TRANSNATIONAL GANGS

On March 15, 2005 the FBI took the war on terrorism to one of the most violent and widespread Central American gangs.  100 members of Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) were arrested in a nation-wide dragnet -- a small portion of the gang's estimated 8-10,000 members dispersed over 31 US states.  Most of those captured will be detained, arraigned, and eventually deported to El Salvador and Honduras.  Once back in Central America, where many haven't been for the majority of their lives, they will join tens of thousands of other gang members undermining the viability of the Honduran and El Salvadorian states.  This gang began on the streets of LA and has since been exported back to Central America (more background from NPR).

Gangs Grow Up

The MS-13 isn't your ordinary gang.  It is, according to Max Manwaring (of the Strategic Studies Institute), an example of a new breed of gang.  A third generation gang.  In his paper, "Street Gangs:  The New Urban Insurgency" Max provides a generational framework for understanding the evolution of gangs:

• First Generation.  Turf protection.  Unsophisticated leadership.  Opportunistic petty crime.
• Second Generation.  Organized for business and financial gain.  Broader geographical footprint.  Violence is slaved to the intimidation of commercial competitors and government interference.
• Third Generation.  Multinational footprint.  Extremely sophistication transnational criminal operations (lawyers, banks, etc.).  Political control of undergoverned/served areas within target states (a TAZ).  Extreme interference in state function, including overt attempts at state control.

A Challenge to the State

Third generation gangs have ridden the rapid growth of the transnational criminal economy which already has a UN estimated Gross World Product of $2.5 trillion a year (this criminal economy grows in parallel with globalization).   They are heavily involved in drugs, kidnapping, protection rackets, and smuggling of all types.  To protect their activities, these gangs target governments with bribery and intimidation.  Given that most of their activities are beyond the reach of any one government to influence, they have become very effective at subverting states through the:

• elimination of the state's monopoly on violence.
• distortion of legitimate market activity. 
• conversion of states into corrupt kleptocracies.

Gangs as Insurgents

Unlike historical guerrilla insurgencies, gangs: 1) don't want to run the state directly, 2) don't have a central ideology or a comprehensive political program, and 3) don't represent, protect, or enrich anybody but their members.  Their main goal is to secure their existence and their right to unfettered activities.  However, third generation gangs do parallel guerrillas and terrorists in that they primarily target states.  They do this through:

• Coercion.  Bribery.  Corruption. 
• Regime change.  Changes in government through delegitimization.
• State Failure.  State breakdown either as the direct cause or through the continuation of the state's inability to resume function.

Open Conflict

Third generation gangs fit the model of global guerrillas perfectly.  They operate, coordinate, and expand globally.  They communicate world-wide without state restriction, often via the Internet.  They engage in transnational crime.  They participate in 4th generation warfare and their activities disrupt national and international systems.  Finally, they coerce, replace, or fail states that stand in their way.  In all of these categories, they parallel the development of al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.  Like al Qaeda these gangs are rivals of nation-states.  Their organic growth has already pushed them into direct confrontation with states.  Over the next decade we will see:

• Gangs adopt systems sabotage to more easily coerce or fail recalcitrant states.  The ability of gangs to buy expertise will ensure substantial access to the systems needed.
• Coordination between global guerrilla groups.  A global bazaar of violence will develop to share weapons, expand criminal activities, etc.  The destruction of the state system is a powerful unifying force.
• Homegrown third generation gangs will challenge the US for control.  From the Aryan Brotherhood to the MS-13, the US is teeming with increasingly powerful gangs.  These gangs will ride globalization to become more effective competitors over time.  Porous borders, an increasingly disenfranchised immigrant community, and a bursting prison system (a source of training and recruitment that has a potential pool of 2 m people and counting) will ensure this.

Comments

[Osama_been_forgotten]

Don't these "gangs" share a lot in common with the gang of neoconservatives running our government?

In fact, your third-generation gangs are very much like a government which eschews responsibility for protecting it's people.

Recommendation: Read Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash" for a possible view of where this is all headed (minus the cyberpunk/computer net portions).

[dialectic]

This is interesting stuff. It appears that gangs do constitute 'potential' Global Guerilla foci, although time will tell as regards their ability to coordinate trans-continentally. That is, a multinational footprint seems to be difficult to conceive when talking about groups as diverse as the Aryan Brotherhood contrasted with various Latin American gangs, let alone some of the gang-type groupings associated with the Central African diamond smuggling cartels, etc.

However, if I understand the analysis, two potential elements may serve for disparate gangs to recognize mutual interests, even if those interests don’t lead to systematic cooperation.

Those two areas are;

1). Interconnects between gangs relative to access to strategic economic resources. For example, weapons smuggling by Russian gangs may already constitute an important source of advanced weaponry to Central American and Colombian gangs. Also, shared high-technology resources may lead to greater cooperation between gangs that otherwise have considerable antipathy toward one another. High-tech resources that might be shared could include, but not be limited to, such capabilities as secure communications systems, public relations outreach, “customer” database and tracking software.

2). A general need to devolve states. If, for example, large swathes of Honduras were to devolve into something like a TAZ (Temporary Autonomous Zone), then its territory might constitute a temporary ‘safe,’ or safer, haven for gangs seeking to destabilize Nicaragua, El Salvador, etc. This could be the case even though the gangs associated with each country were nominally at odds with each other.

My main point, however, goes in another direction. I find this analysis interesting because of what it reveals about a major – if not THE major – impetus of potential Global Guerilla gang activity. If in fact the MS-13 gang was founded on the streets of Los Angeles, and thus probably nurtured within the US prison system, then we see a primary and fundamental contradiction arising from within the anti-terrorist and anti-guerilla campaigns of the advanced industrial countries themselves. Increasingly powerful and effective “Third-Generation” Global Guerilla gangs might have to be thought of as being as ‘organic’ a product of advanced capitalism as, say, the internet, or modern transportation infrastructure, or information-based product design and manufacture. All of those things are almost definitional of modern capitalist economies, and in so far as Global Guerilla gang activity arises from the same economic systems, and in so far as those gangs partake of the resources presented by those societies, then they may have to be looked at – at least in part – as integral features of those very same societies. The contradiction, then, is simply that the everyday, “normal” functioning and development of advanced economies produce the very elements which challenge their “normal” functioning and hegemony. As the ability of technologically advanced states to combat Global Guerilla activity increases, the means they develop necessarily filter down and become available to the very groups they seek to repress. And – and this is key – technologically advanced anti-guerilla systems themselves become thereafter dependent not only upon the existence of Global Guerilla gangs, but upon the PERPETUATION of those gangs. In the absence of the needed ‘enemy,’ the means of its control will wither.

Already in the early 1950’s, when the Cold War was in full ramp-up, there was a quip that touched on the same sort of contradiction. It was said that if the Pentagon (meaning; the entire US military-industrial complex) had not had the Soviet Union as its needed enemy, it would have immediately set about creating it.

dialectic

[jamie]

This tackles the same issue from the other direction...

http://www.newleftreview.net/NLR26001.shtml

"Likewise Kinshasa, Khartoum, Dar es Salaam, Dhaka and Lima grow prodigiously despite ruined import-substitution industries, shrunken public sectors and downwardly mobile middle classes. The global forces ‘pushing’ people from the countryside—mechanization in Java and India, food imports in Mexico, Haiti and Kenya, civil war and drought throughout Africa, and everywhere the consolidation of small into large holdings and the competition of industrial-scale agribusiness—seem to sustain urbanization even when the ‘pull’ of the city is drastically weakened by debt and depression. [20] At the same time, rapid urban growth in the context of structural adjustment, currency devaluation and state retrenchment has been an inevitable recipe for the mass production of slums."

...to the same end result - ungovernable urban territories, liable to generate guerilla movements of their own.

[Eric Anderson]

"If in fact the MS-13 gang was founded on the streets of Los Angeles, and thus probably nurtured within the US prison system, then we see a primary and fundamental contradiction arising from within the anti-terrorist and anti-guerilla campaigns of the advanced industrial countries themselves. Increasingly powerful and effective “Third-Generation” Global Guerilla gangs might have to be thought of as being as ‘organic’ a product of advanced capitalism as, say, the internet, or modern transportation infrastructure, or information-based product design and manufacture."

Actually, I would turn that analysis on its head. Transnational gangs in the Americas are primarily drug importers and exporters responding to black market incentives. To the extent that American drug laws create black, underground markets, they are anti-capitalistic--or anti-entreprenueruial, anyway. But the point is that distorted, lawless, delegitmized markets give rise to transnational commercial crime networks, not capitalism.

[TDL]

I would think one of the most effecient and quickest way to at least weaken these organizations would be the de-criminalization of various narcotics. I would imagine this would deprive them of the main revenue stream that funds there operations. This, however, may be the drive for them to move into non-traditional (or at least more sophisticated forms of) crime, such as kidnappings and the extortion of governments. Are these groups diversifying their activities in order to protect against the break down of the international drug enforcement scheme? I would arue that they are, all complex systems over time degrade and collapse; I think that the narcotics scheme is a complex and ultimately a failed system.

Framed in this manner, do we not already have examples of these types of organizations from the Prohibition Era? Much of these attributes are the same attributes that the old Italian mafias had.

Regards,
TDL

[BillSaysThis]

Combining this line of thinking with other posts on private military companies, will we see the development of (generally considered legitimate) corporations organizing well-armed protective divisions for their physical and executive assets? I mean this not just in a couple of bodyguards for the CEO and direct reports and some security clowns at parking lot/building entrances but more along the lines of marine divisions with responsibility to go out and eliminate serious threats.

[dialectic]

Eric Anderson wrote :

“Actually, I would turn that analysis on its head. Transnational gangs in the Americas are primarily drug importers and exporters responding to black market incentives. To the extent that American drug laws create black, underground markets, they are anti-capitalistic--or anti-entreprenueruial, anyway. But the point is that distorted, lawless, delegitmized markets give rise to transnational commercial crime networks, not capitalism.”

Interestingly enough, I don’t have much problem with Anderson’s perspective as long as one slight modification is made. Specifically, that so-called “black” markets are understood as, themselves, essentially capitalistic forms of economic activity, and NOT inimical in their basic motivational purposes to “traditional” capitalist activities.

To begin with, the point in his post that Anderson might perhaps not want to consider is that commercial crime networks, whether domestic or transnational, are responding to market demand. To be sure, a small percentage of that demand is created by the activities of the networks themselves; i.e., getting young children hooked on heroin. But overwhelmingly, the demand is already there, and the gangs simply move into the niche.

Black markets, that is to say, are at least ‘proto-capitalist,’ even though they are not sanctioned by the nation state. Because, as Anderson correctly points out, gangs “ . . .are . . . responding to black market incentives.” And black market incentives are, ultimately, market-type incentives eo ipso. The only difference between ‘legal’ market incentives and ‘illegal’ black market incentives is simply that the particular mix of costs and overhead are slightly skewed. But the motives for engaging in the two different kinds of business are nearly indistinguishable. Again, those incentives are not sanctioned by the nation state, but remain, fundamentally, ‘personal aggrandizement’ incentives of, precisely, the capitalistic type.

Gang Lords want to drive around town in Ferrari’s. Silicone Valley high-tech entrepreneurs want to drive around town in Ferrari’s. The source of the money may be different, but the MOTIVES are the same.

So, the only thing Anderson wrote which slightly misses the essence of the matter is his evident assumption that if and when a ‘formal’ law such as American drug laws create an underground market, that “ . . . they are anti-capitalistic--or anti-entreprenueruial [sic], anyway.” But all kinds of market activity is illegal – gemstone smuggling, to take a classic case in point. As is usually the case, only one, tiny alteration needs to be made to transform the erstwhile “illegal” market activity into a “legal” market activity – namely, allowing the state to get its cut through taxation, bribery, etc.

So distorted and “lawless” markets are capitalistic in every way except pro forma. And, classically, to transform from the former condition to the latter condition of 'legality' requires merely a few bought-off politicians. Or, as in the case of American states passing various versions of drug decriminalization propositions and amendments such as the one which substantially decriminalized marijuana in California, a relatively small number of dollars spent on signature gathering campaigns results in an Initiative on the state ballot, after which an ad campaign is successful in convincing a plurality of the electorate to vote for it.

Voila; with the application of a relatively miniscule amount of money, an 'illegal' activity is rendered legal, or at least quasi-legal.

Thus, “distorted, lawless, delegitmized markets” give rise NOT to transnational commercial crime networks, but to crime networks which are – or at least potentially can be – in transition toward becoming legitimate. The underlying motive in the case of both “legitimate” and “illegitimate” market activity is simply the creation of a stable business environment wherein maximization of profit can be engendered through maximum utilization of resources and ‘sunk’ capital.

dialectic

[Rikkert]

I'd say the evolution of gangs; the sequence "turf warrior", "black market entrepeneur", "global guerrilla",mirrors the emergence of what today is called "al Qaeda" quite nicely. The timeframes are also quite similar.
Apart from the fact that both are arguably being lost in Afghanistan, there may be some paralels between America's "wars" on drugs (which is at least in part gang related) and terror. In both cases a lot of low-level, rather harmless people are being imprissoned in questionable circumstances while the cadre remains intact enough to function and the root causes persist.

[John Robb]

It isn't a coincidence that they both appeared now. They are the products of globalization. Alternative organizational structures in competition with the state.

[Ben Hunt]

Although I found this paper interesting, the reference to "Wizard's Chess" caused me to not be able to take the writer at all seriously. I would think that a doctor of political science with many books and articles to his name could think of a better metaphor than what seems to be a reference to the Magic: The Gathering card game.

[Edward Romanoff]

Do you have an answer for this dilemma?

Re: We have read it your website.

American and international team of researches has discovered a new breakthrough ‘prevention science’ which can solve problems not solvable before, preventing: identity theft, child abduction, crime, terrorism, and will bring our soldiers home within weeks.

The Congress has been advised about these new scientific discoveries. But, they did not respond, not even ask for details, except all the politicians and government officials did, is to email a computer generated ‘thank you’ note. Meanwhile, thousands of people are victimized by crime, our children are abducted, and our soldiers are needlessly dying!

This “wall of silence” by our leaders is frightening!!!
So, what do you think?

Also, please look the attachment.

Dr. Edward Romanoff
GPF (Growth and Protection Fellowship) the US Chapter.
USchapter@yahoo.com

ATTACHMENT

BIOLANG the biometrics of body language – digitalized human being.

The “FRESNO UNCENSORED” (DVD) is an instruction manual (a guide) on how to commit a crime (shows various crimes in progress). It was produced by Fresno street gangs and went on sale 06/01/05 in video stores and now is pirated and sold throughout the country. It implies that to be a professional criminal is less risky than to be a fireman or policeman, because the law is very lenient, especially on professional criminals. For example, it is not unusual that a criminal can be released 50 times from prison to commit more crimes and have “a mile long rap sheet.”

“FRESNO UNCENSORED” is ‘the straw that broke the camel’s back.’ We have launched a counteroffensive to produce “THE ULTIMATE CATCH 22” (DVD) – an instruction manual on how to prevent crime, with subtitle ‘You can’t run or hide, because we know what you are doing 24/7.’ It is based on the new bio-motion science. It is basically a recording of a person’s body motions (body language) which are unique to every person, like fingerprints. (Don’t confuse ‘bio-motion’ with ‘biometrics’ whereas a person must remain motionless). The bio-motion software chip can be plugged into any present security surveillance camera (cost about $25.00). The camera would record every person passing by and digitalize the body motion into a specific BIOLANG cell (person’s body language data cell).

All the cameras in any given city can be connected and form one BIOLANG SECURITY NETWORK.
These cameras can collect the data even if there is not sufficient lighting, if the person is shopping, driving a car, or the criminal is wearing a mask. All the another methods (fingerprints, DNA, biometric, ID. documents, etc.) require a person to be present. The BIOLANG cell makes it possible to follow any person’s activities 24/7 and to establish identity (address, phone, SS, profession, criminal record, etc.).

Fresno is the world’s “Crime Living Laboratory.” It has all the necessary 7 components: 1) Large securities manufacturers, 2) It is known as “the capital of street gangs,” 3) Has the highest crime rate,
4) Has the highest number of people with ‘rap-sheet’ and on parole, 5) Has the biggest number of “do-gooders organizations” supposedly “fighting crime,” 6) A lenient law dedicated to solicit crime, 7) Mute media and politicians don’t react to citizens tips on crime. Fresno is the fastest place to start a new career as a criminal. Just go to store and buy a gun then go to another store and buy the instruction DVD on how to commit a crime, that all there is to it. This city is certainly in line for the Guinness World Record.

The majority of movies, TV shows and video games are patronizing crime and artificially creating sensationalism. The question is why are they soliciting crime? Our guess is that the criminals are very beneficial to our economy. Thanks to crime, the entertainment industry is making big money and the crime is protecting the job security of the 32 million employees of CPI (Crime Processing Industry) – that is the lawyers, policemen, prison guards, etc. Understandably, Fresno Police and the Mayor reacted mildly to this DVD; they didn’t even take this DVD off the store shelves.

It seems that even the terrorists feel safe in Fresno. Just recently, the first ‘terrorist cell’ in the U.S. was discovered in the neighboring city of Lodi. Our leaders do not seem to understand that the war in Iraq is not a war but a ‘religious crusade’ therefore, the war is not winnable (the Christian crusades were going on for the last 2,000 years). However, the difference is that modern technology is making it possible for terrorists to destroy us by using engineered diseases.

Why do we use the phrase ‘CATCH 22’? Because, as more of the entertainment and CPI industries release subliminal messages ‘encouraging people to commit crimes’ we will release more tips on ‘how to prevent crime.’ So, the crime will decline instead of grow in spite of the flood of these subliminal messages.

Our DVD quantity will be substantial, because it will be used to digitalize the population of Afghanistan and Iraq in order to weed out the potential suicide bombers. And, all parents certainly would spend $10.00 for our DVD to digitalize their own children in order to protect them from abduction.

The simplicity of the bio-motion is that it can be programmed through any camcorder camera, or just by going to neighborhood convenience store and using their security camera. Our DVD cannot be pirated or downloaded from the Internet because it is protected by VIC (Verification/Identification Code), the world’s only unbreakable code. For example, the VIC would make the recent theft of 40 million credit cards impossible. It is not a surprise that the requests for our DVD are huge! It might reach a quantity never seen before. If you are interested in participating in producing our DVD, please contact us.

The new just developed Prevention Technology (Prev-Tech), the systems and instruments:

1) THE ULTIMATE CATCH 22 (DVD) – an instruction manual on how to prevent crime and terrorism.
2) BIO-MOTION – digitalized biometrics, tracking whereabouts of your children (and pets).
3) VIC (Verification/Identification Code) – the world’s only unbreakable code, prevents identity theft.
4) CAMERA PHONE/BIOLANG – with the picture indicates identity of the person and criminal record.
5) H/FUSION (Haivala electric fusion of water) – extracts pure water even from sewage or salt water.
6) AG/FUSION – producing ‘survival food’ (corn grass) within a few days.
7) REDEEMAT – redeeming raw material from garbage, no need for garbage collection and recycling.
8) ELS (epitomized laser sensor) – remotely penetrates sealed shipping containers for hidden armaments.
9) XYZ GUN – fires electrically charged bullets to disable fleeing suspect for a few minutes.
10) VIBLOCK – forces the suspect’s vehicle to stop in police high speed chases.
11) WBN (whistle blowers network) – reducing the need for FBI or CIA intelligence.
12) VOTBOOTH – election software for voting from home and to instantly recall politicians.
13) FIELDLAB – total health check at any location and is specifically needed on the battlefield.
14) THEWK (the world knowledge) – the next generation Internet search engine (no keyboard required).
15) THE EMAIL TRACKER – tracking from where the email was sent (gives exact location).
16) PAMS (paper molecules sensor) – prevents counterfeiting of currency or paper documents.
17) THEONEPLAN – combining all retirement and health medical plans, no need for SS private accounts.
18) THE DISGUISER – prevents altering of fingerprints and personal speech patterns.
19) WOLFHOUND – VIC, BIOLANG & RAP (Remote Auto-Pilot) prevents hijacking, remotely lands airplane.
20) D/FREE (drug free society) – known drug addicts under 24/7 BIOLANG observation.

The briefs of TV/Movies/DVDs synopses:

21) THE MAKEOVER OF AMERICA (TV/RADIO talk show) – on how to protect you and your children.
22) BEYOND THE THIRD DIMENSION (science fiction movie) – the modern form of slavery.
23) WHERE IS THE PROMISED LAND? (public survey) – the real meaning of the slogan FREEDOM.
24) LAWYERS MAFIA (documentary film) – 87% of legislators are lawyers. They are the U.S. ruling class.
25) PHANTON DETECTIVE (comic strip) – investigates crimes which have not yet been committed.
26) HOW TO COMMIT THE PERFECT CRIME (comedy) – it is possible thanks to modern technology.
27) THE INVISIBLE GUARD (non-violent video game) – killing the “bad guys” instead of policemen.
28) CHANGE WITHOUT CHANGE (documentary) – the U.S. security didn’t change after 9/11.
29) THE HIGH-TECH GENOCIDE (epidemiological study) – engineered diseases in hands of terrorists.
30) THE END OF THE LAST EMPIRE (science fiction movie) – genocide of all 280 million Americans.
31) THE MAN WHO KNEW TO MUCH (mystery) – a scientist holding the secret of the engineered disease.

ABOUT THE RESEARCHER – Dr. Edward Romanoff has seen the results of the genocide (final solution) as a prisoner of the German death camp in Auschwitz, Poland (he is Russian). Education – Ph.D. in economics and B.A. in anthropology and biometrics, graduate of the Soviet Navy Academy, served as a cryptographer on submarine. After defecting to the West, Romanoff with a group of international scholars (GPF Fellowship), has developed the prevention science, a knowledge unknown in the U.S. He reside in Fresno, California, which he considers the world’s only Crime Living Laboratory, because it is the home of the largest security industry, has the highest crime rate and the number of “do-gooders organizations” which supposedly “fighting” crime and highest number of people with “rap-sheets” and on parole. ===================================================================================
ABOUT THE GPF FELLOWSHIP (The Growth and Protection Fellowship) is a fellowship of prevention scientists from different countries dedicated to work together “around the clock” following 9/11, to developing systems for eliminating of crime and terrorism. These above excerpts from criminological and epidemiological studies conducted throughout the world, were gathered by Dr. Edward Romanoff. PREVENTION science not SECURITY science can protect us from crime and terrorism. The difference – Security systems are implemented after a person has been victimized (sort of speak, we first must get hurt to be convinced that we need to install the strongest lock on our door); Prevention systems can be implemented before there is even a threat of victimization. In times when the terrorists are planning more attacks and the common crime rate is rapidly growing the ‘prevention science’ has become a decisive factor. Prevention science is unknown knowledge in the U.S. and is not taught in colleges. We apologize for the bad English grammar, but this text was written hurriedly in response to the latest terrorists and street gang activities and was written by specialists from various different countries.

DR. Edward Romanoff
USchapter@yahoo.com

[pablo marizio sanchez]

i tink u guys arw scwed in da hed y do u tink of dees tings. i means who cawes about cwazy mexican gangs we awe aww gunna die sum day?

[ge fdbh]

The fucking retarded kid with the fucking speech impediment i got 1 fucking sentence for him it is POLISH MY NUTS AND SERVE ME A MILKSHAKE!!!

Now all you fucking floppy cocks out there you guys can just go screw a monkey for all I care!!!

[hiz-panic]

Look as a past Fresno resident and with family living there I think your science thing is off the deep end. Its not Iraq in fresno and al queda isnt the same thing as america's youth. Look my USA is still a little bit free and I hope for it to stay that way. Policing everybody because of a small majorities fear is insane. I dont want my country becoming a prison becuase people like you need some serious help, or med's. Yes the world is changing and allot of us are scared but bigger brother isnt the answer. Helping one another is not being arrogant is not bieng rude is. I come on we all know how to be better people. And dont need to keep going the way we are. This DVD was dumb but what is dumber is giving it that much power just like terrorism. I dont see the FBI going after the KKK and The arian street gangs the way they are hitting the urban gangs that are of color. Stop and think about your racial profiling. America is not all White it is diverse and you loons won't change that no matter what you try so maybe we all could spend our time educating our families and friends on how to respect on another instead of this bull we all hear in the media. The biggest problem we have in this country isnt racial or terrorist its ignorance (mostly financial) then we are gullable as well. Fear drives more fear then that leads to chaos. We have nothing to fear but fear itself remember....

[J C. Raymond]

The U. S government posts rewards for millions of dollars for anyone who catches Osama Bin Laden and other terrorists. Some state governments offer million of dollars as grants to public school districts that install programs to combat gang violence in schools. Where and how could I apply to request a reward of 10% of the costs to America's federal, state and municipal governments, for one year, for persuading 50% of all criminal street gangs in the United States to disband?

[Robert D. Reed]

On Staurday, March 19, 2005 at 1:24pm dialectic wrote:

"...And, classically, to transform from the former condition to the latter condition of 'legality' requires merely a few bought-off politicians. Or, as in the case of American states passing various versions of drug decriminalization propositions and amendments such as the one which substantially decriminalized marijuana in California, a relatively small number of dollars spent on signature gathering campaigns results in an Initiative on the state ballot, after which an ad campaign is successful in convincing a plurality of the electorate to vote for it.

Voila; with the application of a relatively miniscule amount of money, an 'illegal' activity is rendered legal, or at least quasi-legal.."

That misconstrues the facts. Simple decriminalization for small amounts in personal possession affects the state of the illegal market very little.

What would affect the marijuana market quite substantially would be allowing private cultivation of small patches for personal use- with none of the buraucratic hassles currently associated with "medical marijuana." The market effect would be to drop the price of marijuana from its typical range of $50-500/oz. to approximately zero. Most anyone with a green thumb and access to a small plot of ground with plenty of sunshine can grow enough cannabis to supply themselves and six or seven of their friends, simply by growing around ten plants. Very few people smoke more than a few ounces of cannabis every year. Many people are happy to have it only very occasionally.

And every cannabis user supplied by an informal low-level cultivation "cooperative" (for want of a better word) would be subtracted from the networks of criminal profiteering. In fact, there's no overriding reason why that shouldn't be all of them.

[Adam]

Robert,

The simpler alternative would be to make it legal, like alcohol in the 1930s, and then let the market decide rather than hand-wring around with deciding on whether something is for personal consumption. Such things are a total waste of police and court time as the answer is largely 'it depends', or more cynically 'is the defendant black, working class, or oddly dressed?'.

Personally I think that any form of legality would see large agri-businesses being pretty quick to set up large factory farms, probably with a deal with the cigarette manufacturers (for those that have read Norman Spinrad's Bug Jack Barron the trade name "Acapulco Golds" leaps to mind). Its not often that agriculture gets offered a new, valuable commodity to sell and we can expect them to leap on the opportunity like a starving yorkshire terrier onto a pork chop.

This would incidentally annihilate (rather than merely inconvenience) the illegal sellers as the legitimates would be offering cheaper, mass produced, better marketed and more easily available alternatives. Lets put it this way - how many criminal syndicates actually make their own cigarettes?

Of course that solution would mean that American politicians and policemen for 2 generations were wasting their time and criminalising an urban underclass for no good reason. That might be a little hard to explain, so it won't get done.

[Chavala]

i think that ms13 is a little pice of shit they dont scare nobody they are a hole bunch of pussy ass mother-fuckers! they arent scaring nobody thats all i can say iam 15 years old and Mexican to da fullest i no more about gangs than any one else I mean living in South Central California has tought me more than what i need to know My homies have tought me how to deal with things and Ms 13 is a piece of shit like i said there not scariig nobody what they need to do is go back to El Salvador and Honduras They just act hard cord they dont no notjing about that i mean theyr known cause there stupid i mean with all those fucken tattos on there fucken forehead they use that shit to cover ther fucked up faces HEre in Cali i run da shit Everybody knows that _Lates_

[chavala]

i ruun this this Bitch!!!

[Matt]

Man somebody has alot to say about Fresno and doesnt know anything. Fresno does NOT have the highest crime rate, its HIGH, but not as high as Stockton or Oakland or San Bernardino. Secondly, Lodi is TWO HOURS from Fresno if you HAUL...its next door to STOCKTON. Thirdly, Fresno PD and the Fresno County Sheriffs Department are RENOWNED as being two of the toughest, most aggressive law enforcement agencies in the state, maybe the nation. And Fresno DOES have a gang problem, but certainly it is not the "capital of gangs". That would be Los Angeles. Anyway, if you're gonna make assertions about a certain city, do some Goddamn research.

[eme]

Hmm, good start, but some fatal inaccuracies in the paper. Most aggregious is the claim that MS-13 started in the U.S. They actually formed in response to civil war in El Salvador and arrived in the U.S. as they fled increasingly difficult conditions in their homeland.

Secondly the whole transnational guerilla hypothesis is almost identical to the now ridiculed hypothesis of the monolithic alien conspiracy from the cold war era. C'mon - enough exaggeration and hype. I do ethnographic work on the gangs you discuss and the concept really made me laugh. Yes, transnational crime networks do operate. No, they aren't street gangs. Yes the two types interact. But they do so in partnership with the agencies of governments worldwide - case in point Jamaica, where the two main parties have, since the 70s, used street gangs as a private militia and in return have aided in the trafficking of weapons and narcotics.
Arguably I know significantly more than either you or the government when it comes to the structure, business and transnational dynamics of the groups. That's the nature of the ethnographer. Still, it would have been reassuring had you actually used sources other than government-sponsored conspiracy theorists.
Fortunately most policy makers and academics today are well aware of the empirical void and idiocy of hypotheses redolent of monolithic-alien-conspiracy theories of our grandparents era.

[John Robb]

eme, please show us a paper you have written on the topic. I would love to review it on the site. I would also suggest that you read more of the site than this single brief covering Max Manwarig's work since it seems you haven't grapsed the thesis.