Fayetteville Police Department
Gastonia Police Department
New Hanover County Sheriff
North Carolina Department of Corrections
Shelby Police Department
Wake Forest Police Department
NORTH DAKOTA
Heart of America Correctional and Treatment Center
North Dakota Department of Corrections
OHIO
Akron Police Department
Canton Police Department
Columbus, Ohio Division of Police
Dayton Police Department
Lake Metroparks Ranger Department
Montpelier Police Department
Springfield Ohio Division of Police
OKLAHOMA
Davis Correctional Facility
Eastern Shawnee Tribal Police
North Fork Correctional facility
Oklahoma City Police Department
Oklahoma Department of Corrections
Owasso Police Department
OREGON
Crook County Sheriff’s Office
Portland Police Bureau
PENNSYLVANIA
California University of Pennsylvania Police Department
Cumberland County Prison
Ephrata Police Department
Lackawanna County District Attorney
Lackawanna County Prison
Lancaster County District Attorney
Manheim Borough Police Department
Mifflin County Regional Police Department
Montgomery County Adult Probation & Parole Department
Pennsylvania Capitol Police
Pennsylvania State Police
Philadelphia-Camden HIDTA
Slippery Rock University Police
PUERTO RICO
Metropolitan Detention Center, Guaynabo
Police of Puerto Rico
RHODE ISLAND
Providence Police Department
Rhode Island Department of Corrections
SOUTH CAROLINA
Anderson County Gang Task Force
Bamberg Police Department
Charleston County Sheriff Office
Chester City Police Department
Colleton County Sheriff’s Office
Columbia Police Department
Darlington County Sheriff’s Office
Darlington Police Department
Dorchester County Sheriff’s Office
Florence County Sheriff’s Office
Florence Police Department
Fountain Inn Police Department
Greenwood County Sheriff’s Office
Greenwood Police Department
Greer Police Department
Hampton County Sheriff Office
Hartsville Police Department
Lancaster City Police Department
Lancaster Police Department
Latta Police Department
Lexington Medical Health Services – Public Safety
Palmetto Protection Agency, Inc.
Prosperity Police Department
Rock Hill Police Department
South Carolina Department of Corrections
Spartanburg Public Safety Department
Summerville Police Department
Timmonsville Police Department
West Columbia Police Department
SOUTH DAKOTA
Rapid City Police Department
Tripp County Sheriff’s Office
TENNESSEE
Bradley County Juvenile Detention
Chattanooga Police Department
Coffee County Sheriff’s Department
Columbia Police Department
Cookeville Police Department
Covington Police Department
Fayette County Sheriff’s Department
Franklin Police Department
Hardeman County Correctional Facility
Juvenile Court of Jefferson County
Knoxville Police Department
Metro Nashville Police Department
Oak Ridge Police Department
Rutherford County Sheriff’s Department
Sumner County Sheriff’s Office
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation
Tennessee Department of Correction
TEXAS
Amarillo Police Department
Andrews Department of Public Safety
Austin Police Department
Bastrop County Sheriff’s Office
Baytown Police Department
Bexar County Fire Marshal’s Office
Bosque County Sheriff’s Office
Collin County District Attorney’s Office
Dallas ISD Police & Security
Dallas Police Department Gang Unit
Donna ISD Police Department
El Paso County Sheriff’s Office
Harlingen Police Department
Hays County Juvenile Probation
Hidalgo County Constable – Pct 3
Hidalgo County District Attorney’s Office
Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office
Hutchinson County Sheriff’s Office
Kenedy County Sheriff Office
Luling Police Department
Maverick County Detention Center
Nacogdoches Police Department
New Caney ISD Police Department
Reagan County Sheriff’s Office
San Antonio Police Department
San Marcos Police Department
Schertz Police Department
Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission
Texas Department of Criminal Justice
Travis County Sheriff’s Office
Texas Department of Public Safety
University of Texas Health Science Center Police
UTAH
West Valley City Police Department
VERMONT
No reporting
VIRGINIA
Abingdon Police Department
Alexandria Police Department
Alexandria Sheriff’s Office
Arlington County Police Department
Bland Correctional Center
Chesapeake Police Department
Chesterfield County Police Department
Chincoteague Police Department
City of Chesapeake Police Department
City of Harrisonburg Police Department
City of Manassas Police Department
Department of Conservation and Recreation
Department of Juvenile Justice
Fairfax County Police Department
Hampton Police Division
Newport News Police Department
Norfolk Police Division
Prince William County Police Department
Richmond Police Department
Staunton Police Department
Suffolk Police Department
Town of Herndon Police Department
Town of Vienna Police Department
Virginia Department of Corrections
Virginia Correctional Center for Women
Virginia Port Authority Police Department
Virginia State Police
Warsaw Probation and Parole Office
WASHINGTON
Everson Police Department
King County Jail
King County Sheriff’s Office
Lynnwood Police Department
Nisqually Indian Tribe
Northwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area
Seattle Police Department
Washington State Department of Corrections
WEST VIRGINIA
Eastern Panhandle Potomac Highlands SSTF
Martinsburg Police Department
Philippi Police Department
WISCONSON
Lac Courte Oreilles Tribal Police
Milwaukee Police Department
Wisconsin Department of Corrections
WYOMING
Wyoming Highway Patrol
Endnotes
^aTitle 18 U.S.C. Section 521(a)(A) defines criminal street gangs as ongoing groups, clubs, organizations, or associations of five or more individuals that have as one of their primary purposes the commission of one or more criminal offenses. Title 18 U.S.C. Section 521(c) further defines such criminal offenses as (1) a federal felony involving a controlled substance; (2) a federal felony crime of violence that has as an element the use or attempted use of physical force against the person of another and (3) a conspiracy to commit an offense described in paragraph (1) or (2).^bFor the purpose of this assessment, OMGs include One Percenter gangs as well as support and puppet clubs.^cA juvenile refers to an individual under 18 years of age, although in some states, a juvenile refers to an individual under 16 years of age. A juvenile gang refers to a gang that is primarily comprised of individuals under 18 years of age.^dJuggalos are traditionally fans of the musical group the Insane Clown Posse. Arizona, California, Pennsylvania, and Utah are the only US states that recognize Juggalos as a gang.^eAlien smuggling involves facilitating the illegal entry of aliens for financial or other tangible benefits. It can involve an individual or a criminal organization. Business relationships typically cease once the individual has reached their destination. Human trafficking involves recruitment, transportation, and harboring of persons through force, fraud, or coercion for labor or services that result in slavery, involuntary servitude, or debt bondage. The business relationship does not end and often becomes exploitative and violent.
^fAccording to the United Nations, over 90 percent of Mexican migrants illegally entering the United States are assisted by professional smugglers. Although most of the migrants are smuggled in trucks, many have been smuggled by rail, on foot, and tunnels.^gFor years, gang members used Internet websites to advertise the sale of their victims. However, recently several Internet sites including Craigslist have eliminated their erotic services personal advertisement sections.^hMDTOs control up to 80 percent of wholesale cocaine distribution in the United States.
ⁱEurasian criminal groups include Albanian, Armenian, Eastern European, and Russian criminal enterprises.
^jLegal mail refers to any correspondence sent to or received from a legal professional. Gang members may disguise their correspondence to resemble legal mail so that it is exempt from inspection.
^k Gang members leave prison with the knowledge and connections that allow them to identify with a national gang which will garner them greater respect and “street credibility” within their community.^lAccording to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the number of Native Americans incarcerated in jails and prisons nationwide increased by approximately 2.5 percent from 2007 to 2008.
^mUS military branches include Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, Marines, Navy, Army Reserves, and National Guard.
ⁿThe US Southwest Border includes the southern borders of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.
^oAlthough some US and local law enforcement officials maintain that violent crime in Southwest Border states has decreased in the past few years, the effects of such violence, including drug trafficking activity and migration patterns of Mexican citizens fleeing the violence in Northern Mexico, are most acutely reflected in the US Southwest Border Region. Furthermore, as the point of entry for the vast majority of illicit drugs that are smuggled into the United States, the Southwest Border Region is most susceptible to any spillover violence.^pThe Barrio Azteca works for the Juarez Cartel on both the US and Mexican sides of the border.
^qThese estimates were derived from the large number of gang members populating social networking Web sites such as the Hoodup.com, Facebook, and MySpace.

¹ US Department of Justice (USDOJ); “Highlights of the 2009 National Youth Gang Survey;” Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; National Gang Center; May 2011.² Open Source News Release; “11 Alleged MS-13 Members Indicted on Racketeering and Other Charges in a Series of Violent Crimes; ICE; 4 May 2011. Open Source Article; “Officials Concerned About Gang Violence in Prince George’s County;” Washington Examiner; available at www.washingtonexaminer.com. ³ USDOJ; “Federal Racketeering Indictment Leads to Arrest of 8 Members, Associates of San Gabriel Valley Street Gang;” Press Release; 8 June 2010; available at www.justice.gov/usao/cac/pressroom/pr/2010/091.html. ⁴ USDOJ; “National Drug Threat Assessment 2010;” National Drug Intelligence Center; February 2010.⁵ NAGIA Quick Guide to Gangs, National Alliance of Gang Investigators Association; April 2010.⁶ Open Source News Article; “Tips for dealing with Asian Gangs;” Police One; 21 May 2009; available at www.Policeone.com.⁷ USDOJ; National Drug Threat Assessment 2010; NDIC; February 2010. Open Source News Article, “Pot houses linked to gangs, marijuana dispensaries;” Whittier Daily News; 6 September 2010; available at www.Whittierdailynews.com. Open Source News Article, “Asian Pot Ring Busted, Noted Restaurateur Suspect;” CBS4 Denver; 7 March 2010; available at www.CBS4denver.com.⁸ Open Source News Article; “Somali Gangs Ran Sex Ring in 3 US States, Authorities Say;” Fox News; ⁸ November 2010; available at www.foxnews.com. ⁹ Online news article; “Judge sets $2 million bond in alleged murder, robbery;” Ohio Post; 15 April 2009.¹⁰ FBI Indianapolis Division; “Twenty-Two Charged Federally in Evansville Drug Trafficking Case;” Press Release; 4 February 2010; available at http://indianapolis.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel10/ip020410.htm.¹¹ NAGIA Quick Guide to Gangs; National Alliance of Gang Investigators Association; April 2010.¹² Open Source News Article; “Hybrid Gangs responsible for rise in North Las Vegas Crime,” 13 Action News Las Vegas; 25 July 2010; available at http://www.ktnv.com/Global/story.asp;13. ¹³ Open Source News Article; “Man charged with shooting couple on Maple Valley Trail”; The Seattle Times; 3January 2011; available at http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/theblotter/2013837934_man_charged_with_xx_in_connect.html. ¹⁴ Open Source News Article; “Teen gets probation in attacks on homeless;” Gazette-Times; 22 January 2010; available at http://www.gazettetime.com/news/local/article_3b43539a-07ab-11df-b6ae-001cc4c03286.html. ¹⁵ US Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE); “8 Arrested as ICE Dismantles Alien Smuggling Ring Linked to Notorious Local Street Gang;” News Release; 14 October 2009; available at www.ice.gov/news/releases/0910/091014losangeles.htm. ¹⁶ Open Source Website; Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center (HSTC) Charter and Amendments; available at www.state.gov/m/ds/hstcenter/41444.htm.¹⁷ DHS; “29 Charged with Sex Trafficking Juveniles;” ICE; News Release; 8 November 2010; available at www.ice.gov/news/releases/1011/101108nashville.htm. ¹⁸ Open News Source Article; “Report Links Street Gangs to Child Prostitution;” KPBS News; 23 November 2010; available at www.kpbs.org/news/2010/nov/09/report-links-street-gangs-child-prostitution. ¹⁹ Open Source News Article; Kevin Johnson; USA Today; “Drug Cartels Unite Rival Gangs to Work for Common Bad;” USA Today; 16 March 2010.²⁰ USDOJ; “National Drug Threat Assessment 2010;” National Drug Intelligence Center; February 2010.²¹ USDOJ; “National Drug Threat Assessment 2010;” National Drug Intelligence Center; February 2010.²² Open Source News Article; “Drug Cartels Uniting Rival Gangs;” USA Today; 3 March 2010; available at www.usatoday.com. ²³ USDOJ; “National Drug Threat Assessment 2010;” National Drug Intelligence Center; February 2010.²⁴ Open Source News Article; “US Mexico Drug Gangs Form Alliances;” Washington Times; 26 March 2010; available at www.washingtimes.com. ²⁵ Open Source News Article; Kevin Johnson; “Drug Cartels Unite Rival Gangs to Work for Common Bad;” USA Today; 16 March 2010; available at www.usatoday.com.²⁶ Open Source News Article; “US Mexico Drug Gangs Form Alliances;” Washington Times; 26 March 2010; available at www.washingtontimes.com. ²⁷ USDOJ; “National Drug Threat Assessment 2010;” National Drug Intelligence Center; February 2010. Open Source News Article; “US Mexico Drug Gangs Form Alliances;” Washington Times; 26 March 2010; available at www.washingtontimes.com.²⁸ Open Source News Article; “La Familia’ North of the Border;” STRATFOR Global Intelligence; 3 December 2009; available at http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20091203_la_familia_north_border.²⁹ Open Source News Article; “New Jersey Authorities Indict 34 Lucchese Crime Family Bust from ‘Operation Heat’;” New Jersey.com; 14 May 2010. ³⁰ Open Source News Article; “Authorities crack down on transnational Armenian Power crime group;” CNN; 17 February 2011; available at www.cnn.com. ³¹ Open Source News Article; “N.J. Inmate’s Ordered Killing Shows Danger of Cell Phones in Prison,” http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/06/nj_state_prison_inmate_is_char.html; June 11, 2010; Online News Article; “Prosecutor: Trenton prison inmate Anthony Kidd used cell phone to order murder of girlfriend Kendra Degrasse,” http://www.trentonian.com/articles/2010/06/11/news/doc4c11432d64621687151693.txt; June 12, 2010³² Open Source News Article; “Prisoner Ordered Hit Outside of Prison With Smuggle Cell Phone;” 13 September 2010; available at http://newsone.com/nation/associatedpress4/prisoner-ordered-hit-outside-of-prison-with-smuggled-cell-phone/.³³ Open Source News Article; “Parole Worker Leaked Information to Gang Member;” Fox News New York; 1 November 2010; available at www.myfoxny.com. ³⁴ Open Source News Article; “Former Deputy Headed for Prison;” PE.com; 30 July 2010; available at www.pe.com. ³⁵ Open Source News Article; “Ex-Cop, James Formato, Pleads Guilty in Mob Case;” CBS News Chicago; 25 April 2010; available at www.thechicagosyndicate.com/2010/04/ex-cop-james-formato-pleads-guilty-in.html.³⁶ Online publication; Bureau of Justice Statistics; Jails in Indian Country, 2008; December 2009; available at http://bjs.ojp.usdoj/index.cfm?ty=pbdetails&iid=1748.³⁷ Open Source News Article; “Mexican Pot Gangs Infiltrate Indian Reservations in U.S;” The Wall Street Journal; 5 November 2009; available at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125736987377028727.html.³⁸ Open Source News Article; “Crunching Numbers in Mexico’s Drug Conflict;” BBC News; 14 January 2011; available at www.bbc.com. ³⁹ Stratfor Global Intelligence Center; “Mexican Drug Wars: Bloodiest Year to Date;” 20 December 2010.⁴⁰ Open Source News Article; “Napolitano: Border security better than ever;” CBS News; 25 March 2011; http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20047102-503544.html.⁴¹ USDOJ; “National Drug Threat Assessment 2010;” National Drug Intelligence Center; February 2010.⁴² USDOJ; “National Drug Threat Assessment 2010;” National Drug Intelligence Center; February 2010.⁴³ Open Source News Article; “Barrio Azteca threat targets law officers;” El Paso Times; 25 March 2010; available at www.elpasotimes.com/ci_14753458. ⁴⁴ USDOJ; “National Drug Threat Assessment 2010;” National Drug Intelligence Center; February 2010.⁴⁵ USDOJ; “National Drug Threat Assessment 2010;” National Drug Intelligence Center; February 2010.⁴⁶ USDOJ; “National Drug Threat Assessment 2010;” National Drug Intelligence Center; February 2010.⁴⁷ Press Release; “Former Marines Arrested on Weapons Charges;” USDOJ; ATF; 8 November 2010.⁴⁸ Press Release; “Three men, US Navy Seal, Arrested for Unlawfully Trafficking in Machine Guns;” US DOJ; ATF; 4 November 2010.⁴⁹ Open Source News Article; MSNBC.com, “California Gang Officers Again Targeted by Booby-Trap,”1 March 2010; available at www.msnbc.com. ⁵⁰ Investigative Consultants; email correspondence; 29 November 2010.⁵¹ Investigative Consultants; email correspondence; 29 November 2010. Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles, Central District; First Amended Complaint for Injunction and Civil Penalties; 15 March 2010.⁵² Open Source News Article; “Seeing Green;” Baltimore City Paper; 11 August 2010; available at www.citypaper.com. ⁵³ Open Source News Article; “Two Dozen Charged in Alleged Gang-led Mortgage Fraud;” Reuters News; 7 April 2009; available at www.reuters.com. ⁵⁴ Open Source News Article; “Border Crime Sweep Nets Drugs, 246 Arrests;” Sign On San Diego; 28 March 2011; available at www.signonsandiego.com. ⁵⁵ FBI; “Violent Border Gang Indicted; Members Charged in Consulate Murders;” News Release; 9 March 2011; available at www.fbi.gov. ⁵⁶ FBI; “Forty-One Gang Members and Associates in Five Districts Charged with Crimes Including Racketeering, Murder, Drug Trafficking, and Firearms Trafficking;” News Release; 9 February 2011; available at www.fbi.gov.

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Know Your Rights When Dealing With Police Officers

April 24, 2013, 12:59 am

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OFF THE WIRE

A Police Officers Worst Enemy Is A Well Informed Citizen Who Knows Their Rights!

Police officers hate to hear these words:

"Am I free to go?"

"I don't consent a search."

"I'm going to remain silent."

When a Police Officer Stops You

To stop you a police officer must have a specific reason to suspect your involvement in a specific crime and should be able to tell you that reason when you ask. This is known as reasonable suspicion. A police officer usually will pull you over for some type of "traffic violation," such as speeding or maybe not using your blinker. Throwing a cigarette butt or a gum wrapper out your car window is reason enough for the police to pull you over, ticket you for littering and start asking you all sorts of personal questions.

Your Rights During a Traffic Stop. Top Five (5) Things to Know About Protecting Yourself from the Police:

#1 - Safety. The first thing is your safety! You want to put the police officer at ease. Pull over to a safe place, turn off your ignition, stay in the car and keep your hands on the steering wheel. At night turn on the interior lights. Keep your license, registration, and proof of insurance always close by.

Build a trust with the police officer be a "good citizen" be courteous, stay calm, smile and don't complain. Show respect and say things like "sir and no sir." Never bad-mouth a police officer, stay in control of your words, body language and your emotions. "All this takes practice, try practicing with a friend." The idea is to get the police officer to understand that you're just an average ordinary citizen and let you get on your way down the road. Never touch a police officer and don't run away!

#2 - Never Talk To A Police Officer. The only questions you need to answer is your name, address and date of birth and nothing else! Instead of telling the police officer who you are, simply give him your drivers license or I.D. card. All the information the police officer needs to know about you can be found on your drivers license. Don't volunteer any more information to the police officer, if he ask you any other questions politely say "Am I free to go?" and then don't say another word.

#3 - I'm Going to Remain Silent. The Supreme Court has made a new ruling that you should Never Talk to a Police Officer without an attorney, but there's a CATCH! New Ruling Before you're allowed NOT to talk to a police officer, you must TELL the police officer "I'm Going to Remain Silent" and then keep your mouth shut!(How can you be falsely accused and charged if you don't say anything?) Anything you say or do can and will be used against you at any time by the police.

#4 - Just Say NO to Police Searches! If a police officer didn't need your permission to search, he wouldn't be asking. Never give permission to a police officer to search you, your car or your home. If a police officer does search you, don't resist and keep saying "I don't consent to this search."

#5 - "Am I Free to Go?" As soon as the police officer ask you a question ask him "Am I free to go?" You have to ask if you're "free to go," otherwise the police officer will think you are voluntarily staying. If the police officer says that you're are being detained or arrested, say to the police officer"I'm Going to Remain Silent"

Anything You Say Can And Will Be Used Against You!

Police officers need your permission to have a conversation, never give it to them!

Never voluntarily talk to a police officer, there's no such thing as a "friendly chat" with a police officer. The Supreme Court has recently ruled that you should NOT talk to a police officer without a lawyer and you must say "I'm going to remain silent." It can be very dangerous to talk to a police officer or a Federal Agent. Innocent people have talked to a police officer and ended up in jail and prison, because they spoke to a police officer without an attorney.

Police officers have the same right as you "Freedom of Speech," they can ask you anything they want, but you should never answer any of their questions. Don't let the police officer try and persuade you to talk! Say something like "I'm sorry, I don't have time to talk to you right now." If the cop insists on talking to you, ask him "Am I free to go?" The police officer may not like when you refuse to talk to him and challenge you with words like, "If you have nothing to hide, why won't you speak to me? Say again "I told you I don't have time to talk to you right now, Am I free to go?" If you forget or the police officer tricks you into talking, it's okay just start over again and tell the police officer "I'm going to remain silent."

The Supreme Court has ruled that if a police officer doesn't force you to do something, then you're doing "voluntarily." That means if the police officer starts being intimidating and you do what he ask because you're "afraid," you still have done it voluntarily. (Florida v. Bostick, 1991) If you do what the police officer ask you to do such as allowing him to search your car or answer any of his questions, you are 'voluntarily' complying with his 'requests.'So don't comply, just keep your mouth shut unless you say "Am I Free to Go?" or "I don't consent to a search."

You have every right NOT to talk to a police officer and you should NOT speak to a police officer unless you have first consulted with a lawyer who has advised you differently. Police officers depend on fear and intimidation to get what they want from you. Police officers might say they will "go easy" on you if you talk to them, but they're LIARS! The government has made a law that allows police officers to lie to the American public. Another reason not to trust the police! So be as nice as possible, but stand your ground on your rights! Where do some of your rights come from? Read the Fourth and Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Traffic Stops and Your Rights

First of all keep your license, registration and proof of insurance in an easily accessible place such as attached to your sun visor. The less time it takes for you to get to these items, the less time the officer has to look through your windows and snoop. When pulled over by a police officer stay in the car, turn on the cab lights and keep your hands on the steering wheel. Sit still, relax and wait for the officer to come to you. Any sudden movements, ducking down, looking nervous or appearing to be searching for something under your seat is dangerous! Just sit up naturally be still and try to put the officer at ease."

Police officers like to ask the first question and that usually is, "do you know the reason I pulled you over?" The police officer is trying to get you to do two things, admit that you committed a traffic violation and to get you to "voluntarily" start a conversation with him.Remember the police officer is not your friend and should not be trusted! The only thing you should say is "I'm going to remain silent and am I free to go?"

The police officer might start asking you personal questions such as "where are you going, where have you been and who did you see, ect." At that point it's the perfect time to exercise your rights by asking the police officer "AM I FREE TO GO?" There is NO legal requirement that American citizens provide information about their comings and goings to a police officer. It's none of their damn business! Keep asking the police officers "AM I FREE TO GO?" You have to speak up and verbally ask the police officer if your allowed to leave, otherwise the courts will presume that you wanted to stay and talk to the cops on your own free will.

Passengers in your vehicle need to know their rights as well. They have the same right not to talk to a police officer and the right to refuse a search "unless it's a 'pat down' for weapons." The police will usually separate the passengers from each other and ask questions to see if their stories match. All passengers should always give the same answer and say, "I'm going to remain silent and am I free to go?" Remember you have to tell the police officer that you don't want to talk to him. It's the law

How long can a police officer keep you pulled over "detained" during a traffic stop? The Supreme Court has said no more than 15 minutes is a reasonable amount of time for a police officer to conduct his investigation and allow you to go FREE. Just keep asking the police officer "AM I FREE TO GO?"

A good time to ask "AM I FREE TO GO," is after the police officer has given you a "warning or a ticket" and you have signed it. Once you have signed that ticket the traffic stop is legally over says the U.S. Supreme Court. There's no law that requires you to stay and talk to the police officer or answer any questions. After you have signed the ticket and got your license back you may roll up your window, start your car and leave. If you're outside the car ask the police officer, "AM I FREE TO GO?" If he says yes then get in your car and leave.

Car Searches And Body Searches

Remember the police officer wouldn't be asking you, if he didn't need your permission to search! "The right to be free from unreasonable searches is one of America's most precious First Liberties."

Just because you're stopped for a traffic violation does NOT allow a police officer to search your car. However if you go riding around smoking a blunt and get pulled over, the police officer smells marijuana, sees a weapon or drugs in plain view he now has "probable cause" to search you car and that's your own stupid fault!

Police officers swore an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution and not to violate your rights against unreasonable search and seizure Fourth Amendment. Denying a police officers request to search you or your car is not an admission of guilt, it's your American right! Some police officers might say, "if you have nothing to hide, you should allow me to search." Politely say to the police officer "I don't consent to a search and am I free to go?"

The police officer is allowed to handcuff you and/or detain and even put you in his police car for his safety. Don't resist or you will be arrested! There's a big difference between being detained and being arrested. Say nothing in the police car! Police will record your conversation inside the police car, say nothing to your friend and don't talk to the police officers!

If you are arrested and your car is towed, the police are allowed to take an "inventory" of the items in your car. If anything is found that's illegal, the police will get a warrant and then charge you with another crime.

Police Pat Downs...

For the safety of police officers the law allows the police to pat down your outer clothing to see if you have any weapons. If the police officer feels something that he believes is a weapon, then he can go into your pockets and pull out the item he believes is a weapon.

A police officer may ask you or even demand that you empty your pockets, but you have the right to say "NO, AM I FREE TO GO?" There's NO law that requires you to empty your pockets when a police officer "ask you." The only time a police officer should be taking your personal property out of your pockets is after you have been arrested.

If a Police Officer Knocks at Your Door at Home-You Don't Have to Open the Door!

If the police knock and ask to enter your home, you DON'T have to open the door unless they have a warrant signed by a judge. "If the police have a warrant they won't be knocking, they'll be kicking in your door!" There is NO law that requires you to open your door to a police officer.* Don't open your door with the chain-lock on either, the police will shove their way in. Simply shout to the police officers "I HAVE NOTHING TO SAY" or just don't say anything at all.

Guest and roommates staying in your home/apartment/dorm need to be aware of their rights specially "college students" and told not to open the door to a police officer or invite police officers into your home without your permission. Police officers are like vampires, they need your permission to come into your home. Never invite a police officer into your home, such an invitation not only gives police officers an opportunity to look around for clues to your lifestyle, habits, friends, reading material, etc; but also tends to prolong the conversation.

If you are arrested outside your home the police officer might ask if you would like to go inside and get your shoes or a shirt? He might even be nice and let you tell your wife or friend goodbye, but it's a trick! Don't let the police officer into your house!

Never agree to go to the police station if the police want to question you. Just say, "I HAVE NOTHING TO SAY."

* In some emergency situations (for example when a someone is screaming for help from inside your home, police are chasing someone into your home, police see a felony being committed or if someone has called 911 from inside your house) police officers are then allowed to enter and search your home without a warrant.

Children have rights also, if you're under 18 click here. If your children don't know their rights and go talking to a teacher, school principal, police officer or a Federal agent without an attorney could cost your family dearly and change the lives of your family forever!

If a Police Officer Stops You On The Sidewalk...

NEVER give consent to talk to a police officer. If a police officer stops you and ask to speak with you, you're perfectly within your rights to say to the police officer "I do not wish to speak with you, good-bye. "New Law At this point you should be free to leave. The next step the police officer might take is to ask you for identification. If you have identification on you, tell the officer where it is and ask permission to reach for it. "Some states you're not required to show an I.D. unless the police officer has reasonable suspicion that you committed a crime." Know the laws in your state!

The police officer will start asking you questions again, at this point you may ask the officer "Am I Free to Go?" The police officer may not like this and may challenge you with words like, "If you have nothing to hide, why won't you speak to me?" Just like the first question, you do not have to answer this question either. Just ask "Am I Free to Go?"
Police officers need your permission to have a conversation, never give it to them. There is NO law that says you must tell a police officer where you are going or where you have been, so keep your mouth shut and say nothing! Don't answer any question (except name, address and age) until you have a lawyer.

Probable Cause...

A police officer has no right to detain you unless there exists reasonable suspicion that you committed a crime or traffic violation. However a police officer is always allowed to initiate a "voluntary" conversation with you. You always have the right not to talk or answer any questions a police officer ask you. Just tell the police officer "I'm going to remain silent."
Under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, police may engage in "reasonable" searches and seizures. To prove that a search is reasonable, the police must generally show that it's more likely than not that a crime has occurred and that if a search is conducted it is probable that the police officer will find evidence of the crime. This is called "probable cause."

Police may use first hand information or tips from an informant "snitch" to justify the need to search your property or you. If an informant's information is used, the police must prove that the information is reliable under the circumstances to a judge.

Here's a case when police officers took the word of a "snitch," claiming he knew where a "drug dealer" lived. The police officers took it upon themselves to go to this house that the snitch had "picked at random" and kick in the door at 1:30 in the morning ,without obtaining a search warrant from a judge. The aftermath was six police officers firing over 30 shots and shooting an innocent man 9 times in the back as he laid on the ground. Read How Police In Texas Are Allowed to Murder Innocent People and Get Away With It

Can We Trust Police Officers?

Are police officers allowed to lie to you? Yes the Supreme Court has ruled that police officers can lie to the American public. Police officers are trained at lying, twisting words and to be manipulative. Police officers and other law enforcement agents are very skilled at getting information from people. So don't try to "out smart" the police officer or try being a "smooth talker" because you will loose! If you can keep your mouth shut, you just might come out ahead more than you expected.

Teach your children that police officers are not always their friend and police officers must contact a parent for permission before they ask your child any questions. Remember police officers are trained to put you at ease and to gain your trust. Their job is to find, arrest and help convict a suspect and that suspect is you!

The federal government created a law that says citizens can't lie to Federal Agents and yet the government can lie to American Citizens. Makes perfect since doesn't it? The best thing you can do is ask for a lawyer and keep your mouth shut. How can you be charged with something if you haven't said anything?

Although police officers may seem nice and pretend to be on your side they are wanting to learn your habits, opinions, and affiliations of other people not suspected of wrongdoing. Don't try to answer a police officers questions, it can be very dangerous! You can never tell how a seemingly harmless bit of information that you give to a police officer might be used and misconstrued to hurt you or someone else. Keep in mind that lying to a federal agent is a crime. "This why Martha Stewart went to prison, not for insider trading but for lying to a Federal Agent."

Police officers may promise shorter sentences and other deals for statements or confessions from you. The police cannot legally make deals with people they arrest, but they can and will lie to you. The only person who can make a deal that can be enforced is the prosecutor and he should not talk with you without a lawyer present.

Lies That Police Officers Use To Get You To Talk...

There are many ways a police officer will try to trick you into talking. It's always safe to say the Magic Words: "Am I free to leave, if not I'm going to remain silent and I want a lawyer."

The following are common lie's the police use when they're trying to get you to talk to them:

* "You will have to stay here and answer my questions" or "You're not leaving until I find out what I want to know."

* "I have evidence on you, so tell me what I want to know or else." (They can fabricate fake evidence to convince you to tell them what they want to know.)

* "You're not a suspect, were simply investigating here. Just help us understand what happened and then you can go."

* "If you don't answer my questions, I won't have any choice but to take you to jail."

* "If you don't answer these questions, you'll be charged with resisting arrest."

* "Your friend has told his side of the story and it's not looking good for you, anything you want to say in your defense?"

If The Police Arrest You...

"I DON'T WANT TO TALK UNTIL MY LAWYER IS PRESENT"

* Don't answer questions the police ask you, (except name, address and age)until you have a lawyer.

* Even if the police don't read your Miranda Rights to you, refuse to say anything until your lawyer/public defender arrives. If you "voluntarily" talk to the police , then they don't have to read your Miranda Rights.

* If you're arrested and can not afford an attorney, you have the right to a public defender. If you get a public defender always make it clear to the judge that the public defender is not representing you, but merely is serving as your counsel.

* Do not talk to other jail inmates about your case.

* Within a reasonable time after your arrest or booking, you have the right to make a local phone call to a lawyer, bail bondsman, relative or any other person. The police may not listen to the call to the lawyer.

* If you're on probation or parole tell your P.O. you've been arrested and say nothing else!

COMMENT

Yesterday, when I was discussing this law with a group, a citizen asked "If you have nothing to hide, why not comply with the officer?" I answered with a sime question: "If the police have no probably cause, why are they intruding into my life?"
When did government intrusion become patriotic or accepted? For heaven's sake, this country was founded on the government staying out of our lives.
Lawyer Motorcycle Association
If a police officer demands that you produce identification, that demand is not a valid.
In The Hiibel case, the US Supreme Court (highest court in the land) specifically interprets Nevada's "Duty to Identify" statute (NRS 171.123) and ruled:
"It apparently does not require him to produce a driver's license or any ...other documentation. If he chooses either to state his name or communicate it to the officer by other means, the statute is satisfied and no violation occurs." Hiibel v Sixth Judicial Court of Nevada, 542 US 177 (2004)
Please note: the driver of a vehicle is required to produce a driver's license under a different law (but NOT the passenger)
COMMENT`
Don’t kill a cop. You will lose in Court. Enjoy life, get even as a juror (providing you’re eligible for jury service) and vote not guilty no matter what the evidence shows.
Slapstick and Pig,
If driving or riding and you have been pulled over, turn over your license, registration and insurance when asked. If cop starts asking ANY questions simply ask “am I free to leave?” If cop says “yes” then leave. If cop says “no” then say I “want a lawyer.” And continue to remain silent!
If walking down street and cop detains you in any way ask if you are free to go about your business. If cop says no then request a lawyer and remain silent. You do NOT have to take off your glasses, hat, do-rag, whatever … You do NOT have to turnover your cell phone. Do NOT allow a cop to search you or your house, car, bike, etc. without a warrant. When the cop does search without a warrant in violation of your Constitutional Rights immediately file a complaint against that cop. Immediately! Go to the cops station/division and file that complaint.
Cops put paper on us, we put paper on them. That simple.
And ALWAYS password protect your cell phone. Cops can search your cell phone in many instances without a warrant. Remain silent and don’t give up the password.
All of the above aggravates the shit out of cops. I know, I have done it many times.

↧

CA - Lane Splitting General Guidelines

April 24, 2013, 12:59 am

≫ Next: LIFE IN THE FAST LANE..

≪ Previous: Know Your Rights When Dealing With Police Officers

Lane splitting in a safe and prudent manner is not illegal in the state of California.

The term lane splitting, sometimes known as lane sharing, filtering or white-lining, refers to the process of a motorcyclist riding between lanes of stopped or slower moving traffic or moving between lanes to the front of traffic stopped at a traffic light.

Motorcyclists who are competent enough riders to lane split, should follow these general guidelines if choosing to lane split:

1) Travel at a speed that is no more than 10 MPH faster than other traffic – danger increases at higher speed differentials.
- A speed differential of 10 miles per hour or less allows an alert, competent rider enough time to identify and react to most dangerous situations that can occur.
- The greater the speed differential, the less time a rider has to identify and react to a hazard.
2) It is not advisable to lane split when traffic flow is at 30 mph or faster --- danger increases as overall speed increases.
- At just 20 mph, in the 1 or 2 seconds it takes a rider to identify a hazard, that rider will travel approximately 30 to 60 feet before even starting to take evasive action. Actual reaction (braking or swerving) will take additional time and distance.
- Braking and stopping distance varies greatly based on a multitude of factors (rider, machine and environment).
- As speed increases, crash severity increases.
3) Typically, it is safer to split between the #1 and #2 lanes than between other lanes.
- Other road users are more accustomed to motorcycles splitting between the #1 and #2 (furthest left) lanes.
- Avoid splitting in lanes near freeway on-ramps and exits.
- Avoid splitting lanes when another motorcycle rider is splitting between other nearby lanes as cars may make additional room for one rider and accidentally reduce space for another.
4) Consider the total environment in which you are splitting, including the width of the lanes, size of surrounding vehicles, as well as roadway, weather, and lighting conditions.
- Some lanes are narrower than others, leaving little room to pass safely. If you can't fit, don't split.
- Some vehicles are wider than others -- it is not advisable to split near wide trucks. If you can't fit, don't split.
- Know the limitations of your motorcycle --- wide bars, fairing and bags require more space between vehicles. If you can't fit, don't split.
- Avoid splitting on unfamiliar roads to avoid surprises such as poor road surfaces.
- Seams in the pavement or concrete between lanes can be hazardous if they are wide or uneven.
- Poor visibility, due to darkness or weather conditions, makes it difficult for riders to see road hazards and makes it more difficult for drivers to see you.
- Help drivers see you by wearing brightly colored protective gear and using high beams during daylight.
5) Be alert and anticipate possible movements by other road users.
- Be very aware of what the cars around you are doing. If a space, or gap, opens up next to your lane, be prepared react accordingly.
- Always be prepared to take evasive action if a vehicle changes lanes.
- Account for inattentive or distracted drivers.
- Riders should not weave back and forth between lanes or ride on top of the line.
- Riders should avoid lingering in blind spots.
- Never ride while impaired by drugs, alcohol or fatigue.
- Constantly scan for changing conditions.

The Four R's or “Be-Attitudes” of Lane Splitting:
Be Reasonable, be Responsible, be Respectful, be aware of all Roadway and traffic conditions.
- Be Reasonable means not more than 10 MPH faster than traffic flow and not over 39 MPH.

- Be Responsible for your own safety and decisions.

Don't put yourself in dangerous positions.
If you can't fit, don't split.

- Be Respectful --- sharing the road goes both ways.

Don't rely on loud pipes to keep you safe, loud pipes often startle people and poison the attitude of car drivers toward motorcyclists.
Other vehicles are not required to make space for motorcycles to lane split.

- Be aware Roadways and traffic can be hazardous.

uneven pavement
wide trucks
distracted drivers
weather conditions
curves
etc.

Disclaimers:

These general guidelines are not guaranteed to keep you safe.
Lane splitting should not be performed by inexperienced riders. These guidelines assume a high level of riding competency and experience.
The recommendations contained here are only general guidelines and cannot cover all possible combinations of situations and variables.
Personal Safety: Every rider has ultimate responsibility for his or her own decision making and safety. Riders must be conscious of reducing crash risk at all times. California law requires all motorcycle riders and passengers wear a helmet that complies with the DOT FMVSS 218 standard.
Risk of getting a ticket: Motorcyclists who lane split are not relieved of the responsibility to obey all existing traffic laws. With respect to possible law enforcement action, keep in mind that it will be up to the discretion of the Law Enforcement Officer to determine if riding behavior while lane splitting is or was safe and prudent.

When is it NOT OK to split?

You should NOT lane split:
- If you can't fit.
- At a toll booth.
- If traffic is moving too fast or unpredictably.
- If dangerous road conditions exist --- examples include water or grit on the road, slippery road markings, road construction, uneven pavement, metal grates, etc.
- If you cannot clearly see a way out of the space you're going into (for example, if a van or SUV is blocking your view).
- Between trucks, buses, RVs, and other wide vehicles.
- Around or through curves.
- If you are not fully alert and aware of your surroundings.
- If you are unable to react to changing conditions instantaneously.
- If you don't feel comfortable with the situation.
Messages for Other Vehicle Drivers

1) Lane splitting by motorcycles is not illegal in California when done in a safe and prudent manner.

2) Motorists should not take it upon themselves to discourage motorcyclists from lane splitting.

3) Intentionally blocking or impeding a motorcyclist in a way that could cause harm to the rider is illegal (CVC 22400).

4) Opening a vehicle door to impede a motorcycle is illegal (CVC 22517).

5) Never drive while distracted.

6) You can help keep motorcyclists and all road users safe by

Checking mirrors and blind spots, especially before changing lanes or turning
Signaling your intentions before changing lanes or merging with traffic
Allowing more following distance, three or four seconds, when behind a motorcycle so the motorcyclist has enough time to maneuver or stop in an emergency

↧

LIFE IN THE FAST LANE..

April 25, 2013, 12:58 am

≫ Next: 9TH ANNUAL ROSARITO BEACH HARLEY RUN

≪ Previous: CA - Lane Splitting General Guidelines

OFF THE WIRE
THANK YOU, JOHN
LIFE IN THE FAST LANE
A collection of lane-related information

                                             by John Del Santo

GENERAL
If our bike is equipped with working electric directional signals the law requires that we use them when changing lanes. (CVC 22110). The State handbook also suggests that during times of heavy traffic, or poor visibility, that we also use hand signals so that cars are better able to see what our intentions are.

SIGNAL LANE CHANGES             Before each lane change….Check your mirrors……Signal your intentions……Check your blind spot…..Make your move.

The CA Drivers Handbook suggests that at freeway speeds we signal for at least five seconds before a lane change.

Traffic lanes are often referred to by number. The left, or “fast” lane is called the “Number 1 Lane”. The lane to the right of the “number 1 lane” is called “The Number 2 Lane” ,then the “Number 3 Lane” etc.

If you are pulling a little camping trailer behind your motorcycle or car you now come under the same 3-axle category as a tractor trailer. You are restricted to the two right lanes of the freeway, restricted to 55 MPH, and not allowed to use the HOV lane. (P-35 CA Drivers Handbook)

FOLLOWING DISTANCE   California Vehicle Code 21704 (a)   States that ) “ The driver of any motor vehicle that is operated outside of a business or residence district, shall keep the vehicle he is driving at a distance of not less than 300 feet to the rear of any other motor vehicle”. That’s a space that would fit about five tractor-trailers, or is almost a football field long.
                                           ---------------------------------------------------------
ON THE FREEWAY
Miles per Hour...Times 1 1/2 …Equals Feet-Per-Second traveled. At 65 MPH a vehicle is traveling about 100 feet Every Second.
Many motorcyclists prefer traveling on the freeway in the Number 1 lane (far left). This leaves the rider able to only worry about bad moves from the vehicle to the right, and the vehicle behind. Riding in the number 1 lane also leaves the shoulder on the left as an escape route to avoid dangerous moves from other drivers.
Unlike many other states, If you are traveling in the left lane….the number 1 lane…and you are maintaining the the posted speed limit….There is no legal reason for you to move out of that lane unless an emergency vehicle comes up behind you showing lights and/or siren.
The California Motorcycle Handbook (p-13) tells us “There is no “best lane position” for riders in which to be seen and to maintain a space cushion around the motorcycle. Position yourself in the lane that allows the most visibility and space around you”.
Generally speaking, I have been told by highway police that their attention is most drawn to vehicles that are jumping around from lane to lane, not to those that stay mostly in one lane.

the drivers handbook suggests that at freeway speeds we signal for at least five seconds before a lane change.

GROUP RIDING
“If you ride with others, do it in a way that promotes safety and doesn’t interfere with the flow of traffic” If the group is more than four or five riders, divide it into two or more smaller groups. Use a staggered formation and keep a 2-second following distance from the rider directly in front of you. (P-32 CA DMV motorcycle handbook).
When we are riding in a group on the freeway with five or ten other vehicles, WE ARE NOT AN EXCLUSIVE GROUP……..to the law and to the rest of the world, we are just ……five or ten individual vehicles. If other vehicles want to, or need to, make a lane change into our lane, they have every right to do so, and we have no right to try to stop them from doing so. Even convoys of army trucks or funeral processions lose their right to exclusivity when they are on a freeway.

HOV LANES (HIGH OCCUPANCY VEHICLE )(Carpool lane)

No vehicle may cross double yellow lines into or out of an HOV LANE .
In some areas, such as near Los Angeles ,   the double-yellow lines are about 18 inches apart.   These are still double-yellow lines which no one may cross into or out of an HOV lane……..Contrary to some popular belief, these are NOT teeny little HOV lanes for motorcycles.

ONE OR TWO PERSONS ON A MOTORCYCLE OR TRIKE (3-wheeled motorcycle)   ARE ALLOWED TO USE AN HOV LANE, unless otherwise posted. (P-34 CA Drivers Handbook).

No vehicle pulling a trailer may use an HOV Lane .

EMERGENCY VEHICLE STOPPED ON FREEWAY
CVC-21809. (a) A person driving a vehicle on a freeway approaching a stationary authorized emergency vehicle that is displaying emergency lights, a stationary tow truck that is displaying flashing amber warning lights, or a stationary marked Department of Transportation vehicle that is displaying flashing amber warning lights,

shall approach with due caution and, before passing in a lane immediately adjacent to the authorized emergency vehicle, tow truck, or Department of Transportation vehicle, absent other direction by a peace officer, proceed to do one of the following:
(1) Make a lane change into an available lane not immediately adjacent to the authorized emergency vehicle, tow truck, or Department of Transportation vehicle, with due regard for safety and traffic conditions, if practicable and not prohibited by law.
(2) If the maneuver described in paragraph (1) would be unsafe or impracticable, slow to a reasonable and prudent speed that is safe for existing weather, road, and vehicular or pedestrian traffic conditions.

OFF THE FREEWAY

CENTER LEFT-TURN LANES A set of yellow solid lines with dotted yellow lines just inside them. These are to be use to start or complete left turns or to start u-turns. We may not stay in them for more than 200 feet (three tractor trailer lengths).

DOUBLE-DOUBLE YELLOWS    SETS OF double-double yellow lines are considered a barrier or island. We may never cross those even to get into or out of our own driveway Or to make a u-turn.

NARROW STREETS   When riding in parts of town with small, narrow streets…..where there is not a centerline painted in the street,   A CA Driver Handbook suggests that we ride out near the middle of the street, when no traffic is approaching us from the opposite direction. This reduces the chances of someone in a parked car making a move that would surprise or endanger you. Naturally, near an intersection we would be back towards the right side of the roadway.

TURNOUT AREAS AND LANES Special “turnout” areas are sometimes marked on two-lane roads. Drive into these areas to allow traffic behind you to pass. If you are driving slowly, you are required to pull in if there are five or more vehicles behind you that want to go faster. (p-35 CA Drivers Manual).
SOMETIMES THESE TURNOUT AREAS ARE UNLIT AND UNPAVED, AND ESPECIALLY AT NIGHT, MOTORCYCLISTS WOULD HAVE TO MAKE SERIOUS CHOICES TO USE THEM OR NOT.

PEDESTRIAN SAFETY ZONE   A "safety zone" is the area or space lawfully set apart within a roadway for the exclusive use of pedestrians and which is protected, or which is marked or indicated by vertical signs, raised markers or raised buttons, in order to make such area or space plainly visible at all times while the same is set apart as a safety zone. CA Vehicle Code 540.

   CROSSING BICYCLE LANES    As long as there are no bicycles using the bicycle lane anywhere near enough to you to be a hazard, you may cross a bicycle lane to turn into or out of a driveway. If there is a bicycle lane, and no bicycles are using it, and you plan on turning right at the next corner, you should check your mirror, signal, check your blind spot, and move into the bicycle lane NO MORE THAN 200 feet from the corner (three tractor-trailer lengths) to approach your right turn.    You may park in a bicycle lane, as long as there is no sign that proclaims “ Bike Lane No Parking”.
Motorists Passing Bicyclists Be patient when passing a bicyclist. Slow down and pass only when it is safe. Do not squeeze the bicyclist off the road. If road conditions and space permit, allow clearance of at least three feet when passing a bicyclist.

Would you like to check out any vehicle laws or rules ? go to http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/vc/vc.htm Ca Vehicle Code    OR    http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/hdbk/driver_handbook_toc.htm CA Driver Handbook.

THESE RULES AND LAWS MAY BE DIFFERENT WHEN LEAVING CALIFORNIA AND ENTERING OTHER STATES.
                    --------------------------------------
DISCLAIMER AND WARNING :This guide is to provide accurate and authoritative information on this subject. If expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought
   John Del Santo
At Intersections, and
In Your Blind Spots,
"Check Twice for Motorcycles".

P.S.
I was just reading my article "Life in the fast lane" which is a collection of info regarding lane laws and rules....and I realized that I had not mentioned "Lane Sharing" so I entered these lines into the article    FYI     thanks John

The California Vehicle Code does not allow “lane sharing, lane splitting, etc.

↧

9TH ANNUAL ROSARITO BEACH HARLEY RUN

April 25, 2013, 12:58 am

≫ Next: A RICO Primer

≪ Previous: LIFE IN THE FAST LANE..

↧

A RICO Primer

April 25, 2013, 12:58 am

≫ Next: Red Snapper Day xxx

≪ Previous: 9TH ANNUAL ROSARITO BEACH HARLEY RUN

OFF THE WIRE
agingrebel.com

Many readers, including defense attorneys, continue to seem confused by RICO. The usual response to a RICO charge is, “How can they do this?” The following passages, from the book Out Bad, might help clear up some confusion.
From Out Bad
RICO was the centerpiece of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970. The law was written by a Senatorial aide named G. Robert Blakey, who is now the William and Dorothy O’Neill Professor of Law at Notre Dame. And, it is named for the fictional character Rico “Little Caesar” Bandello who was inhabited on film by Edward G. Robinson.
Robinson’s Rico character, in turn, was a parody of a notorious entrepreneur named Alphonse Gabriel “Scarface” Capone. “Every time a boy falls off a tricycle,” Capone once lamented, “every time a black cat has gray kittens, every time someone stubs a toe, every time there’s a murder or a fire or the Marines land in Nicaragua, the police and the newspapers holler ‘get Capone.’”
Capone regretted his reputation as a criminal. Starting in 1926 he tried to diversify into legitimate businesses. Eventually he discovered milk. “Honest to God, we’ve been in the wrong racket right along,” Capone exclaimed when he discovered that the profit margins were higher in milk than in whiskey. In February 1932, three months before he went to prison, Capone invested $50,000 in a legitimate business named Meadowmoor Dairies. In the 1960s the descendants of Capone liked to invest in bowling alleys because they were a good way to explain where the money came from. The upshot of that was that the main supplier of automatic pin setting machines, the AMF company, became prosperous enough to buy, and almost ruin, the Harley-Davidson company.
The original intent of the RICO statute – at least by the Congressmen who voted for it – was to protect legitimate dairies, bowling alleys and other businesses, from investment by thugs like Al Capone. That did not work because the threat posed to the nation by the Italian-American Mafia was always overblown and because as years went by the very same acts the Mafia had always been condemned for doing began to be accepted as standard business practice. The Mafia used to sell sin. The gangsters profited from gambling, usury, prostitution, liquor, drugs and theft. Now states, the nation, Indian tribes, rural counties in Nevada, credit card brands, mortgage lenders, banks in general and asset confiscating police all profit from exactly the same sins.
This may or may not be a good thing. It is certainly not something new in the American pageant. Wyatt Earp enforced the law for big banks and mining companies. Before that he was “muscle.” Before that he was a pimp. Honore de Balzac said, “Behind every great fortune there is a crime.” Crime used to be understood as a kind of cheating for personal gain. Now a crime is anything. Racketeering is anything. The point is to find an excuse to make people suffer.
RICO, as it has evolved, is not intended to punish what most people consider to be crimes, which is to say actions like murder, robbery or what Roman Polanski did to that 13-year-old girl – crimes that lawyers call malum in se. RICO is designed to punish crimes lawyers call malum prohibitum which is Latin for actions that are illegal because they are illegal – like possessing illegal intoxicants or talking on the telephone about illegal intoxicants or smoking in a public place or having a loud and embarrassingly ugly argument with your wife on a Saturday night.
RICO prosecutions virtually ignore malum in se crimes, the actions you have always thought to be a “crime,” although at least a dozen of those did occur or emerge during the Mongols investigation. The predicate crimes that RICO exploits are often trivial and are always state crimes that until 1982 would have been prosecuted in state courts. For example, after the Labor Day Murders, none of the Hells Angels who were charged were ever found guilty of the murders. They confessed to talking about the murders. They confessed to hating Mongols.
Turkette
Then, almost five years later, on June 17, 1981 the law changed. Congress did not write a new law. The United States Supreme Court did. In a case called United States v Turkette, the Supreme Court changed the meaning of an existing law, called the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations law, or RICO. The decision wasn’t even close. Conservatives and liberals agreed.
Turkette opened a philosophical and legal Pandora’s Box that redefined the meaning of words like “crime” and “racket;” and redefined whatever separation or connection might once have existed or not existed between local, state and federal crimes. Today a federal prosecutor can federalize virtually any crime he wants federalized. Under federal law punching somebody in the nose can be a “predicate crime.” This evolution of federal law also created a special circumstance under which defendants can be denied a presumption of innocence.
The Turkette decision changed the meaning of “criminal enterprise” away from a legitimate bar, bowling alley or labor union that had been corrupted by “the mob.” The Scheidler decision a decade later decreed that the “criminal enterprise” no longer had to exist for the purpose of making money. After Turkette and Scheidler, a class reunion could be a criminal enterprise. A federal prosecutor only had to imagine it.
Scheidler
National Organization of Women, Inc. v Scheidler was a civil RICO case brought on behalf of abortion providers against a political organization called Operation Rescue. Joseph Scheidler, for whom the decision is named was one of the leaders of Operation Rescue. Members believed that first-term abortion was morally wrong and should be legally prohibited. They protested outside abortion clinics and harassed and intimidated the women who tried to enter. There was a national consensus that members of Operation Rescue were loutish, cruel and unreasonable. The National Organization of Women accused them of being a racket.
“’We cannot tolerate the use of threats and force by one group to impose its views on others,’” NOW’s lawyer. Fay Clayton explained.
A Federal District judge, dismissed the case on the grounds that RICO could only be applied to “enterprises” motivated by financial gain. The Supreme Court overruled him. A racket could then be any group who members were contemptuous of the law. It was a great victory for federal policemen and prosecutors.
Professor G. Robert Blakely, who wrote the RICO Act and gave it its ironic name, lamented that he had never meant for his law to be applied to political and fraternal groups. He said he was “concerned” that after Scheidler RICO might be used against labor unions and other fringe groups like gay rights activists. Since Scheidler, RICO has been most commonly used a basis for the prosecution of outlaw motorcycle clubs.
RICO Praxis
There are several obvious reasons for the federal prosecution of state crimes. First, RICO allows the investigation of these local crimes by vast police bureaucracies like the ATF. These bureaucracies are self perpetuating and have virtually unlimited resources. All they need to persist are crimes to investigate and RICO provides that. Secondly, RICO allows federal prosecutors a legal fiction that can be used to connect what are actually, in reality, unconnected crimes into a vast, imaginary, criminal conspiracy. Additionally, RICO prosecutors do not have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that defendants actually committed the “predicate crimes” of which they are accused. State prosecutors do but RICO allows federal prosecutors to prove crimes by the civil standard which is a “preponderance of the evidence.” Finally, RICO provides a nice, secure, recession proof way for many lawyers, policemen, and prison guards to make a good living.
Under RICO, if Barack Obama, Henry Louis Gates and Angelina Jolie all like to attend an annual seminar together, and if three people at the seminar have committed two or more criminal predicates, like making a false statement to a federal official or shoplifting, they may be collectively and individually charged with racketeering. They could all be convicted of “the affecting interstate commerce” clause in the RICO law if they sent each other Christmas cards. And the penalty for that racketeering is twenty years in a federal prison.
Many bright and cynical people who should know better still blindly assume that what police do is investigate and solve real crimes. The opposite is true in racketeering investigations. What the ATF, particularly in biker investigations, does is find a way to tie crimes to many related individuals and then create crimes that can be used to prosecute them all. This law enforcement approach is called the “Enterprise Theory of Investigation” and it has a long and twisted history.
A sociologist named Edwin Sutherland coined the term “white collar crime” in the 1930s and wrote a book on the subject in 1949. Sutherland in essence, believed that all businessmen were criminals. With all the best of intentions, after the heartbreak of the Great Depression, Sutherland thought unethical businessmen should be treated worse than murderers. He thought they should be punished for their economic crimes so he advocated that a “person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation” should be presumed guilty until proven innocent. Sutherland also attacked the legal concept of mens rea, or guilty mind, which states that a person cannot be guilty of a crime unless he intends to commit a crime. Sutherland’s theories became popular in two seemingly disparate communities – academia and the FBI.
A Sutherland protégé named Donald Cressey created the “enterprise” concept that quickly became the Enterprise Theory of Investigation. Cressey was particularly not talking about bands of anti-materialistic, socially alienated bikers. He intended to oppose what he saw as social injustice. “The people of the business world are probably more criminalistic than the people of the slums,” he wrote in a book he co-authored with Sutherland. The idea of factoring wealth and privilege into the criminal justice equation was attractive to intellectuals. The federal police liked the parts that made prosecutions easier. Of course, in the manner of police bureaucracies everywhere, lest the amateurs know what the professionals are talking about, the Enterprise Theory of Investigation has become simply the ETI.
“The ETI has become the standard investigative model that the FBI employs in conducting investigations against major criminal organizations,” an FBI author explains. “Unlike traditional investigative theory, which relies on law enforcement’s ability to react to a previously committed crime, the ETI encourages a proactive attack on the structure of the criminal enterprise. Rather than viewing criminal acts as isolated crimes, the ETI attempts to show that individuals commit crimes in furtherance of the criminal enterprise itself. In other words, individuals commit criminal acts solely to benefit their criminal enterprise.”
The current idea of the criminal enterprise is very close to what Hannah Arendt meant when she wrote, “Classical totalitarianism predicts possible crimes on the basis of one’s status as an ‘objective enemy.’”
By “criminal enterprise,” the FBI author means any group any Federal Prosecutor decides to prosecute. The Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts of America have not yet been prosecuted as rackets because to do so would create a terrible public backlash. But there is no backlash when the organization is an outlaw motorcycle club. The Scheidler decision completed the legal magic trick by making the “financial motive” disappear.
In motorcycle club cases, in general and against the Mongols in particular, the government uses RICO to enforce a de facto “Bill of Attainder.” Bills, sometimes the word is “writs,” of Attainder are specifically prohibited by Article One, Clause three of the Constitution. This prohibition appears so early in the principal American law because it was one of the “rights” for which the revolutionaries fought and died. Technically, in America it is not illegal to belong to Al Qaeda, the Nazi party, the Ku Klux Klan, La Cosa Nostra, the Communist party or even a motorcycle club. In a case named Uphaus v Wyman in 1959, the Supreme Court called guilt by association “a thoroughly discredited doctrine.”
But RICO allows prosecutors to turn that ruling on its head. It is the same when mass media leads the general public to believe that motorcycle clubs, right wing militias and “cults” are criminal.
Motorcycle clubs are particularly prone to prosecution under RICO because that are so blatantly “organizations” and because their members tend to believe, as Harley-Davidson’s ad agency put it, “in bucking the system that’s built to smash individuals like bugs on a windshield.” More than tribes, more than thugs, motorcycle clubs are an American ideology. And, also for better or worse, a national consensus seems to be building that America is better for renouncing this ideology.
Under RICO, state crimes punishable by months or a year in jail can be punished like murders. RICO also allows the seizure of assets like motorcycles because, the indictments always allege, no motorcycles no motorcycle gang. The enterprise theory also allows indicia searches, which are searches for proof that someone actually belongs to a motorcycle club. In effect, these searches are house wrecking parties. They are inevitably very terrible. Doors and windows are blown open with explosives. Threats like pets are eliminated. Men are beaten and sometimes executed. Wives and children are roughed up. Much glass is broken. Family photo albums, computers and mementos are confiscated.
The nature and practice of modern policing and particularly of racketeering law may help readers understand the trivial nature of many of the charges made in the indictment against the Mongols. The fact that the Mongols are a gossipy family also worked against them because the men who infiltrated the club wrote down all of the gossip. The “preponderance of evidence” rule in RICO cases made that gossip more damning than it would ever be in an ordinary criminal case. The fact that club members often disagreed about Doc Cavazos gave undercover investigators an excuse to get members talking. And, in the end RICO meant that prosecutors didn’t have to use any of the mountains of “evidence” they had collected. They only had to threaten defendants with it. Actually, in many cases they didn’t even show defendants the “evidence.” In many cases prosecutors only alluded to the “evidence” or spread their arms wide and told public defenders the evidence was in two boxes “this big.”
Summing Up
Most of the nonsense that is written about motorcycle outlaws, that they are “international crime empires” and all of that, is based on an amalgamation of sixty years of American history and on a conflation of what most people understand to be the definition of racketeering with the technical, legal definition of racketeering. Most people understand racketeering, a term coined in the 1920s, to refer to something like “protection rackets” or corrupt labor unions, fixed horse races, loan sharking or the Countrywide Home Loan racket. But the Scheidler decision four years before had made it possible to convict almost any fringe group of racketeering.
Depending on where you draw the lines, there were at least four Mongols racketeering cases although subsequent RICO cases against the Pagans and the Outlaws resulted from the same investigation. The main case which began in one Los Angeles courtroom and eventually spread to another Los Angeles courtroom and a courtroom in Orange County, was named United States versus Cavazos and Others. A much smaller case called US versus Maestas and Others was adjudicated in Denver. The smallest racketeering case, against a lone Mongol, is called US versus Christopher Ablett and years after the Mongols bust it is still being contested in Oakland. The fourth case, a civil case over the matter of whether any cop can simply seize what he believes to be “Mongols paraphernalia” when he sees it, was called Ramon Rivera versus Ronnie A. Carter, Acting Director, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF); John A. Torres, Special Agent in Charge, ATF Los Angeles Field Division; and Eric H. Holder, United States Attorney General.
The obvious clumsiness of even naming the main court cases hints at, but does not begin to explain, why so little was written about the Mongols after the raids in October 2008. None of the usual biker experts has written about the investigation. The prosecution has been, for all practical purposes, secret. But the case is still important enough that even people who detest the Mongols and “their ilk” should know about it because it is a bright marker on the road of flight from the old to the new and improved America.
The point of Operation Black Rain was to put every outlaw in America out bad – to seize his cut, his motorcycle and his memorabilia, to rough him up, wreck his home, scare him and tell him “don’t come around this club no more.” It was, simultaneously emotionally, financially and legally devastating for the men involved. The point of the “enforcement effort” described in this book was never to punish “criminals.” The point was to crush a set of seductive, romantic, dangerous, and maybe obsolete, ideas.

CONTINUE READING
agingrebel.com

↧

Red Snapper Day xxx

April 25, 2013, 12:58 am

≫ Next: ROSARITO BEACH WET T-SHIRT CONTEST - 8/4/2012 PART 3

≪ Previous: A RICO Primer

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Happy Snapper Day, Buddy!

Ashes to ashes Dust to dust

If Rock Hudson ate pussy

He'd still be with us.....

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ROSARITO BEACH WET T-SHIRT CONTEST - 8/4/2012 PART 3

April 25, 2013, 12:58 am

≫ Next: CALIFORNIA - Barry & Carol Sandberg Memorial Ride andABATE Motorcycle Awareness Party - Sunday, May 5, 2013

≪ Previous: Red Snapper Day xxx

MORE TOO COME

↧

CALIFORNIA - Barry & Carol Sandberg Memorial Ride andABATE Motorcycle Awareness Party - Sunday, May 5, 2013

April 25, 2013, 12:59 am

≫ Next: 13NR13 - MRF News Release - Motorcycle Only Checkpoint Bill To Be Dropped

≪ Previous: ROSARITO BEACH WET T-SHIRT CONTEST - 8/4/2012 PART 3

OFF THE WIRE

Hi All,

Please take a moment now to plan on meeting at Kate Sessions by 12 noon or Mt. Soledad by 1 pm Sunday May 5th.

PLEASE FORWARD this flyer to every rider you know and ask them to take a ride for two of their own

and support Motorcycle Awareness Month too!

We are always supporting many other causes, now come out and let’s raise public awareness about our Brother & Sister that were MURDERED in their own home FOUR years ago and it remains UNSOLVED... WHY???

Please bring a friend!

We have two celebrity riders attending that day too!

See YOU there, ride safe!

PLEASE ATTEND 5/5/2013

PLEASE FORWARD AND PRINT/DISTRIBUTE...

To:ABATE Local 6

Subject: [ABATE Local 6 Elist] Barry & Carol Sandberg Memorial Ride andABATE Motorcycle Awareness Party - Sunday, May 5, 2013

Barry and Carol Sandberg were members of ABATE Local 6 for many years when they were tragically murdered 4 years ago. Thanks goes to Red and JD who have worked with the police department so that they continue to try and solve this case.

This year Mayor Bob Filner will be at Mt. Soledad to honor Barry and Carol. Please join us at the ABATE meeting at 12 noon in Kate Sessions Park and then ride the short distance to Mt. Soledad Cross to pay tribute to Barry and Carol. From there we will ride to the Flinn Springs Inn in El Cajon and join the ABATE Local 6 Motorcycle Awareness Party. Food and drink will be available. Flyers for the ABATE Party will be available soon. Mark your calendar and stay tuned!

Nancy

P.S. Please print some of the flyers and distribute to shops and friends.

↧

13NR13 - MRF News Release - Motorcycle Only Checkpoint Bill To Be Dropped

April 25, 2013, 12:59 am

≫ Next: CA - Protect Your Right to a Trial for Traffic Tickets

≪ Previous: CALIFORNIA - Barry & Carol Sandberg Memorial Ride andABATE Motorcycle Awareness Party - Sunday, May 5, 2013

OFF THE WIRE
MRF E-MAIL NEWS Motorcycle Riders Foundation
236 Massachusetts Ave. NE | Suite 510 | Washington, DC 20002-4980
202-546-0983 (voice) | 202-546-0986 (fax) | http://www.mrf.org

13NR13 - MRF News Release - Motorcycle Only Checkpoint Bill To Be Dropped

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
16 April 2013

Contact:Jeff Hennie, Vice President of Government Ralations and Public Affairs
Motorcycle Only Checkpoint Bill To Be Dropped
The Motorcycle Riders Foundation (MRF) reports, Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner from Wisconsin, announced Monday, April 15th that he will file a bill to prohibit the federal funding of motorcycle only roadside checkpoints.
Sensenbrenner had this to say in a "Dear Colleague" that is circulating in the House of Representatives. "In the 112th Congress, I introduced H.R. 904, a bill to prohibit the Department of Transportation (DOT) from providing funds to state and local authorities for the purpose of creating motorcycle only checkpoints. Section 1 of the Stop Motorcycle Checkpoint Funding Act contains the same language as H.R. 904. However, this bill also contains language to force the DOT to focus motorcycle safety efforts on crash prevention programs, not national helmet mandates."
The bill will officially be introduced on May 6, 2013 and get its official bill number then. However, we must start the push now. It's important to contact your sitting member of the House of Representatives and ask them to be an original cosponsor of this important legislation. Ask them to contact Congressman James Sensenbrenner and lend their support. An "Original Cosponsor" is someone who supports the bill before it is made public and is a way to strongly support a new bill.
The more original cosponsors the better. You can contact the US Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121
The entire text of the Dear Colleague and the Bill are below.

STOP MOTORCYCLE CHECKPOINT FUNDING
Dear Colleague:
On May 6, I will introduce a bill to protect motorcyclists' rights and promote crash prevention as the most effective use of taxpayer money to save motorcyclists' lives. I ask for your support as an original cosponsor of the Stop Motorcycle Checkpoint Funding Act.

In the 112th Congress, I introduced H.R. 904, a bill to prohibit the Department of Transportation (DOT) from providing funds to state and local authorities for the purpose of creating motorcycle only checkpoints. Section 1 of the Stop Motorcycle Checkpoint Funding Act contains the same language as H.R. 904. However, this bill also contains language to force the DOT to focus motorcycle safety efforts on crash prevention programs, not national helmet mandates.

Section 3 of the Stop Motorcycle Checkpoint Funding Act amends Section 153 of Title 23 USC by removing "motorcycle helmets" from the title. This change will prohibit the DOT from providing grants to a State to enforce helmet laws. This will stop the DOT from manipulating State policies with federal money.

Section 4 of this bill amends Section 402 of Title 23 USC. Current law states that highway safety plans must prevent accidents and reduce injuries. The Stop Motorcycle Checkpoint Funding Act would require highway safety plans to include programs that prevent accidents in order to reduce injuries and deaths resulting from accidents involving motor vehicles and motorcycles. This small change will make a significant impact because it highlights that preventing accidents is the best way to save motorcyclists' lives.

Please contact Todd Washam
( todd.washam@mail.house.govto cosponsor this bill. I look forward to your support on this important issue.

Sincerely,

F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr.
MEMBER OF CONGRESS
A BILL
To stop motorcycle checkpoint funding, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ''Stop Motorcycle Checkpoint Funding Act''.
SEC. 2. GRANT RESTRICTION.
The Secretary of Transportation may not provide a grant or any funds to a State, county, town, or township, Indian tribe, municipal or other local government to be used for any program to check helmet usage or create checkpoints for an operator of motorcycle or passenger on a motorcycle.
SEC. 3. MOTORCYCLE SAFETY.
Section 153 of title 23, United States Code, is amended-
(1) in the section heading by striking ''and motorcycle helmets'';
(2) in subsection (a) by striking ''such fiscal year-'' and everything that follows through ''(2) a law'' and inserting ''such fiscal year a law'';
(3) in subsection (b) by striking ''State laws'' each place it appears and inserting ''a State law'';
(4) in subsection (f) by amending paragraphs(2) and (3) to read as follows:
''(2) SECOND-YEAR GRANTS.-A State is eligible for a grant under this section in a fiscal year succeeding the first fiscal year in which a State receives a grant under this section only if the State in the preceding fiscal year had in effect at all times a State law described in subsection (a) and achieved a rate of compliance with such law of not less than 50 percent. ''(3) THIRD-YEAR GRANTS.-A State is
eligible for a grant under this section in a fiscal year succeeding the second fiscal year in which a State receives a grant under this section only if the State in the preceding fiscal year had in effect at all times a State law described in subsection (a) and achieved a rate of compliance with such law of not less than 70 percent.''

SEC. 4. HIGHWAY SAFETY PROGRAMS.
Section 402(a)(2)(A) of title 23, United States Code, is amended by striking clause(iv) and inserting the following:
''(iv) to prevent accidents in order to reduce injuries and deaths resulting from accidents involving motor vehicles and motorcycles;''.

↧

CA - Protect Your Right to a Trial for Traffic Tickets

April 25, 2013, 12:59 am

≫ Next: Motorcycle Noise And Money

≪ Previous: 13NR13 - MRF News Release - Motorcycle Only Checkpoint Bill To Be Dropped

OFF THE WIRE

Protect Your Right to a Trial for Traffic Tickets
What does AB666 Do?

Eliminates Your Right to a Trial if You Get a Red Light Camera Ticket

Makes You Responsible for the Ticket Even When Someone Else Is Driving

Sets up Kangaroo “Administrative Hearing” Courts Run By Those Who Gave You the Ticket

No Evidence Other than the Ticket Itself is Needed to Convict You

No Right to Face Your Accuser

You Are Assumed Guilty and Have to Prove Your Innocence

You Will Have to Pay a Fee If You Want Your Case Heard in Court

Expands the Use of Photo Enforcement to Other Traffic Violations

Call California Assembly Member Bob Wieckowski and tell him Stop Selling Us Out to the Red Light Camera Companies

DAY OF PROTEST
Tomorrow March 21st
Call (916) 319-2025
Ask for Ashley Medina, his Legislative Aid or just leave a message.
If the line is busy, keep calling till you get through

Sign the petition to stop AB 666 and get more info here

↧

Motorcycle Noise And Money

April 26, 2013, 12:57 am

≫ Next: Ten Most Notorious Outlaw Biker Gangs

≪ Previous: CA - Protect Your Right to a Trial for Traffic Tickets

OFF THE WIRE
agingrebel.com
It is tempting for bikers to laugh off the holy crusade against “motorcycle noise” and aftermarket exhaust pipes. In the first place, the reasons for replacing the stock exhaust on a Harley are obvious to the people who do it.
Back in the day, 82 inch Shovelheads made about 70 horsepower right out of the box. Brand new 82 inch Twin Cams make about 58 horsepower. The reason for the decrease is that modern bikes are intentionally set up at the factory to run inefficiently. They must run poorly in order to meet the mileage, noise and pollution abatement goals that are mandated by a self-righteous and distant bureaucracy.
It all seems like so much red tape to most riders. Harley-Davidson does not build motorcycles that run well. Harley builds motorcycles that meet arbitrary and fatuous government standards. The standard set of improvements made to brand new motorcycles even has a name. Most people call it “the Harley tax.”
The Harley tax is the amount new owners must pay to “let the engine breathe.” The results of changing the pipes and air filter and fattening the gas to air mixture are immediate and potentially life saving. Motorcycles are small and vulnerable, so riders commonly try to stay safe by out-accelerating danger. And, factory pipes frustrate that ambition to stay alive.

Loud Pipes Save Lives

Secondly, as anybody who has ever actually ridden a motorcycle knows, Harleys are not vehicles so much as they are cloaks of invisibility. It is not simply a matter of motorists not seeing motorcycles. Drivers tend not to recognize the motorcycles they see as other motor vehicles sharing the road with them. So it is common for drivers to simply run over bikes. In the United States these collisions make the papers about 15 times a day. And, it is much harder to survive a freeway collision on a bike than in a car.
Motorcycles that are loud enough to be heard inside a sound-proofed passenger compartment are not only better able to run away from bike-blind motorists. They are also much harder to ignore. Even motorcycle cops know this.
In 2007, the city of Oakland put stock pipes on all 30 of its Harley-Davidsons. The new pipes stayed on until an Oakland cop riding a Harley with a stock exhaust was struck by a driver who said he never knew the motorcycle was there.
According to then Oakland Deputy Chief Dave Kozicki, “the decibel drop sparked a chorus of complaints from other officers, who said they felt less safe.” The department concluded, Kozicki went on to say, that “it was in the best interest of the officers to put more-audible pipes back on.”

The Noise Nuts

The campaign against “motorcycle noise” is also easy to dismiss because it is led by a bare handful of fatuous and unpleasant busybodies.
The concept of “noise pollution” was invented in 2004 by a UCLA professor of “political activism” named Ted Rueter. Rueter started a campaign called “Noise Free America” and as recently as 2005 he had to justify the concept to the left leaning digest Utne Reader. “A lot of people get off on noise and think that there’s something wrong with peace and quiet,” Rueter told the digest. “We’re still fighting a public perception that this is a trivial issue and anyone who’s concerned or interested in curbing noise is a crank.”
Other cranks became aroused when they heard Rueter’s seductive call and most of them took pains to make themselves appear more important than they actually are. The well known and often quoted group Noise Off is a guy named Richard Tur. (The spelling is not a typographical error. He actually spells his last name without the final “D.”)
A “citizen’s group” in Maine, called MECALM (Maine Citizens Against Loud Motorcycles) is a guy named Andy Ford who has a neighbor who is a state senator. A similar “grass roots organization” in New Hampshire called NHCALM is another guy named Bill Mitchell.
It is common to underestimate how important fanatics like Rueter, Tur, Ford and Mitchell are becoming. But, they are important because they are warping public perception and inspiring new laws.

New California Law

One of those is a California law scheduled to go into effect next year. It is called the “Motorcycle Anti-Tampering Act” and it was sponsored by a California State Senator named Fran Pavley. Pavley said her new law was aimed at “a few bad apples on our roads (who) are infringing on the rights of others with their illegal, attention-seeking loud pipes.” Pavley’s statement was a loathsome lie but it became true because nobody was able to contradict her.
Pavley is a former middle school teacher who represents the most affluent neighborhoods in Los Angeles and she demonstrates a tendency to treat other adults as if they are her middle school students. She is so ridiculous a person that it is also tempting to either ignore her or laugh her away. Unfortunately, she has the power to enact ridiculous laws.
Pavley’s law effectively forbids Harley owners from replacing their exhausts with better ones. The act requires motorcycle exhausts sold after 2012 to have a visible EPA stamp. The law also requires that motorcycles not exceed a sound level of 80 decibels which is 1.3 decibels quieter than New York’s tony Indochine restaurant on a quiet night as measured by the Zagat restaurant guide. It is 10 decibels quieter than a normal conversation, 30 decibels less than a lawn mower and about 15 decibels quieter than the police bikes in Oakland when they idle. Eighty decibels is also five decibels quieter than the traffic noise inside an auto with the windows rolled up.

Searches And Fines

Police departments throughout the country have eagerly jumped on the motorcycle noise abatement bandwagon. Not only is “loud” quickly becoming probable cause to detain passing motorcyclists. Ensuring that all passing motorcycles are not “loud” has become a reason to implement motorcycle road blocks. These road blocks are, in effect, dragnets that allow police to stop bikers in order to try to get something on them.
The 80 decibel limit is so arbitrary and unreasonable that it gives police a reason to stop and fine everybody. And, as everybody already knows, these fines are a growing revenue source for cities and towns desperate for cash. They are in effect, in the most literal way, highway robbery.
Money, rather than neurotics, is the main reason why motorcycle noise abatement campaigns are picking up steam. There is money in “motorcycle noise” for police and politicians.

Chris Real

There is also money in “motorcycle noise” for a guy named Chris Real.
In order to write the new California law and similar laws in cement, police must have a scientifically justifiable standard for measuring motorcycle noise. And, they must also have the equipment to make those scientific measurements. The author of the scientific procedure is an entrepreneur named Chris Real. He also makes the equipment.
The new standard for measuring motorcycle noise is titled SAE J2825. SAE used to be an abbreviation for “Society of Automotive Engineers.” It is now the trademark of a for-profit company called SAE International. SAE sets numerous standards ranging from socket sizes to the standard dimension of cargo containers. It leans heavily on independent contractors to invent its standards. Chris Real, who owns a company named DPS Technical Incrporated in Upland, California is the author of SAE J2825.
For the last year, since the California “Motorcycle Anti-Tampering Act” was signed into law, Real has been teaching the procedure he invented to cops around the country. The training in California has been subsidized by the state Office of Traffic Safety. The same state agency has also subsidized a campaign in Elk Grove, California to see how much revenue police there can generate by writing motorcycle noise tickets. The Elk Grove police have been writing the tickets for the last year. They don’t write noise tickets for jackhammers or trucks. They only write noise tickets for motorcycles.
Real’s procedure uses what Real sells. DPS Technical’s main product is a “law enforcement sound measurement kit.” The kit includes a “Sound Level Meter, ANSI Type 1 Field Calibrator, 2 vibration tachometers, measuring tape, OHV RPM testing data, spark arrester probe and case.” It also includes “certificates of calibration, personal protection equipment and field carrying case and (an) informational DVD.”
A “typical kit for field enforcement purposes,” the “PN: SLM ENV KT 1” costs $3,100.
No highway robber should be without one.

↧

Ten Most Notorious Outlaw Biker Gangs

April 26, 2013, 12:58 am

≫ Next: Prospect

≪ Previous: Motorcycle Noise And Money

Ten Most Notorious Outlaw Biker Gangs.

BY: William J. Felchner
Source: factoidz.com
US - The outlaw biker gang can trace its origins to the period after World War II where returning veterans and other roadies began to organize themselves in clubs, pining for the freedom, action and nonconformity that the motorcycle offered. One of the seminal events in outlaw biker history was "The Hollister Riot," which took place over the July Fourth 1947 holiday weekend in Hollister, California, where some 4,000 motorcycle enthusiasts invaded the small town. The ensuing ruckus was later sensationalized in the July 21, 1947, issue of Life magazine, marking a famous milestone in biker history.
The Hollister Gypsy Tour, as the event was billed, included the Boozefighters, a South Central Los Angeles motorcycle club founded in 1946 by World War II vet William "Wino Willie" Forkner (1921-1997). Forkner reveled in his reputation as a biker hellraiser, and reportedly served as the inspiration for Lee Marvin's Chino character in Columbia Pictures' The Wild One (1953), which also starred Marlon Brando as bad boy Johnny Strabler, leader of the fictional Black Rebels.

Here are ten notorious outlaw biker gangs that rule the road in biker history. These are the so-called "1%ers," the bikers who operate out of the mainstream as compared to the other 99% of motorcyclists who abide by the law and norms of society. Kick start your engines and show your colors…

Hells Angels (1948-present)

Unarguably the best-known outlaw biker gang in history, Hells Angels owes its name to World War II and possibly the 1930 Howard Hughes movie of the same name. During Big Two, there did exist the United States Army Air Forces 303rd Heavy Bombardment Group (H) of the U.S. 8th Air Force which billed itself as Hell's Angels, flying B-17 combat missions out of Molesworth, England, from 1942-45.

Hells Angels was formed in the Fontana/San Bernardino, California, area on March 17, 1948 as an offshoot of the Pissed Off Bastards of Bloomington, a California motorcycle club founded in 1945 by American veterans of the air war. Other independent chapters of Hells Angels later sprouted up in Oakland, Gardena and San Francisco.

Hells Angels eventually spread its wings, with the club now sporting charters in 29 countries, including Canada, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Russia, Greece, Denmark, France, Turkey and the Dominican Republic.The Hells Angels insignia is the infamous "death's head," designed by Frank Sadilek, a former president of the San Francisco chapter.

Both American and Canadian law enforcement have labeled the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC) a crime syndicate, asserting that its members routinely engage in drug trafficking, extortion and violence. Hells Angels garnered notoriety at the Altamont Free Concert on December 6, 1969, when they were hired by the Rolling Stones to act as stage security. Mayhem ensued at the drug/alcohol fueled event that boasted of a crowd of 300,000, with four people losing their lives.

Mongols (1969-present)

The Mongols was founded on December 5, 1969 in Montebello, California, by Hispanic veterans of the Vietnam War. Reportedly denied membership in Hells Angels because of their race, the Mongols eventually branched out, currently boasting of chapters in 14 states and four foreign countries.

Law enforcement has classified the Mongols as a criminal enterprise, engaging in loan sharking, drug trafficking, racketeering, theft and murder for hire. ATF agent William Queen, using the alias Billy St. John, successfully infiltrated the Mongols in 1998, resulting in 53 Mongol convictions.

The Mongols and their hated rivals Hells Angels engaged in an infamous brawl and gunfight at Harrah's Casino in Laughlin, Nevada, in 2002. When the smoke had cleared, one Mongol and two Hells Angels lay dead on the casino floor.

Pagans (1959-present)

Lou Dobkins, a biochemist at the National Institute of Health, founded the Pagans in Prince George's County, Maryland, in 1959. By the late 1960s, the Pagans were the dominant biker club on the East Coast, riding British Triumph motorcycles (later traded in for Harley Davidsons) and sporting their distinctive patch depicting the Norse fire god Sutr wielding a flaming sword.

The Pagans currently operate in eleven states, with Delaware County, Pennsylvania, serving as their Mother chapter. American law enforcement has classified the Pagans as a criminal enterprise, engaging in a host of illegal activities, including gun running, drug trafficking, arson, methamphetamine production and distribution, prostitution, racketeering and murder for hire.

In 2002, the Pagans and Hells Angels clashed at the Hellraiser Ball in Long Island, New York, where ten people were wounded and one Pagan was allegedly shot and killed by a Hells Angels member. Three years later, the Vice President of the Hells Angels Philadelphia chapter was killed by gunfire while driving his truck on the Schuylkill Expressway, with the Pagans allegedly carrying out the hit.

Outlaws (1935-present)

The Outlaws can trace their history back to 1935 when the McCook Outlaws Motorcycle Club was formed out of Matilda's Bar on old Route 66 in McCook, Illinois. In the ensuing years, the club morphed into the McCook Outlaws, the Chicago Outlaws and the American Outlaws Association (A.O.A.). Their first out of state chapter came in Florida in 1967. In 1977, the Canadian biker gang Satan's Choice joined the Outlaws franchise, making it the first chapter outside of the United States. Today, the Outlaws are active in some 14 states, with international chapters in the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Germany, Sweden, Thailand, Norway, Poland, the Philippines, et al.

The Outlaws sport a distinctive patch comprised of a skull and crossed pistons. Their official motto, adopted in 1969, is "God forgives, Outlaws don't."

Law enforcement has categorized the Outlaws as an organized crime syndicate, engaging in drug trafficking, murder, extortion and prostitution. The Outlaws have had their run-ins with police and other biker gangs. In 2007, Outlaws member Frank Rego Vital was shot and killed outside the Crazy Horse Saloon in Forest Park, Georgia, by two Renegades motorcycle club members who had reportedly acted in self-defense.

Bandidos (1966-present)

The Bandidos was founded by Marine Corps and Vietnam War veteran Don Chambers in San Leon, Texas, in 1966. The club's official motto is "We are the people our parents warned us about," with a big Mexican in sombrero brandishing a machete and pistol adorning the club's distinctive patch. The Bandidos currently boast of 104 chapters in the United States, along with international chapters in Germany, Australia, Denmark, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Costa Rica, Belgium and the Channel Islands.

Law enforcement has classified the Bandidos as an organized crime syndicate, engaging in murder, drug trafficking, money laundering, extortion, gun running and witness tampering. From 1994 to 1997 the so-called "Great Nordic Biker War" was waged in Scandinavia pitting Bandidos versus Hells Angels in a bloody turf war that resulted in eleven murders. Vagos (1965-present)

Originally called the Psychos, Vagos was formed in Temescal Valley, California, in 1965. The club's distinctive green/red patch pictures the Norse god Loki straddling a motorcycle. Vagos currently operates mainly in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico.

Both the FBI and the ATF consider Vagos an outlaw biker gang, engaging in drug trafficking, gun running, auto theft, money laundering and murder. In 2002, however, Vagos members turned in the estranged wife of a Pomona, California, police detective who had attempted to hire a Vagos hit man to murder her husband.

Law enforcement has successfully conducted several undercover investigations of Vagos and their illegal activities. In 2004, authorities arrested 26 Vagos members/associates and seized $125,000 in cash, drugs and weapons.

Pennsylvania Warlocks (1967-present)/Florida Warlocks (1967-present)

The Pennsylvania Warlocks was founded in Philadelphia in February 1967. The club's distinctive patch features the Harpy, the legendary winged beast from Greek mythology. The Pennsylvania Warlocks boast of chapters in New Jersey, Ohio, Illinois, Florida, Minnesota and Massachusetts. The Pennsylvania Warlocks have been linked to organized crime and methamphetamine production and distribution.

The Florida Warlocks was founded by U.S. Navy veteran Tom "Grub" Freeland in Orlando, Florida, in 1967. The club's logo is a blazing eagle while their official motto is "To find us you must be good. To catch us…you must be fast. To beat us…you must be kidding!" The Florida Warlocks have chapters in South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, New York, the United Kingdom and Germany. The Florida Warlocks were successfully infiltrated by the ATF in 1991 and again in 2003, with convictions for drug and weapon charges resulting from the latter.

Sons of Silence (1966-present)

The Sons of Silence was founded in Niwot, Colorado, in 1966. The club sports a distinctive patch featuring the American Eagle superimposed over a large "A" – highly reminiscent of the Anheuser-Busch logo. The gang's official motto is "Donec mors non separat" – Latin for "Until death separates us."

The Sons of Silence boast of chapters in Illinois, Wyoming, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Kentucky, North Dakota, Mississippi and Germany. The Sons of Silence have been implicated in drug trafficking and weapons violations.

Highwaymen (1954-present)

The Highwaymen was established in Detroit, Michigan, in 1954. The club's distinctive patch features a winged skeleton sporting a leather jacket, motorcycle cap and the black and silver colors. "Highwaymen forever, forever Highwaymen" serves as the gang's official motto.

The Highwaymen currently have chapters in Michigan, Tennessee, Florida, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and Norway. The Highwaymen Motorcycle Club has been the subject of intense law enforcement scrutiny through the years. In 2007, the FBI arrested 40 Detroit Highwaymen members/associates on a variety of charges, including drug trafficking, theft, racketeering, insurance fraud, police corruption and murder for hire.

Gypsy Joker (1956-present)

The Gypsy Joker was founded in San Francisco, California, on April 1, 1956. The club's official patch features a grinning skull. Forced out of San Francisco by Hells Angels, the Gypsy Joker headed north to Oregon and Washington state in the late 1960s.

The Gypsy Joker has some 35 chapters worldwide, including active clubs in Australia, Germany, South Africa and Norway. The club is especially high profile in Australia, where in 2009 five Gypsy Jokers engaged in a drug-related shootout with a rival "bikie" gang (as they are called Down Under) in Perth.

Ten More Notorious Outlaw Biker Gangs

Here are ten more infamous biker gangs, along with where established and years active.

•Free Souls (Eugene, Oregon, 1968-present) •The Breed (Asbury Park, New Jersey, 1965-present) •Rebels (Brisbane, Australia, 1969-present) •Grim Reapers (Calgary, Canada, 1967-1997) •Iron Horsemen (Cincinnati, Ohio, mid-1960s-present) •The Finks (Adelaide, Australia, 1969-present) •Brother Speed (Boise, Idaho, 1969-present) •Devils Diciples (Fontana, California, 1967-present) •Solo Angeles (Tijuana, Mexico, 1959-present) •Diablos (San Bernardino, California, 1964-present) About William J. Felchner William J. Felchner's many feature articles have appeared in such periodicals as True West, Hot Rod, Movie Collector's World, Sports Collectors Digest, Persimmon Hill, Big Reel, Corvette Quarterly, Old West, Antiques & Auction News, Storyboard, Goldmine, Autograph Collector, Warman's Today's Collector, The Paper & Advertising Collectors'
Frontier Times, Television History, Illinois and Military Trader.

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Prospect

April 26, 2013, 12:58 am

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The prospect./probate

For a prospect its simple, Keep your mouth shut, never discuss club business with anyone, and the reality is a prospect is the bottom of the chain. To be really good, learn all members names, Easy, learn their occupations, hobbies, etc, A club is a brotherhood so be a brother, also make sure you are available for all events, all prospects are expected to do as they are told or instructed, that's a given. IF a officer needs his back watched at a outing or a run, or a brother is broke down at 2 am, just be there. The more you do the easier it is to become a member. You are being watched and it will be noticed, always remember as a prospect you have no rank or privileges, and upon introducing yourself to any patch holder. You must only introduce yourself as a prospect of the ****** Motorcycle club, and keep all other conversation to a minimum, its time to start thinking of a road name. We will pick a name and it will be who you are when in club attire. The road name will be short and describe your personalityor something that happens to you ar that you do that the Patch Holders think would be an appropriate road name. If your probate time gets extended it means you have screwed up, and you should talk to your sponsor. Prospecting should not be looked at as a necessary evil, but a labour of love. All the horrific shit you,ve heard about initianation or rite of passage ritual from prospect to member is true. Good luck.

PS, Never leave a patch holder anyplace, never ever, especially out of town always stay to the end. Unless you have a extreme reason, like your family has a emergency. Parents or children. ( Family ) remember all PH are brothers. Respect is the biggest lesson some guys have to learn..

Ringo.

Acquitted M/C

Canada

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Hang Around

April 26, 2013, 12:58 am

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≪ Previous: Prospect

The hang around period is just a honeymoon. You are not a member or representative of the club and neither you or the club has a claim on each other. If something happens to you, the club is not expected to back you up. It is a time when you size up the club and ask yourself if they are what you want. It is also a time when they are sizing you up and asking themselves if you are what they want. It's a gentleman's agreement at this point. There is no dishonor for either of you if you back away from the deal. In making your decision, you should remember that as a prospect in that club, life will be a lot harder than it is in the hang around phase. Until you are patched, you will be sitting out Church meetings as an outsider and not permitted to enter until you get patched in.
While nothing is perfect, there is really only one rule if you decide to back away. There will be conditions on your doing it honorably. That could range from just asking to be let loose to a request that you meet with each patch holder individually and ask their blessing on your decision. Even in the case of an honorable decision, there can be some hard feelings. For instance, you can bet your bottom dollar that the patch holders in that club think it is the second best thing in life to butter and pussy, so a decision on your part to move on could result in some hurt feelings (especially if they thought you were going to make a good prospect). However, if you do it right, and move to another club, those feelings will usually subside with time.
If you do move on, you are OUT. That means that none of them are going to call you to go out for a beer or to hang around with them anymore. When you're in, you're in and when you're out, . . . you're OUT.
Motorcycle Clubs operate on the honor system and you "always dance with the one who brung ya". It is a huge act of dishonor to be doing a hang around with more than one club.
Underneath all of this, I am seeing something which I had to recognize in myself in the beginning of my movement towards a club. It is a common thing that happens to lots of people. In the beginning you feel the exhiliration of being around those guys, but at a certain point, your life begins to get very boxed in. You see their dedication to each other as brothers and realize that your world is about to go from one where you know many people, to one where there are only ten guys who you will spend the rest of your days with. That was for me a very scary moment and I spent a lot of nights questioning myself about what I was doing. Well, to make a long story short, I backed away from that club (got all the brother's permission, etc., ) but it wasn't long before I began to miss what I'd given up. Like the guy who gave up his wife and marriage just because he got laid one night by some bimbo and now is thinking "the grass is greener on the other side of the hill". Motorcycle clubs are a family thing. Your brothers become your brothers because you have all learned to love each other through thick and thin. You know each other's strengths and weaknesses and love each other even when you are fighting. I don't have any trouble telling one of my brothers "I love you", but you will never hear me say those words to my real life blood brothers, because all I share with them is some DNA blood plasma. Brotherhood is based upon a million little moments that run the gamut from life threatening situations, sitting on the side of the road at midnight broke down in the middle of noplace, and watching each other's kids grow up. Lots of joy and lots of tears make up the brotherhood.
It took me a long time to realize why MC chapters are so small. It is because when you get to 14 + guys in a chapter, it begins breaking down into clicks. So you see, while I am in very large club and have lots of brothers, I have only 10 or 15 who I am really tight with.
If you are contemplating not joining because you fear your world will get too small, please remember that what ever club you go to, it will be the same thing, and if you persevere, it will either get better or you will just wake up someday and realize you are not MC material.
Thank you for this insight Fish. 22

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Babe of the DAY............Abby Marie

April 26, 2013, 12:58 am

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SAN DIEGO ,CA - Officer Safety – Mobile Phones as Weapons

April 26, 2013, 12:58 am

≫ Next: USA - When Dealing With The Police - a helpful cheat sheet

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OFF THE WIRE

Our good friend over at Photography Is Not A Crime, Carlos Miller, updated a Post recently,

San Diego Police Attach and Arrest Man Video Recording Them, Claiming Phone Could be a Weapon – Updated

As one views the video, it’s not even until one minute, that the Citing Officer – M. Reinhold – Badge Number 6223, with the San Diego Police Department, noted that the “suspect” was even recording. His partner, who is shown on the recording as well, was monitoring Mr. Pringle while he was recording the incident from the very beginning. One would think, that if there was a concern with the Mobile Phone Mr. Pringle had, a Samsung Galaxy, the monitoring partner would have intervened and possible even drawn his weapon, if he had per chance felt, that he, or even his partner were being threatened.
The stop was initiated as Mr. Pringle was unlawfully smoking a cigarette on the Boardwalk. Of which, Mr. Pringle owns up to:

“It is against the law to smoke cigarettes on the boardwalk, so I admit I was breaking the law,” Pringle said in a telephone interview with Photography is Not a Crime Tuesday.

Once the Mobile Phone was noticed, M. Reinhold asks Mr. Pringle “would you put that away, please?” Mr. Pringle stated, calmly “No, thank you, I am in a public place I have a right to film this”. At this point, M. Reinhold states “Let me ask you…you know what actually….” and his demeanor appears to change, and he states the following, “Cell phones can be converted into weapons…look it up online” all while Mr. Pringle states “this is not a weapon, there is no way this is a weapon”.
The discussion goes back and forth until M. Reinhold states “Okay, I’m going to have to take that away from you”, which he proceeds to do and arrests Mr. Pringle. As seen in this video link.
Now, utilizing the suggested medium, the internet we went to look it up online, there are some quite interesting Cell Phone converted weapons, all of which I’m sure M. Reinhold was concerned about, while his partner, must have been unaware(s):

At 1:50 in the above video link, M. Reinhold states, “if he would have just given the phone, let me look at it, isn’t that a reasonable thing to do?”
Person A: ”How is this a weapon?”
Person B: ”Like a bomb?”
M. Reinhold: “I didn’t know for sure…if you look it up online, cell phones can be converted into firearms and tazers, look it up online there is video of how to do it… so if someone is going to stand within a couple of feet of me, and film me, I’m gonna need to look at that cell phone and make sure it’s not a weapon…”

i.e., a mobile phone used to record interaction with the police, is an officer safety issue, which trumps the 4th amendment. One might questions, if that’s the concern, why his partner did not intervene sooner, and secondly why did he not immediately subdue the subject under “officer safety” considerations, rather than debate with him for 40 seconds prior to slapping the cell phone away?
In the James Bond/Laura Croft worlds, one could be rightly concerned with a Cell Phone gun, however citing Mr. Pringle for “Smoking on the boardwalk”, we don’t believe that’s justifiable under “Officer Safety”.
According to the website Hoax-slayer:

Although cell phone guns are real, I could find no reports of the devices actually being used in major crimes such as attempted hijackings or terrorist activities. However, there have been several reports of cell phone guns being seized from criminals in Europe.
The concept of disguising guns as everyday items is actually nothing new. For many years, guns and other weapons have been disguised to look like pens, calculators, cameras, canes and a number of other commonplace objects.

The Cell Phone Gun:
The Cell Phone Stun Gun:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axgKGHvSCGQ
Now, following M. Reinhold’s logic, an Officer may feel threatened by a myriad of items as one travels down the street:
Cane Gun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I10T_ylKba8
Sword Cane
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7ozTWYvk2o
Deck of Cards
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XOn9MI-9XQ
Mr. Snuffleupagus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYPxNCRjfrE

Did M. Reinhold violate Mr. Pringles civil rights in the matter?
Mr. Pringle’s first hearing on the matter is May 23, 2013 in San Diego. In the interim, contact the following civic leaders and ascertain their thoughts on the matter.

San Diego Mayor Bob Filner: email: BobFilner@sandiego.gov phone: (619) 236-6330

Chief William Lansdowne: (619) 531-2000
San Diego City Council:
Council President Pro Tem Sherri Lightner: sherrilightner@sandiego.gov
Councilmember Kevin Faulconer: kevinfaulconer@sandiego.gov
Council President Todd Gloria: toddgloria@sandiego.gov
Councilmember Mark Kersey: markkersey@sandiego.gov
Councilmember Lorie Zapf: loriezapf@sandiego.gov
Councilmember Scott Sherman: scottsherman@sandiego.gov
Councilmember David Alvarez: davidalvarez@sandiego.gov
Councilmember Marti Emerald: martiemerald@sandiego.gov

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USA - When Dealing With The Police - a helpful cheat sheet

April 26, 2013, 12:59 am

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OFF THE WIRE

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MC Club Basics

April 26, 2013, 12:59 am

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The Club

The intent of this section is to give you an overview of the structure and philosophy of the traditional motorcycle club (MC). This does not necessarily express the feelings or priorities of any particular club, as all motorcycle clubs differ on some points. Regardless of the basic philosophy of this group, it is important that you understand the perspectives of other clubs that you may be associating with from time to time.
If motorcycles influence your lifestyle, then you are part of the motorcycle community. Of all the types of organizations found within that community, the traditional motorcycle club stands apart and ranks highest in stature.

Respect
A serious MC club commands respect for one reason. Those who are correctly informed recognize the deep level of personal commitment and self discipline that a man has to demonstrate and sustain in order to wear a patch. They realize that a club's "Colors" are closely guarded and the membership process is long and difficult. Other factors notwithstanding, they respect Patchholders for what they have accomplished by being able to earn and keep the patch they wear. This is respect born out of recognition of dedication and accomplishment. The MC Club strives for respect for this reason. This is especially true as it pertains to those persons outside of the motorcycle community. This segment of society is by far the larger, and therefore represents a larger market for any fund raising activities that the group might undertake. It stands to reason that cultivating a relationship with these people is important, and to be perceived by them as "Biker Scum" would not be advantageous to the group. They will therefore conduct themselves as upstanding citizens in every way... "Good neighbors" so to speak. The goal is to be admired and respected by the general public rather than feared. The serious club, and all of its members and guests, will always conduct themselves publicly in a highly professional manner.

Club Colors
The general public does not draw a distinction between different club colors. In many cases, they simply can't tell the difference: we're all "Biker Scum" to them. If one club causes a problem that touches the public sector, the offending club's identity is either confused or ignored and the heat comes down on all clubs. The general public does not make the distinction between a MC and an RC (Riding Club), therefore EVERYONE needs to be aware that no matter whether they are in an MC and RC or an Independent rider, their actions reflect on all in the motorcycle community. The MC clubs tend to police themselves to avoid such incidents.

Participation
A Patchholder will not discuss any club business whether it's about membership numbers, club goings on, or any member's personal information with anyone outside of the club. They understand that they are a Patchholder 24 hours a day whether or not they are wearing their colors. Everything they say or do in public can affect the club. They also understand that if they get out of line, that they are subject to be counseled for their own good and for that of the club. Wearing a patch is more than getting together for good times. It also means getting together for the other times, too. It constitutes a lot of work. It's committing themselves to a lifestyle in which they do not look for how their brothers or sisters can help them, but for ways that they can be of help to their brothers and sisters. They always look to give rather than to receive. All of this may seem very idealistic, and in some cases it's just that. But it is an ideal that all clubs profess and are always striving for in principle and practice.
Always be aware of the "Golden Rule" of conduct while traveling in club circles: If you give respect, you'll get respect. If you act with disrespect, then you'll be treated with the same.

Levels of Commitment
When someone earns their patch, it does not mean that he or she has reached the ultimate goal and from that point they can kick back and coast. Moving from guest to probation to Patchholder is not climbing from the bottom to the top, but rather more like climbing a constantly ascending slope, and in time becoming a stronger and more committed brother or sister. A person's probationary rocker and later their patch are merely presented in recognition of what they have demonstrated along the way. In this fashion, the more senior the Patchholder is in the club and the more they experience, the more of a brother or sister they should be to all.

Purpose of Probation / Prospecting
Probation is not an initiation, as you would find in a fraternity. It is instead a period of time that is sustained until the person, in every sense, conducts themselves with the respect that is mandated to be a Patchholder. It's a time in which:
The attitude is conditioned so that he/she displays a sense of responsibility and respect toward the patch holders of the club, without which they will not develop a sense of respect for the group.
He/she is educated in basic MC protocol and etiquette.
He/she is given time to develop the habits that are basic to good security and good communications.
To get into the habit of participating.
To become accustomed to trusting the judgment, at times blindly, of those patch holders who will someday be his or her brothers and sisters.
The list could go on but the point here is to demonstrate that probationary period has definite objectives and that a person will go nowhere in the club if he/she is not aware of this and does not apply themselves to those ends. It's not possible to make a checklist of what is expected from a person in all cases. There isn't any formula for success, but the key is ATTITUDE AND RESPECT. Everything else can be learned in time, but a person's attitude comes from the heart.

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Protocol Basics

April 26, 2013, 12:59 am

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These are some things for you, as a Riding Club member, to consider when dealing with motorcycle clubs. They are also things to consider if and when you are going to be around motorcycle clubs.

1. Patchholders are people too. They have good and bad days, they have jobs, families, and normal everyday problems and concerns just like anyone else. There are those who no matter what you say or do, it will not be right with them. Just like with any group, you will find both good and bad.
2. Protocol and Respect are primary rules when dealing with a motorcycle club patchholder.
If you are FORMALLY introduced to a patchholder, make sure either the person doing the introduction (or you) make sure they know what club you belong to & if you are an officer, what position you hold. Under no circumstances do you interrupt to correct a mistake while that person is introducing you or while they are talking. Wait till the introduction is done & politely introduce yourself correctly. i.e.….
Joe Rider, xxxxxxxxxxxx Riding Club, 1st Officer, Anytown Chapter.
Fred Spokes, Anystate Officer, xxxxxxxxxxxxx Riding Club
(Use your name - not your nickname. Nicknames may come later.)
3. Greet them as you would meet anyone else & wait until the offer is made to shake hands. DO NOT interrupt, wait for them to recognize you. DO NOT be offended or make a big deal if they do not offer to shake your hand. Many times they want to get to know about you and your club a little better before they will offer to shake your hand.
4. Never, Ever, Lie. You can refuse to answer a question in a polite manner by saying something like, "That seems like club business, and I would like to refer that to one of our officers in order to get better information for you." Be prepared to answer questions about what your club is about. Such as....
A.) "We are a riding club & not a motorcycle club and have no intention of ever trying to become a motorcycle club".
B.) The Patch is bought & not earned.
C.) No dues or Dues - as applicable.
D.) All makes and models of motorcycle are welcomed. Or it's a brand specific or special requirements club.
E.) We are a non-territorial club.
F.) We are a neutral club and do not wear any MC support patches.
G.) Women riders are welcomed and in many cases are club officers.
H.) We are an AMA chartered riding club.
J.) Do not offer forum links or web sites, It's better to refer them to a club officer.
K.) Do NOT brag about how large the local or national membership is.
L.) Do not volunteer club info. If they ask a question about the local chapter answer it if you can. If they start asking questions about the number of members, or the National chain of organization refer them to one of the club Officers.
5. Women in leadership positions or being a patchholder in motorcycle clubs, while not totally unheard of, is very rare. That's just the way it is. Most motorcycle clubs would also rather deal with a man if there is business to conduct. Most realize what a riding club is about & will for the most part accept a woman as an officer, and a woman officer will most likely be allowed to attend any meeting. Whether or not they will deal directly with a woman officer or not depends on the individual motorcycle club/chapter. There is no set rule for this and they will let you know if it's ok with them or not. Many motorcycle clubs do not care to deal with the National officers. They would prefer to deal with the local or state representatives.
6. If anyone knows a patchholder, don't let him/her throw the patchholders' name/nickname/club's name around like you're a great buddy of theirs (even if you are). Many clubs consider that as a major disrespect to the whole club.
7. Watch where you are when speaking about them, and never say anything about them in public because you never know when that woman, man, or kid in regular clothes standing near you might be one of them, or a "support member". Patchholders do not always wear their colors. By the time the story gets back to the top club in your area, it will have been changed many times over and could be blown up way out of proportion.
8. Anything said about them between club members is club business ONLY. If comments, even those said in a joking manner were to get out, problems could start. Discussion outside the privacy of the chapter can start rumors which could cause a lot of problems for not only the chapter, but also for other chapters in and out of the state.
9. If for some reason you have to say something while in public about a motorcycle club, take the person you're talking to aside, alone, and say ONLY what you need to say to get your meaning across. Say as little as possible so anyone else can't overhear it & misunderstand what you're talking about.
10. Watch where you wear your patch (RCs don't wear colors, colors are earned, not bought) and it's just common sense to stay in numbers when wearing the patch. (Some motorcycle clubs can be very territorial and some clubs don't see any difference between a RIDING CLUB and MOTORCYCLE CLUB, good or bad.) If you are unsure of the areas or places normally frequented by motorcycle clubs, find out from your club Officers. If you are planning on traveling and are concerned about what the situation may be in regard to the relationship with the local motorcycle clubs in the areas you'll be traveling through or staying in, talk to your local officer and ask if they can find something out by contacting the officers in the areas you will be in.
11. "SHOW THEM RESPECT." That's A #1 with them! (and worth repeating).
12. If you already know a patchholder, or get to know one in the future, don't just walk up to him/her and interrupt when they are with other members. Wait till he/she acknowledges you first and NEVER touch them or put your arm around them like a buddy. Don't put your hand out to shake theirs; wait for them to extend their hand first. If for some reason you're not acknowledged at all, then just keep walking. If you need to talk to an officer of a Motorcycle Club the proper way is to go through the Sgt at Arms or one of the patchholders.
13. You have to decide whether or not you want to show respect by going to any of their functions or if you want to avoid all of them all together. If you do choose to show respect and go, you can do this in a way that may make you feel more at ease by going to one of their "support's" functions instead of the top club's function (if they have a support patch then you're still indirectly showing the top club respect). But if you do go, then you also have to go to their rival clubs' function or you'll be telling everyone that you're not a "NEUTRAL" club as you said you were. (Example: If you go to the Club A's function then YOU HAVE TO GO to the Club B's function, etc..) You have to decide how you want to stay neutral, by going or not going and you have to let all the other area chapters know if you're going too, so they're not in the dark and we can ALL stay on top of things.
**** NOTE ***** A better way to support them and still give the appearance of being a neutral club is to attend only "open to the public" events that a motorcycle club may be sponsoring.
If you feel that you do want or need to go to a "limited event", then you'll have to go representing yourself as yourself, preferably without wearing any patches identifying your club. Remember, if you're wearing your club patch, you are considered by everyone to be representing your whole club. If anything were to turn sour, then your whole club could wind up with problems down the road. Also, once the rivals of that club you visited find out (and they will within a day or two), then those rivals will see you as no longer being neutral & you could be considered a rival of theirs too.
14. No CLB's (Chapter Location Bars), any territory rockers, or anything giving the appearance of a rocker should be worn with the RC patch. State flags, state logos may be worn in some areas and not in others. It's best to check with the local RC officers to make sure what is ok in your area.
15. If someone from a motorcycle club requests that you remove your vest/patch, don’t argue. The best reply is, "No Problem" & politely take it off and let your Club Officer know what motorcycle club it was so they can deal with any potential problems. You normally will only get asked once.
16. If an establishment has a sign indicating “No Colors”, even though your patch is not considered “colors”, the vest should be removed out of respect to the other clubs and the policy of the establishment. While you may just be a Riding Club, it's only respectful to honor the house rules. Motorcycle clubs that honored the "house rules" would probably be deeply offended that you didn't. Also remember, many establishments choose to have this policy and it applies to all clubs that use any kind of patch; they do not distinguish between a MC and a RC. Be aware of the local motorcycle club hangouts & it's best not to wear the RC patch into them without an invitation.
17. Do not wear your Patch into a motorcycle club clubhouse unless you have asked if it's ok to do so or have been invited for a "sit down" with the officers of the motorcycle club, or been invited As a Riding Club Member, to attend a function there.
18. In regard to women who are with a MC club, but not in the club: Old Lady is not a negative or derogatory term, it's just a slang term commonly used. "Property Of" patches are their way of showing support for their man and the club he's in.
19. A patchholder may not, and many times will not, acknowledge your wife or girlfriend, especially upon a first meeting.
20. DO NOT touch or sit on a patchholder's bike unless invited to do so. Do not expect the invitation.
21. A prospect can usually be identified by the back patch they are wearing. There are many different ways motorcycle clubs identify prospects. They can have the rockers without the main patch. They can actually have a patch saying "PROSPECT". Some do not wear any patch, because all the Patchholders know who the prospects are. You want to treat a prospect or even someone you suspect is a prospect the same way you would treat a patchholder - with respect and courtesy. Many clubs will take offense to someone outside their club using the prospect term. Calling someone "Prospect" if you are not a patchholder of that club more often is considered disrespectful.
22. Have absolutely no doubt that a motorcycle club is serious and many have been known to physically educate a person who shows disrespect or displays a bad attitude.
23. Be aware of the behavior and attitude of the other RC members who are with you (especially if anyone has been drinking) at events. If necessary, try to take action to avoid problems before they happen. For example, if someone appears to be getting too angry or loud and possibly disrespectful, take them aside or suggest going somewhere else until things settle down. You could also let one of the officers of the club know about the situation. If an incident should occur in spite of your efforts when no Officers are present, make sure to let your officers know as soon afterward as you can. If no club officers happen to be there, then ALL of the RC members that are there need to make the attempt to take that person aside, and strongly suggest that the offending RC member go somewhere else to settle down.
24. Be aware that problems created in one part of the country by a RC member or issues with the RC in one area have the potential to affect RC members in other areas and states.
25. The term Brother or Bro has special meaning to a Patchholder, do not call a Patchholder Brother or Bro. Their Brothers are fellow Patchholders and those that have earned that term.
26. Don't ever touch any part of another club member's colors, which includes the vest or jacket it's sewn on. That is considered serious disrespect, which could cause them to aggressively educate the un-informed.

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