Attack on family in Compton latest incident in wave of anti-black violence

[^_^ 5,021]

A Latino gang is intimidating blacks into leaving the city that was once an African American enclave. It's part of a violent trend seen in other parts of the L.A. area.

By Sam Quinones, Richard Winton and Joe Mozingo

January 25, 2013, 6:46 p.m.

The trouble began soon after they arrived.

The black family—a mother, three teenage children and a 10-year-old boy—moved into a little yellow home in Compton over Christmas vacation.

When a friend came to visit, four men in a black SUV pulled up and called him a "nigg-r," saying black people were barred from the neighborhood, according to Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies. They jumped out, drew a gun on him and beat him with metal pipes.

It was just the beginning of what detectives said was a campaign by a Latino street gang to force an African American family to leave.

The attacks on the family are the latest in a series of violent incidents in which Latino gangs targeted blacks in parts of greater Los Angeles over the last decade.

Compton, with a population of about 97,000, was predominantly black for many years. It is now 65% Latino and 33% black, according to the 2010 U.S. census. But it's not only historically black areas that have been targeted.

Federal authorities have alleged in several indictments in the last decade that the Mexican Mafia prison gang has ordered street gangs under its control to attack African Americans. Leaders of the Azusa 13 gang were sentenced to lengthy prison terms earlier this month for leading a policy of attacking African American residents and expelling them from the town.

Similar attacks have taken place in Harbor Gateway, Highland Park, Pacoima, San Bernardino, Canoga Park and Wilmington, among other places. In the Compton case, sheriff's officials say the gang appears to have been acting on its own initiative.

Sheriff's detectives said Friday they had arrested Jeffrey Aguilar, 19, of Gardena and Efren Marquez, 21, of Rialto, both alleged members of the Compton Varrio 155 gang, and are continuing to look for more assailants.

"This family has no gang ties whatsoever," Sheriff's Lt. Richard Westin said. "They are complete innocent victims here."

The 19-year-old family friend managed to break free that first day and run into the house, where the children were the only ones at home.

The attackers left, but a half-hour later a crowd of as many as 20 people stood on the lawn yelling threats and epithets. A beer bottle crashed through the living room window as the youngsters watched in horror.

"They were scared if they called the sheriff they'd be killed," Westin said. "So they called their mom, who called the Sheriff's Department."

The gang members were gone by the time deputies arrived, but they kept coming back, almost daily, driving by slowly until they got someone's attention, then yelling racial insults and telling them to leave. The mother sent the children to live with relatives and is now packing up to leave herself.

"This gang has always made it clear they have a racial hatred for black people," said Westin, who has worked in the area for more than two decades. "They justify in their own sick minds because of their rivalry with the Compton black gangs. They repeatedly used racial epithets, they use racial hatred graffiti and they tag up the black church a lot."

At the home on 153rd Street on Friday, the rain-drenched street was empty and quiet. But the gang's presence was clear.

Its tags marked several long walls, stop signs, curbs and school crossing signs — often with the nicknames of individual gang members included.

Crews remove the graffiti almost every morning.

Down the street, the Greater Holy Faith Missionary Baptist Church — a remnant from the time when Compton was almost all black — is often tagged, most recently, just below the cross.

Neighbors say its pastors come on Sundays and no longer live in the area.

"This is a typical American family," said Sheriff's Capt. Mike Parker. "It is tragic that it can happen in America, let alone L.A. County. We are not going to tolerate it."

Sheriff's detectives have searched 11 locations in Compton, Gardena and Rialto and are hoping to make more arrests.

Aguilar is accused of beating the family friend with the pipes and Marquez is accused of waving a gun in his face.

Deputies also arrested a juvenile gang member who fought with one of them during a search and tried to grab the officer's pistol.

Compton Councilwoman Yvonne Arceneaux said she was deeply troubled by the incident.

"I'm floored," she said. "That's blatant to tell a family you can't live in this area because you are black. That's just shocking."

Two decades ago, when Arceneaux joined the Compton City Council, she said that older blacks occupied the well-maintained, small homes in the neighborhood. But as they died or moved away, Latinos moved in.

Although she noted cultural differences between blacks and Latinos, she said she thought they were minor.

Arceneaux said she plans to reach out to the family and get the City Council involved.

"We need to address these issues," she said. "Because if they continue to fester like this, then it can spread to the whole city."

Latino gang attacks on African Americans have occurred periodically since the 1990s in Compton.

Johnathan Quevedo, a security guard and college student, said he was shot and wounded by four Latino gang members in 2007.

Quevedo, who has African American features he inherited from his Panamanian mother, said he was walking to the Metro to take a train to his job at the downtown Marriott Hotel one morning when four Latino youths with shaved heads jumped from an SUV and ran at him. One shot him in the head, and Quevedo spent the next year recuperating.

"They didn't know who I was. I didn't know who they were," Quevedo said. "I got shot because of my skin color, because I'm a black male."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0126-compton-20130126,0,178206,full.story

[SAT 9,609]

The people of Compton should immigrate to America...

Wait, I live in NYC, I should immigrate to America...

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

[quote name=' timestamp='1359306111' post='5944483]

A Latino gang is intimidating blacks into leaving the city that was once an African American enclave. It's part of a violent trend seen in other parts of the L.A. area.

By Sam Quinones, Richard Winton and Joe Mozingo

January 25, 2013, 6:46 p.m.

The trouble began soon after they arrived.

The black family—a mother, three teenage children and a 10-year-old boy—moved into a little yellow home in Compton over Christmas vacation.

When a friend came to visit, four men in a black SUV pulled up and called him a "nigg-r," saying black people were barred from the neighborhood, according to Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies. They jumped out, drew a gun on him and beat him with metal pipes.

It was just the beginning of what detectives said was a campaign by a Latino street gang to force an African American family to leave.

The attacks on the family are the latest in a series of violent incidents in which Latino gangs targeted blacks in parts of greater Los Angeles over the last decade.

Compton, with a population of about 97,000, was predominantly black for many years. It is now 65% Latino and 33% black, according to the 2010 U.S. census. But it's not only historically black areas that have been targeted.

Federal authorities have alleged in several indictments in the last decade that the Mexican Mafia prison gang has ordered street gangs under its control to attack African Americans. Leaders of the Azusa 13 gang were sentenced to lengthy prison terms earlier this month for leading a policy of attacking African American residents and expelling them from the town.

Similar attacks have taken place in Harbor Gateway, Highland Park, Pacoima, San Bernardino, Canoga Park and Wilmington, among other places. In the Compton case, sheriff's officials say the gang appears to have been acting on its own initiative.

Sheriff's detectives said Friday they had arrested Jeffrey Aguilar, 19, of Gardena and Efren Marquez, 21, of Rialto, both alleged members of the Compton Varrio 155 gang, and are continuing to look for more assailants.

"This family has no gang ties whatsoever," Sheriff's Lt. Richard Westin said. "They are complete innocent victims here."

The 19-year-old family friend managed to break free that first day and run into the house, where the children were the only ones at home.

The attackers left, but a half-hour later a crowd of as many as 20 people stood on the lawn yelling threats and epithets. A beer bottle crashed through the living room window as the youngsters watched in horror.

"They were scared if they called the sheriff they'd be killed," Westin said. "So they called their mom, who called the Sheriff's Department."

The gang members were gone by the time deputies arrived, but they kept coming back, almost daily, driving by slowly until they got someone's attention, then yelling racial insults and telling them to leave. The mother sent the children to live with relatives and is now packing up to leave herself.

"This gang has always made it clear they have a racial hatred for black people," said Westin, who has worked in the area for more than two decades. "They justify in their own sick minds because of their rivalry with the Compton black gangs. They repeatedly used racial epithets, they use racial hatred graffiti and they tag up the black church a lot."

At the home on 153rd Street on Friday, the rain-drenched street was empty and quiet. But the gang's presence was clear.

Its tags marked several long walls, stop signs, curbs and school crossing signs — often with the nicknames of individual gang members included.

Crews remove the graffiti almost every morning.

Down the street, the Greater Holy Faith Missionary Baptist Church — a remnant from the time when Compton was almost all black — is often tagged, most recently, just below the cross.

Neighbors say its pastors come on Sundays and no longer live in the area.

"This is a typical American family," said Sheriff's Capt. Mike Parker. "It is tragic that it can happen in America, let alone L.A. County. We are not going to tolerate it."

Sheriff's detectives have searched 11 locations in Compton, Gardena and Rialto and are hoping to make more arrests.

Aguilar is accused of beating the family friend with the pipes and Marquez is accused of waving a gun in his face.

Deputies also arrested a juvenile gang member who fought with one of them during a search and tried to grab the officer's pistol.

Compton Councilwoman Yvonne Arceneaux said she was deeply troubled by the incident.

"I'm floored," she said. "That's blatant to tell a family you can't live in this area because you are black. That's just shocking."

Two decades ago, when Arceneaux joined the Compton City Council, she said that older blacks occupied the well-maintained, small homes in the neighborhood. But as they died or moved away, Latinos moved in.

Although she noted cultural differences between blacks and Latinos, she said she thought they were minor.

Arceneaux said she plans to reach out to the family and get the City Council involved.

"We need to address these issues," she said. "Because if they continue to fester like this, then it can spread to the whole city."

Latino gang attacks on African Americans have occurred periodically since the 1990s in Compton.

Johnathan Quevedo, a security guard and college student, said he was shot and wounded by four Latino gang members in 2007.

Quevedo, who has African American features he inherited from his Panamanian mother, said he was walking to the Metro to take a train to his job at the downtown Marriott Hotel one morning when four Latino youths with shaved heads jumped from an SUV and ran at him. One shot him in the head, and Quevedo spent the next year recuperating.

"They didn't know who I was. I didn't know who they were," Quevedo said. "I got shot because of my skin color, because I'm a black male."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0126-compton-20130126,0,178206,full.story

Racism is always bad, no matter who gets it.

[SAT 9,609]

Racism is always bad, no matter who gets it.

Yes that is what I meant to say...It's un-American.

[Ban Hammer 13,465]

not really news to me - seen this sort of thing on tru tv. it's been an issue for quite a while.

[^_^ 5,021]

I've never even heard of tru tv. I wonder if Cablevision carries it.

Edited January 27, 2013 by ^_^

[Laveau 67]

I did not know this was happening.

[himher 634]

Welcome to the world of "the police can't protect you"

When Compton had 76 murders in 2005, which was significantly higher than the national average, the citizens of Compton were given the option to hand over their guns to the police and receive a $50–$100 check for various goods, called the 'Gifts for Guns Program" in an effort to combat gun violence. People have turned in about 7,000 guns over the last few years, KABC-TV reported. The program's success has prompted the LASD to expand the program county-wide

I see the program has worked out well. Good job - anti gun wackos!

[quote name=' timestamp='1359306111' post='5944483]

A Latino gang is intimidating blacks into leaving the city that was once an African American enclave. It's part of a violent trend seen in other parts of the L.A. area.

By Sam Quinones, Richard Winton and Joe Mozingo

January 25, 2013, 6:46 p.m.

The trouble began soon after they arrived.

The black family—a mother, three teenage children and a 10-year-old boy—moved into a little yellow home in Compton over Christmas vacation.

When a friend came to visit, four men in a black SUV pulled up and called him a "nigg-r," saying black people were barred from the neighborhood, according to Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies. They jumped out, drew a gun on him and beat him with metal pipes.

It was just the beginning of what detectives said was a campaign by a Latino street gang to force an African American family to leave.

The attacks on the family are the latest in a series of violent incidents in which Latino gangs targeted blacks in parts of greater Los Angeles over the last decade.

Compton, with a population of about 97,000, was predominantly black for many years. It is now 65% Latino and 33% black, according to the 2010 U.S. census. But it's not only historically black areas that have been targeted.

Federal authorities have alleged in several indictments in the last decade that the Mexican Mafia prison gang has ordered street gangs under its control to attack African Americans. Leaders of the Azusa 13 gang were sentenced to lengthy prison terms earlier this month for leading a policy of attacking African American residents and expelling them from the town.

Similar attacks have taken place in Harbor Gateway, Highland Park, Pacoima, San Bernardino, Canoga Park and Wilmington, among other places. In the Compton case, sheriff's officials say the gang appears to have been acting on its own initiative.

Sheriff's detectives said Friday they had arrested Jeffrey Aguilar, 19, of Gardena and Efren Marquez, 21, of Rialto, both alleged members of the Compton Varrio 155 gang, and are continuing to look for more assailants.

"This family has no gang ties whatsoever," Sheriff's Lt. Richard Westin said. "They are complete innocent victims here."

The 19-year-old family friend managed to break free that first day and run into the house, where the children were the only ones at home.

The attackers left, but a half-hour later a crowd of as many as 20 people stood on the lawn yelling threats and epithets. A beer bottle crashed through the living room window as the youngsters watched in horror.

"They were scared if they called the sheriff they'd be killed," Westin said. "So they called their mom, who called the Sheriff's Department."

The gang members were gone by the time deputies arrived, but they kept coming back, almost daily, driving by slowly until they got someone's attention, then yelling racial insults and telling them to leave. The mother sent the children to live with relatives and is now packing up to leave herself.

"This gang has always made it clear they have a racial hatred for black people," said Westin, who has worked in the area for more than two decades. "They justify in their own sick minds because of their rivalry with the Compton black gangs. They repeatedly used racial epithets, they use racial hatred graffiti and they tag up the black church a lot."

At the home on 153rd Street on Friday, the rain-drenched street was empty and quiet. But the gang's presence was clear.

Its tags marked several long walls, stop signs, curbs and school crossing signs — often with the nicknames of individual gang members included.

Crews remove the graffiti almost every morning.

Down the street, the Greater Holy Faith Missionary Baptist Church — a remnant from the time when Compton was almost all black — is often tagged, most recently, just below the cross.

Neighbors say its pastors come on Sundays and no longer live in the area.

"This is a typical American family," said Sheriff's Capt. Mike Parker. "It is tragic that it can happen in America, let alone L.A. County. We are not going to tolerate it."

Sheriff's detectives have searched 11 locations in Compton, Gardena and Rialto and are hoping to make more arrests.

Aguilar is accused of beating the family friend with the pipes and Marquez is accused of waving a gun in his face.

Deputies also arrested a juvenile gang member who fought with one of them during a search and tried to grab the officer's pistol.

Compton Councilwoman Yvonne Arceneaux said she was deeply troubled by the incident.

"I'm floored," she said. "That's blatant to tell a family you can't live in this area because you are black. That's just shocking."

Two decades ago, when Arceneaux joined the Compton City Council, she said that older blacks occupied the well-maintained, small homes in the neighborhood. But as they died or moved away, Latinos moved in.

Although she noted cultural differences between blacks and Latinos, she said she thought they were minor.

Arceneaux said she plans to reach out to the family and get the City Council involved.

"We need to address these issues," she said. "Because if they continue to fester like this, then it can spread to the whole city."

Latino gang attacks on African Americans have occurred periodically since the 1990s in Compton.

Johnathan Quevedo, a security guard and college student, said he was shot and wounded by four Latino gang members in 2007.

Quevedo, who has African American features he inherited from his Panamanian mother, said he was walking to the Metro to take a train to his job at the downtown Marriott Hotel one morning when four Latino youths with shaved heads jumped from an SUV and ran at him. One shot him in the head, and Quevedo spent the next year recuperating.

"They didn't know who I was. I didn't know who they were," Quevedo said. "I got shot because of my skin color, because I'm a black male."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0126-compton-20130126,0,178206,full.story

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Welcome to the world of "the police can't protect you"

When Compton had 76 murders in 2005, which was significantly higher than the national average, the citizens of Compton were given the option to hand over their guns to the police and receive a $50–$100 check for various goods, called the 'Gifts for Guns Program" in an effort to combat gun violence. People have turned in about 7,000 guns over the last few years, KABC-TV reported. The program's success has prompted the LASD to expand the program county-wide

I see the program has worked out well. Good job - anti gun wackos!

You're the wacko. See, had you bothered to actually take a look at what happened between 2005 and now, you would have discovered that following this program, there have been far fewer murders in Compton. Murder rate in 2005 was 67.1 per 100K - this was the high point which triggered the gun reduction program. The murder rate has since decreased to 17.4 per 100K in 2011 - that is a 75% reduction in the murder rate. Robberies are down. Assaults are down. Total crime index has dropped from 746 to 511 - that is total crime reduced by a third. So yeah, this indeed worked out well. As it always does. Reduce the number of guns and you will see less death and destruction.

[Teddy B 17,252]

People have turned in about 7,000 guns over the last few years, KABC-TV reported. The program's success has prompted the LASD to expand the program county-wide[/i]

I see the program has worked out well. Good job - anti gun wackos!

[JstaRebel 48]

I went to college at USC in 1977-82. When I left southern cali., things were pretty bad, so I can only immagine how it must be living there now. I worked at a Arco gas station on the corner of pioneer and carson streets in Hawaiian Gardens.. Latino gang town.. Boy did I get an education considering I was from a small Montana town and this was my first time in a metropoliton city. I left the United States 18 years ago and what was ONE deciding factor was watching Aryan nations holding some stupid march in Couer d' Alene Idaho. I remember thinking to myself " Why are these people doing this? There are no racial tensions here to cause these people to feel this way". This is so close to my own state, and growing up there was such a wonderful experience, I couldn't imagine living in a country that had so much hatred in it. People are always trying to get others to feel and believe the same way that they do, and when people resist or don't buy into it, they are laughed at and ridiculed for having a different perspective. (just read some of the threads on this board). I've never been one to go along with what would be classified as being politically correct, and I speak my mind. I spent a little time looking over the threads in Politics and Religion.Thank you all that post here in Politics and Religion for reminding me why I left the United States in the first place. Today, I live peacfully together with several different cultures including black american, African, Columbian, Dominican, British, French, and Dainish to name a few. One thing that I truly love about living here is the way everybody gets along without the political, religious, and racially inspired ignorance that is so prevalent in the US. ..

Fair Winds & Calm Seas,

JstaRebel

[Harsh_77 718]

You're the wacko. See, had you bothered to actually take a look at what happened between 2005 and now, you would have discovered that following this program, there have been far fewer murders in Compton. Murder rate in 2005 was 67.1 per 100K - this was the high point which triggered the gun reduction program. The murder rate has since decreased to 17.4 per 100K in 2011 - that is a 75% reduction in the murder rate. Robberies are down. Assaults are down. Total crime index has dropped from 746 to 511 - that is total crime reduced by a third. So yeah, this indeed worked out well. As it always does. Reduce the number of guns and you will see less death and destruction.

Are you sure it is the program that is working and not more police officer of the street?

Biden is saying they have put 100k more officers on the street.

[^_^ 5,021]

Thank you all that post here in Politics and Religion for reminding me why I left the United States in the first place.

You're welcome.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Are you sure it is the program that is working and not more police officer of the street?

Biden is saying they have put 100k more officers on the street.

And maybe they banned mentally ill people. Fact remains that they took 7K guns off the streets and crime dropped significantly. There goes the more guns = more safety nonsense pushed by the gun nuts. It's BS.

Edited January 28, 2013 by Mr. Big Dog

[natty bumppo 297]

1359380528[/url]' post='5945509']

You're the wacko. See, had you bothered to actually take a look at what happened between 2005 and now, you would have discovered that following this program, there have been far fewer murders in Compton. Murder rate in 2005 was 67.1 per 100K - this was the high point which triggered the gun reduction program. The murder rate has since decreased to 17.4 per 100K in 2011 - that is a 75% reduction in the murder rate. Robberies are down. Assaults are down. Total crime index has dropped from 746 to 511 - that is total crime reduced by a third. So yeah, this indeed worked out well. As it always does. Reduce the number of guns and you will see less death and destruction.

There is much more to this than a simple couple of $$ for a gun.

Check the demographics between 2000 and 2010. Looks like the turf has changed hands ...

AA -16%

Pacific native -27%

Asian alone +23%

Hispanic +18%

Linky