Background Information
In United States cities, street gangs have greatly been recognized and documented all through the large part of the country’s history however the practitioners, the media accounts and some other different researchers alleges that gangs are today posing grave crime problems than ever before. In various cities gangs are being accredited with a shocking share of violence crimes, particularly homicides. While different reports disagree about the level to which street these gangs play a prearranged role in trafficking drugs, the current research study states that members of gangs are highly detectable and visible in the trading of drugs. Street gangs also tend to be greatly concerned with matters such as neighborhood terrain or territory protection and upholding respect for the group and its associates or members. Street gangs disrupt life in places where they gather and they also cause problems for their societies and also for themselves.
In several urban areas, the suburban areas and the rural areas in US, there has been a rising concern regarding street gangs. People who have been victims of this serious and frequently random violence have retreated in fright, afraid to allow their children go to malls alone, go to their schools on their own or even play outside their compound. Even so, coming up with a proper solution to this gang problem has turned out to be an intricate issue.
In different societies, gang behaviors and membership vary. Some are mostly social groups whereas others are profoundly and intensely committed to criminal activities. Some gang members are engaged heavily in illegal activities while others partake in crime only rarely. Street gang is a continuing and an organized association which has 3 or more members. A street gang can either be informal or formal, having a common name or symbols, colors and it collectively engage in illicit activities. Street gangs are however in general considered different from controlled criminal ventures because they normally do not have the hierarchical headship structure, directorial structure, funds, and manpower needed to run an urbane illicit enterprise. Generally, street gangs are organized horizontally, with a lot of small gangs which have their own headship and with no centralization, overarching headship setting the way forward and enforcing discipline. More often, leaders of the gang are easily and rapidly reinstated by other members of the gang with no interference to the gang’s dealings.
Research studies indicate that the majority of street gang’s crime is ad hoc and opportunistic. Street gangs also tend to be greatly concerned with matters such as neighborhood terrain or territory protection and upholding respect for the group and its associates or members. Street gangs disrupt life in places where they gather and they also cause problems for their societies and also for themselves. There are very many gangs in US cities which the FBI is considering to be a threat. For instance we can ask ourselves, does the transnational scope of Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) pose a threat to homeland security?
Literature review
Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) is known to be a group from Salvadorian immigrants who formed a gang with this name. It is believed that they acquired this name from merging “La Mara” name, a brutal gang in a place called El Salvador with the Salvatruchas, a word that refers to Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front members. It was a Salvadorian group of peasants that was trained as the fighters of guerilla. 13 was included to pay respect to the prison gang in California, Mexican Mafia (Diaz, 2009). The members of this formed squad took part in aggressive criminal acts. Quickly they turned out to be the most brutal gangs in that area since a majority of their original members had a good training and a lot of experience in the guerilla warfare, hence acquiring a sophistication level that outdated all their rivals.
Several members of MS-13 were later arrested and extradited to El Salvador. The deportees were initially accommodated in the prison of Guezaltepeque in the northern part of El Salvador. Promptly and without prior notice, Mara Salvatrucha thrived and grew in the system of prison and conscription started in El Salvador streets, as this gang continued to expand in the street of US as well. Mara Salvatrucha gang has turned out to be Central America’s utmost problem. Besides the brutal acts by this gang against the general public and rivalries of the group, the gang has also taken part in prearranged violent actions against the US government. In the year 1997, the son of Ricardo Maduro: the president of Honduras was kidnapped by MS-13 gang members and later murdered by this same gang.
The members of this street gang have continued to mock the officials of the central government of America (Diaz, 2009). The same members also left a dissected dead body with a note addressed to the president of Honduras saying that many more people will die and their next victims will be the journalists and the police officers. In the year 2004, the president of Guatemalan; Oscar Berger got the same notes attached to the dead body of a man from Mara Salvatrucha members. Mara Salvatrucha is posing a threat to the homeland security because it’s growing each day. Homeland security has the primary duties and responsibilities of guarding United States territory from the attacks of the terrorist and also responding to the natural catastrophes.
There is estimation that MS-13 has around 20,000 members in United States and with at-least some degree of presence in approximately thirty three states. This is a very large number that’s why this gang has posed a threat to the United States’ homeland security. The domestic armrest of this gang revolves in Washington, DC and also in Los Angeles states. These two states are the initial regions of the Salvadoran migrant settlement. The spread of Mara Salvatrucha gang across the state is seen to have followed the migration trails or patterns as the migrant communities spread. The gang also tends to follow some patterns which are in the illicit market of drugs which is a major profitable activity of many gangs. Homeland security was created to guard United States from the attacks of the terrorist and it announced that it is very engaged in looting the street gangs. Its main group of interest is the Mara Salvatrucha.
Homeland security refers this group as being extremely violent and has ties to the Central America and it is also possible that it has military training and supposed coalition with al-Qaida. Some of the members of this group have being arrested but the gang still remains to be a great threat, homeland security claims. There were 375 members that were arrested in the 24 regions according to the “Operation Community Shield.” Some of the crimes included; trafficking of drugs, killings and rape cases. Mara Salvatrucha is the fastest rising group and the most brutal gangs that bureaucrats of law enforcement can recall. This gang has been considered to be the most dangerous by the FBI in the United States.
Having been well-known for their violent methods, this gang has also been identified in 33 regions in the US and with an estimation of ten thousand members countrywide and more than forty thousand in the Central America.MS-13 has been identified by the FBI as being the fastest spreading and growing and also most brutal of the country’s street gangs (Terry, 2005). The gang is so brutal that other different street gangs respect and fear them. The United States government has confirmed that Mara Salvatrucha gang is the 2nd threat following Al-Qaeda for homeland security in the US. MS-13 is now being referred to as terrorist threat.
It has overtaken the US prostitution trade, it is smuggling weapons and drugs such as marihuana and cocaine. According to Samuel Logan, it is the America’s most brutal and ruthless gang. The most recent national wide assessment or appraisal threat of this fast growing street gang confirms that the group could be caring out its operations in your community at the moment or in the near future. This shows how this gang is becoming a threat to the general public, to the US government and to the Homeland security. MS-13 is trying to become a united criminal venture in service of one leadership.
This gang is also recruiting its members from schools. At one time during a meeting held in suburban New York, three hundred and sixty principals, from four hundred and eighty who attended the meeting said that the utmost threat that is confronting both their communities and their schools was the MS-13 street gang and particularly the ongoing gang recruitment that is in schools. The gang distributes its members in different regions that why it is difficult to track them. For instance when MS-13 was highlighted, many people were skeptical of the estimations of police which shown that there were three thousand active MS-13 gang members in the northern part of Virginia suburbs.
The numbers of these mobsters have not only blown up but also their organizational facility. Originally, a MS-13 group would not go beyond twenty people, younger followers as messengers and near-full young females. These females do a lot of work: cooking, petitioning, computers and communications. However the rules of this gang do not allow the young females or girls to partake in making any decision or any future plans. At the moment, MS-13 gang is showing some harmful signs of inter- group cooperation; they have bigger groups with smaller number of leaders who directs them into moneymaking areas of illicit behavior.
The gang is also moving in various small rustic towns where they declare their coming with a few acts of violence (Marcovitz, 2010). Such violence also shows a new boss taking-over the direction of the gang. Often this gang leaves behind mutilated dead bodies, complete with beheaded head at the murder scene. A bleak note is also attached to the dead body. The gang is evolving fast, it’s extremely dangerous and active and it presents danger to the safety of the general public nationally. It clearly appears that with the anticipated demographic tendency for the future population changes of Hispanic across the region, Mara Salvatrucha potential to present a feasible nationwide threat is an apparent and a rising problem.
MS-13 will keep on posing a rising criminal threat to many communities in US and will also be a threat nationally. This gang’s speedy spread and violent recommitment in US and most recently in the northern part of Carolina and in other drug trafficking and drug source nations and the serious violence demonstrated by the group indicates that MS-13 will remain to be the most brutal and threatening gang in US.
Signs that earlier sovereign cliques/groups are forming coalitions to facilitate the illegal activities intensify the threat. Mara Salvatrucha has ties to the mafia in Mexico City; the gang is keeping its investigators busy through utilizing sophisticated operations. For instance, it extracts money from illicit immigrants. This group is also the main interest of OCS i.e. the Operation Community Shield. To my opinion, this gang is posing a threat to the Homeland Security. They are very brutal and the gang has very many recruits in different parts of the country.
This makes it very difficult for the homeland security to locate all of them. The homeland security has however done a good job in maintaining security. Some operations they carry out are very sophisticated and they took place in different areas making it difficult to locate them. However the homeland security has arrested and killed some members of the gang. The gang is evolving fast and highly recruiting members. The gang seems unstoppable even with the orders coming from the US government. Some people believe that this gang is not a threat to the homeland security. Many people may not know the extent to which this gang has reached in its violence and ruthlessness that’s why they do not believe it’s a threat to the Homeland Security.
Mara Salvatrucha being the most brutal street gangs in US is an indication enough to show that the gang is posing a threat to the Homeland security. Some people hear that the police have arrested the some of its members and think that it’s the end of the gang but they do not know how the large the gang is. The group has its territories in different places and this is among the many reasons why the task of eliminating them is becoming challenge. The gang is also involved in very many different brutal criminal acts which include killings, rape, illegal weapons and drugs trafficking. A majority of the MS-13 members have also received training from guerrilla warfare in the year 1980 during the El Salvador civil war.
This shows that the gang is very tactful in its operations and all the moves that they make. Some of the members in this gang have also created and trained some hit groups in the US and they employ them to murder their rivals. The gang is very well established to carry out their operations and they are a great threat to United States at large. They are so many killings, rape cases, weapons and drugs trafficking which are being carried out by the gang members. MS-13 is sadly turning out to be everyone’s problem. It is a plague which came to the Long Island from a place called El Salvador and through the Los Angeles streets following the similar migratory trails as the Salvadoran migrant community which it preys upon, spreading out across the US from the racial enclaves or communes in California (Logan, 2009).
The law enforcement both in Los Angeles and in New York and also politicians are very aware of the crime and the impact of the Mara Salvatrucha on their cities and the statistics of their crime. They are taking action but the group is turning out to be a challenge. The results are normally not astral but at-least the cities have realized that this gang is a major problem. Unfortunately, Mara Salvatrucha leadership is not dim-witted. When the reheat comes down firm/hard in the city of New York and Los Angeles, they go for new territory. They choose the south part cities, the mid-west cities and the suburban cities where gangsters are never an issue and the local leaders and officials are in refutation. Generally, MS-13 members do not fear law enforcement. The gang is not easily intimidated and often it acts insolently.
MS-13 gang members are accountable for the execution of 3 federal agents and several assassinations of law enforcement officials across the nation. Mara Salvatrucha gang members are well-known to booby trap the houses which they hide drugs via antipersonnel bullets on the supposition that these constructions will be investigated and explored by the law enforcement. Mara Salvatrucha members often swank of physical attacking law enforcement officials as a way of showing their devotion and dedication to the gang (DeLisi, 2009). But, these alleges have never been established to be true. At present, attacks on law enforcement officials are not needed for membership, however are at all times an option. Therefore, police officers dealing with Mara Salvatrucha gang or members of any other different street gang, for-that-matter ought to always use excessive caution.
Conclusion
When Mara Salvatrucha relocates to a city or community, it spreads fast. The gang allegedly has some three hundred followers in suburban Long Island. Years back the gang didn’t have members there. The nonsensical hostility of Mara Salvatrucha has shaken and shocked very many local citizens in the cities of United States. In Nassau County, the County Executive a chose gang czar to tackle this mounting and growing gang problem. Where this gang goes, brutality and ruthlessness follows. In July year 2003, a federal witness who was only 18 years of age was stabbed till he died and in May the same year, a 16 year old boy hands were nearly cut off with a knife and one week later a boy who was only 17 years old was shot and killed. All of these brutal killings were tied to the members of MS-13 gang.
With this fast growing number of Mara Salvatrucha followers countrywide and the brutality escalating/rising, the law enforcement future seems grim. The gang changes the means in which they operate depending on the strategies and the ways in which things are being enforced by the police officials. Where enforcement lacks, members wear their bandanas and their colors since in the communities they are located in, it is common knowhow and people are afraid of them, so this is a form of threat. Once the law enforcement identify and confront/face them, they change and put on dissimilar colors but with no bandana and instead of wearing number 13 they change to 67 or 76 since it equals number 13. While the country centers on terrorism, the problem of gang brutality has taken an inferior priority. However to a majority, the brutal acts of Mara Salvatrucha gang members are more than an everyday threat which is being disregarded.
References
Samuel Logan. (2009). This Is for the Mara Salvatrucha – Inside the MS-13, America’s Most Violent Gang; New York. Hyperion Book Publishers. Retrieved from http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=SYRfPAAACAAJ&dq=This+Is+for+the+Mara+Salvatrucha+-+Inside+the+M 13,+America%27s+Most++Violent+Gang&hl= &ei=2in7TOinOoaKhQfzl7yWCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-thumbnail&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQ6wEwAA
Frieden, Terry. (2005). “Two convicted, two acquitted in suburban Virginia street gang trial”. CNN’. Retrieved from, http://www.google.co.ke/search?q=Two+convicted%2C+two+acquitted+in+suburban+Virginia+street+gang+trial&btnG=Search&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&tbs=bks%3A1&sa=2
Tom Diaz & Chris Swecker. (2009).No Boundaries: Transnational Latino Gangs and American Law Enforcement, New York. University of Michigan Press. Retrieved from http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=aEHO6sSwSCsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=No+Boundaries:+Transnational+Latino+Gangs+and+American+Law++Enforcement&hl=en&ei=qyv7TJa4EcSohAfM1-HcCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-thumbnail&resnum=1&ved=0CCgQ6wEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
Robert M. Regoli, John D. Hewitt, Matt DeLisi (2009).Delinquency in Society. New York. Jones & Bartlett Learning. Retrieved from
http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=ZVmEkugKxUsC&pg=PA361&dq=Delinquency+in+Society&hl=en&ei=9yf7TOXQK8eJhQeW9NyPCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-thumbnail&resnum=7&ved=0CEcQ6wEwBg#v=onepage&q=Delinquency%20in%20Society&f=false
Hal Marcovitz. (2010). Gangs: New York.ABDO. Retrieved from http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=c7F8G_4aatkC&pg=PA47&dq=Hal+Marcovitz.+%282010+street+gangs&hl=en&ei=Hi37TNvRLpSFhQfGvNXkCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-thumbnail&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQ6wEwAA#v=onepage&q=Hal%20Marcovitz.%20%282010%20street%20gangs&f=false
