[Marxism] Immigration Raids Framed As "Anti-Gang Crackdown" in NYT

[Jeffrey Thomas Piercy]

Speaking of gangs, I have a question. Do you people, as Marxists, feel 
that there is (at least sometimes) something empowering or otherwise 
positive about these organized groups of minorities united by the need 
to just get by? Are all gangs necessarily at "war" with other gangs, or 
directly destructive to their own community?

Sky Keyes-Vogt wrote:
> As the following article from the NYT shows, one of the ways that the ruling
> class is trying to form a united front (of sorts) against immigrants is by
> framing the debate about crime/gangs instead.  So we saw that the killing of
> high school football phenom Jamiel Shaw in L.A. by an "illegal" immigrant
> became transformed into a campaign against Special Order 40 (protecting
> latinos from being stopped by the police to check for immigration status in
> L.A.) that amplified anti-gang and anti-violence rhetoric above
> anti-immigrant rhetoric to obfuscate the issue at hand.  Note how this
> article blurs the lines between between violent gang members and "illegal"
> immigrants.  And what about this line:  "[The Justice Department] has wide
> latitude to initiate deportation proceedings against noncitizens, he said,
> even if they are found not guilty of crimes."  So basically if you're caught
> up in this gang sweep and are totally innocent you can still be deported.
> Nationally prominent gang expert Alex Alonso in L.A. has written quite a few
> pieces about the dubious gang identification process, which is basically at
> an officer's discretion and has no oversight.  Mis-identify them as gang
> members, arrest them, guilty or not they get deported.
> 
> I don't deny that there are violent gang members out there, maybe this raid
> even caught some of them.  But we must be aware of the fact that when the
> media and the police talk about "gangs" its usually a code word for poor and
> oppressed people that they want to amp up persecution of.
> Hundreds Are Arrested in Antigang Crackdown
> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/us/02gangs.html?ref=us
> 
> By SOLOMON MOORE
> Published: October 1, 2008
> 
> A four-month nationwide crackdown on gangs has brought the arrest of 1,759
> people — gang members and their associates, other criminals and
> immigration<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/i/immigration_and_refugees/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>violators
> — from more than 20 countries, the federal authorities announced
> Wednesday.
> 
> Dozens of state and local law enforcement agencies joined federal officers
> in raids carried out in 28 states, including New York and New Jersey,
> focusing on gang hubs like Los Angeles, Miami and Boston.
> 
> The annual crackdown, which ended Wednesday, is another sign of the
> increasing prevalence of gangs with a presence in more than one country, and
> of the high degree of law enforcement cooperation required to counter them.
> 
> "We now have over 890 gangs in the United States that we've been able to
> target," said Brandon Alvarez-Montgomery, a spokesman for Immigration and
> Customs Enforcement<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/i/immigration_and_customs_enforcement_us/index.html?inline=nyt-org>.
> 
> 
> The crackdowns began in February 2005 as a way to combat the Salvadoran gang
> MS-13. The program has since expanded to make targets of all gangs with
> international ties and, the authorities say, has led to the arrest of 11,106
> gang members and associates.
> 
> This year's sweep, the largest so far, resulted in the arrest of 730 people
> on new criminal charges, 338 of them foreigners. The others picked up are
> charged with immigration violations.
> 
> Nearly all the arrested foreigners face proceedings leading to deportation,
> Mr. Alvarez-Montgomery said. Non-American suspects are to be prosecuted by
> the Justice Department or state and local agencies on charges including
> murder, rape, drug distribution, firearms violations and illegal re-entry
> after deportation, a federal felony.
> 
> Those found guilty will be subject to incarceration, and then deportation
> proceedings upon release, Mr. Alvarez-Montgomery said. His agency has wide
> latitude to initiate deportation proceedings against noncitizens, he said,
> even if they are found not guilty of crimes.
> 
> State and local law enforcement agencies depend on the annual federal
> crackdown for intelligence and other resources to deal with international
> gangs. Rusty Grant, a special agent with the Georgia Bureau of
> Investigation, said the government had provided invaluable assistance in an
> investigation of eight killings, from 2000 to 2006 in Cedartown, Ga., that
> were related to a methamphetamine-running operation. Three of the victims'
> bodies were set on fire to destroy evidence.
> 
> "The individuals committing these drug crimes were Mexican illegal aliens,"
> Mr. Grant said. "ICE provided expertise in dealing with the immigration
> aspects of the case and also provided Spanish-speaking agents as well."
> 
> Mr. Grant said federal and local officers had arrested about 80 people in
> that particular investigation, including all the killers. They also arrested
> several methamphetamine distributors, among them a man who was hauling 1,000
> pounds of the drug.

-- 
Human: An animal so lost in loathing contemplation of what it thinks it 
is as to overlook what it to be.