Unfortunately we as Police Officers are usually stuck in a reactive scenarios. I’m confident that shooting in reaction is less acurate than bringing the heat from the onset.
My stereotype of the violet urban criminal is vampire, the mythical undead being lacking conscience, sense of duty, patriotism, or any other positive trait that might justify existence. My career was spent in adult and juvenile corrections and public school teaching in an urban setting. Large numbers of this population have low intelligence mixed with drug addiction and mental illness–usually a serious mood disorder. Typically, they are sociopathic individuals and have absolutely no qualms about harming others. Few can think abstractly, and many are incapable of logical thinking at the concrete level. Their numbers are rapidly increasing. Beware of the undead. I do not exaggerate.
Williejc
LOL.
I know what you mean, but in the land of the blind the one eye man is king. Yes, your average lowlife is just that. However, among them there are individuals who are more motivated, intelligent and self-disciplined. This is especially true for the OG’s who have had the wits to survive that long.
They will only use spray paint or tattoo guns to document it anyway. LOL!
Andres Raya comes to mind.
Apparently 1-2% of our armed forces are gang members.
Thats quite a disturbing statistic when you look at the numbers…
If there are approx 1.5mil in the US armed forces and 1-2% are gang-bangers, thats roughly 15 to 30 thousand members multiplied by the average number of members in a gang(10-20) and shit starts to get ugly real fast.
Meh…
I don’t want to discount the potential threat too much, but I highly doubt that many of the gang members in the military are in combat arms MOS’s, since the actual % of “teeth” in the military is pretty small. On top of that, a much smaller percentage of those in combat arms are what I would term “professional”.
Are there gangsters out there with combat experience? Absolutely. Were these same guys probably turds in their respective units? Most likely.
The threat is real, but I don’t think the numbers are quite what it would seem on the surface.
I met a guy that was investigating gangs in the military at a training, and he was being threatened, and getting almost no support from superiors in the military not wanting to deal with this issue. He had videos of parties on military bases, where huge groups are throwing up gang signs. He showed pictures in iraq, bosnia, etc… with tagging of US gangs on walls, barriers. It’s a problem, and the sooner the military wants to deal with it, the better it will be for everyone
I declined to mention some of gangs that are documented as having member in the .mil
Ms13, Vagos, 18th st , Latin Kings just to name a few…
Actually the ones the article mentioned are among the worst.
I had a buddy on the base I worked at (Iraq) that worked at one of the base command offices. On the side he was tasked with finding gang members, documenting gang graffitti, etc. It quickly became his primary job for the duration of his deployment once their headshed realized how widespread the problems were.
He had some pretty crazy stories, photos and insight into how well organized they were. According to him, most were in the Guard (allowed them to spend most of their time at home and working with others from their near geographic cities/towns) and had non-infantry mos’s. They’d spray paint gang signs, mark territory, and all that fun stuff on the inside of the t-walls and jersey barriers. Alot of the on base theft problems were due to them continuing their “back home jobs” overseas. If I can find the powerpoint he gave me with all the pics, evidence, and starts he collected on our site alone I’ll post it. He’d have stories about obvious gang bangers being found out and told to sign a document saying they were no longer active with their boys and then let off the hook. Call me paranoid, but I started bringing my pistol with me everytime I left our living area. Remember, they allow felons in the military now. 
Soon it will be homo-felons…
You cant have gayngsta without gay…
edited
They’ll put the homo in homocide.
A le friend who worked narcotics in the Ft. Bliss, Tx region told me that gang members use military transport to move drugs to desired locations. He said that this extensive problem had a PR lid on it.
Not many years ago I worked at a large juvenile correctional facility where gang members had actually infiltrated employee ranks within the security division. This fact was documented. The Director admitted this fact to me on the day that I quit. Some of the female guards had babies fathered by inmates. I could go on but wish not to ramble. Money talks, and bullshit walks. Here the money is narco-dollars.
In my town is a large university, and I have a few friends and acquaintances who teach there. Hearing any of this information makes them uncomfortable as it does some other professional types in my broad circle. I fear there ain’t a constitutional solution.
Williejc
lmao…
Not to mention the exportation of weapons as well.
Awhile back when I was looking to purchasing a beretta, I had a friend who said he had a connect who had one for sale for $200. Immediately a red flag went up but I gave him a shot anyways, because it couldn’t hurt to just check it out.
It literally was a tupperware crate half full of M9’s that had been stolen, as well as a few Ar’s and some sort of RPG that I have never seen before.
I couldnt flee that scene fast enough.
Thanks for posting this. I was particularly interested in the descriptions of what to look for in dress and body motions in a person that carries like a gangsta.
Untrained individuals who are startled or scared all of a sudden are surprisingly accurate because they point shoot while aligning the pistol with their nose.
A lot of the gangs have had ones in the mil for some time and protect “new members in” and have helped them get moved up and training too. that I have seen!
http://www.virginiacops.org/News-Resources/articles/News%2007/feb07/shootings.htm
Pretty good read, reiterating this fact.
The biggest disadvantage LEOs are faced with is abiding by ROE, which puts them behind the curve in contact situations.
This happened a couple of days ago in Atlanta, where a scumbag managed to shoot an officer 5 times before fleeing.
Fortunately, the Officer survived the encounter, but it hits home why there is very strong need to develop the skills necessary for rapid deployment of one’s weapon.