There are nearly 60 street crews--subsets of gangs--in the Bronx, and they include members as young as eight years old.

SIMMONS, HOWARD/SIMMONS, HOWARD

Jose Webster, killed in September, in gang-related shooting.

HAND OUT

Moises "Noah" Lora, 16. Killed on April 17 at Melrose Houses allegedly by gang members.

NYPD Assistant Commissioner Kevin O'Connor, who heads up the department's new Juvenile Justice Division, urged parents in the borough to seek clues about their children's crew involvement--and made a somewhat shocking suggestion: Don't tell your kids to stay out of them.

"Just because a kid is in a crew doesn't make him a perp," O'Connor told a Youth Summit held at Fordham University last week. "It's called survival."

If you tell a kid to stay out of gangs, he'll likely ask you how he's supposed to safely enter his building, O'Connor said.

"Until we come up with an answer, I'm not telling them to get out," he said.

O’Connor painted the grim picture to 100 people gathered at the summit. He said gangsters aren't just Bloods, Crips, Trinitarios and Latin Kings; each Bronx housing project has a street crew. They go by names like Dymes R Us, Billion Dolla Bosses, Mott Haven Gunnaz, and Violating All Bitches.

A week before the summit, 21 members of the "Murda Moore Gangstas," a subset of the Bloods run out of the Moore Houses in Mott Haven, were busted by the NYPD Bronx Gang Squad and federal agents.

"The Moore Houses takedown was a federal takedown and they're looking at serious time," O'Connor said. "I'd like to see a more preventative approach."

While the feds will put away mostly older gangbangers, it's often teens who are getting killed in gang violence nearly every day across the city, O'Connor said.

He mentioned recent cases of kids killed over gang beefs, including the April slaying of Moises Lora, 16 in the Melrose Houses.

"He was associated with the OGz, formerly GFC (God's Favorite Children)," O'Connor said. "They catch him and they stomped him to death, all because he ran with a rival crew."

Sixteen-year-old Jose Webster was killed last September while walking home his girlfriend.

"Someone said, 'You gunnin'?' and shot him 15 times, for no other reason than he said he was gunnin'," O'Connor said. "If the kid doesn't know the right answer, it can get them killed. Jose had no prior criminal record."

Hakiem Yahmadi, 60, whose son was killed in Mott Haven in 2011, helped publicize the summit.

"I think it's going to help, but there should have been more people here," Yahmadi said. “You've got (rallies for) stop and frisk, Trayvon Martin, and Ramarley Graham, but we don't talk about us killing each other."

O’Connor said about 315 crews have been identified citywide. Some are formed among members of rival gangs (Bloods and Crips) to keep the peace.

The young gangsters usually deal marijuana, and rob iPhones and iPads, pricey sneakers, "biggie" down jackets, and fancy headphones.

“The shootings are on facebook," O'Connor said. "The beefs are on facebook. They're on YouTube. We'd be fools not to take advantage of this information."

Elizabeth Thompson, 65, of Kingsbridge said her 17-year-old son Sean Williams was shot in 1997 after intervening in a fight. Now, Thompson says, her son's own son is 17.

"I'm scared whenever he walks out that door," Thompson said. "It might happen to him."

She said she plans to get her grandson to teach her how to use facebook, after what she heard at the summit

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Vancouver gangs continue violent power struggle

The brazen daytime shooting of Independent Soldiers founder Randy Naicker won’t be the last of the violent power struggle in Vancouver’s gang scene. Vancouver police said it’s too early to tell if Naicker’s shooting is related to last month’s Port Moody murder of Gurbinder Toor of the Dhak-Duhre gang, but said this new brand of gangster is purely opportunistic. Naicker was gunned down around 4:45 p.m. Monday in a laneway outside a Starbucks in Port Moody. Despite a number of witnesses, Const. Lindsey Houghton said Vancouver Police have no information on the shooter. “They’ll take the opportunity if it’s presented to them. We’ve seen that with the Toor shooting, we saw yesterday with the Naicker shooting — they don’t care who’s around,” Houghton said. Naicker, a convicted nidnapper who in 2009 admitted to the National Parole Board he founded the gang’s current brand and logo, was the intended target in a previous shooting outside his halfway house later that year. Gangster Raj Soomel was gunned down instead. Monday’s shooting leaves James Clayton Riach as the best known Independent Soldier left in a leadership role, said RCMP Sgt. Bill Whalen. Riach narrowly escaped last August’s Kelowna shooting in which Red Scorpion Jonathan Bacon was killed and Larry Amero of the Hells Angels was wounded. Whalen confirmed that key players in the Red Scorpions and the United Nations gangs are largely in prison, and the Dhak-Duhre group is down to a pair of senior leaders in Sukh Dhak and Balraj Duhre. What’s left is a dangerous vacuum in leadership being fought over across the province. Whalen declined to comment on the current investigation into Naicker’s slaying. Ranj Dhaliwal, the B.C.-based author of Indo-Canadian crime novels, said the bloodshed will only continue. “I think that there is going to be more violence,” Dhaliwal said. “It’s a whole different scene than we’ve had in the last couple decades because now they’re sending out a message that they will get you anytime, anywhere.” “There’s a show of force going on right now,” continued Dhaliwal, adding he believes the attacks at this point are between gangs posturing for turf. Dhaliwal warns as the external struggle for power settles, the internal fight for leadership will start. Doug Spencer, a former member of the Vancouver anti-gang squad, said the leadership is more fluid, and it’s hard to tell who’s on what side at this point. “It’s fly-by-night leaders,” Spencer said, adding the vacuum has left some turfs up for grabs. “While (gang leaders) are inside, other gangs are running around trying to take over what they started,” Spencer said. “The drug business at the SkyTrain in Surrey here — it’s up for grabs.”

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High Court Judges to lose Their bodyguards

"This can not be right. They can not just do this from one day to the next," said one judge High Court on Monday after learning the bodyguards That Were Being Assigned To him taken away. The Interior Ministry HAS BEGUN ITS plan to massively reduce the number of bodyguards Assigned to Judges, Prosecutors and other Officials, High Court sources said. The Reductions, Including the elimination of Government vehicles for Some Officials, are to start in September Taking effect from today. Among Those Who will be left without protection are three anti-corruption Prosecutors who are Investigating the Russian Mafia Currently the Gürtel and Contracts-for-kickbacks case. It was the High Court's chief criminal judge, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, who Informed His colleagues of the Government's decision. The Reasons? The Government no longer feels pressured by ETA, Which Announced an end to attacks last fall, and the move is part of overall cost-cutting Measures ordered by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. INITIALLY, Grande Marlaska, High Court Chief Judge Angel Juanes, chief prosecutor Javier Zaragoza and Judge Jose Luis de Castro, who covers penitentiary issues, will keep Their bodyguards and official vehicles. The rest of the Judges and Prosecutors will now Have to go to work unprotected and by Their Own means. Interior's decision will Radically change the Manner in Which protection is afforded to Courtrooms Interior's decision, if it is finally Implemented across the High Court, will Radically change the Manner in Which protection is afforded to Courtrooms. Until now, judge and prosecutor Each four police officers HAD Assigned to Them, as well as a vehicle. Some Judges Say That They Will the only protection is now Have Regular surveillance of Their homes. The High Court Judges and Its Prosecutors intendant to file a note of protest With The Interior Ministry, the sources said. Their colds are among a complaint That Neither Justice nor the Interior Ministry Officials to Assess Whether made evaluations at Risk Before They Were Deciding to Eliminate bodyguards. The decision to Affect también said the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) legal watchdog and the Supreme Court. In a statement released on Monday, Prosecutors Say That state has not yet ETA disbanded and the Danger Posed by That terrorists still exists. According To Interior Ministry estimates, police officers who 1.010 Some Were serving as bodyguards will be reassigned to other Duties.

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Bloods gang member from Paterson gets 89 months in prison

federal judge Wednesday sentenced Michael McCloud, of Paterson, to 89 months in prison for his role with the Fruit Town Brims, a set of the Bloods that authorities said terrorized a section of Paterson for years through violent activities connected to dealing drugs. McCloud, 26, also known as “Ike Brim,” was the second Bloods member to be sentenced this week by U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler for their part in a broad racketeering conspiracy to sell narcotics in Paterson and Newark. Chesler Tuesday sentenced Ricky Coleman, also known as “Pool Stick” and “Sticks,” 39, of Newark, to 151 months for a range of violent crimes and racketeering. McCloud was among 15 alleged members and associates of the Fruit Town and Brick City Brims charged in a 20-count federal indictment with racketeering, murder and other crimes. He was arrested by federal agents in Passaic in January 2011 and pleaded guilty to the RICO conspiracy charge in August. In his guilty plea, McCloud admitted to selling crack cocaine to an undercover officer on August 30, 2006, together with two other members of the gang. McCloud also admitted to participating in two robberies in Paterson in 2006. In the first robbery, McCloud and another gang member who was armed with an AK-47 broke up a dice game and took drugs, cell phones and money. In the second, McCloud worked with other gang members to commit a robbery in retaliation for the shooting of an associate by a member of a rival gang. In the sentencing hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa L. Jampol said the Fruit Town Brims had asserted a powerful control of a section of Paterson, centered at the intersection of 12th and 22nd streets. The gang members transformed this section into an area “that was completely uninhabitable,” to the point that residents were too afraid to leave their homes and attend church services, Jampol said. McCloud’s attorney, James Patton, said his client had worked hard to turn his life around, and was working full-time at Domino’s Pizza when he was arrested last January in the RICO sweep. McCloud told Chesler that he couldn’t change the past, but was trying to become a better person for the future. “I’m tired of going in and out of jail,” McCloud said. “I’m tired of letting my family down. And I’m tired of being a failure.” But Chesler was unmoved by this testimony. McCloud’s criminal history is a long one that begins at age 15, and there is nothing to indicate that his repeated contact with law enforcement had done anything to deter the young man from a life of drugs and violence, Chesler said. The sentence – the maximum under federal guidelines, with 36 months subtracted due to time already spent in a state prison – was meant to serve as a deterrent to other gang members engaged in the same activities, Chesler said. “His offenses are horrendous,” the judge said. “He was part of a gang that terrorized citizens of this state.”

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Alleged gang member held on $1 million bail in weekend shooting of 16-year-old girl

When Antuan Joiner fired several times toward Shakaki Asphy in the 2000 block of West 70th Place Saturday night, he also shot a wheelchair-bound 18-year-old in the leg, assistant Cook County State’s attorney Jamie Santini said. Shakaki and a 17-year-old boy were sitting on the porch of an abandoned home when Joiner, 16, emerged from a gangway armed with a black semi-automatic handgun, Santini said. Shakaki was shot at least two times in her abdomen, according to a police report. Her 17-year-old friend was able to shield himself behind a concrete wall before he ran across the street as Joiner kept shooting at him, Santini said. The victim in the wheelchair was at the bottom of the porch’s steps when he was wounded.

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Man convicted in Gas Town Gang double homicide

19-year-old Oakland man has been convicted of two counts of first-degree murder for fatally shooting two teenagers in West Oakland nearly two years ago. Prosecutor Charles Wilson told jurors in his closing argument on Monday that Nicholas Harris killed 18-year-old Nario Jackson and 17-year-old Edward Hampton in front of the Acorn public housing project in the 1000 block of Eighth Street at about 3:30 p.m. on Nov. 6, 2010, because he wanted to prove himself to his gang. Jurors deliberated for less than a full day before announcing their verdict in the packed courtroom of Alameda County Superior Court Judge Morris Jacobson, which was guarded by six sheriff's deputies and four district attorney investigators who Jacobson asked to sit in the front row to provide extra security. Family members of Harris, Jackson and Hampton brawled outside the Rene C. Davidson Courthouse during the lunch break in the trial on Monday so deputies escorted the families from the courtroom separately today to try to avoid more fights. As the families left the courtroom Tuesday, Jacobson told them, "Go in peace. Let this trouble end here." Harris, who faces a state prison term of 100 years to life when he's sentenced by Jacobson on Sept. 21, looked straight ahead and showed no emotion when the verdict was announced. But his family members as well as the family members of Jackson and Hampton started sobbing and breathing heavily. Wilson said Harris belonged to the Gas Town Gang and wanted to prove himself to his gang colleagues because they thought he had let them down by allowing another member to be killed in a previous incident. He said Harris killed Jackson and Hampton because he thought it would put him back in the good graces of his gang. Wilson said Jackson was affiliated with the Gas Town Gang but Harris targeted him because Jackson also was affiliated with other groups, including the rival Ghost Town Gang. Jackson was "a turf hopper" and that wasn't acceptable to other gang members, Wilson said. The prosecutor alleged that Harris targeted Hampton because Hampton belonged to the DNI Squeeze Team gang in East Oakland. Wilson said Harris fired multiple shots at Jackson and Hampton as they sat in a blue Jaguar in front of the Acorn housing project, which he said is in the Gas Town Gang's territory. Jackson had borrowed the Jaguar from someone else, he said. Harris admitted committing the killings in text messages and phone conversations with his ex-girlfriend that were presented to the jury and two eyewitnesses testified that they saw him shoot Jackson and Hampton. Jurors also heard recordings of phone calls in which Harris' mother, Ranine Howell, said she would identify and intimidate witnesses in the case. In the phone conversations, Howell asked Harris about what evidence police had against him and whether he wore gloves during the shooting so that his fingerprints wouldn't be found on the murder weapon. Wilson said one of the witnesses who was threatened was Harris' ex-girlfriend, who he said was shot at after her testimony in Harris' preliminary hearing last year and is now in protective custody. Harris' lawyer, Darryl Stallworth, said in his closing argument that the witnesses who identified Harris as the shooter weren't credible. Stallworth said Harris' ex-girlfriend testified against him because she was angry at Harris for cheating on her and another witness was a fellow gang member who implicated Harris because he was a suspect in the double homicide as well as other crimes. The testimony by the fellow gang member can't be trusted because "he would have done or said anything so he wouldn't be arrested," Stallworth said. He told jurors, "There are so many instances of reasonable doubt in this case that you will be overwhelmed and come back with a verdict of not guilty." Jackson's death was the first of two homicides that his family suffered in the span of eight months. Last July 30, Jackson's younger brother, 16-year-old Najon Jackson, was fatally shot in the 9300 block of Sunnyside Street in Oakland shortly before midnight. Oakland police said no one has been arrested in that case so far.

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Revenge drove gang killing

Two Fullerton gang members were on a revenge trip in March 1996 when they came across a rival – a 16-year-old boy – waiting outside his girlfriend's house, a prosecutor told a jury on Tuesday. The pair left their car and clobbered Troy Gorena with fists and stabbed him to death with a knife before fleeing the scene, Deputy District Attorney Larry Yellin said in the opening statements of a murder trial for one of the two men.   Yellin said defendant Joe Luis Garay, Jr., now 36, wielded the knife in the unprovoked attack, while co-defendant Kevin Jerome Carlson, 38, did the punching. Carlson pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in 2010 and now faces a maximum four-year prison sentence. He is expected to testify against Garay. Members of Gorena's gang had beaten Carlson a few weeks before the killing, a defense attorney said Tuesday. The slaying went cold early on due to insufficient evidence. It remained unsolved for more than a dozen years until the Fullerton Police Department and Orange County District Attorney's office reopened the investigation in 2008 with several re-interviewed witnesses, Yellin told the jury. The prosecutor contended the passage of time motivated some of the witnesses who refused to cooperate in 1996 to come forward now. But defense attorney Jerry Schaffer, in his opening statement, insisted that none of those witnesses actually saw the incident take place, and that Garay was on the street at the instant Gorena was stabbed by someone several feet away. The trial before Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals is expected to last about a week. If convicted, Garay could be sentenced to 25 years to a life term in prison.

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Leaders of El Salvador’s Mara street gangs said they are ready to start negotiations with the government toward a permanent peace pact

Leaders of El Salvador’s Mara street gangs said they are ready to start negotiations with the government toward a permanent peace pact following the success of a three-month-old temporary truce that has lowered the Central American country’s murder rate dramatically. The gang leaders said during a ceremony at the Izalco prison to celebrate the first 100 days of the truce that they want the government to offer job programs or some other sort of aid to gang members in exchange. “We want to reach a definitive ceasefire, to end all the criminal acts of the gangs,” said Mara 18 leader Oscar Armando Reyes. “But we have to reach agreements, because we have to survive. There was talk of job plans, but we haven’t gotten any answers, and it is time for the government to listen to us.” Mr. Reyes said the gangs weren’t thinking of ending the temporary truce. “We are issuing a call for us all to sit down and have a dialogue, to reach a definitive accord,” he said. There was no immediate response from the government. Former leftist guerrilla commander Raul Mijango and Roman Catholic Bishop Fabio Colindres mediated a truce between the Mara Salvatrucha and the Mara 18 gangs in March that has helped lower homicide rates. Mr. Mijango said the country’s homicide rate has dropped from about 14 murders a day in March to about five a day in early June. “This effort has saved the lives of more than 850 innocent Salvadorans,” Mr. Mijango said. An estimated 50,000 Salvadorans belong to street gangs that deal drugs, extort businesses and kill rivals. Gang leaders say they want to stop the violence that has given El Salvador one of the highest murder rates in the world, behind neighbouring Honduras. In April, authorities rejected a proposal that El Salvador’s gangs receive the subsidies the government currently spends on public transportation in exchange for gang members stopping extortion of bus drivers.

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Indicted gang member arrested

last of 27 alleged gang members indicted in April was arrested Tuesday afternoon by the U.S. Marshals Service. Darius Smith was taken into custody around 3 p.m. after authorities found him on James Street, officials of the service said. The indictment, handed up April 3, alleges that Smith, 29, conspired to sell more than 280 grams of cocaine and heroin. He was to appear Wednesday in U.S. District Court. Smith was allegedly a member of the Uptown, or Gunners, gang. In an April news conference, U.S. Attorney Richard Hartunian said the gang used guns to terrorize the neighborhood and its members marked buildings in the Central State Street neighborhood with graffiti to mark their territory. The investigation led to the arrests of 27 alleged gang members listed on the indictment; 23 were arrested

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Malvern Crew gang member ordered deported

An accused member of the notorious Malvern Crew street gang has lost a last-ditch bid to stay in Canada and is being deported to his native Jamaica for criminality. Raoul Andre Burton, 28, of Toronto, was one of 65 suspected members of the east-end gang rounded up in May 2004 by Toronto Police in Project Impact. Members of the gang were involved in a rivalry with the Galloway Boyz over turf in 2003 and 2004 that left four people dead. Burton was charged with nine offences and sentenced to eight-months in jail along with a 165-day stint of pre-sentence custody. He pled guilty to participating in a criminal organization, known as the Malvern Crew, and two counts of drug possession and trafficking that made him inadmissable to Canada Officers of the Canada Border Services Agency have been trying for years to deport Burton, who arrived here from Jamaica at age 10 and never obtained citizenship. Lawyers for Burton sought to appeal the deportation order to the Federal Court of Canada, but Judge David Near dismissed the application which means Burton will be sent packing. “Mr. Burton was right in the thick of things, an active member of the Malvern Crew, actively participating in the activities of the organization,” Near said in his June 11 decision. “He may have occupied a rather influential or responsible place in the organization.” Near said Burton’s involvement with the Malvern Crew was “significant.” “He was obviously fully integrated and well-invested into the organization,” Near wrote. “He was also prepared to engage in criminal activities on a significant scale for the benefit of the organization.” Police gang experts said Burton was a loyal Malvern foot-soldier who was a “good money-earner” for the gang. Officers said the gang was involved in the trafficking, importation and distribution of drugs as well as other crimes, including murder.

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Fatal shooting possibly to bolster San Bernardino gang

Anthony Phillips, 26, of San Bernardino, is accused of fatally shooting Maurice Major, 29, of Riverside, at an apartment complex in the 1200 block of North Sierra Way. Phillips was arrested the next day. He is charged with one count of murder, and prosecutors have added a gang enhancement for Phillips' alleged involvement in a San Bernardino gang. Phillips, who was in San Bernardino Superior Court on Thursday, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. During the hearing in front of Judge James Dorr, a detective and an officer from the San Bernardino Police Department were called as witnesses. They testified about the shooting and gangs in the area. Phillips, also known as Ant, is affiliated with the Delmann Heights Bloods, said Officer Jonathan Plummer, a gang investigator with the San Bernardino Police Department. "(The shooting) enhances the gang by sending a message to rival gang members and to the community - that Delmann Heights is very violent," Plummer said. The officer testified about Phillips' reported noteworthy tattoos, including "DH" under his eyes, "Bloods" on his body, "San Murderdino" on his abs and "Delmann Heights" on both arms. Witnesses told police that Major was also a gang member, Detective Albert Tello testified. Advertisement His street name was West and he was affiliated with the West Covina Neighbor Hood Crips out of Los Angeles County. Recently, Los Angeles County gangs have come into the Inland Empire to sell drugs, Plummer said. Delmann Heights, which has more than 150 documented members, claims the boundaries of California Street to the west, Medical Center Drive to the east, Cajon Boulevard to the north and Highland Avenue to the south, according to police. Following a recent gang injunction in Delmann Heights, several DH members have migrated over to the 1200 block of Sierra to sell narcotics, Plummer said. Major's girlfriend told police that on the night of the shooting they were at a party outside a San Bernardino apartment complex, Tello testified. She told police that 20 to 30 people were there, including Phillips. The two men were familiar with each other, she told police, and at one point Phillips approached Major and asked to speak with him, Tello testified. The two walked away, Tello said, and while they were talking they got into an argument. Phillips then allegedly shot the victim several times in the chest, the girlfriend told police. "After he shot the victim, the suspect ran from the complex, put the gun away and ran toward Fame Liquor," on Base Line, Tello relayed on the witness stand. Major was taken to a local hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. Deputy District Attorney David Tulcan said prosecutors are still investigating whether Major had a gun on him that night. Authorities did find a clear, plastic bag with several pieces of suspected rock cocaine on the victim, police said. Testimony in the preliminary hearing will continue on Monday, where a judge is expected to set trial dates. May was a deadly month for the city. There were 12 reported homicides - five in one week. The spate of May violence prompted memories of the 1990s, when gang violence peaked in the area. The number of people killed in the city this year is up to 23

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ranking member of the Fruit Town Brims set of the Bloods street gang was sentenced to 63 months in prison Wednesday

A Jersey City man who is a ranking member of the Fruit Town Brims set of the Bloods street gang was sentenced to 63 months in prison Wednesday for his role in the gang’s criminal enterprises, officials said. Tequan Ryals, 34, had pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy before U.S. District Court Judge Stanley R. Chesler, who imposed the sentence in Newark federal court Wednesday, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said. Ryals, with fellow gang members, conspired to distribute quantities of heroin in Jersey City between December 2008 and February 2009, according to court documents and statements. Ryals also made two drug sales monitored by law enforcement in December 2008, officials said. Ryals, who was involved in the daily activities of the Fruit Town Brims from 2004 until his arrest, acted as a middleman drug distributor, officials said. Ryals was supplied “bricks” of heroin by an associate of the set and he resold them to gang members, officials said. The indictment unsealed in January 2011 charged Ryals and 14 other defendants with racketeering conspiracy and other offenses including acts pertaining to murder, murder conspiracy, aggravated assaults, a kidnapping, firearms offenses and various drug distribution conspiracies, officials said. The gang members charged in the indictment ran the gang’s activities in Jersey City, Newark, Paterson and other locations, officials said. In November, Ryals completed a state prison term for drug crimes, corrections records say. Last week, 30-year federal prison terms were meted out to Emmanuel Jones, 28, of Jersey City, and Torien Brooks, 31, of Paterson, both members of the Fruit Town and Brick City Brims set of the Bloods, officials said. Jones and Brooks were charged in the July 2004 murder of 17-year-old Michael Taylor of Jersey City, who was gunned down in a case of mistaken identity during gang retaliation, officials said. Fishman credited a number of law enforcement agencies for the investigation leading to Ryals’ conviction, including the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office, Hudson County Sheriff’s Office, and Jersey City Police Department.

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Mob snitch who botched three hits ratted out Colombo gangster in murder trial

A mob snitch who couldn’t shoot straight easily pointed the finger at a reputed Colombo gangster on trial for murder. Dino Basciano took the witness stand in Brooklyn Federal Court to testify that he heard Frank (BF) Guerra was part of a hit team that successfully whacked Joseph Scopo in 1993. Basciano, 56, wasn’t much of a hit man himself, botching at least three rubout attempts. In one case, he shot Patricia Capozzalo, the sister of Peter (Fat Pete) Chiodo, telling defense lawyer Gerald McMahon, “I knew I didn’t kill her. She was still screaming when we left.”

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Slain teen Ramarly Graham's twin brothers convicted of heading gang

The twin half brothers of Ramarley Graham, the Bronx teen fatally shot by a police officer in February, were convicted Tuesday for gun possenion and being part of a Harlem street gang. Hodean and Kadean Graham were sentenced to eight years in jail for heading a crew known as "One-Twenty-Nine" and "Goodfellas/The New Dons" between 2007 and 2011 in the area around W. 129th Street, between Lenox and Fifth Avenues. The 20-year-old brothers were cleared of attempted murder. "This violent street gang was as young as it was dangerous, its members having been involved in multiple shootings over a four-year period," Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance said in a statement. Fifteen members of the gang were convicted on charges of drug dealing and weapons possession. Last week, police officer Richard Haste, 31, pleaded not guilty to manslaughter for shooting Ramarley Graham in the Bronx while officers were investigating a drug deal. As officers made the bust, they were radioed that Graham was armed, when he in fact was not. Graham was shot was trying to flush a bag of marijuana down a toilet. Haste's attorney said in court that the officer was conviced the teen was carrying a weapon.

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shooting a cop dead is now legal in the state of Indiana.

Governor Mitch Daniels, a Republican, has authorized changes to a 2006 legislation that legalizes the use of deadly force on a public servant — including an officer of the law — in cases of “unlawful intrusion.” Proponents of both the Second and Fourth Amendments — those that allow for the ownership of firearms and the security against unlawful searches, respectively — are celebrating the update by saying it ensures that residents are protected from authorities that abuse the powers of the badge. Others, however, fear that the alleged threat of a police state emergence will be replaced by an all-out warzone in Indiana. Under the latest changes of the so-called Castle Doctrine, state lawmakers agree “people have a right to defend themselves and third parties from physical harm and crime.” Rather than excluding officers of the law, however, any public servant is now subject to be met with deadly force if they unlawfully enter private property without clear justification. “In enacting this section, the general assembly finds and declares that it is the policy of this state to recognize the unique character of a citizen's home and to ensure that a citizen feels secure in his or her own home against unlawful intrusion by another individual or a public servant,” reads the legislation. Although critics have been quick to condemn the law for opening the door for assaults on police officers, supporters say that it is necessary to implement the ideals brought by America’s forefathers. Especially, argue some, since the Indiana Supreme Court almost eliminated the Fourth Amendment entirely last year. During the 2011 case of Barnes v. State of Indiana, the court ruled that a man who assaulted an officer dispatched to his house had broken the law before there was “no right to reasonably resist unlawful entry by police officers.” In turn, the National Rifle Association lobbied for an amendment to the Castle Doctrine to ensure that residents were protected from officers that abuse the law to grant themselves entry into private space. “There are bad legislators,” the law’s author, State Senator R. Michael Young (R) tells Bloomberg News. “There are bad clergy, bad doctors, bad teachers, and it’s these officers that we’re concerned about that when they act outside their scope and duty that the individual ought to have a right to protect themselves.” Governor Daniels agrees with the senator in a statement offered through his office, and notes that the law is only being established to cover rare incidents of police abuse that can escape the system without reprimand for officers or other persons that break the law to gain entry. “In the real world, there will almost never be a situation in which these extremely narrow conditions are met,” Daniels says. “This law is not an invitation to use violence or force against law enforcement officers.” Officers in Indiana aren’t necessarily on the same page, though. “If I pull over a car and I walk up to it and the guy shoots me, he’s going to say, ‘Well, he was trying to illegally enter my property,’” Sergeant Joseph Hubbard tells Bloomberg. “Somebody is going get away with killing a cop because of this law.” “It’s just a recipe for disaster,” Indiana State Fraternal Order of Police President Tim Downs adds. “It just puts a bounty on our heads.”

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Alleged boss of right-wing Colombian drug gang captured by Venezuelan troops in border area

Venezuelan soldiers captured an alleged Colombian drug trafficker Sunday who authorities say ruthlessly ran the neighboring country’s biggest right-wing criminal gang and conspired to export tons of cocaine to the United States through Mexico and Central America. Diego Perez Henao, 41, is one of Colombia’s “most sinister drug traffickers and murderers,” Colombia’s national police director-designate, Gen. Jose Roberto Leon, told reporters in Bogota. 0 Comments Weigh InCorrections? Personal Post Colombian officials called him the leader of the “Rastrojos,” or Leftovers, a violent offshoot of the Norte del Valle cartel that engages in drug trafficking, extortion and murder as it competes with other criminal bands that grew out of the far-right militias known as paramilitaries. The gang, which is thought to have hundreds of members, operates on Colombia’s Pacific coast and along the border with Venezuela, Colombian police say. Better known by his alias “Diego Rastrojo,” Perez was indicted in 2011 in Florida on charges of conspiracy to traffic cocaine. The U.S. State Department had a $5 million reward out for his capture. Henao was pretending to be foreman of a rice farm in Venezuela’s border state of Barinas, living with 10 bodyguards who posed as his workers, and was arrested just before dawn Sunday, Leon said. Venezuela’s justice minister, Tareck El Aissami, said at a news conference that Perez was “one of the most wanted criminals in Latin America” and that the government of President Hugo Chavez planned to turn him over the Colombian authorities. Colombian and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents led Venezuelan authorities to Perez, said a U.S. government official, who spoke on condition he not be further identified because of the political sensitivity. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos praised the cooperation of Venezuela’s counter-narcotics police, and Leon said two informants would receive cash rewards from the United States. The U.S. State Department said Perez has “been linked to kidnappings, tortures and assassinations in Colombia, Venezuela, and Panama.” Perez was a member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Latin America’s largest leftist rebel band, when the Norte del Valle cartel recruited him in the 1990s. Such shifts in ideological allegiance occur periodically in Colombia’s drug-fueled conflict, often propelled by lucre. Perez became a lieutenant of Wilber Varela, a former Colombian police officer and one of that cartel’s last remaining bosses. He and the other top leader of Los Rastrojos, Javier Antonio Calle Serna, are believed responsible for the 2008 killing of Varela in Venezuela’s western city of Merida, said Leon, the Colombian police director. Calle Serna turned himself in to U.S. authorities last month. Another of his brothers, Juan Carlos Calle Serna, was arrested in Ecuador in March and sent to the United States and a third brother, Luis Enrique Calle Serna, remains a fugitive and is believed to be the titular head of Los Rastrojos, Leon added. DEA regional director Jay Bergman said the Rastrojos have dominated Colombia’s Pacific maritime cocaine-smuggling routes as well as production in the country’s southwest. He said Perez was among Colombia’s most violent criminals. “Violence is what got him there and violence was what was going to keep him in power,” Bergman said. “His pedigree from his early trafficking days is that he came out of the sicarios (cartel hitmen), so violence is in his DNA.” Bergman noted that major Colombian traffickers are increasingly hiding outside their homeland — and being caught there. Perez’s capture was the latest in a series of arrests of reputed Colombian drug traffickers in Venezeula that began after Santos took office in August 2010. Venezuela has been a major cocaine transit country in recent years, responsible for the majority of smuggling flights bound for Mexico and Central America, according the Colombian and U.S. officials.

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