The death of innocence....

March of 2012 has certainly ended in a bloody and tumultuous manner, the killing of Trayvon Martin being the primary news story.  Not only has this death shocked the nation, but it has also served as fodder for those who profit from racial division and racial hatred.


But Trayvon was not the only casualty of March, there was also tiny Aliyah Shell a beautiful six year old girl living in Chicago who was gunned down on her front porch as she sat with her Mother's having her hair done. http://newsroom.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/19/6-year-old-shot-killed-in-chicago/ Naturally one would think that given the massive media scrutiny and quest for justice surrounding the Martin case, the same individuals who are out for blood in Florida would be demanding justice for Aliyah Shell in Chicago, but unfortunately such is not the case.


Who was to blame for Aliyah's death?  Was it a result of "black on black" crime, the kind that is rarely reported on?  No, as CBS News reported "..two purported gang members — 16-year-old Luis Hernandez and 18-year-old Juan Barraza — each have been charged with one count of murder and two counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm in the deadly shooting."


Apparently Hernandez and Barraza are members of a notorious gang known as the "Latin Kings".  According to the boys the shooting which led to Aliyah's death was supposed to be a hit on a rival gang member that the Latin King's had ordered. 


This is not the first 'mistaken' killing in the long and bloody history of the Latin Kings.  The gang is widespread in Chicago (aka Motherland by the gang) and in New York City.  Even a casual Internet search brings up a myriad of stories about the gang and their illicit activities.


Although both Hernandez and Barraza are of Mexican descent, that in and of itself is not a requirement to belong to the gang which boasts many African American members and surprisingly has also branched out into politics.  In an interview appearing in Vibe Magazine entitled "Anatomy of a King" Luis Felipe aka "King Blood" documents his history with the gang and their foray into politics in a failed attempt to garner a 1994 election to the State Assembly of New York for Nelson Antonio Denis.   The story recounts how "Kings answered phones, carried placards and mobilized voters door to door".


The Chicago based gang has also reached infamy for both 'taking down' a National Guard Armory and for having police officers on the rolls of the gang.  This bizarre story is outlined in George W. Knox's "Gang Profile: The Latin Kings" http://www.ngcrc.com/ngcrc/page15.htm  as follows:

 "The controversy that unfolded in Chicago in the fall of 1995 was not limited to the Latin Kings, but basically boiled down to the fact that there were active gang members who were also Chicago police officers. The information seemed overwhelming, from 1992 to 1995 "at least 15 cops have been charged with crimes, forced to resign" who were from "some of Chicago's most notorious street gangs, including the Gangster Disciples, the Latin Kings, and the Latin Lovers" (see: Jorge Oclander, "Gangs Move Into Police Ranks", Chicago Sun-Times, October 6, 1995, pp. 1, 22-23. For example, two officers charged with robbing a store in the summer of 1995 of $700 to $1000 worth of fireworks were identified by the CPD's Internal Affairs Division as being Latin King members (see: Jorge Oclander, "Something Fishy Going On: Neighborhood Wary of Gangs' Link to Cops", October 9, 1995, pp. 1, 8)."

Some sources (such as Knox) contend that the Latin Kings have operated as a gang for over 30 years.  There are those who proclaim that the Latin Kings are not a gang - but rather a social club with a bad reputation.  Again a cursory search of the Internet provides plenty of documentation suggesting that the gang label has been well earned.


What about the government's role in eradicating gangs?  It appears as though millions of dollars have been spent on task force after task force in a vain attempt to shutdown the violence.  In fact, there are those who accuse the city government (never known for honesty and integrity in the best of times) with having been complicit in the growth of the Latin Kings.


This was the consensus of a story by the Daily Kos when reporting on a crime spat in 2011 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/06/19/986799/- "The corner of Spaulding and Beach in West Humboldt Park in Chicago. For more than 30 years, the area has been called the "Motherland" by the Latin Kings street gang. Three generations of Chicago gangsters and Chicago police and teachers have known about Spaulding and Beach, but the fact that it remains a center of Latin King northside enterprises in Chicago tells a major story about how the city has allowed the major gangs — the Latin Kings and Maniac Latin Disciples, the Black P. Stones and the Black Gangster Disciples, and the Gaylords and Simon City Royals (to name gangs from the three major ethnic groups) — to thrive in Chicago. "


The story went on to speak of Mayor Emmanuel (Obama's former Chief of Staff) and his lack of leadership during the crisis: "But while the shooting (including firing at cops) was going on across the inner city, from Humboldt Park out to 87th and Damen and beyond), Mayor Emanuel was silent about the gangs. City Hall reported that he was in Baltimore, giving a speech to the National Conference of Mayors on the need for infrastructure repairs. If so, it was an almost perfect irony."


Chicago was once the land of Obama and Emmanuel, Axelrod, Jarrett and company.  Michelle Obama recently spoke on the David Letterman show about maintaining a "south side atmosphere" in the White House  http://globalgrind.com/node/828586 certainly she was not talking about the atmosphere of fear that is so pervasive in the south side now. 


Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming the Obamas or Rahm Emanuel or anyone else for the murder of this poor little girl.  The murder was simply insanity.  The insanity of violence, the insanity of hatred and the insanity that is gang life.  But I also would charge that President Obama who has waxed so eloquently over the death of Trayvon Martin has been remiss not to address this senseless death as well. 



Mayor Emmanuel has attempted to console Aliyah's family and has announced a crack down on gang violence in Chicago  http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/03/26/violent-start-to-spring-spurs-major-gang-crackdown/ but the raids and sweeps seem to always pickup the usual suspects and X dollars worth of drugs and weapons are recovered and photographed and then the Latin Kings and their enemies take over the streets again.


What will it take to eliminate gang violence once and for all?  How do we clean up the inner cities and make them habitable again? How many Aliyah Shell's are going to have to die?  Perhaps Aliyah's death only serves to sadden us and not cause us to lash out in racial hatred and fear that her death has not received the attention that Trayvon Martin's has.  Apparently the Al Sharpton's and Jessie Jackson's, the Rosanne Barr's and the Spike Lee's of our country cannot create hate out of Aliyah's death - and perhaps that is a good thing.  No amount of attention or tears will bring the lovely smile of Aliyah Shell back to us.  But at least her smile has not been a rallying point for hate.


PMA